A different twang to it
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday December 4, 2009
Jon Spencer lets out his rockabilly through Heavy Trash. By George Palathingal. You know him best as the howling rock'n'roll preacher man working the theremin with the Blues Explosion or trading sexually energised couplets with his wife, Cristina Martinez, in Boss Hog. At Halloween, however, his New York City neighbours know a different side to Jon Spencer."I was kind of a ghoul," Spencer says, days after October 31."Every year we decorate the courtyard in our building and we scare the children. This year we had quite a few youngsters cry and one young lady even wet her pants. It was a success."Jon Spencer: part-time rock star, part-time family man (if perhaps a slightly too-scary one). Who'd have pictured the latter? "Well, y'know, I'm very clever," he deadpans."I can do both."Lately Spencer has been further exhibiting his smarts with fellow NYC muso Matt Verta-Ray in yet another group: Heavy Trash."We knew each other a little bit, kinda casually for many years," Spencer says."We've both been kicking around [NYC], playing in different bands, and we kinda recognised that we both like rockabilly - and so Heavy Trash was a way for us to hang out and play rockabilly. We would just get together and talk about music and play music and then we began to write our own songs."It was a very sorta casual studio experiment which turned into a real living, breathing band."Of course, Heavy Trash is not strictly rockabilly - we're not purists, we take influence from other types of music - but most importantly, we're a forward-thinking band."We're doing our own thing with this."They prove this quite effectively on Midnight Soul Serenade, their third album in four years."It's a bit more of a mood piece; it's a little more sombre," Spencer says. "It's an album about love, about devotion. It's not as kinda wild and uptempo as perhaps the first two records. We wrote and recorded and mixed a great many songs - probably enough for two albums - but when it came to select what was to be on the album, to sequence it, it became very clear that we wanted to pick the songs that would present something new; present a different perspective for Heavy Trash." As commendable, interesting and likeable (in a '50s-throwback kind of way) as the Heavy Trash project is, most Spencer fans are likely to prefer his other bands. Has he left them behind for this one?"I didn't totally leave 'em behind ... I still kinda keep my finger in the other outfits. I just really enjoy working with Matt. [Heavy Trash] allows me to focus on different things and to try different things, y'know, as a singer, as a performer."The Heavy Trash band plays as a four-piece, with Spencer and Verta-Ray sharing vocal and guitar duties alongside "underground New York City legend" (Spencer's words) Simon Chardiet on bass and Sam Baker, formerly of the much-loved alt-country act Lambchop, on drums. The music's elegant, old-fashioned style doesn't lend itself to, say, punk-rock theremin abuse, making us wonder if Spencer ever misses that instrument when he's performing with Heavy Trash."Ha ha, yeah, sometimes I find myself missing it when I'm on stage. But I know where it is."It's in his basement, if you were wondering. If you're also curious as to the state of play with Boss Hog and the Blues Explosion, Spencer is amiably forthcoming."Well, Boss Hog, we started playing again last December. We hadn't played together for seven years ... we had a good time. We've begun writing some songs, new material - we'll see what happens."As far as the Blues Explosion - we play sporadically. Next year there'll be a whole series of reissues and kind of old things coming out, some new things ... and yeah, I think there's a good chance that the Blues Explosion will tour again."HEAVY TRASHDecember 13, 7pm, Manning Bar, University of Sydney, 9563 6000, $45.
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald