Heavy Trash

Regardless of where you plop Jon Spencer — Pussy Galore, the Blues Explosion, Boss Hog, or Heavy Trash, his current partnership with Matt Verta-Ray — there is always an inimitable swagger to the music. It's a combination of reverence for rootsy antecedents and a willingness to wander off-road into knotty...

By Chris Parker

November 1, 2007

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Regardless of where you plop Jon Spencer — Pussy Galore, the Blues Explosion, Boss Hog, or Heavy Trash, his current partnership with Matt Verta-Ray — there is always an inimitable swagger to the music. It's a combination of reverence for rootsy antecedents and a willingness to wander off-road into knotty brambles. With Heavy Trash and its rockabilly gait, an older Spencer decides to hug the roadside. Verta-Ray has mined similar territory for years with Speedball Baby, and he makes for a ready companion. Their second album together, Going Way Out With Heavy Trash, is a fine, surprisingly catholic release. There's plenty of hip-swiveling, old-time rock and roll action, as well as a few hints of country and bluegrass. Verta-Ray and Spencer share deft harmonies. Their voices — reedy and robust, respectively — complement each other nicely, particularly on the catchy rave-up "Outside Chance." Still, the main attraction is two guys who can really play guitar and know where to tap the genre's wellspring.

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