**1/2 20 Miles

RAGGED BARNYARD CLASSICS

(In the Red)

This collection of three 45s is the first issue from Jon Spencer Blues Explosion guitarist Judah Bauer and his drumming brother Donovan. It's a wobbly tightrope walk through electric country blues, swampy in-bred rock, and the avant-garde, recorded in late June, about three weeks after the band formed. Judah's vocals are buried in a light gauze of distortion and kept low in the mix, to mimic the scratchy sound of an old 78. It's homage, shtick, arty pretension, or masturbation -- depending on your outlook.

Certainly over the course of trying to decipher the slapdash lyrics of eight tunes it becomes tedious. But the juice here isn't in Judah's hound-dog voice or lyrics about bad stuff going down. It's in the Delta efficiency of the two-man band, and in the way Bauer is able to channel the spirit of wild-ass juke-joint guitar through his own punk rock, downtown New York City roots. For a pure dose of that, check the instrumental "Death Song #5"; it's vocal whimpering mates perfectly with the mewing of Judah's barely touched guitar. Half the time, it's the vibrato effect of his amplifier that's making the sound, not his instrument.

Really, this is just a record of 20 Miles' birth spasm. But at that, it's a better realization of a blues-punk fusion than Spencer's ever accomplished. A full-length 20 Miles CD is due on the down-home blues label Fat Possum this April. (Write to In the Red at 2627 East Strong Place, Anaheim, California 10010.)

-- Ted Drozdowski