9/18/2012

THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION! "Black Mold"

THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION!
 
PREMIERE 'BLACK MOLD' VIDEO ON PITCHFORK!

WATCH IT HERE:

NEW ALBUM 'MEAT AND BONE' OUT TODAY THROUGH BOOMBOX/MOM + POP!
 
 
The new Jon Spencer Blues Explosion video for the song “Black Mold” from their just-released album, 'Meat and Bone', is a somewhat gruesome affair, a wide-screen mini-epic of horror and decay.
 
Jon Spencer sat down with the director, Toon Aerts, and their friend NYC writer Mike Edison to talk about making the video, and what it all really means.
 
MIKE: What is the song about? The references to Ornette Coleman and “The Explosive Little Richard” don’t really conjure a horror film.
 
JON: The song is a kind of blues, inspired by Hurricane Irene, which was forecast to destroy New York, but never really got here. In the days coming up to it, we were practicing and writing in our basement and had to get everything up off the ground so if the storm hit, we wouldn’t get flooded and lose all of our gear and what not. I was going through lots of stuff and found boxes of my old records, which were already damp and soggy, and kind of moldy. The cardboard jackets were all stuck together, I had to pull the LP sleeves apart and destroyed a few. The vinyl was mostly ok, but for a guy who loves records, it really hurt.
 
TOON: It was tempting to focus on the lyrics but Jon encouraged me to let it loose, and at the end it was just BLACK MOLD.  I always tell a story. I need the narrative — I can’t just make pretty images, or work with just a cool performance. Jon was very specific – he wanted the idea of decay and dread. He used the word “dread” a lot. Claustrophobia and paranoia.
 
JON: A video doesn’t have to be literal, it doesn’t need to explain the song’s lyrics. Toon had this idea for a short monster-horror film. It has echoes of The Thing, and of flying saucer movies of the 50s, a bit of David Lynch, some Cronenberg body horror —but it’s not a bloody mess. It works nicely, it’s a tight narrative. I was struck by how beautiful it is. It’s a very pretty thing to look at. The tableau that opens the film is just gorgeous. Like a Dutch master painting. I think it is very funny as well.
  
TOON: Russell and I came up with the idea of the opening shot, brainstorming on an earlier version of the script that was completely different. We were talking about the beginning of Blue Velvet, that starts like a perfect world, but then you go into the grass, into the dirt, and all of a sudden you're surrounded by insects and decay... The idea is that parallel universe, where everything looks good on the surface, but below is decay. We also really liked the idea of starting and ending on the same scene, but reversing it, as if we briefly entered that rotten world of dread and black mold... It was mostly Russell's idea actually, he had real strong feelings about that scene.
 
MIKE: This isn’t the first Blues Explosion video to have a horror or flying saucer theme…
 
JON: It seems to come back (laughs). Maybe I should stay away from stuff like this? But I can’t help it, I am such a fan.
 
TOON: When I was a teenager I was the biggest Blues Explosion fan in Belgium. I knew all of their videos, and the flying saucer is like a theme in all of them, it keeps coming back. I had to put one in here, to complete the circle!
 
MIKE: The location is gorgeous, where did you shoot it?
 
TOON: We shot it in Wallonië in the southern part of Belgium, the French speaking part of Belgium. Originally we wanted to crash a flying saucer into a western town, and were thinking of doing it in Spain, where a lot of Spaghetti Westerns were shot, but we couldn’t really get a crew there. That’s when I came up with the idea to do it in the woods. A lot of horror films are in the woods, The Evil Dead reference was there right away, so I found this place and the owners were happy to work with us. It really wasn’t as cool as it looks – we had to take out all of their furniture and put in a new set. It was a lot of work. We experimented a lot with the black mold effect. Saskia Verreycken, the SFX person, has a special machine to put fur on humans. She is famous in Belgium for doing make up and effects for movies and TV — when anyone is getting shot or bleeding, she is there!
 
MIKE: The actors have a real Deliverance vibe.
 
TOON: The guy that gets infected is Andreas Perschewski, he's a German actor living in Brussels, and he just has this face that kind of sticks in your mind. He was just the perfect man for the job, and he suffered a lot for his art, covered in all that black silicon gel! The role of his brother is played by Igor Paszkiewicz, a dancer and musician and a good friend of mine. He also has such a remarkable appearance. The two of them were just perfect for that deep woods vibe.
 
JON: The Sheriff is Xavier Benoit, the European tour manager for the Blues Explosion, and the man who first introduced us to Toon.
 
MIKE: Jon, you have a featured role in this, mostly sitting in the back of a police car, and of course you figure heavily in the ending. Do you like acting?
 
JON: No, not very much. What I do on stage, that’s not acting. Honestly, this movie-star business makes me feel a little silly.
 
NORTH AMERICAN TOUR STARTS OCTOBER 6TH!

October 4: Abbey Bar – Harrisburg, PA
October 5: U Street Music Hall – Washington, D.C.
October 6: Underground Arts - Philadelphia, PA
October 11 - Asylum - Providence, RI
October 12: Middle East – Cambridge, MA
October 13: German American Music Hall - Pawtucket, RI
October 16: Higher Ground Lounge - South Burlington, VT
October 17: Corona Theatre – Montreal, QC
October 18: Horseshoe Tavern - Toronto, ON
October 19: Magic Stick - Detroit, MI
October 20: White Rabbit Cabaret - Indianapolis, IN
October 21: Bottom Lounge - Chicago, IL
October 22: Triple Rock Social Club - Minneapolis, MN
October 23: Turner Hall - Milwaukee, WI
October 24: The Basement - Columbus, OH
October 25: Rex Theater - Pittsburgh, PA
November 1: Pearl Street Nightclub – Northampton, MA
November 2: Club Helsinki – Hudson, NY
November 3: Bowery Ballroom - New York, NY
November 8: Casbah - San Diego, CA
November 9: El Rey Theatre - Los Angeles, CA
November 10: Great American Music Hall - San Francisco, CA
November 12: Doug Fir Lounge - Portland, OR
November 13: The Crocodile - Seattle, WA
November 14: Biltmore Cabaret - Vancouver, B.C.

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