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Jon Spencer’s dropped his name from the marquee, but he’s still very much in the mix of this classic guitar outfit. BE haven’t abandoned their post-rock blues roots and are still fixated on creating floor-shakers. This time they’ve enlisted a roster of celebrities to give the album a contemporary feel (DJ Shadow, Chuck D and Martina Topley-Bird, among others), but the effort hasn’t really revamped their sound significantly. It’s woozy (but no longer quite as boozy) stuff, and there’s more than a little genuine soul in the disc. That’s why it’s so surprising that somehow Damage falls just barely left of MOR, which is a weird kind of middle ground to be staking out.
Blues Explosion rock the Mod Club Theatre Tuesday (November 9).
