#jon spencer

[possible-streetwear]

COOP

[bitter1stuff]

[dustedmagazine]

Jon Spencer — Songs of Personal Loss and Protest (Shove)

“Knock ‘Em Out” lurches into view on a bass-led vamp, pit-scarred by punching drums, lurid with Jon Spencer’s inimitable rockabilly yelp and punctuated by all-hands R&B choruses. If you liked Jon Spencer’s Blues Explosion at any point from its early 1990s origins to its 2018 dispersal, the song’s frenetic groove will trip all the right pleasure centers. It’s a different band supporting punk/blues/soul maestro Jon Spencer, but it’s still an explosion, even if you can’t call it that because of copyright issues.

The new crew hails from the Bobby Lees, a Woodstock-based trio known for its raw-boned and riffy take on rock and punk. Spencer has been working with the Bobby Lees’ Kendall Wind (bass) and Spider Bowman (drums) since the 2024 EP Sick of Being Sick, and before that, he produced their album Skin Suit. The Bobby Lees spit more punk and less blues than the old team, Judah Bauer and Russell Simins.  On the Spencer-produced Skin Suit, Wind snarls like Amyl (of the Sniffers) and bleats like the Nightingales Robert Lloyd.

But all that hasn’t changed the Jon Spencer experience all that much. Songs like “Step on the Gas” lumber through mighty swathes of guitar, then dance like dragonflies in sticks on rims. Spencer, as always, commands most of the spotlight, beckoning and insinuating and pushing you back with a straight arm. “How can you live with all that hate?” he asks mid-song in his twisted preacher cadence, then rallies the choir for a refrain of “Step on the gas!” “Orange Slice Blues” falls so close to prime 1990s Blues Explosion’s sound that I wonder if it’s a cover, and Wind holds down that pendulum-swinging bassline with disarming aplomb.

Spencer hasn’t done a Heavy Trash record in a while, but he’s still got a taste for demented rockabilly, as demonstrated by the dippy sway of “Mr. Lion.” No one ever accused the Bobby Lees of leaning country, but they do just fine here, kicking up a roadhouse swing and even meowing like cats, as Spencer narrates an unlikely, animal-centered story.

The weird psychedelic side of Jon Spencer, too, is fully accounted for, especially in the closer “No More” where the rocker enumerates modern life’s detritus as it blinks out around him. “No more med checks, no more bed checks, no more birthday checks, no more birthdays,” he intones. “More Yankees, no more Celtics, no more Olympics.” It’s not clear why we’re giving up dress shirts and dress socks and ties—whether Spencer is contemplating his personal end or a broader planetary collapse. It’s also uncertain whether Spencer is happy or sad or just perplexed by it. But the song, and the album, end on an existential note. “All of this stuff, meaningless now, what was it all for? What was it all for? And what are we left?” asks Spencer. Well for one thing, even now when we don’t have a Blues Explosion, we still have Jon Spencer, sounding very much like himself, and that’s something.

Jennifer Kelly

[daggerzine]

Jon Spencer- Songs of Personal Loss and Protest (Shove) 

Ever since Jon Spencer hooked up with this new younger rhythm section (Kendall Wind on bass and Spider Bowman on drums from the Bobby Lees) he's been totally revitalized. 

I liked the 2024 mini album Sick of Being Sick, but his new one is even better (and produced by Spencer).

12 songs in just over half an hour, and it's one of Spencer's strongest records to date (and I loved Pussy Galore and the Blue Explosion almost as much). Still coming off like a deranged preacher who just stepped out of a garage that doubles as a church in the Deep South with his guitar and the rhythm section entwining into a beautiful, mangled mess.

Cuts like "Vermin Attack!," "Hangover," "Orange Slice Blues" and "Step On the Gas" show that Spencer has plenty of gas left in the tank. 

Seriously, give this one a listen and become a convert (or remain a fan). 

www.jonspencer.bandcamp.com

(posted 6/22/26)

[innocent-but-guilty]

Jon Spencer - Orange Slice Blues

[musickickztoo]

Jon Spencer *February 5, 1965

[jgthirlwell]

2024 Year In Review

2024 was another intense year. It was the first time in twenty years I wasn’t scoring a show for TV, and I got to concentrate on finishing albums and starting new projects. The year began with the premiere of my chamber symphony for Alterity Chamber Orchestra in Orlando and ended with guest-vocalizing with the Losers Lounge Band on a Bowie classic at Joe's Pub in NYC. I completed new albums for Xordox and Venture Bros, to be released in 2025. I released an Archer Soundtrack album and scored a Harry Smith film for L’Etrange Festival in Paris. Worked with Laura Wolf on a new project and premiered my Ensemble project at the Big Ears Festival in Tennessee. Recorded many overdubs for the next Foetus album, also to be released in 2025. Began a new series of sculptural wall pieces. We lost Phill Niblock in January and Steve Albini in May. We lost my colleague Roli Mosimann in September. I still woke up 5am in a panic on too many occasions. As a cultural omnivore, many sights, sounds and stimuli penetrated me.

Albums that I enjoyed in 2024

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum of the Last Human Being (Pelagic) Present This is not the end (Cuneiform) Tristan Perich/Ensemble 0 Open Symmetry (Erased Tapes) Drew McDowall A Thread Silvered and Trembling (Dais) Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan Your Community Hub (Castles In Space) Extra Life The Sacred Vowel (Bandcamp) Geordie Greep The New Sound (Rough Trade) D-en Haut D-en Haut (Pagan) Aksumi Fleeting Future + Lines (Tonal Union) Louis Cole Nothing (Brainfeeder) Uniform American Standard (Sacred Bones) Zeal and Ardor Greif (Redacted) Shellac To All Trains (Touch and Go) Bangladeafy Vulture (Nefarious Industries) Ekko Astral Pink Balloons (Topshelf Records) Kee Avil Spine (Constellation) Fennesz Mosaic (Touch) Marewren Ukouk Round singing Voices of the Ainu 2012-2024 (Pingipung) Elysian Fields What The Thunder Said (Ojet) Melvins Tarantula Heart (Ipecac) Blood Incantation Absolute Elsewhere (Century Media) Aoife O’Donovan All My Friends (Yep Roc) Anna Thorvaldsdottir Aerial (Sono Luminus) Grace Bergere A Little Blood (Casa Gogol) Bob Vylan Humble As The Sun (Ghost Theatre 2) Andy Akiho Kin (Aki Rhythm) Yannis Kyriakides Hypnokaseta (Unsounds) Big | Brave A Chaos of Flowers (Thrill Jockey) The The Ensoulment (Cinéola / earMUSIC) Beth Gibbons Lives Outgrown (Domino) Beak >>>> / Kosmik Musik (Invada) Sebastian Tropic OST (Ed Banger) Chaser Planned Obsolescence (Decoherence Records) Jesus Lizard Rack (Ipecac) Ex East Islander Norther (Rocket Recordings)

Some books I enjoyed

Yuval Noah Harari Nexus Chris Stein Under A Rock Bill Buford Among The Thugs Patricia Highsmith The Talented Mr Ripley Sy Montgomery Soul Of An Octopus Malcolm Gladwell Revenge Of The Tipping Point

Some films I enjoyed

Furiosa ZEF Story Of Die Antwoord Joker Folie A Deux Kneecap Bad Faith Rebel Ridge Hundreds Of Beavers Ministry Of Ungentlemanly Behavior Teachers Lounge

I saw hundreds of concerts in 2024. Some highlights:

01.24.24 The Chisel at Bowery Ballroom 02.15.24 Jack Quartet play Austin Wulliman at Roulette Intermedium NYC. 03.09.24 Louis Cole / Genevieve Artadi at Brooklyn Steel 03.14.24 Kate NV at the Atrium at Lincoln Center 03.18.24 Sleepytime Gorilla Museum at Elsewhere in Brooklyn 03.23.24 Secret Chiefs 3 at Big Ears Festival 03.23.24 Hatis Noit at St John’s Cathedral in Knoxville TN for the Big Ears Festival 03.24.24 Kenny Wollesen’s Sonic Massage at Knoxville Art Museum for the Big Ears Festival 03.24.24 Elliott Sharp’s Void Patrol (with guests Cyro Batista and Colin Stetson) at Big Ears Festival 03.24.24 Aoife O'Donovan with the Knoxville Symphony Chamber Orchestra at the Big Ears Festival 04.01.24 Caleb Landry Jones at The Sultan Room i 04.06.24 Lovely Little Girls at Hart Bar. 04.19.24 Keith Fullerton Whitman performs ‘Playthroughs’ at Ambient Church 04.23.24 Mandy Indiana at Elsewhere in Brooklyn 04.26.24 Knower at the Brooklyn Bowl 05.04.24 Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, directed by Tim Weiss, play Alex Paxton at Long Play Festival 05.04.24 Fuji|||||||||||ta at Long Play Festival 05.05.24 Ligeti Quartet perform Ligeti + Anna Meredith at Long Play Festival 05.17.23 Swans at Music Hall of Williamsburg 05.23.24 The Rolling Stones played at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey. 05.24.24 John Zorn’s ensemble, the New Masada Quartet 06.08.24 Rebekah Heller’s Bassoon Ensemble 06.25.24 Mdou Moctar at Bowery Ballroom NYC 07.12.24 C.Gibbs Review at Barbes 07.23.24 Bangladeafy at The Sultan Room in Brooklyn 08.18.24 Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds at Union Pool 08.23.24 Alarm Will Sound play Marcos Balter’s Code-Switching, 09.30.24 Uniform at Bowery Ballroom 09.04.24 King Dunn aka King Buzzo (Melvins) and Trevor Dunn (Mr Bungle etc) at Music Hall of Williamsburg + White Eagle Hall in Jersey City. 09.13.24 Steven Bernstein and Nels Cline with the Arturo O'Farrill Latin Jazz Orchestra, playing James Bond themes. At Bryant Park in NYC. 09.15.24 PJ Harvey at Terminal 5, NYC 10.11.24 John Zorn’s Cobra in a 40th anniversary performance at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn 10.17.25 The The played at the Beacon Theater 10.22.24 Die Antwoord at Brooklyn Steel, 10.23.24 Boris played at Racket in NYC. 11.01.24 William Basinski for Age Of Reflections 11.04.24 Growing performing for Abasement at Artists Space in Manhattan 11.06.24 Pioneer Works presented a concert of Louis Cole Choral Music. 11.08.24 Lankum at Warsaw in Brooklyn 11.17.24 sunn o))) at Lincoln Center for the Unsound Festival 11.21.24 Extra Life at TV Eye. 11.24.24 Zeal and Ardor at Le Poisson Rouge NYC 11.25.24 Axiom, comprised of Juilliard students and conducted by Jeffrey Milarsky playing Solstice Ritual by Augusta Read Thomas 11.26.24 Blood Incantation at Elsewhere 12.01.24 Pharmakon’s awesomely unhinged performance at Union Pool. 12.11.24 Jesus Lizard played a great set at Brooklyn Steel 12.28.24 Grace Bergere / Jon Spencer / Gogol Bordello Capitol Theater Port Chester

Honorable mention to the multiple concerts I attended at the Abasement series at Artist Space, as well as multiple shows by S.E.M. Ensemble and Wet Ink Ensemble

[perfil-de-um-cidadao-comum]

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Right now I got to tell you about the fabulous, most groovy Bellbottoms!!!

Baby Driver (2017) - Edgar Wright