Bob Log III

Tom Waits sings his praises, and Nikon seeks his music for commercials, but Bob Log III, one suspects, remains unfazed by such brushes with fame and fortune. A one-man blues explosion (that’s why he dons a motorcycle helmet onstage, see?), Bob makes Jon Spencer and his boys sound as slick and mercenary as Third Eye Blind. On his third album, Log Bomb, this ex-Doo Rag member constructs lo-fi blues more in tune with the Jackass sensibility than with the reverence of Alan Lomax disciples. In other words, this disc is as raw and raunchy as Amsterdam’s Red Light District at the height of tourist season. Log Bomb‘s blooz rawk (spelling this correctly just looks wrong) stirs up so much badass mojo that one feels like a total dweeb taking notes while it’s playing. (Bob would probably prefer that critics break their pens and pour the ink on their intoxicated noggins.) A true blues scholar could probably detect every ripped-off chord progression, but let’s not bring lawyers into this utterly elemental, righteous and primitive party.