Monday, March 5, 2012

R.L and Jon Spencer fail to live up to the hype.

In 1996 R&B based punk rock band Jon Spencer Blues Explosion teamed up with Mississippi Juke Joint blues-man R.L Burnside to record this one off record called " Asspocket Full of Whiskey" which was originally released on indie record label Matador records.
 And while it's a somewhat original idea to team up with Jon Spencer's blues explosion especially since they recorded a song called "R.L. told him" and they have always had a powerful punk rock type energy to them and R.L is also known for his powerful live performances neither one of the group seem especially in synch with one anther's sensibilities completely to where instead of Jon and his band supporting or backing up R.L they end up sometimes cluttering him up with unnecessary noise and sloppy rhythms that never coalesce into anything.
 The only song that shows the promise that could have come between the two is "going down south" which has the drive and energy that Jon is known for with the kind of raw blues style R.L has been doing for near 60 years.