Blues-punk icon Jon Spencer brings latest trio to the Bottom of the Hill

CBS News

18-02-2025

One of the most influential noise/blues-punk figures to make a mark on the New York scene in the '80s and '90s, charismatic bandleader Jon Spencer brings his current trio to the Bottom of the Hill Sunday.
Spencer got his start in music with his first noise-rock band S--thaus with future Cop Shoot Cop member Tod Ashley while attending Brown University, eventually moving to Washington D.C. to found his noisy outfit Pussy Galore (named after an early Bond girl) in 1985 with Julia Caifritz -- later a member of all-star band Free Kitten. The band relocated to New York City and gained notoriety with its willfully primitive collision of garage punk, Einstürzende Neubauten industrial grind and bluesy Rolling Stones swagger. The group at one point issued a limited cassette covering the Stones' seminal album Exile on Main Street in its entirety.
Pussy Galore -- which at points also featured guitarist Neil Haggerty (later of Royal Trux and Howling Hex), former Sonic Youth drummer Bob Bert, and Spencer's future wife Cristina Martinez -- became a mainstay of the NYC underground until the group split up in 1990. By that time, Spencer has already co-founded Boss Hog with Martinez. Pulled together to fill a last-minute opening at CBGB's, Spencer called on like-minded players from fellow NYC noise merchants the Honeymoon Killers and Unsane to complete the band's mix of scuzzy blues, artful noise and punk chaos.
Before the end of the year, the group recorded it's debut EP Drinkin', Lechin' & Lyin' with renowned punk/alt-rock studio wizard Steve Albini. The record, which featured Martinez in a provocative state of undress and was issued by respected Amphetamine Reptile imprint, established Boss Hog as a new force.
Spencer also started what would become his main creative outlet with the high-energy trio the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. A similarly minded scuzzy exploration of blues and punk, the band gradually evolved from it's early more lo-fi albums to record the hit records Extra Width and Orange that added elements of hip hop, funk and more sophisticated production to the raw attack of the two guitar and drums trio. The JSBX -- which was rounded out by monster drummer Russell Simins and guitarist Judah Bauer -- developed a reputation as a formidable live act thanks to its ferocious intensity and Spencer's charismatic stage presence.
Even though the Blues Explosion took up a majority of Spencer's time for much of the '90s, Boss Hog still managed a steady stream of albums and EPs with shifting line-ups that would feature Swans bassist Jens Jurgensen and JSBX collaborator Hollis Queens. By the time the band released it's eponymous second full length in 1995, they had moved to Geffen Records.
That band's output would become more sporadic after that effort as Spencer focused on the progressively more electronic-influenced Blues Explosion albums, though Boss Hog managed the 2000 follow-up Whiteout (for yet another notable punk label, In the Red) despite Spencer and Martinez having their first child a couple years before.
The group would go quiet for years at a time as Spencer continued to tour and record with the JSBX as well as his more rootsy, rockabilly-flavored side project Heavy Trash, though Boss Hog reunited to tour the U.S. and Europe in 2008 and again eight years later with the release of the four-song EP Brood Star ahead of a long-awaited full-length Brood X in 2017.
While the Blues Explosion didn't embark on a proper farewell tour, Spencer has confirmed that health issues Bauer was having combined with other reasons led the trio to split up after the release of their tenth and final album Freedom Tower - No Wave Dance Party 2015. He would re-emerge with his first solo album under his own name in 2018, releasing Spencer Plays the Hits. Backed by keyboard player Sam Cooms (who played in San Francisco group the Donner Party and later was in Portland, OR bands Quasi and Heatmiser) and Boss Hog drummer M. Sord. the album featured a new take on Spencer's gritty, hard-grooving, fractured style of lowdown swamp punk.
Spencer and the band -- christened the HITmakers and now featuring early collaborator Bob Bert on "trash" percussion -- released their second album Spencer Gets It Lit in 2022 on In the Red Records to wide acclaim. The guitarist would embark on a tour featuring Coomes's wife Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney, Quasi, Wild Flag, The Jicks) playing drums with Spencer's band in addition to Quasi playing an opening set.
Spencer has also been spending time in the studio as a producer, helming the 2020 album Skin Suit for upstate New York punk band the Bobby Lees as well as Death Wish Blues, a 2022 collaborative effort between blues guitarists/vocalists Samantha Fish and Jesse Dayton. When an opportunity to play shows supporting Fish and Dayton arose that the HITmakers were unable to make due to other commitments, Spencer tapped the Bobby Lees rhythm section of bassist Kendall Wind and drummer Macky "Spider" Bowman to form a new power trio.
The chemistry with the threesome worked so well live that Spencer wound up recording the ferocious new EP Sick of Being Sick! with the line-up that hearkens back to the raw kinetic fury of classic-era Blues Explosion. The trio played at the Fillmore in San Francisco last December, opening for Fish and blues guitarist Cedric Burnside with a positively scorching set that drew on the EP as well as Spencer's rich back catalog of material. The band brings its current headlining tour to the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco Sunday night, sharing the stage with Sacramento garage-psych outfit the Snares. DJ Tone Arm (aka Mike Gabriel) plays greasy R&B and '60s garage rock before and between bands. Spencer and company also make a stop at Moe's Alley in Santa Cruz on Saturday night.