The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Extra Width LP

On their self-titled debut album, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion had worked out the basic framework of their sound -- lots of guitar clatter, booming drums, and wild vocal gesticulations from Spencer -- but it took a while for the pieces to really come together, and 1993's Extra Width was the first album where they revealed their true potential. The opening tune, "Afro," provides the key -- Spencer and Judah Bauer's guitars lock in with a sharp call and response, drummer Russell Simins pounds the kit with the force of a punk rocker but the groove of a soul man, and the organ that chimes in with the band slyly pays homage to any number of classic funk sides while adding a good, greasy undertow to the sound. The Blues Explosion were never any kind of blues band (as they freely admitted when anyone bothered to ask), but on Extra Width they copped to the fact they'd learned a lot from classic R&B of the 1950s, '60s, and '70s, and after spending the better part of a year on the road, t