Heavy Trash: Biography

• Overview
• Discography
• Biography
• Related Artists

• The Reigning Sound
• The Childballads
• The Black Keys
• King Khan
• Holly Golightly
• The Flaming Stars
• Boss Hog

• R.L. Burnside
• Johnny Cash
• Jerry Lee Lewis
• Chuck Berry
• Bill Haley
• Elvis Presley
• Bo Diddley

• Blues Explosion
• Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
• Speedball Baby

Genres:

Rock Music, Punk and Hardcore Rock Music, Folk & Country Rock Music

Decades Active:

2000's

A meeting of the minds between two musicians who explore the nexus between punk rock and roots music, Heavy Trash is a collaboration between Jon Spencer and Matt VertaRay. Spencer first attracted the attention of adventurous music fans in 1985 with his primitive guitar work and raw vocals with frantic noise merchants Pussy Galore, but when the band split in 1990, he joined forces with guitarist Judah Bauer and drummer Russell Simins to form the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Melding RB accents and Spencer's feral blues wailing with a fractured but potent postpunk attack, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion became one of the most acclaimed and controversial indie bands on the 1990's. Strong as the Blues Explosion was, Spencer was always on the lookout for new avenues for his music and during his downtime he also performed and recorded with R.L. Burnside, Boss Hog, the Gibson Brothers, Dub Narcotic Sound System and Spencer Dickinson. In 2005, Spencer began writing and recording material with Matt VertaRay, who played bass with the acclaimed alternative group Madder Rose on their first two albums as well as handling guitar chores for the more hardedged blues punk band Speedball Baby, who had toured with Blues Explosion. (In addition, both Spencer and VertaRay had recorded with RB sleaze legend Andre Williams; Spencer contributed to his 2000 album The Black Godfather while VertaRay lent his guitar skills to 2001's Bait and Switch.) Spencer and VertaRay named their collaboration Heavy Trash, and in 2005 they released their first album, simply titled Heavy Trash, which eased back on the blues textures of their earlier work in favor of a pronounced rockabilly and honky tonk flavor; the album was also engineered and coproduced by VertaRay at his recording studio, N.Y. Hed. In 2007, Heavy Trash returned with a second album, Going Way Out With Heavy Trash.

- Mark Deming, All Music Guide