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Jon Spencer Says the Blues Explosion Are No More

Jon Spencer Says the Blues Explosion Are No More

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 1994 album 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.

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