Jon Spencer is possibly the hardest-working man in rock. When not busy fronting the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, he can be found moonlighting with Boss Hog, a four-piece led by his wife, Cristina Martinez. Hog mine much of the same territory, but whereas the Blues Explosion add hip-hop beats and art-school concepts, Hog firmly place the emphasis on full-force rocking out. The result is a blues purge that finds true joy in age-old riffs reinvigorated by fresh blasts of distortion and go-for-broke abandon.

One listen to "What the Fuck" proves Hog have learned to make the music move. They're also having fun. That's ironic, because Martinez and Spencer were once band mates in Pussy Galore, the infamous art-damaged '80s band that was determined to trash every rock & roll value it could figure out how to trash. Now the pair's fun is infectious if not exactly catchy: Check the real rhythmic tension in the stops and starts of "Green Shirt," the totally goofy, typical Spencer faux-blues holler at the onser of "I Dig You," the perfect emulation of Captain Beefheart's over-modulated vocals on "Strawberry" and the suitably wry girl-group parody in "I Idolize You" (complete with Spencer pulling off the mock falsetto). As a vocalist, Martinez is no slouch, either: She veers from untamed screams to seductive whispers, often within the same song.

It's the kind of sound you would expect to hear if there were such a thing as a futuristic juke joint. When the harmonica flashes through "Walk In," clashing perfectly with the descending guitar line, you hear John Lee Hooker and Johnny Rotten mesh in the jukebox – a match you would never expect but one with which it's hard to argue. (RS 721)

ROB O'CONNOR