Boss Hog

• Genre: Noise Rock
• Boss Hog Website

About

A cranky, unpredictable collaboration between Jon Spencer and his wife, Christina Martinez, with Martinez often exuding a sexually-loaded derision for Spencer's sometimes annoying showiness. Boss Hog seem to employ the same gleefully derivative riffs as the Blues Explosion, but twists them into something closer to the Pussy Galore ideal of a mean, noisy listening experience. Fans of Spencer's particular style of guitar playing -- a snotty hybrid of Steve Cropper economic precision, Keith Richards sleaze, and Arto Lindsay skronk -- will find some of his best work here, including such early cuts as the incredible junk-rock anthem "Pete Shore" and the sexy Garage-punk groove of "Duchess." A major label debut later found them lightening up their sound, but only as an experiment. The band continues to subvert pop music with perfect hooks surrounded by a caterwaul of violence as in the electro-rock ditty "I Dig You," an antisocial deconstruction of Prince's '80s sex-funk. So, if you like the Blues Explosion but are tired of hearing Spencer's Trust Fund-ed mantra, "the Blues!", Boss Hog will provide you with a fix for that dirty take on the Stones you've missed so much since Historia de la Musica Rock went out of print.

- Mike McGuirk