3. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Meat + Bone
As their name implies, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (JSBE) are old-fashioned, organic and highly combustible. "Meat + Bone" is yet another full platter of goodness from the rock and roll butchers window. From the first second of opener Black Mold, sounding like an even more hyperactive re-tread of The Falls cover of Victoria, there is no concession to pacing, no kowtowing to subtlety and certainly no right of way for a slow dance. The foundations of rock and roll may have been unearthed and desecrated myriad times since the middle of last century, but JSBE find the middle ground between filthy pastiche and heart-on-sleeve tribute to the genres history. The groups eponymous front man looks and sounds like the result of a music heritage science experiment gone wrong; mutton-chop sideburns, tight leather jacket and filthy denim, the chemically enhanced drawl of fat-guy-in-a-jumpsuit-period Elvis and the frenetic amphetamine rush energy of Jerry Lee Lewis. Although mindful of their forebears, JSBE waste no time in marking the territory with their own scent. The overtly sexual Get Your Pants Off (clues in the title, people) is justifiably upright and fleshy, Strange Baby has Spencer stuttering and tripping over his words like hes spent a week face down in his own early grave and Black Thoughts offers a typically caustic word on the mental and physical decline of those who burn the candle at both ends. Meat + Bone passes by in 39 blitzkrieg minutes. They might not be breaking new rocks with their sound, but for those in the know with ears to blow, its manna from an alternate heaven. http://youtu.be/-vuxZZJlWS4