A promotion for the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion once proclaimed that band member Russell Simins \plays his drums so hard that grown women shower him with panties, beanie babies and condoms.""??Indeed, Simins' commanding drum work has proven to be an essential part of the Blues Explosion's distinct sound.??The Daily Cardinal recently caught up with Russell Simins while the band was in between tour dates.
The new Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Album, Plastic Fang, has an increased emphasis on song-writing and a tighter, more polished sound. Was this intentional, or did the songs just all kind of turn out that way?
When we got together, that's just the kind of songs that we were writing at the time. I think we're always developing more as songwriters. We didn't really think about it. Whenever we get together, whatever feels good and sounds good is what we focus on and it's just kind of what is happening at the time in our songwriting developments. Maybe Jon's vocals are more clear and articulate'Steve Jordan definitely was pushing for that'and Judah and I were also encouraging that at the offset as well. You know, it's just the way we are right now.
So is this new sound a permanent change, or is it more of a one-album occurrence?
I think that no matter what we do it's gonna always affect what we do next. Whether what we do next is gonna, you know, be more influenced by this rather than the last few records, it's all still part of who we are. I mean, this is now, so it's sort of in our catalogue of things we've done and it will have somewhat of an influence on the next thing we do.
How did you decide that [Rolling Stone's producer] Steve Jordan would work on this album?
We decided that it was time to just get one producer and do a record that way, finally, and put it in the hand of someone who's stuff we liked and respect, and get a really good sounding record from that approach. We met with a bunch of different producers and Steve was the one who we liked the best. We felt he was the most committed to us and what we wanted to do.
How does working with one producer for the entire album vary from what you did with Acme, where you guys worked with numerous different producers.
Well, it changes things because I think it creates an identity for the band in the studio. We have one mixer, one recording engineer; they have their different roles and we can trust them with those roles. We were able to just kind of be the band and let Steve and Don Smith do their thing and kind of have them be like the fourth member of the band and make decisions based on what role they're playing. I think the environment in the studio was a lot looser because of that, since we all had our own roles to play. There was a definite systematic approach to the way we recorded each song.
How do you feel about the newfound popularity of bands like the White Stripes, who were influenced by the Blues Explosion style of rock?
It's great. It's nice to see more stripped-down rock'stuff that I can identify with more. The White Stripes and the Strokes, bands like that, well, to me that stuff has always been around in the form of like ODB and Wu Tang. ODB to me has always had kind of like a punk rock kind of thing going on. And Ice Cube, you know, anything that kind of strays away from the more glitzy, overdone stuff. I mean, yeah, I guess that you could say that the White Stripes are influenced by us just like we're influenced by the Velvet Underground and James Brown, and stuff that came before us, but I think that those guys have more of a pop sensibility than we do.
Now that these bands are getting more attention, are you expecting anything to change on your upcoming tour?
Well, we just did Europe and our crowds have been big and good for us, but there seems to be a real acceptance of straight ahead rock with a kind of blues-soul-funk thing. We've always been accepted, but now its just kind of guaranteed. The crowds just seem a little more ""on.""
Does it change the way people look at your band?
Well, we've felt that way before this. I definitely notice that people aren't looking at Blues Explosion and thinking ""Well what are they doing? Well, they play live and put on a great show."" I've always kind of felt that we put on a good enough show that people respond to it.
What was it like working with Dr. John for this album?
It's amazing, man. He's a great guy. He's a legend, and he tells great stories, and he's not pretentious. We're big fans of his.
Is there anyone else you guys would like to work with?
Well, we tried to work with Ike Turner. He was gonna come down, but he fell ill and then we actually ended up opening up for him at B.B. King's and now we hear that he wants to do some stuff with us in the studio.
You guys are kind of in a unique position in that you get to work with people who have been influences on you, but in doing so, also introduce them to a new audience.
Yeah, like R.L. When we watched R.L. Burnside we weren't like ""we want to bring him to the people,"" we were like ""we're fans of R.L. Burnside and we want to do shows with him.""
Do you have any more plans for any solo records?
Yeah, I'm the in the process of organizing that right now. I have a bunch of new stuff written and I'm trying to get another record done within the next year.
How did you and the Blues Explosion get in touch with all of those people from Grand Royal like Money Mark?
We toured with the Beastie Boys, they were fans ours and then I met Mike and became friends with him; I gave him a tape and he wanted to put it out. From then on out everything I was doing he was interested in.
Why should people in Madison pick up the new album, Plastic Fang?
Because it's the best-sounding Blues Explosion album ever!
Excellent. And, since you aren't coming to Madison on this tour, what's the best reason that you can give to convince people up here in Madison to make that hour-and-a-half drive down to Milwaukee to see you guys live?
Because it's only a fucking hour and a half man! I mean, we would throw in Madison but we gotta ... well, we'll be in Madison. We'll come back to Madison.
I'm going to hold you to that.
We love Madison.
