Day 0831 - Now I Got Worry

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion "Now I got Worry"

Spencer had started off with noise rock band Shithaus and garagey/noise/punk rock band Pussy Galore.   He stated that those bands were about him kicking against rock music but that JSBE was was him accepting and even celebrating the sound a bit more.

It's been mentioned by critics that the bands sound was not very 'bluesy'... I guess you could argue that maybe their sound is not supposed to be blues but rather the aftermath of the titular explosion.   "Now I got Worry" was recorded while the band were also working on the "A Ass Pocket of Whiskey" album with bluesmen R L Burnside and Kenny Brown and it seems to have injected a little more blues to 'Now I got Worry' which features another blues singer Rufus Thomas on song "Chicken Dog".

There is more of a blues vibe but it's still buried amongst a raft of other noisy, off-the-wall sytles.  "F*ck Sh*t up" has a noisy, beat-backed bit of drawling street poetry with miscellaneous noises jumping out at you.   "2kindsa Love" has almost a funk-metal Janes Addictiony vibe to it.  "Get Over Here" has an aggressive alt-rock groove similar to Mark of Cain or Helmet.  "Cool Vee" has a laidback, cruisy vibe with vocal samples being scratched over the top of it.

Day 0454 - Kings of the Wild Frontier

...and hello the 80s. Bracing self for cheesiness, overflow of synthesisers, big hair, but hoping to discover some good music out of it. In particular the early rap music, most of which I'm not that well versed in.


0454

Adam and the Ants "Kings of the Wild Frontier" (1980)

Well the 80s are off to a good start. I'd heard a couple of Adam Ant songs in the past and liked them; one of them "Antmusic" is on this album.

Reading about this one it's quite interesting. A&tA had released a 1979 post-punk album, Adam wanted to distance himself further from punk and its supposed anti-pop aesthetic. The Sex Pistols' architect Malcolm McLaren suggested using African rhythms and so Adam set about assembling some drummers to make this happened... then McLaren stole them away to form the group Bow Wow Wow.

Adam picked up and started again, assembling a new band and drawing in influences from all over the spectrum, military drum beats, hints of African rhythms, blasting guitars, clean plinky funk guitar, sea shanty melodies with almost glam guitar, and skittish Talking Heads-esque vocals. Definitely keen to check out more from this band!