The Band's Unintentional New York City Concept Record

From their inception at the very outset of the ‘90s Jon Spencer Blues Explosion seemed like one of those bands who’d just stepped out of the ether unburdened by geography, a group whose fierce and primal rock’n’roll reminded of a certain time, ethos and passion but not necessarily a city. Of course they’d arrived with history and an element of (cool) baggage – most notably frontman Jon Spencer’s tenure with the legendarily caustic Pussy Galore – so we knew their back story lay in the gutters of New York City, but that knowledge wasn’t imbued with an overwhelming sense of locale.

Now, however, on their tenth album Freedom Tower – No Wave Dance Party 2015, the trio – Spencer’s offsiders being guitarist Judah Bauer and drummer Russell Simins – have fully embraced the legendary city they call home, inhabiting the record with not only their trademark groove-laden amalgam of punk, garage, blues and hip hop but also tales reflecting their attachment to the seedy side of NYC.

“This was not planned out to be a ‘concept album’ beforehand,” Spencer explains. “At a certain point during the mixing of the record it became every apparent to me that most of the songs were about New York City. New York City has been home to the Blues Explosion – and like I said that’s been 24 years now – so it’s not only our home and the place where we live and the place where we work, but it’s also a great inspiration for us. And it’s a great inspiration not just because of the artists and musicians who have lived and worked there beforehand – people like, I don’t know, The Velvet Underground and the New York Dolls to visual artists like Andy Warhol – but also because of the city itself, and things like restaurants and the subway and the noise of the streets and the anonymity: all of the stuff that comes with a very big city like New York.

“But we didn’t set out to make a concept record, I just think that at a certain point it became clear that most of the songs were about our home and so when I sequenced the record those were the songs that I favoured – we left off the songs that didn’t fit the theme. As to why this happened? I’m not really sure, perhaps because New York City is so important to us due to the art and culture of the city and also the physical city itself has been such an influence on us as a band. I think with this record as the Blues Explosion we stake a claim on New York City as our home – we stand up and say, ‘Hey, we are a New York rock’n’roll band!’ Not that we haven’t always been such.

“This record is about the city today, it’s about the city that’s gone forever now – especially looking back 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago or five years ago, it’s about a place that doesn’t exist anymore. And it’s also about a city that perhaps never existed except perhaps in my imagination or in my own heart. And I think it’s also important for me to say that it’s not meant to be a nostalgia trip – I have no desire to turn back the hands of time. New York City is something that is always moving forward and always changing.”

Freedom Towers is a high-energy affair, reflecting the band’s desire to get the dancefloor jumping again.

“This is the kind of music that we like and I definitely think in the back of my mind was the idea to do a dance kind of record – a dance party,” Spencer continues. “I think that Freedom Tower compared to our previous record Meat + Bone (2012) from a couple of years ago is much more sparse and clean in a way and maybe a little more funky: Meat + Bone was supposed to be a more blown out, smeared, rock’n’roll garage-y thing.”

In that regard Freedom Tower seems quite reminiscent of the Blues Explosion’s revered mid-‘90s output.

“I can understand why someone might think that,” the singer ponders. “I don’t think that we were consciously trying to nod towards Orange (1994) or Extra Width (1993), but I think that we looked again towards rap and hip hop and classic soul for inspiration. Generally when we’re working as the Blues Explosion we don’t discuss things a great deal – we just sort of do it and then see what’s behind us and what we’ve made, what we’ve left behind. But perhaps after that really intense overblown distorted record that we made with Meat + Bone, for this record we wanted something that was more sharp and precise and focused and more danceable.

“And there’s no guests on the record – it’s just us – and we tracked it out at Daptone Studios in Brooklyn, and one of the main reasons that we went to Daptone was because we knew that we’d come away with a great sounding recording, and we knew that we’d come away with a great drum sound – that’s the studio and the label that’s been making great dance records for over a decade, and that’s a studio that knows how to work with a live band. And that’s what we were going to and that’s the way we always start a record – we play a song together live.”

Prior to speaking with The Music the Blues Explosion had just finished the final leg of their American album tour, and Spencer is quick to attest that the Freedom Tower material has indeed translated well to the live realm.

“I think we’ve played most of the new songs pretty much every night, and the response has been very warm,” he tells. “I think all of the songs work very well live. Before we recorded the album we played a lot of shows with these new songs to kind of road test them as you will, and we made changes to the arrangements and I think each of us took notes as to what was working and perhaps what wasn’t working as far as our individual parts and what we were playing. I’d say that the album was definitely road-tested so it’s going well live and people are responding really positively to the new songs.

“We split the US and Canada into three different legs so it was a few weeks altogether, and we had some really good shows and we had some really good help – we played with some very nice bands. Most recently the last leg was with a group from Brooklyn called Daddy Long Legs – another trio, and another band playing our sort of blues punk. They’ve done a couple of records for Norton [Records] so far – a very good band.”

It’s been nearly a quarter century on the road together now for JSBX – notwithstanding a few years’ hiatus they took at the end of last decade – does Spencer believe that there’s a special musical bond between himself, Bauer and Simins?

“Yeah, I think so,” he offers thoughtfully. “I think that there’s always been some sort of connection or chemistry or ESP or telekinesis that allows us to write music together and to play music together. And definitely I think that after so many years – as I mentioned we’ve been playing together for something like 24 years – that rapport has grown and developed and changed, and I think it’s improved with age, but  it’s always sort of been there from the get-go. That’s why we’ve stuck together – there is this special glue, this special bond. I think it’s important to note that when we play a concert we don’t use a set-list, we always have to keep things open and leave some room for the moment – for something to happen spur of the moment – and in order to do that we definitely need to be tuned in to each other and listening to each other.”

Spencer’s musical predilections have always been retro-tinged, even when it comes to the new music that he consumes.

“I guess the bulk of what I listen to is stuff that’s old or from some years past, but I’m definitely a fan of a great number of current day artists,” he reckons. “I mentioned previously the band from Brooklyn called Daddy Long Legs, and another current favourite of mine is a group from Indianapolis, Indiana called We Are Hex – they’re a fantastic group. Then there’s Dan Kroha from Detroit, Michigan who’s in Danny & The Darleans and he’s also been in The Gories most famously – he as a new band called Danny & the Darleans who are fantastic. Up in Canada there’s called Bloodshot Bill from Montreal who does one-man rockabilly. So there’s definitely a lot of current day artists making great records and putting on a bunch of great shows.”

It’s quite apparent that Spencer still has a voracious appetite for new tunes, and that music in general still plays a super-important role in his life.

“Yeah, most definitely,” he admits. “The Blues Explosion is still a garage band in the sense that we’re doing this because we’re so in love with rock’n’roll and we’re so in love with these bands that have inspired us and we’re so crazy about these records so we want to make this kind of music ourselves. We’re trying to do our heroes proud, and it feels good so that’s why we keep doing it. This is a passion for us.”

Does he feel that he’s now part of that rich lineage?

“Not so much, no,” he chuckles gently. “But I do think that the Blues Explosion is a good band and I do think that we’ve touched some people’s hearts and minds for sure, and that feels really nice. But most of the time I still just think that we’re in the garage.”