This came out in 2002 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion have always been able to cook up grooves so meaty you could practically sink your teeth into them. With their seventh full-length Plastic Fang, they’ve finally figured out how to serve ’em up to the masses.
Produced by X-Pensive Winos drummer and all-around session cat Steve Jordan, this dozen-tracker is JSBX’s tightest, most disciplined and accessible work to date. Which is not to say the boys have watered down the recipe. The group’s sonic trademarks — the gritty backwoods backbeats, the greasy guitar choogle, the distorted blues evangelist vocals — are in full effect on tunes like Sweet N Sour, Midnight Creep and Shakin’ Rock’N’Roll Tonight. What’s missing are the sloppy performances and pointless excess, replaced here by precise playing, snappy in-the-pocket grooves and arrangements so lean and sizzling you wanna smother ’em in BBQ sauce. Get ’em while they’re hot, folks.
