Jon Spencer's Blues Explosion provokes one of two reactions: either you think his fuzzboxed, sleazy blues distortions are hilarious fun, or you think his campy theatrics are derivative and condescending. There's a case to be made either way, but I tend toward the former. And despite what you think about Spencer's ironic, sarcastic "Greatest Blues Singer In the Country" stance, his band is a stone killer. Judah Bauer molds distortion like putty around his driving riffs, and trapman Russell Simins has the unerring, shift-on-a-micron precision of a drum machine.
Spencer and his Blues Explosion are the back-up band for 70-year-old electric Delta Bluesman R.L. Burnside on this release, and it's the most inspired pairing since Hooker and Heat. Burnside's gravelly bellow and sweet Delta slide give the Explosion credibility; Spencer and the boys send R.L. awash in dirty, wracked rhythms. This is post-apocalyptic, industrial strength, amplifier-melting Delta blues.
"Walking Blues" is given a dissonant treatment that Muddy Waters would hardly recognize, "Boogie Chillen" is dragged though some low down chaos, and the talking blues "The Criminal Inside Me" is a crude, rude, compelling shimmy. Burnside has the chops and the attitude to front this noise with conviction - this man sounds and plays like a tense, coiled snake. See that belt he's holding on the cover? He's ready to whip some ass, no mistake.
Coarse and rugged, raucous and mean, and above all LOUD, A Ass Pocket Of Whiskey takes Delta Blues off the front porch and slams it into the garage. It's a surprisingly good fit.
- Jared O'Connor
post-apocalyptic blues