Jon Spencer: "Rock'n'roll is America's gift to the world"

In the spring of 2022 Jon SpencerIn the during an interviewgave official status to what had been evident for a long time: that is, that the best-known creature of his musical career, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion it no longer existed. In fact, the band hadn’t released an album since 2015, the last one having been “Freedom Tower – No Wave Dance Party 2015” (read the review here). The Blues Explosion was certainly the most famous and successful undertaking of the 61-year-old American singer and guitarist, but certainly not the only one.

As per the good rocker’s manual, the first groups in which he vented all his passion and youthful exuberance date back to his high school days. The first band worthy of a certain importance Jon Spencer he put it together in 1985, it’s called Pussy Galore and stands out for offering a rather experimental garage rock which will always remain, even with the necessary precautions, Jon’s artistic signature. The adventure of Pussy Galore it closed five years later, but Spencer was already ready to launch, together with his partner (later wife) Cristina Martinezin the business Boss Hog. A group that, albeit in (very) alternating phases, has so far only released four albums in about thirty years to its credit.

Almost at the same time as Boss Hogit was the beginning of the nineties, the irrepressible Spencer set in motion that joyful music machine that was the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion: rock, punk, blues, garage, rockabilly, soul, noise, all filtered and proposed according to Jon’s feelings and musical vision. There was a moment, in the mid-nineties, with the release of the album “Orange”that the group looked like it could carve out a comfortable space for itself in the mainstream, but then nothing happened. For the Blues Explosion a lot of respect, affection and loyalty from the fans, but the millionaire deals and the visibility in the charts have always remained somewhere else.

In 2018, at 53 years old, Jon Spencer he sets up his own business and publishes “Spencer sings the hits” (read the review here), his first solo album. It is the last, for now, manifestation of his artistic parable which is more active than ever and has further developed in 2022 with “Spencer gets it lit” and in 2024 with “Sick of being sick!”.

In a few days the fourth brick of his solo building will be available, “Songs Of Personal Loss And Protest”. ‘Songs of personal loss and protest’, a title that says it all. A record whose release was anticipated by the single “Knock ’em out”. As in the previous album, alongside Jon Spencer the powerful rhythm section of the Bobby Lees, Kendall Wind to the bottom and Macky ‘Spider’ Bowman to the battery.

About the new album Jon Spencer he sincerely explained: “I am in a period of deep spiritual reflection. In recent years I have experienced many emotional conflicts and personal losses: the passage of time leaves its mark. Losing friends, losing family members, and all this in a world turned upside down, where we seem to be losing basic freedoms… I am trying to find a balance between many things, but the answer is always rock ‘n’ roll. Rock ‘n’ roll is America’s true gift to the world: the sound of revolution! It came from the sky, a screeching flying saucer and chrome, like a space monster, landed on Earth so the freaks could have their say. It’s the overwhelming sound of rebellion. Blues is my bible, rock’n’roll is our battle cry!”. The years pass but Jon Spencer hasn’t lost a cent of his incredible energy: in words as well as on stage and in the recording studio.