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Jon Spencer Says the Blues Explosion Is No More

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The outfit, which was already on hiatus, has been supplanted by Spencer’s new band the Hitmakers

Russell Simins Jon Spencer and Judah Bauer
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s Russell Simins, Jon Spencer, and Judah Bauer, February 2002 (Gie Knaeps/Getty Images)

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the stalwart New York outfit that reimagined blues rock in the 1990s and inspired the subsequent garage-rock revival, is no more, Spencer revealed in a new interview for the Kreative Kontrol podcast. The trio of Spencer, guitarist Judah Bauer, and drummer Russell Simins went on hiatus in 2016 but no longer plans to regroup. Spencer cited Bauer’s health issues as the main factor in the split. Watch him discuss the band’s end below.

The trio formed the Blues Explosion in 1991, following Spencer’s tenure fronting the deliberately offensive 1980s garage rockers Pussy Galore. Their debut album, 1994’s Orange, mixed breakbeats and blues poetry with primal rock’n’roll riffs, subverting the self-reflective grunge orthodoxy of the time. They released a further eight albums over the next 26 years, including the acclaimed Now I Got to Worry and a 1996 collaboration with rediscovered delta blues legend RL Burnside. Their last record, Freedom Tower – No Wave Dance Party 2015, came out in 2015.

In 2018, Spencer was asked, “The Blues Explosion have actually split this time? This is no hiatus?” He responded:

It’s hard to know what to say. It’s not like we had an official end but for me it was helpful in order to move forward and to do things like Spencer Sings the Hits to say, “OK, this is done. It’s over,” and to really acknowledge that. Maybe one day…. I don’t know but it’s pretty much…. Yeah, I had to get going.

I had also put the brakes on Heavy Trash. Boss Hog made a record, but it’s not a full-time thing; we can’t be touring all the time. So yeah I think it was a real period of mourning which led up to this new record.

Spencer released his first solo album, Spencer Sings the Hits!, in November 2018. He recently announced a new album with a band dubbed the Hitmakers, which features Quasi’s Sam Coomes on synth and co-vocals, M. Sord on drums, and Bob Bert playing trash. (Yes, actual garbage.) Janet Weiss drums in the touring lineup.

When reached by Pitchfork, a representative for Jon Spencer shared the following statement from the musician:

Well, “never say never” but for my own sanity I had to come to grips that the band was done—at least for the time being—and that I should move on. Thus, the start of the Hitmakers.

I have talked plainly about this in interviews over the past coupla years. No big secret and no big scoop.

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