Spencer P. Jones   feat Cow Penalty         'The Lost Anxiety Tapes'

spooky004

 

Feature Album of the Week - 3RRR FM - Melbourne

Album of the Week - Beat Magazine

Album of the Week - Rip It Up

Feature Album of the Week - 3D FM - Adelaide

Feature Album of the Week - 4ZZZ FM - Brisbane

 

'CD of the week? Pshaw! CD of the month, more likely. Get yourself a copy at the first available opportunity' - Rip It Up

'He wears a white hat, but this is dark stuff' - The Age 'EG'

'Whilst his songs are filled with irrational and insane characters with a festering hatred for humanity burning in their murderous souls, we can sleep easy in the knowledge that Mr Jones has coached another winning team' - Beat Magazine

“Spencer grinds them down and adds blues and metallic country influences to make one heck of an album.” Alright.  Scratch Records USA

Reviews and Articles

Thrust Magazine Ontario, Canada

Haven't done a double take for a spell - and it sure feels good. Spencer P. Jones knows how to confuse, confound, amuse and delight. The smarmy bastard starts off declaring that "my week is better than your year", and it cuts deep, cuz we all know that he is probably right. Just look at him, all snappily dressed, donning a cowboy hat, smoking a cancer stick; Spencer is the man. There's no arguing with a man who has the musical gift of presenting various catchy melodies with provocative words, culminating in stupefying songs you'll be hard pressed not to hum every single waking minute of the day, and most probably at night too. There's a friendly, folksy feel to Spencer's record; it's an album that combines various genres but can best be described as pop, as in popular. A couple of albums ago Cracker did the same: creating infectious, timeless, feel good music. The diminishing art of song-writing just got an adrenaline booster. Thanks Spencer.

John Sekerka

 

Birdman Sound - Ottawa, Canada

Man, I'm tellin' ya....there's no end to great music these days. As people who know me well will attest, I, as a Canadian who has never been there, knows as much about the Aussie underground Rock scene as the folks who are actually involved in it. I've had this affliction well on for 25 years or so and can't complain about the amount of Oz rock residing in my collection. I'm pleased as punch that Spencer P. Jones' latest album has arrived and after hearing it for the 3rd time in less than 24 hours, I can safely say it's a fuckin' keeper big time. I had no doubt that it would be actually, 'cuz Spencer makes the kinda noise I luv and it's called timeless music. Spencer P. Jones has paid his rawk dues in impressive fashion...Kim Salmon's Surrealists, The Johnnys, Beasts Of Bourbon (a top 5 all time Oz rock band pour moi!) and a host of other worldly legends. With his new (to me) band, Cow Penalty, Jones winds his way through 10 tracks of rock the way it's meant to be played. In certain ways, it bears that great roots feel, akin to American greats like Dream Syndicate, Green On Red and all the others of that cloth. With piano/ keyboard framing the standard rock set up throughout , the ride is magnificent. The emotive guitaring provided by Spencer and cohort Amie Daniels coupled with great lyrical content carry the listener over hills, across the hot sand through asphalt alleys and into smokey rock 'n' roll clubs. Like his last killer album "Last Gasp", Spencer P. Jones has succeeded in giving the world an album that unequivocally begs to be heard and treasured. What an album!! 

Feck

First Church of Holy Rock and Roll   Columbia  USA   

A roots-rock record like they used to make from the former Beast of Bourbon: darkly-tinged, charmingly uneven (better than stultifyingly smooth!), and all over the map stylistically. Organ-driven rocker, rockabilly vamp, moody instro, weird ballad, presided over by a spirit Jeffrey Lee Pierce would have hoisted a bottle with. A fun and surprising listen I highly recommend!

 

The Age  'EG'

The godfather of Australian rock continues to press home the lesson that things don’t have to be complicated to be good.  With 10 new songs in which the pace rarely goes above that of a purposeful walk, beads of sweat pop out nevertheless from the effort of going along with such heavy attitude.  The weight is achieved in painterly fashion by applying layer upon layer of sound.  He’s been around rock for a long time and knows what sounds good, and it’s all here, chiefly supplied by himself on guitars, the wonderfully subtle drumming of Des Hefner, Matt Heydon on all manner of keyboards, and some massive horns, harmonica and backing guitars.  Track two, Sailors Grave, ranks with the best songs Spencer’s ever done.  He wears a white hat, but this is dark stuff.

Jeff Gorfeld

 

CD Of The Week - Rip It Up

With the last album from Australian rock’n’roll legend, Spencer P Jones (The Last Gasp) – he of Beasts Of Bourbon, The Johnnys and Paul Kelly - still clicking up notches on the CD player, it was a true pleasure to get my hands on this, his first CD with new band Cow Penalty. True to form, it’s a hell-on-wheels cracker, with extremely strong songs (with an accent on impossible to shake melodies), rockin’ ass grooves and a dead set scorcher cover of The Black Heart Procession’s A Light So Dim. This is what a national treasure sounds like kids, highlighting the kind of unmistakable talent you’re (sadly) unlikely to hear on Triple J until they grow a new set of testicles. Already a fave here in the RIU office, don’t be surprised if you see this one on quite a few top 10s for the year 2001. CD of the week? Pshaw! CD of the month, more likely. Get yourself a copy at the first available opportunity.

 

The Barman's Review 1-94 Bar  Ezine

THE LOST ANXIETY TAPES - Spencer P. Jones featuring Cow Penalty (Spooky Records)
Is there a better trobadour in Australia doing this sort of gut-bucket, street level rock and roll than Spencer P. Jones? Me thinks not and "The Lost Anxiety Tapes" shows why. Ten slabs of simple, but effective, rock tuneage that push the edges in all sorts of little ways and exhibit not an ounce of fat.

Spencer P. Jones has been bearing musical arms for a wide variety of ventures since arriving in Australia from New Zealand more than two decades ago. From the jokey cowpunk of the Johnnys to the anarchic rock monsterdom of the Beasts of Bourbon (as well as touring band duties for a few people whose names don't get mentione din this Bar), he's been somewhat of a fixture on the East Coast, all too occasionally putting out music of his own.

Cow Penalty are the stripped down (sans brass), touring version of the big band Spencer used to put down "The Last Gasp" a couple of years ago. Essentially Des Hefner on drums and Matt Heydon on everything else, and augmented by the likes of Steve Hadley on bass and Amie Daniels on guitar, they provide enough simple embellishment to throw the songs into high relief.

Pretty great batch of songs too. From the postively Bad Seeds plod of "A Light so Dim" (a Black Heart Procession cover - yeah, I'm wondering too) to the sassy, carnivalesque keyboards of "My Week is Better Than Your Year", these are tunes that, although lacking the immediate appeal of the last album, still hold up in their own way. There's an instrumental, "The Spy Who Drugged Me", that showcases Jones' sharp guitarwork, but these are mostly gritty, lyrical road stories, with a down home charm.

Perhaps there's no better moment than "Golddigger", all staccato rhythm and wailing blues harp entwined around sleazy guitar. Cetainly the strangest moment is the closing "Dutch Plates", in which Aussie muso meets European border guard whose interest is heightened by the tour van's recent stop off in Amsterdam, all set to a bubbling bassline, martial drumbeat and swirly keyboards, before acrid guitar and saxophone chime in. (I'll bet the body cavity search wasn't anywhere as entertaining.)|

A more than worthy effort from a leading member of the Melbourne Music Mafia. This is an offer you can't refuse. -

The Barman

3/4

Beat - Album of the Week

Now there is no real point in refreshing people's memory about the history of Mr Jones. His solo ventures are however indicative of his output as a member of copious bands. You see, Spencer P Jones has throughout The Holy Spirits, Last Gasp and now Cow Penalty, been a stern leader. The membership has been transient and flexible, adjustable enough to suit the requirements of Mr Jones. It is almost analogous with the annual AFL draft meat market. The only real constants throughout have been Jones and keyboardist Matt Heydon. Players who have been recruited and then released throughout the various incarnations of Team Jones include Brian Hooper, Graham Lee, Conway Savage, Rosie Westbrook, Dan Luscombe, Kiernan Box and Matt Habben amongst many, many others. Of course this is due to the need of putting a team on the field who can handle the different conditions and play the style which Jones wants them to play. The new recruits include Steve Hadley, Steve Boyle, Dan Kelly and a revolving drum stool that is saved from completely keeling over by mainstay Des Hefner.

As with any team, Cow Penalty strive to win enough games, get into the finals and win the premiership. Then bask in the glory of success. Whilst most players strive for the big league, there is only a limited amount of space available, and as a perceptive coach, Mr Jones has realised this and is quite content to forgo any misguided thrust of playing the big arena's (he has fulfilled this to some extent as part of the Paul Kelly band), instead gritting his teeth and battling it out in the rough-house confines of the inner city league. All manner of foul play exists in this forum as Jones & co attempt to squirrel grip and John Hopoate the opposition.

'The lost anxiety tapes" features less songs and less covers than his previous outing as The Last Gasp, but the game plan ostensibly remains the same. Spencer still favours reflections on life on the skids, lurching from one shadowy corner to the next, guitar and cigarettes in tow. All manner of hijinks abound. Money is good and you may as well inflict some damage and pain before others do so to you, as is described in Lovers Never Profit and I Guess Its Gonna Really Hurt. My Week Is Better suggests a certain contentment and charm, but further inspection of this tale from the underbelly leads you to hope that your week is better. When Spencer asks 'are you a golddigger baby?' during Golddigger, one suspects that the wrong response could lead to dire consequences. And dire consequences are found on Sailor's Grave and A Light So Dim, songs in which mirth is a scarce commodity. But then surprisingly, Team Jones spring to life with a cod-dance track, Dutch Plates, featuring snappy beats, bad German accents and an emphasis on every rock-pigs favourite subject, drugs. Just the antidote for the Beasts Chase The Dragon, Dutch Plates features that favoured ocker plea of innocence "Oh Mate!" One can almost picture a 'relaxed' Team Jones surrounded by uniformed Aryans with a glint in their eye suggesting that "Oh Mate!" was not the response they were even remotely interested in hearing.

So closes another chapter in the life of Mr Jones. Not really happy but at least he is still kicking against the pricks, without the aid of vitamins or tofu, but plenty of smoke and flagons of alcohol. And whilst his songs are filled with irrational and insane characters with a festering hatred for humanity burning in their murderous souls, we can sleep easy in the knowledge that Mr Jones has coached another winning team.

Bronius Zumeris

 

Rip It Up - Adelaide 

With legendary Australian six-string slinger Spencer P Jones’ liberating Last Gasp record still clicking up notches on the CD player, I approached news of the impending release of this fresh collection with equal parts trepidation and anticipation. After all this is a guy whose career (The Johnnys, Beasts Of Bourbon and heaps more) has had me on pins for nigh on 18 years… and he’s rarely EVER disappointed. Although initial listens confronted tightly-wound expectations with more killer melody laden rockers, ’80s keyboard sounds and pensive reflections – by the third spin, it’s status as the perfect follow up was assured. Now this is how you do it.

Contrasting the full bore big band and scathing rock’n’roll of The Last Gasp, the handful of bare bones musicians that make up Cow Penalty work all the talent at their disposal to mesmerising and intoxicating effect . Part of The Lost Anxiety Tapes’ appeal (both as a compliment to Spencer’s previous body of work and as a stand alone) is in its inherent humanity, honesty and sincerity. Like the beleaguered sheriff of High Noon, this gunfighter stands alone unafraid to draw on foot stomping, hip-level rockin’, deliver devastating emotional bruises or pull out the pop stops – without losing a measure of composure or credibility. And once again, his taste in covers is beyond reproach (this time it’s an ethereal cover of the Black Heart Procession’s masterful A Light So Dim that seems so weightless it positively teeters on its tootsies – Tom Waits fans look out!).

Need a mood enhancer? Try on these catchy gems for size: the too-cool-for-school opener, My Week Is Better (Than Your Year), the butt-bouncing I Guess It’s Gonna Really Hurt, insistently infectious Lovers Never Profit or even the broody, sly slide chugger, Golddigger. You’ll also be forgiven for getting a rise from the underlying black humour of instrumentals The Spy Who Drugged Me and strip-search ode, Dutch Plates (featuring Paul Kelly’s nephew, Dan, hamming it up as an over-zealous Nazi customs official).

Saddle-sore sprits should find ample consolation in the short, simple and moving, The Notion (utilising, excellent if unconventional harmonica work), swaggering bad luck opus Sailor’s Grave, the chilly beauty of the aforementioned A Light So Dim or my personal fave, the hypnotically swaying riff and descending despair of The Money’s The Thing (an anchor-on-the-heart tune so addictive I’ve dreamt of it several times – and that instrumental coda could’ve gone on for another 15 minutes or more for this listener). Weariness hasn’t sounded this genuine or utterly charming for so long it’s hard to remember the last serious contender.

What we’ve heard from national radio on the subject of this national treasure, rock’n’rollin’ pioneer and extraordinary singer/songwriter has been minimal. Their troublingly gutless ‘hands off’ approach to the raw and gnarly production values of The Last Gasp showed cowardice of a repugnant nature (especially considering the single, These Days, was - hands down – one of the best songs of 2000). Perhaps they were frightened it might show up the rest of the playlist for the predominantly anaemic, lowest common denominator drivel it is. However, they can’t use that excuse for The Lost Anxiety Tapes. Use this as a barometer for cool… if you aren’t hearing this, then your radio station isn’t keeping up their end of the bargain. And no matter who you are, I find it very hard to believe you wouldn’t get something substantial from this record. Bless you Spencer… when everyone else is losing their marbles or prostituting themselves to trends even they don’t believe in, we can always trust you to come up with the goods.

Nazz (digthatfrighteningguitar) 

 

Time Off - Brisbane 

**** 

Featuring Cow Penalty – the band that spawned The Last Gasp and the Beasts-rock of last year’s album of the same name – The Lost Anxiety Tapes captures Spencer P. Jones in reflective mode.

The Louis Tillett-sounding ‘Sailor’s Grave’ is the perfect partner to Jones’s spooky cover of The Black Heart Procession’s ‘A Light So Dim’, while ‘The Money’s The Thing’ and sad waltz ‘The Notion’ allow us to better hear some of the subtleties in his voice. ‘My Week Is Better’, ‘I Guess It’s Gonna Really Hurt’ and ‘Lovers Never Profit’ would make great travelling tunes, and instrumental ‘The Spy Who Drugged Me’ hits on the ideal Jones groove.

Closer ‘Dutch Plates’ loses its menacing live edge due to extra studio trickery, but that’s a minor complaint. Another outstanding set from one of Australia’s most under-appreciated songwriters.

Sonic Sally

 

Sticky Carpet - The Age 'EG'
 

It wouldn't have been right to end the year without another killer album from Spencer Patrick Jones. the lost anxiety tapes is testament to a man who's practised what he has preached for more than 20 years. It's a departure from his previous album, The Last Gasp, which was buoyed by a massive soul horn section and was inspired by Jones' time as band leader for Andre Williams. The space vacated by the horns is replaced by Matt Heydon's emotive keyboards, giving the album a cold, downbeat feel similar to Iggy Pop's Berlin album, The Idiot, and the extra room allows Jones to swagger and snarl in a more sinister manner. ``I really wanted to make a record with Matt and Des (Hefner, drummer), because I knew that was all I needed,'' says Jones. ``We've had jams, just the three of us, and it's always sounded fine, nothing more was needed.'' The title of the opening song, My Week is Better Than Your Year, comes from Lou Reed during his crazed speed years, as a response to the criticism he anticipated for his album of white noise, Metal Machine Music. Jones says he's just finishing the job for Reed. ``It's a really funny line, which is the last sentence from the liner notes. Why didn't he write a song called that?'' And Sailor's Grave, one of Jones' finest achievements, with the opening line ``Black cat crossed my path'', was, Jones reveals, written about his new cat, Spooky. Jones isn't held in high regard just in his own country. When he recently needed a pick-up band in New York, the Violent Femmes' Brian Ritchie and Television drummer Billy Ficca jumped at the chance. And when in London with Paul Kelly, Jones wrote lyrics for a female French singer who's playing in a White Stripes-type duo with the Damned's Rat Scabies. One of his songs is entitled I Want a Hand To Hold When I Go To Hell. Jones says Ritchie and Ficca hope to join him on an Australian tour. He launches the lost anxiety tapes tonight at the Punters Club with the Drones and Dank Alley.

Patrick Donovan

 

Beat Magazine - 5th Dec

"What is sewerage to a magistrate is caviar to a psychopath," Spencer P. Jones tells Glenn Peters.

While he says, "Get me a good question before I go to the bar and I’ll answer it apruptly," you know it’s all talk- Spencer is more than happy to tell a story. So instead of the usual interview, where he speaks about his top new album, The Lost Anxiety Tapes, enjoy reading about the world, according Spencer P. Jones.

Spencer plays in New York….

"We bullshitted our way into some gigs through the internet and stuff. We got the gigs, went over there, hung around for a week and got depressed about not having any money. Then we got to look after a really nice apartment in Greenwich Village, on West Tenth. Suddenly we went from paying $120 a night for a room in Soho to not having to pay anything for ten days. Yeah, living in a nice apartment, owned by a rock star who I borrowed an amp off, who had gone up to stay at his sister’s holiday house in Cape Cod for ten days. Suddenly we had drinking money, food money, taxi money and drug money. This is how you need it when you are in New York."

How to find a drummer in New York.

"I did all this ground work. We went to the Village Voice. The youngest guy there had all the Beasts of Bourbon records so he gave us a really good plug. Rat Scabies (The Damned) was supposed to play drums with us but right at the last minute he couldn’t get to New York. We had already locked in the gigs so I contacted Brian Ritchie (Violent Femmes) who was going to play bass. He’s like, "That’s okay, we can get Denis from the Smithereens or, we could get Billy Ficca from Television!" So we spent five days trying to find Billy Ficca. And then, amazingly we came up with Tom Verlaine’s phone number so we got Billy’s number off Tom. Brian Ritchie made the call to Tom Verlaine with me standing near him, panting, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever he says!" He’s one of my favorite guitar players for sure. I was in New York. These names meant nothing to me. We needed a drummer and we got the best guy in Queens. This was the night before the first gig. We had a rehearsal on the afternoon of the first gig and it was great."

Television’s Billy Ficca- a man of few words.

"The last night we played at Maxwells, we opened for Luna. It was already sold out and a great gig. Billy turns up with his Japanese wife and tells me, "You truly are quite a unique kind of guy and I really like your songs and I like the way you play guitar. I’ll see you kind of soon, man." It made me feel pretty cool. He’s a very unusual kind of guy. He never speaks and this is the most he had said in two weeks. I asked if he would be interested in doing the same sort of gigs in Australia with us and he says, "Oh, man. I’m just happy to get about and go to Indiana."

Frank Serpico, Brian Ritchie and a team of Japanese flute masters….

"We played the Mercury Lounge and Frank Serpico was there. The actual Serpico, down the front, bootscooting with his grey beard and a million bullet holes in his back. Brian Ritchie knows some weird people. He teaches Frank Serpico Japanese flute. I was thinking we could stay with him and there were all these old Japanese flute masters staying there. Bamboo chimes in the wind with incense burning, this is pretty weird. There is a giant poster of The Kinks in the lounge room that is so big, it’s loud. I love Brian Ritchie. He loves Sun Ra and The Kinks. That says everything."

 

Time Off - Cow Penalty

Back in the saddle

More than three months since its release, Melbourne’s Spencer P. Jones is set to blitz Brisbane with a live show off the back of his new album The Lost Anxiety Tapes.

“It might be a bit late for an album launch but…” Spencer says of the visit, before a voice in the background interrupts. “…It’s never too late, I’ve just been told by my record label [laughs].

“We did a launch in Melbourne [last year]  – it was at the Punter’s Club with the Drones and it was a great night out. We’re in Sydney now – we played Sydney last night and it was pretty good.”

Sporting the kind of songs that make you want to dance like a dingbat as you drown in VB, The Lost Anxiety Tapes rates as Jones’ most accomplished release yet, a fact he contributes to his maturity. Like cheese, Spencer’s song writing gets better with age.

“I suppose there’s some of that there. I’m not prolific writer, generally, but in the last couple of years I have been. I’m in my 40s – I’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Album tracks ‘My Week Is Better’, the rollicking ‘I Guess It’s Gonna Really Hurt’ and the almost poppy ‘Lovers Never Profit’ serve as fitting illustrations.

“That happened pretty quickly,” Spencer says of the latter track. “That goes back a few years, maybe about five years. I was reading this Salvation Army pamphlet from the prohibition era that was talking about how alcohol puts people in mad houses and prison and destroys families and stuff like that. It said something like ‘drinkers never profit’ and that’s where ‘Lovers Never Profit’ came from.”

Another album highlight is Spencer’s cover of Black Heart Procession’s ‘A Light So Dim’.

“That was in our set when we first started playing a couple of years ago. That was something I was listening to around ’98 and when we started playing, we just did that song… and then forgot about it. We recorded it with the others [for the album] but we’ve only played it once in maybe the last 12 months. Do you want to hear that when we’re in Brisbane?”

Yeah, I think a few people would be happy if you played it…

“Cool. They’re all [the songs from Lost Anxiety Tapes] working pretty well live; I can say that. There’s a few tunes unrecorded or unreleased at this stage as well that are in the set.”

Jones hopes to record a new album mid-year in Melbourne, following some more pressing work in the US.

“I’m going back there on March 16, touring with Paul Kelly. I’ve got a few days spare and I did some recording there last year, so I’m going to try and get a few hours to work on that. I don’t know about doing any more solo gigs while I’m there, I don’t think there would be enough time.”

MATT CONNORS