Blues Explosion – Damage

Genre: John Spencer Blues Explosion are awesome and also way less fun then they ought to be. They attack retro 70s rock n blues with punk energy and have been doing so for an absurdly long time without mainstream success. Somehow their music manages to be intensely fun and completely lacking in any kind of hook. Their albums are also usually a million hours long. Listening to them can be kind of exhausting, but it is usually fun either in small doses or when you feel like being all intellectual and unpacking an album. Honestly I think this approach to the blues is kind of backwards and may explain why they never got the kind of chart success achieved by similar blues retro groups, though maybe saying so will call down the indie inquisition on my head. Anyway they are a lot of fun and I think this album is more accessible than some of the others I have listened to, though the rap rock on “Hot Gossip” is, uh, suspicious. All their albums are good for long drives.

Where would I have heard of them: JSBE has had an absurdly long career in that long and splendid indie twilight where all your peers love you and start bands but you never get money or true fame. At some point maybe you heard of them. Or maybe one of your cooler relatives heard of them. Ask around.

Anything of note: This was the only album they release under the name “Blues Explosion,” which sparked some elaborate conspiracy theories that the band was ousting Jon Spencer. Oh also? Jon Spencer is the brother of that chick from Brassy. So that’s a pretty fun fact.

Is it any good: Yup. Not on my regular rotation list but I like the band and this album is pretty fun. 

Birdland - Birdland

Genre: Punk in the most genre-less way. They don’t sound like ’77 punk, they don’t sound like Cali punk, they don’t sound like pop punk. They just sound like someone distilled all these things into one thing. Which is kind of an achievement though it kind of teeters on the ends of bland if you look at it too hard. Not that they are bland, they have high energy and good songs. Just, think Billy Idol: a lot of concern with looking striking and writing catchy pop tunes without too much wider social impact. Sure Billy Idol wrote songs that challenged social assumptions about marriage or whatever, and Birdland wrote songs about cocaine and feeling disrespected by society, but there is no hint at a wider synthesis or stance on anything other than wanting to do one’s own thing. Comparing this album to, say “Rocket to Russia” is like comparing angsty high school poetry to the memoires of a holocaust survivor.

Where would I have heard of them: When this album came out they were the darling of the nascent British musical press. That said they broke up shortly thereafter and, though they seem to have an ongoing core of fans, I don’t think anyone outside of late 80s England would be able to tell you much about them. That said I guess they were bound up with the Madchester thing and I guess a lot of people study that like it’s some kind of biblical period. Oh! They wrote a song called “Rock ‘n Roll Nigger” that people talk about as if it is important.

Anything of note: I’m going to assume the name of the band was an intentional reference to the seminal Jazz club partially founded by and named for Charlie Parker, pioneer of highly experimental Bebop Jazz. Talk about shooting high. Also worth noting: oddly huge in Japan.

Is it good: yeah it is. If you see it buy it, or if you are in the market for some straight up punk n roll try to track it down. It is fun. Just don’t expect the huge religious experience some people are going to try to sell you.