Jon Spencer - "Heavy Trash" Village Voice review

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Gotta love Jon Spencer, especially for remaining as retarded now as when he and his Blues Explosion first began pawning off recordings of lousy rehearsals as bona fide products of professional rocking and rolling in the early 1990s. With the exception of a single song ("Talking About the Blues," off 1998's Acme), in which Spencer whips "Rowling Stown magazeen" for talking about "that fashion" and not the blues, indie rock's loathsomest stick figure has pretty much managed to rebuff both the nearly fanatical hatred with which mass-media-forged popular perception connected his name with certain pejoratives—scornfully among them, "minstrelsy" and "racist"—and the damn, dirty pejoratives themselves. Lazy or disinterested ears may hear the muffled groans of an aging chief-rocker reaching for his ankles with his back to an angry, tumescent populace on Heavy Trash, the eponymous handiwork of Spencer, Speedball Baby's Matt Verta-Ray, and various indie-world co-conspirators. But if allowed to spin more than two or three times, the 13-track disc mostly begrudgingly spills Spencerific retardation.

The sound is not rockabilly per se but stripped-down, "Mystery Train"-ish, art deco diner rock 'n' roll, a particular brand of tuneage that isn't any more retro-cool than the Blues Explosion's brand of garage. But since the brunt of the abuse heaped on Spencer of old was rooted in the fact that as a white punk he used the sacred term blues in his band's name (even though JSBX was no more or less formally bluesy than any of the mainstream's latter-day garage-y emulators created in JSBX's image), the moniker Heavy Trash will only confuse the predominantly white, middle-class, heavy-metal community—BFD. Spencer does have rock 'n' roll in his gut. The belch he rips at the beginning of "Justine Alright" seamlessly slips into the music. On "Lover Street," a snappy house rocker of bright twang and twinkling organ, the lyric that stands out is the one in which Spencer yelps, "Hey, baby/Your mama's a 'ho." The choppy rocker "The Loveless" could be his life story. "They call me the loveless," he sings. "I'm a mean son of a bitch/They call me the heartless." Then the kicker: "Baby, I don't give a shit." Fuck you very much.

― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Monday, 30 May 2005 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

gotta love Anthony Mariani, especially for recycling retarded Spencer observations that were fresh about ten years ago. About one line of this entire review dares assess Heavy Trash, unless you count the backhanded bullshit. But like every reviewer who claims to loathe Spencer, they've always got to begrudgingly tip their hat somehow. Just in case Spencer ever is cool again, I suppose.

There are a lot of ways to say that the Heavy Trash album isn't very good. This review isn't any of them.

― don weiner, Monday, 30 May 2005 20:56 (twenty-one years ago)

If Jon Spencer didn't exist the Voice would have had to invent him.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Monday, 30 May 2005 20:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Why do some people damn the Blues Explosion for the same things for which they praise the White Stripes?

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 30 May 2005 21:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Because the Whites aren't Ivy Leaguers?

― David R. (popshots75`), Monday, 30 May 2005 21:09 (twenty-one years ago)

where does he praise the white stripes?

― j blount (papa la bas), Monday, 30 May 2005 21:22 (twenty-one years ago)

This thread is my excuse to post a picture of Xtina Martinez.

http://www.cityslang.com/bandseiten/bosshog/images/boss_hog_photo02_gr.jpg

― Je4nne ƒur¥ (Je4nne Fury), Monday, 30 May 2005 21:53 (twenty-one years ago)

He doesn't praise the White Stripes there, but in general I think a lot of people like the WS for the same reasons that they dislike Jon Spencer.

xpost

― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Monday, 30 May 2005 21:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm glad SOMEONE invented Jon Spencer...he's always been pretty entertaining.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 30 May 2005 22:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I really like Now I Got Worry but I always figured that JSBX got the attention that Royal Trux deserved.

― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Monday, 30 May 2005 22:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I like this Heavy Trash album. My expectations for Spencer have been incrementally lower and lower with each release since 'Orange', but this is the first time he's put together a full album of decent-enough songs (rather than riffs or vamps or whatever they're called)since then. The schtick is semi-dialed down, and the lyrics are a little harder to decipher than on the last few JSBS albums, which is good. I think Jon's a pretty good vocalist and comedian, but not much of of a song-writer and certainly not to be taken seriously in the tough-guy role. I'm sure the Blues Explosion's too profitable at this point to give up, but more interesting side projects would be good for him. Remember immediately post-Pussy Galore when he was in like five bands?

I've never understood the racist claim, and I don't think it's ever been credibly defended.

― Mike Dixn (Mike Dixon), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 10:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I've never thought of Jon Spencer (whether in Pussy Galore, BluesX, whatev) (okay, Boss Hog might be the exception, but not by much) as a song-writing kind of musician/performer/entertainer. It's a moment-by-moment kind of thing. I mean, if you wanna talk about songs, what delineates them is production more than actual composition. I think that's where Plastic Fang kinda lost me...they were trying to write songs.

― Huk-L, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 13:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I listened to "Heavy Trash" once or twice and filed it away, was gonna write about it but ended up with nothing interesting to say. Me, I don't think Spencer's "blues" affectations have been any more stupid or racist or whatever than any number of other performer's. I'd just as soon listen to Jim Dickinson or "Like Flies on Sherbert" to get that sorta thing; for that matter, I never liked Fat Possum records very much and they strike me as similar too. I always think it's funny when bands like the JSBE "get the blues" and all that, and even funnier when they decide to go all rockabilly. That's just me and the environment I inhabit, I say you are not rockabilly until you run your Cadillac at 100 miles an hour in the Admiral Benbow Inn on Poplar Avenue in Memphis, and then just leave it there to walk to the package store. I'm old-fashioned that way.

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 13:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I always thought a big part of his thing was making fun of the "white man gets the blues" thing- a critique, if you will. But then, as has been the case with countless SNL alumni, the satiric gap closed and, unless you squinted real hard, you couldn't tell the difference between him and what he was parodying. Or, to be perhaps kinder and to mix in more metaphors, all available energy in the temperature differential was used up until we were left only with entropy. But let's not forget high points [warning sloppy serialization, parallel construction coming up] -some great live performances, the album Orange, and his drummer- the mighty Russell Simins, he of the great unflanged, unphased snare sound.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 16:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I always thought a big part of his thing was making fun of the "white man gets the blues" thing- a critique, if you will.

Hence: http://www.stones.net/CONTROVERSIAL-CD.gif

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 17:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Have you ever seen the duet/face-off between Mick and Muddy Waters? Mick really makes an ass of himself. Brings to mind the famous words of John Lennon on the subject.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 17:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Goo goo g'joob?

― David R. (popshots75`), Tuesday, 31 May 2005 17:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Ira Robbins wrote this exact same lazy review a month ago: http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=heavy_trash

― Vic Funk, Tuesday, 31 May 2005 17:22 (twenty-one years ago)

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