HEAVY TRASH
Yep Roc
_____________________________________

'Never Been Fixed Since I Got Broken...'

Heavy Trash sees Jon Spencer stumbling steaming like a New York City sewer through the streets hopefully homeward bound, ending up bumming a bed for the night with chum Matt Verta-Ray. The ensuing binge is captured here in sunglasses and Stoli singed vintage slapback Rockabilly and Stones smack-stained eyeliner smudges with a cool centre of country-blues. Ayuss, awaking in the bleary-eyed morning it seems they plastered their hair with good old Black 'n' White pomade and left the residue on their fingers to gluck 'n' glide and glisten all over the shimmering guitar strings, and concocted a greased up concept around the old myth of the rebellious outcast loner fugitive. However, for all the publicized ravings about authentic old Rockabilly, Sun Sessions style stuff, this is still very much a Spencer album; stripped down, sure, tho' a souped up southern stew all the same that uses Rockabilly as it's spicy base but is piquantly varied - 'Dark Hair'd Rider', the first of two most straightforward old glories, is powerless in the presence of the dirty, dissonant, squelchy guitar solos that drag it along the dirtroad into more familiar Blues Explosion territory. The other is highlight 'This Day Is Mine', basking in Sun, impervious to the burn, guitars sounding almost like Howlin' Wolf's drunk train driver distorted harp, and is slippin' on the same slime as one man madcap band John Schooley. 'Lover Street' sees Spencer spit spluttering lyrics like Buddy Holly's perverted, dirty, dark half over a 'Waiting For The Man' / 'Let's Spend The Night Together' Motown monster-mash beat, and he carries on this Lux Interior persona into 'The Loveless'...in the process almost becoming (to quote Drive By-Truckers) GangstaBilly, revelling in how bad ass he is - 'I'm a mean son of a bitch / They call me the heartless / Baby, I don't give a shit'. 'Under The Waves' is classic murder ballad from Leadbelly to Johnny Cash (faint cries of 'Delia's Gone') to Nick Cave, which has been infuriating me since I first heard it, and I suspect it will continue to do so, there's such a large presence behind it like a medium that can't quite channel a spirit; 'Mr K.I.A.' uses the hip-hop, urban beats that Spencer's been using in recent years during his day job, but with a leering stray cat strutting walking guitar line loitering around the forecourt up to no good like an archetypal 50's delinquent waiting to steal cigarettes. 'Fix These Blues' is pure Exile-era Stones ('Let It Loose' / 'Shine A Light') with a Manhattan melody on the chorus pilfered from the Dolls 'Lonely Planet Boy' by way of soul staple 'Time Is On My Side'. The savagely demoniacal pole-axe picking of closer 'Yeah Baby' could almost resurrect Eddie Cochran and see him crawling from the wreckage on that cold British country road and is the perfect party appetizer for you to whirl right around and press play again. Spencer has superseded his Blues Explosion boom with this basement bar boogie. Loose and lean, tongue in cheek without hitting pastiche what looks like a one-off, as is often the case, may just end up being a lost classic of sorts. They know their history, and they knowingly have fun with it. A full 7.

-Stu Gibson