Jon Spencer BluesExplosion - Now I GotWorry

Wed 12th Jan, 2005 in Music Reviews

It is January 1997 in Melbourne. Egged on by the incessant Triple J flogging of Chicken Dog, a Disaffected Youth walks into Melbourne’s illustrious Au-go-go Records, and spends $29.95 on a copy of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s Now I Got Worry. Said DY takes the album home, unsure as what to expect – only knowing the band through the one track as well as a couple of photos in Juice magazine, which revealed little more than Jon Spencer’s penchant for tight trousers.

The album is placed in the stereo and the volume cranked up. The album begins with some hysterical screaming over trip-hop drums, before the slide guitar and fuzzed vocals kick in. The fuzzy Jon Spencer vocals are just as much a key element of his work as his repeated catchphrase of “come awwwwwwwn!” (which, by my calculations, features in 93.4% of all Blues Explosion tracks), but it would take some more time and a lot more money before DY knew this. Identify is the sort of track that anyone in a rock band dreams of writing, a one-minute kick in the head over which Spencer wails “identifffffyyyyyyyyy!” ad nauseum. Did it mean anything? Probably not. Spencer’s lyricism largely revolves around him howling “the blues are number one!”.

Wail is the track which should have launched the band worldwide. Perfectly accessible, it typifies the raw back-to-basics ethos which the band employes throughout all of their work, and the bit before the chorus where Spencer moans “you-you-you-you got to help me” sounds like “Ju-Ju-Ju-Ju-Judah help me” thanks to his thick New York accent. There’s also something indecipherable in there about some sort of sexy monkey. 2Kindsa Love is all fuzz guitar and machine-gun drumming from Russell Simins. The following year, DY would be in the audience of ABC Saturday morning music show Recovery when Spencer would trash the entire studio – from his band’s equipment, to the huge “Blues Explosion” sign behind them, to the studio set – during that song. It is still talked about today in terms of being one of the finest rock’n’roll acts on Australian television. And at 9:30am, no less. Tracks like Get Over Here, Rocketship and Hot Shot are, in essence, three-minute rock tracks, but Spencer’s drawling and the incredible riff-work of guitarist Judah Bauer makes them something special.

Chicken Dog still remains as a bizarre slice of rock. With vocals from Rufus Thomas, responsible for tracks Walkin’ The Dog and Do The Funky Chicken (hence the name Chicken Dog, you sneaky thing, Jon Spencer!), it revolves around the refrain of “CHICKEN DOG!” and ends with band plus Thomas howling and barking into the microphone for over a minute. For no particular reason.

For all the brilliance of the rock tracks on Now I Got Worry, there were some great slower moments. Can’t Stop features trip-hop drums (Spencer’s fascination with hip-hop and dance would lead to the band collaborating with both DJ Shadow and Chuck D on 2004’s Damage) over which Spencer drawls

now it’s time for everyone to throw their hands in the air,
and kiss my ass 
because your girlfriend still loves me.

Fuck Shit Up urges everyone to not only “fuck the man”, but also to “hang with sluts.” Brilliant.

DY had never heard anything like this before, and so investigated into the band’s extensive back catalogue. Although each Blues Explosion album had a place in her heart (even 2001’s unfairly-maligned Plastic Fang), none of them meant as much to her as Now I Got Worry. More than being the first one she heard and the catalyst for her discovering other bands, Now I Got Worry was the JSBX album which most favored ‘explosion’ over ‘blues.’ In 1999 DY was able to see the band live for the first time, and the Now I Got Worry material stood out as being the best live, better than the tracks from 1998’s Acme.

Fastforward to January 2005. The slightly more grownup DY is excitedly anticipating the band’s forthcoming Big Day Out appearances and Melbourne headline show. She still sings the praises of Now I Got Worry at any given opportunity, and a signed Blues Explosion poster is on her bedroom wall. Juice magazine is gone, and so is Melbourne’s Au-go-go Records. The worldwide success of The White Stripes has given the Blues Explosion’s 2004 album Damage quite a lot of publicity, but DY is still slightly peeved, because as good as Jack and Meg are – the Blues Explosion have been doing it longer and better than anyone else. So next time Jon Spencer howls “can you dig my band?” you answer “I know I can.” It’s the only way to do it.