Honeymoon Killers “Hung Far Low”

Honeymoon Killers “Hung Far Low” 1991. Fist Puppet Records, limited edition red vinyl.  Today, February 5th, is Jon Spencer’s 59th birthday (b. 1965) so I’m taking out a pre-JSBX album in celebration. Hung Far Low was the Honeymoon Killers fifth and final release. It has both Jon Spencer (on guitar and, hilariously, trombone) and Russell Simins (drums, naturally, plus some vocals), plus Jerry Teel on guitar/vocals and Lisa Wells on bass/vocals. Like most Spencer projects, it’s noisy blues punk, heavy on the noise part. My top tracks are “Kansas City Milkman” which has a killer groove, the noise-rock freak out “You Can’t Do That,” the very JSBXish “Tanks a Lot” and the thundering, almost grungy “Whole Lotta Crap.” Also of note: although all songwriting credits go to Jerry Teel, I’m pretty positive “Mr. Big Stuff” is a greatly mangled iteration of the original “Mr. Big Stuff” by Jean Knight (1971, Stax Records). No link for Honeymoon Killer’s version so you’ll just have to find a copy of this record to hear it, but here’s a live video of the band playing a few tracks from Hung Far Low from 1992 in Germany: