Jon Spencer – 7th Level Music

Live: Jon Spencer and The Sueves – Stockroom East – South Bend, IN – July 11, 2024

I was stunned to discover that blues-punk garage rock and roller Jon Spencer was playing a gig a mere forty-minute drive from my house at South Bend, Indiana’s Stockroom East. It’s a small venue made for intimate shows, and I’d hadn’t been there before July 11, 2024.

My first thought upon entering was, “Spencer’s going to flatten this place.” I hadn’t seen Mr. Spencer perform in many years, last catching him with his fellow members of The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion in Bloomington, Indiana on their Plastic Fang tour in 2002. They blew the walls off the place then, and I wondered if most of the audience in attendance knew what they were about to hear and feel.

First up were Chicago post-punks The Sueves, who put on a fun set of power trio crushers. A good number of their friends and family members made the drive from Chicago to see them, and the energy among them was great.

A pleasant surprise with Spencer’s set is that his current rhythm section consists of The Bobby Lees‘ Kendall Wind on drums and Macky Bowman on bass. In case you missed it, The Bobby Lees’ Bellevue album was among my top ten albums of 2022.

Sure enough, the trio of Spencer, Bowman, and Wind came out and proceeded to sonically punch everyone in the face from the first note.

Spencer and crew played a wild set, barely taking time for anyone (let alone them) to catch a breath. The set spanned tracks from the JSBX, Pussy Galore, The Hitmakers, and more. They started with “Skunk” from Now I Got Worry and it was off to the races.

“Bellbottoms” was a big hit with the crowd, and so was every damn song they played, really. The crowd was at first stunned by the magnitude of sound they put out and soon absorbing it as fast as Spencer and his bandmates could dish it.

There was no encore. They didn’t need one. They left us all sweaty and wanting more.

Many thanks to Mr. Spencer for signing my copy of Meat and Bone after the show!

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

Rewind Review: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Meat and Bone (2012)

Meat and Bone was the first album in eight years by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion when it was released in 2017. The trio (Jon Spencer – guitar and lead vocals, Judah Bauer – guitar, Russell Simins – drums) had worked on various side projects here and there and thankfully returned for another wild ride.

Opener “Black Mold” drops you right back into that solid grove the JSBX can only seem to pull off – chaotic yet tight at the same time. You can tell that they felt like they wanted to make up for “lost” time and unleash plenty of power in just three minutes or so.

“Are you ready for your new career?” Spencer asks at the beginning of “Bag of Bones,” prompting us to wonder if we need to tip over our desks and cubicles and strut around like the rock stars we are instead of the tired, locked-in-the-past worker bees we’ve become. “Boot Cut” has a great, gritty grind all the way through it.

“Get Your Pants Off” is a wild, wicked track about wanton women doing naughty things. The bass tone on “Ice Cream Killer” is as cool as its namesake. “Stranger Baby” has Spencer and his mates screaming the chorus and growling the verses. “Bottle Baby” has some of Simins’ wildest drumming. He seems to switch tempos every thirty seconds and yet he’s in the groove all the time.

“Danger” is a vicious rocker, and “Black Thoughts” has so much guitar fire in it that I’m not sure if Spencer or Bauer is putting out the most volume. “Unclear” is a fast, fuzzy cut, and “Bear Trap” snaps hard and has a heavy, swaggering menace to it. Spencer’s vocals are often distorted almost to the point of becoming just weird sounds, which is often the point.

I love that the album ends with an instrumental, “Zimgar,” showcasing the band’s wild and sometimes weird sounds. The JSBX returned from an eight-year hiatus and showed they hadn’t lost a thing. It’s almost like they went into cryogenic hibernation, shook off the frost, and walked into the studio and proceeded to melt everything around them.

As they always did.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe!]

Jon Spencer and the Hitmakers announce new album and tour.

Get ready for JON SPENCER & the HITmakers to BURN your playhouse down with their new long-player, SPENCER GETS IT LIT! The incredible, indelible Jon Spencer (Blues Explosion, Boss Hog, Pussy Galore, Heavy Trash, etc) is back with the incendiary HITmakers  - and with his HOTTEST record yet! 

Spencer Gets It Lit is classic Jon Spencer taken to the extremis – electro-boogie, constructivist art pop, a psychedelic swamp of industrial sleaze and futurist elegance. It is an epic master work of freak beat from the world’s weirdest garage. Across brain-boggling layers of fury, fuzz guitar, and a crash-bang battery of phaser blasts, photon torpedoes, and otherworldly zounds, he frantically spits, croons, rhapsodizes, and seduces.

Spencer Gets It Lit is his most complex and groovy record in years, a dark, danceable odyssey – both a studied take-down of the early 21st century, and a celebration of the place where electricity meets the mind. Thirteen wicked hot songs of love, loss, lust, life — from the Farfisa-fueled,warped psycho -punk rave-up of “Junk Man,” to the intimate lover’s plea of “My Hit Parade,” to the outer-space end-of-days country funk of “Worm Town,” Spencer Gets It Lit delivers all of the friction, excitement, and post-modern depravity one could ever ask for!

Says Spencer, “Send out the Hit Signal! This is the most uncompromising album I’ve ever made!” And the HITs just keep on coming! THIS JUST IN! Taking over drum duties for the HITmakers on their upcoming spring tour will be superstar of skins Janet Weiss of Sleater-Kinney, Quasi, Wild Flag, The Jicks, Slang, etc. etc!!! Wait… What’s that? There’s more? Every show will be opened by a full set from Janet and HITmaker Sam Coomes championship tag-team, Quasi! Guaranteed to be a tour for the ages!!! True heroes of the underground! Freak forces combined and multiplied in this indie-rock dream bill!

TOUR: 4/11 Buffalo, NY Rec Room

4/12 Toronto, ON Lee’s Palace

4/13 Detroit, MI El Club

4/14 Chicago, IL Schubas

4/15 Milwaukee, WI Back Room at Colectivo

4/16 Minneapolis, MN 7^th Street Entry

4/18 Omaha, NE Waiting Room

4/19 Denver, CO Globe Hall

4/20 Salt Lake City, UT Urban Lounge

4/21 Boise, ID Neurolux

4/22 Portland, OR Dantes

4/23 Vancouver, BC Fox Cabaret

4/24 Seattle, WA Madame Lou’s (The Crocodile Second Stage)

4/26 San Francisco, CA Bottom of the Hill

4/27 Los Angeles, CA The Echo

4/28 San Diego, CA Casbah

4/29 Tucson, AZ 191 Toole

4/30 Phoenix, AZ Valley Bar

5/01 Santa Fe, NM Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery

5/02 Colorado Springs, CO The Black Sheep

5/03 Wichita, KS Wave

5/04 Kansas City, MO Record Bar

5/05 St. Louis, MO Blueberry Hill Duck Room

5/06 Indianapolis, IN Hi-Fi

5/07 Louisville, KY Zanzabar

5/08 Charlottesville, VA The Southern

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you split.]

[Thanks to Jo Murray.]

Jon Spencer announces Midwest summer tour.

Jon Spencer has announced a brief summer tour with his newest band, the HITmakers, of the Midwest United States to promote his solo album Spencer Sings the Hits!

Reviews of his earlier shows mention him playing not only new solo cuts, but also stuff from his massive catalog of other material from the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Boss Hog, and Pussy Galore.

Tour dates are as follows:

Wed 8/28 – Pyramid Scheme – Grand Rapids MI Thu 8/29 – HI-FI – Indianapolis IN Fri 8/30 – Schubas – Chicago IL Sat 8/31 – H.O.G. National Rally, Harley-Davidson Museum – Milwaukee WI Sun 9/1 – Turf Club – St. Paul MN Mon 9/2 – Vaudeville Mews – Des Moines IA Tues 9/3 – Ignition Music Garage – Goshen IN

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe while you’re here.]

Boss Hog set to release first album in 17 years this March.

Boss Hog in New York City on June 5, 2016.

Noise punks Boss Hog are set to release their first album in 17 years, Brood X, next month. Fronted by Jon Spencer and his wife Christina Martinez, the band’s original lineup is back together and just wrapped up a European tour. They only have five U.S. dates slated through spring, so don’t miss them if they’re in your town.

You can hear “17” off the upcoming album at the band’s website. It’s a welcome return of rock and roll.

Keep your mind open.