Check out "Orange Slice Blues" and "Knock 'em Out" off Jon Spencer's new album. Catch him live in T.O. this September!
Songs of Personal Loss And Protest
Picking up where 2024’s mini–LP SICK OF BEING SICK left off, Jon tears it up with KENDALL WIND on bass and SPIDER BOWMAN on drums (also famously the rhythm section of Woodstock’s punk powerhouse The Bobby Lees). They deliver garage punk for today — hyper-driven soul and powerhouse groove, beats hard as diamonds and slick as ice, fuzz bass in your face, and an avalanche of uncontrollable urges, pushing Jon’s latest outbursts — hollering, drooling, sexified crooning, and vociferously lamenting these difficult times — to new levels of rock’n’roll expressionism. SONGS OF PERSONAL LOSS AND PROTEST is the New New Super Heavy Rock for Hard Times.
SONGS OF PERSONAL LOSS AND PROTEST is set for release on June 12th on vinyl, CD (with bonus tracks), and all digital platforms via Shove Records, Bronze Rat Records in the EU/UK, and Sony Japan in Japan. Stream/Pre-order here: https://shoverecords.lnk.to/knockemout
Check out "Orange Slice Blues" and "Knock 'Em Out" below.
Don't miss Jon Spencer live in Ontario! Catch him September 8th in Ottawa, September 10th in Toronto, and September 11th in Hamilton. Tickets go on sale May 15th at 10AM right here: https://www.weare-inthefuture.com/jon-spencer-ontario/
Tav Falco talks about narrowly escaping a satanic cult, working as a railroad brakeman, Alex Chilton and more on WFMU.
Here's the scoop...
Tav Falco recently appeared as a guest on the "Todd-o-phonic Todd" show on WFMU Radio. Although it originally aired on Saturday (October 4), the show has been archived right here: https://wfmu.org/archiveplayer/?show=156690&archive=277306
Following five tunes by Tav Falco's Panther Burns starting at around the 1-hour mark, Tav discusses his critically-acclaimed new 'Desire on Ice' LP (5 stars from Mojo, 8 out of 10 from Uncut) and his 'Urania Trilogy' of avantgarde films which will be screened soon in NYC.
Tav Falco – Desire On Ice
The songwriting of Southern rock ‘n’ roll provocateur Tav Falco is celebrated on his 14th studio album, Desire on Ice. With basic tracks recorded at Sam Phillips Recording Services in Memphis, Tennessee, Desire on Ice was created over an 18-month period by Falco and his longtime producer and musical partner, Mario Monterosso. Undoubtedly the most ambitious project in the artist’s 40-plus-year career, Desire on Ice features an astonishing lineup of all-star talent who are sympatico with his singular flair and vision.
The lineup of featured players on Desire on Ice is impressive. The sessions were anchored by the members of Falco’s current touring band, Panther Burns: guitarist Mario Monterosso, bassist Giuseppe Sangirardi, and drummer Walter Brunetti. The guests include Ann Magnuson, Nicole Atkins, Jolie Holland, Bobby Gillespie, Pete Molinari, Kid Congo Powers, Jon Spencer, Rev. Horton Heat, Jimmy Rip, Chris Spedding, Boz Boorer, Richard Barone, Eddie Angel, Bubba Feathers, Chris Maxwell, Charlie Musselwhite, Mirko Dettori, Kai Eric, Rene Coman, Bertrand Burgulat, Alex Greene, Michael Perry Allen, Jim Sclavunos, and Ross Johnson, among others. Memphis writer and longtime Panther Burns confidante Robert Gordon has contributed new liner notes for the release.
While on tour, Jon Spencer and crew stopped by Deke Dickerson's studio to cut a couple of punk whumpers old school style.
Here's the scoop from Deke...
"Well, that was fun and unexpected! Jon Spencer (he of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, a quite-famous band a few years back) contacted me out of the blue a few weeks ago and asked to book a recording session at my studio, while they were on tour on the West Coast as part of a package tour with Samantha Fish and Cedric Burnside. Of course I said yes! I never get to record noisy, raw punk blues stuff. This would be fun and, well, unexpected!
"I didn't know when we made plans to record that Jon also wanted ME to play on the songs. I know the kids are all crazy about the "collabs" as they call it, so hell yes, that sounded like fun! Count me in!
"Jon and his current band (Kendall Wind, bass; and Macky Spider Bowman, drums) showed up at the house at noon, along with their road manager Dave Martin. Within 30 minutes we were recording songs I had never heard before, and laying them DOWN.
"I think the tracks sound great! I look forward to mixing these and seeing what happens. I like doing stuff out of my normal wheelhouse. Jon and the band couldn't have been nicer (or more professional, man we just got right down to work). By 3 pm they were on the road to Ventura, where they are playing tonight at the Ventura Theater, along with Samantha Fish and Cedric Burnside. Thanks again, Jon! it was a pleasure! And thanks again to Bloodshot BILL for putting Jon and I in touch!"
Watch a couple of clips from the session right hereand overthere.
Here's a rarely seen image of Julie Cafritz smiling in Pussy Galore photo from 1988 shot at the Silver Dollar by Rick McGinnis.
Writes Toronto photographer Rick McGinnis...
"If most people who lived through the '80s made a movie of their life, they'd probably soundtrack it with, I don't know, U2 or A-ha or Tears for Fears. My '80s biopic would be scored to Pussy Galore - probably my favorite band of the decade, and one whose three albums and four EPs bring me back to the first years of life on my own, post-college, making a precarious living as a writer and photographer. They were another major enthusiasm of Tim Powis at Nerve, and he made the rest of us fans (my then-girlfriend had a maddeningly not-so-secret crush on PG front man Jon Spencer), though they didn't actually show up in town until the magazine was effectively defunct. I was without a steady gig then, but I begged a portrait session with the band during their two-night stand in April of 1988 at the Silver Dollar Room on Spadina. My big memory of the weekend was that Philadelphia rapper Schoolly D was playing the room in the basement under the club, and that Jon and the rest of the band were more enthusiastic about catching his show than doing their own gig."
Check out more photos of Pussy Galore from the session right here. Watch a Pussy Galore performance of "Undertaker" in Fort Worth, Texas back in July, 1989 below.
"Junk Man" is off Jon Spencer & The HITmakers' new Spencer Gets It Lit album out April 1. T.O. show at Lee's Palace April 12th.
Get ready for JON SPENCER & the HITmakers to BURN your playhouse down with their new long-player, SPENCER GETS IT LIT!
The incredible, indelible Jon Spencer (Blues Explosion, Boss Hog, Pussy Galore, Heavy Trash, etc) is back with the incendiary HITmakers - and with his HOTTEST record yet!
Spencer Gets It Lit is classic Jon Spencer taken to the extremis – electro-boogie, constructivist art pop, a psychedelic swamp of industrial sleaze and futurist elegance. It is an epic master work of freak beat from the world’s weirdest garage. Across brain-boggling layers of fury, fuzz guitar, and a crash-bang battery of phaser blasts, photon torpedoes, and otherworldly zounds, he frantically spits, croons, rhapsodizes, and seduces. Spencer Gets It Lit is his most complex and groovy record in years, a dark, danceable odyssey – both a studied take-down of the early 21st century, and a celebration of the place where electricity meets the mind.
Thirteen wicked hot songs of love, loss, lust, life — from the Farfisa-fueled,warped psycho -punk rave-up of “Junk Man,” to the intimate lover's plea of “My Hit Parade,” to the outer-space end-of-days country funk of “Worm Town," Spencer Gets It Lit delivers all of the friction, excitement, and post-modern depravity one could ever ask for! Pre-order Spencer Gets Lit right here: https://linktr.ee/Spencerhitmaker.
Says Spencer, "Send out the Hit Signal! This is the most uncompromising album I've ever made!"
And the HITs just keep on coming!
THIS JUST IN! Taking over drum duties for the HITmakers on their upcoming spring tour will be superstar of skins Janet Weiss of Sleater Kinney, Quasi, Wild Flag, The Jicks, Slang, etc. etc!!!
Wait… What’s that? There’s more?
Every show will be opened by a full set from Janet and HITmaker Sam Coomes championship tag-team, Quasi! Check the dates following the video for "Junk Man" below.
Jon Spencer & The HITmakers on tour: 4/11 Buffalo, NY Rec Room 4/12 Toronto, ON Lee’s Palace – get tickets right here. 4/13 Detroit, MI El Club 4/14 Chicago, IL Schubas 4/15 Milwaukee, WI Back Room at Colectivo 4/16 Minneapolis, MN 7th Street Entry 4/18 Omaha, NE Waiting Room 4/19 Denver, CO Globe Hall 4/20 Salt Lake City, UT Urban Lounge 4/21 Boise, ID Neurolux 4/22 Portland, OR Dantes 4/23 Vancouver, BC Fox Cabaret 4/24 Seattle, WA Madame Lou’s (The Crocodile Second Stage) 4/26 San Francisco, CA Bottom of the Hill 4/27 Los Angeles, CA The Echo 4/28 San Diego, CA Casbah 4/29 Tucson, AZ 191 Toole 4/30 Phoenix, AZ Valley Bar 5/01 Santa Fe, NM Tumbleroot Brewery & Distillery 5/02 Colorado Springs, CO The Black Sheep 5/03 Wichita, KS Wave 5/04 Kansas City, MO Record Bar 5/05 St. Louis, MO Blueberry Hill Duck Room 5/06 Indianapolis, IN Hi-Fi 5/07 Louisville, KY Zanzabar 5/08 Charlottesville, VA The Southern
ALL TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18TH AT 10AM LOCAL TIME
