Customer Reviews

Orange

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

1994 was a year in which showmanship was, for the most part, a dirty word. Garage bands across the word stood on stage, pathetically pensive in their tattered op-shop gear, muttering every few minutes that "We're not trying to impress you! We're just being us!" Jon Spencer - whose previous mendicant band, the dubiously named Pussy Galore, were buried in the garage floor concrete to their waists - signalled a welcome end to this morbid pouting. I, like most listeners, only bought this album upon the word-of-mouth guarantee that, in the midst of Reznors and Loves, here was something that was reminiscent of the trashy R&B acts of the late 50s and early 60s, not to mention King Elvis, a time when - whatever their musical merits - bands were out to give people a good time. Or, as one indie friend put it, "this Spencer dude is DA MAN!" In Orange, Spencer waggled his microphone, guitar, theremin and his frighteningly skinny butt to the entire world. "Full grown woman likes to f***!" he screams mid-way through the album ('Full grown'). Not a line that would endear him to student politicians but people like that lose their sense of fun at the age of five. Spencer's not for them. Indeed, this boy would like nothing better than his listeners to bonk along to his crashing guitar-driven numbers. At first 'Orange' may appear to merely be blues riffs played fast, abrasively and without the annoying rhythmic strictures that a bass guitar would provide; indeed, 'Sweat' and 'Ditch' fit this definition. But Spencer, especially in brilliant numbers like 'Bellbottom', 'Orange' and 'Blues Xplosion Man' go beyond mere retrospective indulgence, plundering cliches from previous blues artists to create create something different, a sexual swaggering trash rock, the type of musical bricolage that was to soon appear on Beck's 'Odelay' (The boy wonder actually makes a neat cameo appearance on 'Flavor'). Enhanced by Spencer's manic vocal style (think of Elvis on something heavier than prescription pills), 'Orange' is neither a dull tidying up of well-trodden ground nor the masturbatory product of an anaemic twat in velvet pants. The album represented a landmark in indie rock, a welcome break from grunge-by-numbers, a genuine explosion of the past, and, most importantly, it was the only garage rock album of 1994 that sounded as good as it looked. Five bright bellbottoms for this one, baby.

It is difficult to convey to the Rock fan the experience that is the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, or to describe the joys and frustrations of this or any other of their albums. I half jokingly describe a concert of theirs as 'Hard rock and blues jamming, with Jon Spencer occasionally screaming "Russell Simmons" "Judah Bauer" "Blues Explosion" and "Bab-e"'.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion is weird beast - it readily admits that it is not real authentic blues (Listen to the hilarious "Talkin' about the Blues" in ACME), but, for all that, it is closer to Blues than to Rock music. the influence of Muddy Waters, especially, is particularly obvious (In 'Mannish Boy' for instance, Muddy actually screams 'Full Grown!', some twenty years before Jon Spencer does it on this album).

A related problem is the lack of proper songs on this and other JSBX records. Despite his uncanny talent for the art of songwriting, Spencer almost never indulges his audience with a melodic song with proper verses and choruses. When he does, however, he is inevitably brilliant, as in 'Brenda' on this CD, or 'She Said' on PLASTIC FANG - some of the catchiest and cleverest pieces of Rock songwriting I've ever heard.

So, the JSBX is not Rock, not really Blues, doesn't write songs and screams 'Babe' a lot - but what is it? The truth is, I don't know. I somehow doubt anyone knows. It's a bizarre mix of stuff that is nonetheless addictingly compelling.

`Orange' is one of the best places to start. It has the brilliant `Brenda' that will steal your heart and the hilarious punk of `Bell-bottom'. The title track is shouted with disdain, and `full grown' is funny and sexy and really, really strange. Throughout, the amazing riffs of Judah Bower (who has an amazing ability to produce sheer noise out of his little electric guitar) and the mad-as-hell drumming of Russell Simmons is perfect background for Spencer's over the top delivery.

Rock music is supposed to be straightforward and, well, rockin'. JSBX are doing just that. You can afford to miss them, but at your own peril.

Are you looking for a band that plays textbook rock and roll and sings about average boy girl relationships?
THEN GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE.
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion made Orange with a funky, Philly-string soul, blues-rock type of sound in mind, and they didn't quite hit it right on but they got so close that this album sounds better than you could ever imagine. Their trademark Elvis-voiced funk-blues sound with two guitarists (no bass) and a drumset is the best it ever was on Orange.

Start with "Bellbottoms." The intro track features a soul string 2-minute interlude before it bursts into a rollicking punk anthem with a blues tint to it.
Then we get "Ditch", a song based on such a bluesy-funky riff that you won't be able to get it out of your head.
"Dang" is an all out punk anthem that screams and shouts like no other. On the first listen, it scares you, but if you listen to it carefully, you'll hear the true 2-minute thrash orchestra that it is.

"Very Rare" is an addictive instrumental with a good vibe to it.
"Sweat" is the song that will get the closest to being a single on this album...it features a rocky chorus and the trademark self-advertising by none other than Jon himself.
"Cowboy" is Jon's attempt to sing a love song with the voice he doesn't have.
"Orange", the title song, is the band's journey into prog rock with orchestral strings and funky guitars. It works, as Jon sings about Star Trek as the band chug-a-lugs into an orgy of strings.
"Brenda" is the token blues piece; it features a rock-blues riff that leads to a pounding chorus.
"Dissect" is a pure taste of the Explosion's live shows. As Jon sings nonsensical lyrics, his band plays the same riff with different styles for Jon to try to sing to. It's the album's classic track.
"Blues X Man" is Jon's wannabe soul-singer tune...he rumbles through verses to get through his strung-out chorus with backup singers and the whole bit.

"Full Grown" is a hilarious piece of sensual pie-Jon sings about sex over a percussion section and one California surfer guitar riff.
"Flavor" is another standout-a six minute trip into the Blues Explosion that really only works with one riff. The highlight of the album is when Beck, the original white man, comes in to help Jon out with a dubbed old-school rap. Don't miss it.
Finally, "Greyhound" is another instrumental that repeats the same riff until you love it.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion will never be commericial-they are too good. And this is their best work. 5 stars for Orange.

Anarchy. That's all you need to know about Jon Spencer's Blues Explosion. No sophisticated terminology. No slick production. We got two guitars, a drum set, and libidos that won't quit. Who needs more? The point of this album: self-reference and mayhem. Dionysus with a Fender. Launched by an ode to bellbottom pants. Need I say more?

Its kind of funny when you reach that stage in life where you start to realize that contemporary pop culture is starting to leave you behind. Your clothes are a year or two out of date, your real friends don't seem quite as hip as maybe they used to, and your music collection is stuck in a previous decade. Well, to me this album represents 1995, which pretty much makes it emblematic of the 90's, my so-called salad days.

I remember shortly after it came out just about everyone I knew had heard it, if not memorized it. I mean EVERYONE. Liz Thornton even had a copy, and she was like lil miss Orange County prissy queen back then. It was for good reason too. Back then, the JSBX were zigging as the rest of the rock industry was zagging. The slow, sludgy grunge stuff was just beginning to fade out, and boy bands were once again on the ascent. The Blue Explosion, by contrast, were putting out records that were sharp. They were quick, loud, reverbed, and vibrant, like walking walking along the shoreline of a nude beach while tripping on mushrooms.

Orange takes a lot of its cues from 50s-60s Stax/Volt type artists, such as Rufus Thomas. Spencer sort of sings like Jerry Lee Lewis on speed. "Powerful messages a-in the AIR!!!", he shrieks on the get-down number, "Dissect". Check out the song "Ditch", where he growls "I got to HUMP!!! Up early in the morning!!!".

There's so much gimmick in this album that its easy to lose track of the fact that there's some really great songs on here. The backing band, if you were to call them that, of Judah Bauer and Russell Simmins plays a real tight Stonesy kind of telecaster-twang RnB with hip-hop beats underneath it all. For the most part, it seems as though Spencer's lyrics are just garbled nonsense, but every now and then a classic line will slip through and lodge itself inbetween the creases in your brain. "Words always fail me...", he whines, perhaps in recognition of this fact, on the song "Cowboy". "I see a worm up on the platform/I got the blues/and I scream!!!", he observes on the title track.

Yeah, yeah, yeah...I know a ton of bands out there like the White Strokes have probably mined the crap out of this same vein of attitude and style, but there's something about Orange that sticks with me, making those others seem kind of limp in comparison. Its possible that the newer generation of bands is equally adept at this sort of shtik, and I'm just too past it to be able to tell. Then again, I'm kind of hoping that this album really is as good as I remember it. See for yourself...

All i gots to say is........ BELLBOTTOMS! BBBEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLBOTTOMMMMMMMSSSSS!!!

Certainly in my top 20 at the very least, Orange is a lo-fi, hi-style stroke of masculine genius. The Blues Explosion is the grinning cousin of every roosterman, honey-huntin drunken hunka sad and lonely blues legend there ever wuz. Certainly their best and perhaps only necessary album to date. Will you be able to contain yourself when Jon Spencer screams "MY FATHER WAS SISTER RAY!!!!!" and then asks you to take a whiff of his pant leg? Uh-uh. Don't even try not to holler along. Self-aggrandizing, naughty, rockbottom, supercharged rock and roll.

Undeniably transcendent guitars. Chock-full of odd, transparently self-serving gimmicks (like Spencer shouting "Blues Explosion!" at key moments) that somehow resist aging. Humor: "Take a whiff o' my pant leg, baby!" is sure to become a water-cooler catch phrase. Blues? More like blues-infused rock. I'm tempted to call the sound derivative, yet I've never heard anything like this. This disc packs a tad more substance than JSBE's thinner (but worth exploring) "Extra Width." Good partying/drinking CD.

........I know The Blues Xplosion has because he's all over this album. I dig it.....so will you!

One of the classic rock albums from the 90s, and a fantastic mess of
raw blues, punk and rock n roll, done with chicken grease and cool
trash-king attitude.

Put Beck's "Mellow Gold", a Stones song, The Cramps, hilarious lyrics,
some juke joint blues, a funky drummer and and a reeeal high strung Elvis
in a bag, shake it like an alligators tale and you might end up with the
sound of THE BLOOOOZE EXPLOSIOOON!

I saw another reviewer called it "a lo-fi hi-style stroke of masculine
genius", heh heh, and that's a description that is spot on for songs
like "Full Grown" and "Blues X Man". There is not one remotely bad
song on "Orange", but if I had to pick 4 favourites I would choose
"Flavor", "Brenda", "Dissect" and "Bellbottoms".

This is The Blues Explosion masterpiece, currently unavailable,
but all of The JSBE albums will soon be re-issued in expanded
editions, after the release of a best of compilation in april.

Bellbottoms!Bellbottoms!!