BLUES EXPLOSION ARE:
John Spencer - Vocals /
Guitar
Russel Simins - Drums
Judah Bauer - Guitar

DISCOGRAPHY
Albums
Crypt Style
Extra Width
Orange
Experimental Remixes
Controversial Negro
Acme
Extra Acme
Plastic Fang
Damage

Singles
Talk About the Blues
Magical Colours
Rocketship
Calvin
Crunchy
Heavy
Shakin' Rock n Roll Tonight
She Said pt 1
Sweet 'n' Sour
Burn It

REVIEWS
Albums
Damage

Singles
Burn It

LINKS
Official Site
Matador Records.

“These blues are gonna rip out your heart and rearrange your mind…”

The venerable Cornex hosts any non-college affiliated rock n’ roll exhibitionism that rolls through town in the fallow period between Hi5 and Jesus Christ Superstar. Tonight the Blues Explosion, your go-to band for all things unpredictable and chaotic, are supporting the Hives. This time Jon Spencer, Judah Bauer and Russell Simins return triumphant with 'Damage', a record that shows that four years after their last release, they aren’t tired of chewing up rock n’ roll. It’s great in a party-starting kind of way and true to the album, at the Cornex the first tremors of crowd surfing begin on Jon Spencer’s watch. This is their seventh album and despite writing and relentlessly, doggedly propelling blues and punk rock n’ roll into the hearts and minds of unsuspecting listeners for a while now, the band remains more of a cult happening. For example, drummer Russell Simins, built like a barn door and the only guy in town wearing Cuban heels goes unnoticed on the veranda of a Starbucks, whilst the many-headed beast that is the Hives’ teenage punk fan base roams the cobbles around. The whole situation is slightly bizarre. Does the colossal Hives-thing pose a problem for the somewhat more adult tastes of the Blues Explosion?

Simins thinks not. “It seemed like everyone thought it made sense [to tour with the Hives] because…you can see in their stuff some of what we’ve been doing for years. They’re rooted in kind of like basic punk rock, even though we’re all about soul and blues and rock. I think we’re probably more diverse musically than they are, but there is a connection and their crowds respond to us because they respond to rock bands y’know? And they’re young enough and they’re [a] decent enough crowd not to be just like ‘if it’s not the Hives’, they’re not like, pissed off.”

Simins vows that the New York outfit is a “really important band” for the Hives, who tellingly share Jon Spencer’s penchant for proclaiming his own band’s fabulousness at all given opportunity. In fact, whilst Howlin’ Pelle goes down as one of the most memorable front men in rock right now, his shivering swagger is part of an on-stage show, whereas the Blues Explosion prefer to start exploiting themselves on record. Example: 'Damage' opens with the eloquent challenge: “Boy you never gonna top us, you ain’t never gonna beat us. Can you dig my band?!”

So, despite the fact that elements of what the Blues Explosion have been doing since 1992 appear in music that makes the White Stripes and the 22-20s hot tickets right now, the volatile crunching and grinding from on stage comes more from a healthy post-modern mix than expressionless homage to the past. I ask Simins to describe how musically, or indeed otherwise, one ends up here.

« I think when we first started out we were just following our instincts. And I think we were getting together and just like: (makes monosyllabic noise of angst), things came out. And we still do that. We don’t really think too much when we write and work- up to the point of recording when you have to kind of think about the technical aspect of things. I think [that Damage] is very much a good cross section of what the band is about. It’s got straight rock n’ roll, it’s got punk rock, it’s got grooves and beats…»Live, it kind of is exactly that: a big, wiry, joyous mess of noise. Spencer’s werewolf vocals are mostly dissolved into the guitar and battering jam but his authoritative tones get through enough to prepare Cambridge for a swift

indoctrination. Bodies and instruments are bathed in deep waves of red and blue light, making a total saturation of colour to go with your relentless onslaught of blues-funk-garage-punk. One of the enduring thoughts from the night is the way Jon Spencer reminds me of Elvis in the Hawaii show footage when the King was so far gone on whatever he was ingesting that he giggled and wandered his way through the set, which has since made it easy for impersonators to camp it up for decades. Spencer deprives fans of that, since he’s already his own best satirist: part ass-wiggling rock star, part confessional preacher, generally mocking the ‘white boys playing black music’ tag that has got the band in trouble in the past. There’s that strong cartoon quality to their videos as well, in which Jon, Judah and Russell frequently appear as pastiches of themselves, dressed up (and down) yelling, amongst other things, “The Blues are no. 1!” Simins explains the attitude: “There’s a way in which we have a sense of humour, not like ‘ha ha we don’t take this seriously’ but like…it’s about a wider range of sensibilities and emotions and it’s intelligent, y’know? It’s not just like wit and comedy, it’s more about a sense of humour about life and yourself and things. There’s a heaviness to it. It’s rock, it’s sexy…but there’s also an aspect of it that at some level never takes things too serious.”

When the band start playing, you get down to the serious business of dancing. It still feels- tongue-in-cheek stage personas aside- that the Blues Explosion are misplaced opening for the Hives. It’s hard to accept that there’s space enough for them both, especially since BX creates movement that comes from somewhere near the hips and then once they’re done, you’re back to the arm-waving stomp-along anthems that the Hives are great for. If the Hives say “move your feet”, the Blues Explosion compels you to “move your arse.” And you’re compelled to do both.

Interview by Alice Coates