THE JON Spencer Blues Explosion

On stage and in the studio, Jon Spencer has destroyed and rebuilt American roots music with such ferocity and wild abandon that it’s hard to believe there is anything left. The trail of musical destruction Spencer created with his legendary group Pussy Galore still smoulders in the avant punk blues and nasty garage grind of The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, whose incredible, innovative output remains an indelible totem to his enormous mojo spirit and red-hot power of deliverance.

It’s been eighteen years since The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion first pressed ‘record’, eighteen years since Spencer and his A-Team of sonic terrorists (Judah Bauer, guitar, and Russel Simmins, drums) tore up the indie-rock landscape with fever and a visceral, untouchable vision of rock’n’roll that did for a new wave of blues-punk primitivists what Helen of Troy’s face did for the armada.

But make no mistake: Jon Spencer was there first. He is the original. It was his sanctified outbursts and blues-bending riffs that began the new-fanlged roots rock revolution and spawned countless imitators. With Pussy Galore he gargled with the Stones and Stooges and wrestled with industrial noise and fuzzed-out fucked-up sixties garage crud… with Blues Explosion he drove furiously into the future with incendiary spirit built from courage, audacity, and revolt. Nothing has been the same since.

SHOUT is proud to celebrate the legacy and legend of The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion with a stellar set of seven new-and-expanded, spectacularly remastered, and all-together mind-expanding, deluxe, CDs, beginning with the much-anticipated compilation DIRTY SHIRT ROCK N’ ROLL: THE FIRST TEN YEARS, a handpicked selection of prime cuts and barbed-wire excess from the first decade of JSBX, beginning with their first gutter-born scuzzabilly assaults, and traversing through studio masterpieces like Orange, Acme, and Now I Got Worry.

Indeed, the first Blues Explosion outings were lo-fi and raw; gutter rock’n’roll steeped in Sun Studio exorcisms, New York street-punk and no-wave pranksterism, with Spencer playing his famous $17 guitar throughout. But The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion refused to make the same record twice, as this compilation attests. From untamed, sleazy hi-jinks and brain-teasing sonic alchemy, to rock’n’roll fundamentalism, and depth-defyin, ass-shaking grooves, this is the no-holds-barred story of a band who grew through increasing commercial and critical success, studio craft, innovation, and dazzling artistry, but without sacrificing the filth and blunt-force assault from which they sprang.

Each of these new releases feature the original albums in astonishing sonic splendor and include rare and unreleased bonus tracks, copious liner notes, and eye-popping photos. All titles will also be available digitally.

These shall be released two reissues at a time on the 18th of May, late August then late October. In the following order:
Now I Got Worry, Controversial Negro
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (First Year), Extra Width + Mo Width
Orange + Remixes (2-disc) Acme + Xtra Acme (2-disc)