Jon Spencer & the HITmakers “Spencer Gets It Lit” 2022. In the Red Recordings/Shove! Records/Bronzerat Records. Limited edition pink vinyl. We picked up Spencer’s latest LP at his show this past Friday at the Back Room Colectivo, even though I pre-ordered it a couple of months ago (still waiting for its delivery!). A fabulously funky and weird as hell record, with junkyard beats courtesy of the most excellent Bob Bert (Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore) on trashcans and a gas tank, plus crazy space-age electronic sounds from keyboardist Sam Coomes (Quasi). M. Sord (Boss Hog) plays “regular” drums on Spencer Gets It Lit, though the HITmakers have the other half of Quasi, Janet Weiss, playing drums on their current tour (Quasi is also opening for Spencer).

We arrived pretty early to the show on Friday so I was able to get a good shot of Bob’s rig before the shitty Colectivo lights went on, as well as an ancient Fender Bassman amp from his and Spencer’s Pussy Galore days.

As is my style, I got a spot right at the stage for Spencer’s performance and took a few decent photos (after heavily editing the bad lighting, of course), plus scored Coomes’ copy of the setlist at the end of the night.

The HITmakers played several tracks from Spencer Gets It Lit including some of my top picks: the opener “Junk Man,” “Bruise” (I need to somehow work this into a yoga playlist as one of the main refrains is “inhale/exhale”), “Death Ray,” “Get It Right Now” and the super-sexy “Worm Town” (the name of the song=not so sexy). They also played a couple of songs from Spencer’s last release, Spencer Sings the Hits! like “Beetle Boots,” “Overlord,” “Cape” and “Do the Trash Can” (as one of the encores) plus the super-early Jon Spencer Blues Explosion song “Shirt Jac” (1992).