New York based blues-rock act The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion has announced that their journey together has come to an end. The band officially confirmed their breakup after a six year hiatus since 2016.
Loudwire reports that the group’s bandleader, Jon Spencer, took to the Kreative Kontrol podcast on March 22 to announce the band’s conclusion. When the podcast’s host broached the topic of the Group to Spencer, the musician seemed to feel that it was unnecessary to officially announce that the band was done, while also not wanting to make a concrete announcement due to the possibility that the band changes its mind. Loudwire quotes the artist as stating “I thought people knew. We didn’t really wanna make a big announcement about it just in case something changed. You know, what’s the point of saying ‘never again’?”
He goes on to explain that the band’s hiatus was initially caused by health complications of his bandmate Judah Bauer, explaining that “we were touring after that and playing all over, touring around the world, and then Judah Bauer got really sick with a respiratory ailment. And it’s very, very hard. It became impossible for him to travel, and also being in a venue — yeah, we had to stop.” He clarifies that “He’s OK; he’s all right, He’s much better; he’s fine. You know, we had a good long run.”
Prior to the recent podcast, Spencer had not been very clear about the future of the band, but seemed to have hinted about the group’s end. Loudwire quotes his response to a question in 2018 about the band’s hiatus, stating “It’s hard to know what to say. It’s not like we had an official end, but for me, it was helpful in order to move forward.” Watch Jon Spencer talk about the end of the band via YouTube below.
In their runtime from 1991 to 2016, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion released 10 studio albums. The most recent album in their catalog was their 2015 No Wave Dance Party 2015. Even after that final release, the band continued giving performances until their hiatus in 2016.
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