Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Wed 12th Jan, 2011 in Features

Back in the now rose tinted days of 1997 a band appeared on early morning TV and seared themselves into the memories of Australia’s early rising music fans. As Russell Simins and Judah Bauer belted their way through Two Kinds of Love and Flavor their leader Jon Spencer brutalized his guitar and an innocent theremin as he tore apart the humble Recovery studios to well and truly announce that “the blues is number one!”.

Ahead of a return to Australia, which will most likely see Spencer playing slightly less destructive shows, the manic performer recalls that set in a surprisingly calm tone. “We were very excited to be invited to play on the television program. You’ve got to understand that in America we never got to get on TV so it’s been fantastic to travel around and meet new people and see all different parts of the world. It’s also been nice because it seems that if we go somewhere else, they respect what we do. So we were thrilled to go onto the Australian television program. And I thought that was very nice that they let us do that, it wasn’t planned, and we just got caught up in the moment.”

As the Blues Explosion wailed through the 90s and early years of the next decade, Chuck D, Beck, DJ Shadow, Steve Albini, Dr John, Alec Empire, Andre Williams, Rufus Thomas, members of the Wu-Tang Clan and even Weird Al Yankovic and Winona Rider got caught up in the band’s hyper-kinetic live energy. And although the band remained a cult attraction they undoubtedly became a major influence on the bands of the rock revival at the turn of the millennium, which saw the rise of the Strokes, Hives, White Stripes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and many others now forgotten by all except nostalgic NME writers.

But for some critics this simply isn’t enough. Spencer may have cried on Talk About The Blues that “I don’t play no blues, I play rock and roll”, but there’s still plenty of confusion about the band’s sound, which has even led to insinuations that the band’s frantic live shows are merely a parody combination of Little Richard, James Brown and Elvis. Spencer explains that “just the very name of the band is too much of a stumbling block for some people,” but some critics don’t just stumble at the mention of the band’s name; they descend into harsh criticism.

Prominent critic and Milk It! author Jim DeRogatis slung accusations of racism at the band in a Penthouse article back in 1997 with the magazine’s sticky fingered readers left to ponder the question “If Spencer really loves black music, how come he can’t get beyond making fun of it?” As the critic for the Chicago Sun-Times DeRogatis raised the criticism again last year, snidely dismissing the band’s set at the Pitchfork Music Festival as “boarder[ing] on blackface parody.”

The revival of the debate has come to colour many recent articles about the band (yes, including this one) and Spencer sighs as he recounts (again) his side of the of the story, “It’s interesting because everyone that I have done, this is my third or fourth Australian interview tonight, and it seems that everyone has came across the same piece [of criticism] by that particular Jim writer.”

“I think it was a terrible piece of writing, in that my band is misunderstood, my work is misunderstood. It does hurt; it hurts basically for anybody to be misunderstood. What is particularly bad about that piece is that the guy spent a couple of days with us on tour and yet never confronted me with his views or opinions or put any of these things to me as a question. Yet when it came out it was a real hatchet job you know? ... The Blues Explosion is not a joke or a piss take. We do this because we love this and that’s all, it’s as simple as that. Yes it’s crazy and it’s filled with life and energy, but it is very serious art.”

But enough of debates about art, authenticity or black, white and blues and onto a brighter hue – orange – the colour and title of their much loved 1994 album, which they’ll be playing in full on their Australian tour.

Talk About The Blues – staring Winona Ryder, Giovanni Ribisi and John C. Reilly