#extra width

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The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion “Big Road”

• Extra Width (1993)

[sonofshermy]

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Jon Spencer Blues Explosion “Extra Width” 1993. Matador Records. JSBX’s third release (the first two, Crypt Style and The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, both came out in ‘92) and their first to really get funky, infusing punk blues and soul into a danceable R&B beat on ass-shakers like “Afro,” “Soul Typecast,” and “Hey Mom” and sexy groovers like “Train #2″ (Trains #1 and #3 appeared on an In The Red Records single release in ‘94) and “The World of Sex.” One of my favorite and funniest lyrics is from “Pant Leg” --  Take a whiff up my pant leg, honey-baby/Take a whiff up my pant leg, child/Take a whiff up my pant leg, baby baby baby/Take a whiff up my pant, get down.” (I think Spencer really likes pants: see “Bellbottoms,” “Get Your Pants On,” “Boot Cut” etc.) 

I saw JSBX for the first time probably just days after (or possibly before) this record’s release in either late May or early June of ‘93 in Madison, WI. The club, O’Cayz Corral (long burned down), was loosely packed, mostly with friends from - or formerly from - Appleton, WI to see Judah Bauer. I wrote about this in a prior post but will quote it again here: “Very small venue and small show: the band wasn’t well-known at this point. Lots of Judah’s family and friends were there, including his brother Donovan, who I hung out with at the bar.  After the show Russell came over by us and was looking for a place to crash for the night so I introduced to him to a friend of mine, John W., who had an extra couch (whispering to me the query “Is this guy OK, like not weird?”); he stayed there and I popped over in the morning, I think to bring breakfast and nab a copy of the new album [which Russell and John W. threw on the record player]. The other recollections I have from JSBX shows (having a few opportunities to be backstage or in the case of the O’Cayz show - no backstage, just a little recombobulation corner) are noticing Spencer’s extreme quiet and reserve offstage, basically looking exactly like the cover of “Extra Width,” but given the guy’s amazing stage energy and outlandish bravado, I’m guessing he saved it all for the audience.”

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The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion “Backslider”

• Extra Width (1993)

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The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - "Afro"

Look, times are tough. Tune it out with something that goes as hard as the Blues Explosion used to.

[sonofshermy]

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Artist: Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Track: Big Road Album: Extra Width (1993) Label: Matador Records

Some bands sound just like certain drugs in certain places... like how Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd sounded just like doing LSD in a field in England where you could see the ruins of an abandoned monastery in the distance... and how the Velvet Underground sounded just being on heroin at an Asian exchange student's art opening in New York where you spent an hour talking to Stanley Kubrick... or maybe it was the janitor. 

Well, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, in my opinion, sounds just like drinking a 40 of Wild Turkey and smoking a pack and a half of cigarettes at 3:37 am in the basement apartment of your buddy who's been a fry cook at a greasy spoon for the last 15 years and who... you have to admit... you only hang out with because he's as big a drunk as you are, gets to bring home free chicken wings every night, and likes to crank noisy discordant shit on a Tuesday nights just to annoy the the motherfucker upstairs who thinks Hinder is heavy.