There comes a time when nothing else but a brain-hammering session with Pussy Galore‘s 1989 album Dial M For Motherfucker will do. And not just to clear the house of your so-called friends who’ve been sloshing cheap wine on your expensive new carpet all night. (Although it might work for that, too.) Jon Spencer, the man who shocked and awed the world with the noisiest band in the history of rock ‘n’ roll, went on to form three more exhilarating combos: Boss Hog (with his wife Cristina Martinez), Heavy Trash (his most recent band) and, of course, the stunning Blues Explosion, whose recent career-spanning compendium, Dirty Shirt Rock ‘N’ Roll (Majordomo), tells you plenty about the DNA of the man in charge. (The label is reissuing expanded versions of out-of-print Blues Explosion albums Now I Got Worry and Controversial Negro this week.) Spencer is guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with him.
Spencer: I saw Todd Haynes‘ Dylan movie, I’m Not There, and I really liked that one a lot. I’m not a huge Dylan fan, but I’m becoming one more and more as years go by. Todd went to Brown University, so there’s a connection there. He was ahead of me, but I met him when I was there and have followed his career with interest. I’ve probably seen all of his films. My second favorite is Far From Heaven, with Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid. That was his Douglas Sirk exercise: a closeted gay man from suburban Connecticut in the ’50s. I knew what was going on in I’m Not There, and, of course, I was interested because Todd was directing it. But it sounded like it might be a real disaster, having all these people play the role. But I also knew the film editor, Jay Rabinowitz, who has a child in my son’s class. Every once in a while, I’d pick his brain about the film at a school function. My worry was that it would be very dry and academic, but I found it very moving. Cate Blanchett was wonderful in that; I’ll watch her doing anything. There are some people who can truly act, and then there are others who are just celebrities, like Tom Cruise or Jennifer Aniston.
Video after the jump.
