Customer Reviews

Xtra Acme Usa

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Xtra Acme USA is far better than Acme itself; it's the Xplosion at it's most inventive, funky and brilliant. It's an amazing combination of all things Blues Explosion: funk, punk, blues, hip-hop beats and rock and roll.

As my new friend in Washington suggested ........ this puts ACME to shame. ACME is a nice album for the JSBX, which is not thier strength. I was relieved during my first listen to hear that these so called out-takes were some of the JSBX best work to date. I listen to ACME often - XTRA ACME has not left my CD player, except to its way to my car cd player. Nice work!! Get it Punk!!

Support the blues in YOUR town! This record is stoopid-fresh, magnanimous in flavor, and simply one of the best discs I own. Most definitely the juice to get loose by. God bless Jon, Judah, and Russell. Amen.

All I really have to say about the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion is that I don't understand exactly why Mr. Spencer has a southern Elvis-esque accent whenever he performs ( in concert it seems to be more of a persona or a character than a simple impression ), but it works in a way I can't quite articulate. More power to them, because this record parallels Now I Got Worry in total brilliance. I agree with my neighbor in Olympia, who I probably actually know: Xtra Acme is superior to its predecessor in every way, shape and form. David Holmes has proven again and again to be a mixing genius, and combining the two, although not exactly a seemingly correct move, works surprisingly well. That's all I can think of right now.

Jon Spencer is the man. He doesn't play no blues, he plays rock n roll. No kidding, Jon.

Most of my friends and I are Blues X fans and have checked him out many times in concert (he tours constantly, it seems). ACME was a semi-disappointment in the eyes of a lot of his fandom. I respect musical artists changing directions and I like ACME, but not like Orange, Extra Width, or Now I Got Worry.

When I saw this undertaking on the shelf, slated as "Outakes from the ACME sessions", I was hesitant. I'm glad I trusted Spencer. I'm glad he held his punches on ACME. This CD rips. From the open track where he bellows out a scream to TATB (talking about the blues, to you and me), I was and am soooo happy I bought this CD. It's raged havoc on my car speakers, because I can not and you will not be able to keep the volume down.

I was recently digging around in my collection and found some Jon Spencer Blues Explosion music. Moving them to my ipod for current review (Acme, Experimental Remixes, and Orange) made me realize I have been missing something in my life. I mean these albums were classics for Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Looking around to increase the depth of this current playlist, I found Xtra-Acme. A follow-up to Acme, definitely providing more depth.... funky, rocking, soulful, punk-ish, noisy, chaotic, bluesy.... just like Acme and classic JSBE.

Xtra is getting lots of air time in my music listening, and it is absolutely worth the purchase.

It is obvious that Beck (as in RIYL) found much influence in the style of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion--both in vocals and rhythms. As an aside, I started buying some Pussy Galore--where have I been all these years?

My favorite Jon Spencer album. It has a good mix of guitar, wierd random yelling and screaming, melodies and humor. "Wait a minute", "Blue Green Olga", and "Love Machine" are my three favorite songs on the album, but all are great with the possible exception of "Lap Dance". "Ring-a-ling-ding-ding. That's the telephone, baby."

Easily the most accessible Jon Spencer album, best to start off here if you're new to the club.

I owned a couple of JS CDs before I saw them live in NY, and in retrospect I didn't really 'get' them till I saw their live performance. I thought all the chaos was made up in the studio but they do it all live, and live it doesn't seem like chaos at all, but very funky and very moving. Spencer is a rock genius. Long may he rock.

(aside: This has only the weakest connection to blues, like all his music does so don't get into Spencer expecting blues or I guarantee you will be disappointed. At least at first .... go see him live.)

I own pretty much the entire JSBX catalog, but I must say that "Xtra Acme" is the one that I play most often lately. While "Acme" was a good album -- better than "Now I got Worry" and "Extra Width" -- I much prefer the alternate versions presented here. Overall, "Xtra Acme" has that same sort of experimental flavor and energy that hooked me the first time I heard "Orange" -- arguably the best album JSBX has made to date.

Buy it. Do yourself a favor. The two bars in "New Year," where everything falls away, isolating Judah's skronk-boogie hipshaking guitar - worth the price of admission alone. As my wife puts it so well, "the Blues X-plosion f-ing ROCKS, . . . dude."