August 17 – On This Day!

1994: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Anu Bar, Canberra, Australia
w/ Beck and Magic Dirt

“Anybody who witnessed The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion on their first visit to Australia and New Zealand in the early nineties as support to US hipster Beck, would have seen a man – a band – seemingly possessed with the spirit of everything great rock ‘n’ roll has to offer. A flat out garage attack of diamond riffs, snarled vocals, blues hollering, the funky drummer beats and tunes you can actually dance and/or fuck to.” – FeelPresents.com (2011)

Comment regarding The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion supporting Beck during the Australian tour (exact show unknown):

“A few much cooler people were there solely for the support band, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, who really confused the audience who wanted to like them, but couldn’t yell and scream because the JSBX played continuously, with no breaks between songs.

Beck joined the JSBX for a song, which massively excited the audience, but it wasn’t Loser so it didn’t really matter.” – robyngallagher.com

2002: Jon Spencer – writing sleeve notes for Rough Trade Shops: Rock and Roll 1.

“First of all let me say how honored I am to be featured (not once! not twice! but THREE times!) on this here record. It is indeed an honor, not only to be in such good company, but also to give you this message. To give you THE WORD.

I have been asked to write about what we call ROCK AN ROLL. When they come and asked me to do this (and when I say ‘they’ I mean the WHITE CORPORATE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX, and don’t give me no looks cos Rough Trade has MILLIONS invested in weapons technologies and if you were thinking that they were NOT part of the problem then you ARE), they sent me a copy of the track listing, which I promptly threw out/lost. Then I put-off and procrastinated and kept them waiting for so long that everyone became real nervous, and all sorts of threats were made, and embarrassing things were said and so on. Now some people might cite my cavalier attitude towards work and responsibility as an example of “rock and roll”, or so-called “rock and roll” attitude. NONSENSE! And this is a sorry thing in our world today: the fact that people equate delinquency, or drugs, or poor manners, or bad haircuts, or leather jackets with “rock n roll”, and it just ain’t true. ROCK AN ROLL is about strageness and humor and sexuality and aggression and spirituality. It feels GOOD. It offers a release. Cos sometimes when all you have is NOTHING, all you can do is play songs like these. LOUD (…’78 Chevy Van …Car stereo up full… Screeching treble… Cheater Slicks!) Really fuckin loud. I can’t tell you how much I loved so many of these songs, how important they were to me. I played them over and over. And sometimes, they made me feel alive. In some way, a little bit. And that’s the attraction: My world was dead, I was dead. I wanted life. Rock an Roll showed me a way to live! FREEDOM! (Thank you Monsieur Jeffrey Evans.)

Now this music was hidden. These songs and these bands were not and are not the stuff of the MAINSTREAM. You had to dig deep to find these diamonds. (At least I did.) Or you had to have a connection: a friend to turn you on. And in a way, that made it all the more special. That it was like a special language or code. A shared SECRET, passed along, from friend to friend. And for me, nothing feels finer than getting a new favourite song (or band) from a friend.

So now let me do YOU a favor, friend. Here are your new favourite songs. Your new lease on life. Your salvation. And you can thank me later. AMEN.
JON SPENCER”

2004: Blues Explosion – Paredes de Coura Festival, Paredes de Coura, Portugal

2007: Cat Power & Dirty Delta Blues – Granada Theater, Dallas, TX, US

nb. Polaroids are from the soundcheck.

All Photos: Gorilla vs. Bear (www.gorillavsbear.net)

2007: Tiny Masters of Today (w/Russell Simins) – “Get it Loud in Libraries” – Central Library, Walsall, UK

2011: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – KEXP, Seattle, Washington, US

2011: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Neumos, Seattle, WA, US

2013: Joseph Arthur (w/ Russell Simins) – “Corner of Kenmare and Bowery”, New York City, NY, US
nb. surprise show @ 9.30pm announced via the Joseph Arthur twitter account.

2015: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – umeda AKASO, Osaka, Japan
w/ King Brothers