Led by a refugee from the D.C. punk scene who rejected Dischord for its austerity and embraced the blues for its theatricality, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion found a way to mix musical styles into a potent cocktail. The band's basic riff is simple: Drummer Russell Simins pounds out brutal rhythms, guitarist Judah Bauer pummels repeated riffs mercilessly, and Spencer channels a frenzied mix of Elvis, Little Richard, and Ross Johnson. With no regard for the previous generation's interpretation of the blues-- Spencer is a living affront to Eric Clapton-- the Blues Explosion take everything tasteless and dangerous and ugly and irredeemable in rock and run with it. Their music is highly crafted and gloriously messy, heavily conceptual but still visceral, serious while also being funny. Nearly two decades after their formation, their music has outlived its superficial provocations and hits with a force that is perhaps even greater now than it was the first time around.

Dirty Shirt Rock 'n' Roll surveys the years between their 1992 debut and 2002's Plastic Fang. Unlike the consistently name-checked and beloved Pavement, another Matador band with a new retrospective in stores, the Blues Explosion seem ripe for re-evaluation. The early-2000s garage rock revival and the success of the White Stripes have given us a new context to hear these disarrayed blues-rock excursions, which similarly peel back the layers to get to rock's core elements.

In the 1990s, however, when Spencer was a contemporary of Steve Malkmus, Robert Pollard, and Mac MacCaughan, this music sounded so far removed from any particular scene that the band could be easily dismissed as an anomaly. In retrospect, Spencer's real peers may have been the Afghan Whigs' Greg Dulli and Beck, artists who had very specific ideas about how to transform African-American music traditions into a personal style that made sense to the alt-rock nation. Unlike either of them, Spencer borrowed almost exclusively from pre-Beatles sources: blaring mid-century blues riffs, outlandish vocals from some fever dream of the 50s, and no truck with niceties like song structure. Tracks like "Chicken Dog" (a great duet with the late Rufus Thomas) and the slithery "Afro" meander aggressively, as if demanding and daring you to keep up. "Bellbottoms", one of JSBX's better-known singles, doesn't even get started until nearly two minutes in, by which time the band has been hammering away next to a string arrangement by Lalo Schifrin. The song screeches to a halt and peels out again in the direction of a terrifically catchy call-and-response chant. How do the two halves connect? These guys could care less.

As the decade wore on, the Blues Explosion began tinkering with their fairly austere sound, which lead to collaborations with Dan the Automator and Alec Empire. If at the time they seemed to have lost the thread, Dirty Shirt Rock 'n' Roll argues that they still held firm to their core values. Moving back and forth in time, with no regard whatsoever for intelligible chronology, the comp holds together remarkably well, like a good live setlist or a friend's mixtape. Guests from Beck to hard-living R&B legend Andre Williams sit naturally with the Blues Explosion's sparer guitar-drums-Theremin breakdowns, suggesting that for all their reliance on decades-old styles and gestures, these gloriously messy songs live in the present. Whatever you or Spencer or anyone else calls it, this music is just as exciting and alienating now as it was then.

Album Name: Take to the Sky

Artist: Kat Edmonson

Year/Label: 2010 / Convivium



[Buy at Amazon]



[Kat Edmonson on Emusic]

Review by Anna Maria Stjärnell

Kat Edmonson is a jazz singer with a habit for choosing some inspired songs. She opens with the very common Summertime, and gives the song a confident version.

But she continues with the Cure’s Just like Heaven done in a dreamy fashion where her voice just shines. She has a coquettish tone that teases new meaning out of the songs.

She gets to do an impish Lovefool by the Cardigans and imbues it with new spirit. She makes the song seem fresh again, which is hard to do with songs, which have been played to death. It has the hint of bossa enhanced and is all the better for it.

(Just like) Staring Over by John Lennon gets a relaxed makeover for the finale.

Edmonson is a gifted interpreter and a terrific singer.

Track Listing

1. Summertime

2. Just Like Heaven

3. Night and Day

4. Charade

5. Lovefool

6. Angel Eyes

7. Just One of Those Things

8. One Fine Day

9. (Just Like) Starting Over

10. Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most (Bonus Track)

[Kat Edmonson Official Site]

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Formed in 1967 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, the embryonic James Gang comprised Glenn Schwartz (guitar/vocals), Tom Kriss (bass/vocals) and Jim Fox (drums/vocals). Schwartz left in April 1969 to join Pacific Gas And Electric, but Joe Walsh (b. Joseph Fidler Walsh, 20 November 1947, Wichita, Kansas, USA) proved a more than competent replacement. Yer' Album blended originals with excellent interpretations of material drawn from Buffalo Springfield ("Bluebird") and the Yardbirds ("Lost Woman"). The band enjoyed the approval of Pete Townshend, who admired their mature cross-section of British and "west coast" rock.
.............................................
The James Gang's debut LP, Yer' Album, was very much a first record and very much a record of its time. The heavy rock scene of the period was given to extensive jamming, and four tracks ran more than six minutes each. The group had written some material, but they were still something of a cover band, and the disc included their extended workouts on Buffalo Springfield's "Bluebird" and the Yardbirds' "Lost Woman," the latter a nine-minute version complete with lengthy guitar, bass, and drum solos. But in addition to the blues rock there were also touches of pop and progressive rock, mostly from Walsh who displayed a nascent sense of melody, not to mention some of the taste for being a cutup that he would display in his solo career. Walsh's "Take a Look Around" must have made an impression on Pete Townshend during the period before the album's release when the James Gang was opening for the Who since Townshend borrowed it for the music he was writing for the abortive Lifehouse follow-up to Tommy. If "Wrapcity (i.e., Rhapsody) in English," a minute-long piano and strings interlude, seems incongruous in retrospect, recall that this was an eclectic era. But the otherwise promising "Fred," which followed, broke down into a pedestrian jazz routine, suggesting that the band was trying to cram too many influences onto one record and sometimes into one song. Nevertheless, they were talented improvisers, as the open-ended album closer, Jerry Ragavoy and Mort Shuman's "Stop," made clear. After ten minutes, Szymczyk faded the track out, but Walsh was still going strong. Yer' Album contained much to suggest that the James Gang, in particular its guitarist, had a great future, even if it was more an album of performances than compositions...(allmusic)

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PANIC BUTTONS - LOVIN HORNS



INTERPRETATIONS - SNAP OUT



01.- Fabulous Emotions - Funky Chicken
02.- Philly Four - Elephant (part 2)
03.- UFO's - Too Hot To Hold
04.- Freedom Now Brothers - Sissy Walk
05.- Freedom Now Brothers - It's Our Thing
06.- Willis Wooten Ork - Do The Train
07.- Bob Marshall & AC's - Funky Fox
08.- RDM Band - Butter That Popcorn (Virtue Acetate)
09.- Big AI T Ork - Twenty Five Miles
10.- Herman Pierce Inc - Cool It (Virtue Acetate)
11.- Panic Buttons - Hitch It To The Mule
12.- Panic Buttons - Lovin Horns
13.- Panic Buttons - Come Out Smokin
14.- Panic Buttons - O Wow
15.- Interpretations - Snap Out
16.- Interpretations - Blow Your Mind
17.- Brass Rail - Penguin (part 2)
18.- Assassins - Rope (Your Turn)
19.- Soul Rockers - Soul For Sale
20.- Radars - Philly Soul Strut (with Sonny Fulton)
21.- Norma & The Heartaches - Hot Pants Dance
22.- Norma & The Heartaches - Nice & Slow (part 2)
23.- Psychodelic Frankie - Donna
24.- Interpretations - Lineman
25.- Bonus Funky Philly Beats

LETS GO GET IT

PANIC BUTTONS - LOVIN HORNS



INTERPRETATIONS - SNAP OUT



01.- Fabulous Emotions - Funky Chicken
02.- Philly Four - Elephant (part 2)
03.- UFO's - Too Hot To Hold
04.- Freedom Now Brothers - Sissy Walk
05.- Freedom Now Brothers - It's Our Thing
06.- Willis Wooten Ork - Do The Train
07.- Bob Marshall & AC's - Funky Fox
08.- RDM Band - Butter That Popcorn (Virtue Acetate)
09.- Big AI T Ork - Twenty Five Miles
10.- Herman Pierce Inc - Cool It (Virtue Acetate)
11.- Panic Buttons - Hitch It To The Mule
12.- Panic Buttons - Lovin Horns
13.- Panic Buttons - Come Out Smokin
14.- Panic Buttons - O Wow
15.- Interpretations - Snap Out
16.- Interpretations - Blow Your Mind
17.- Brass Rail - Penguin (part 2)
18.- Assassins - Rope (Your Turn)
19.- Soul Rockers - Soul For Sale
20.- Radars - Philly Soul Strut (with Sonny Fulton)
21.- Norma & The Heartaches - Hot Pants Dance
22.- Norma & The Heartaches - Nice & Slow (part 2)
23.- Psychodelic Frankie - Donna
24.- Interpretations - Lineman
25.- Bonus Funky Philly Beats

LETS GO GET IT