*** Cash Money

BLACK HEARTS AND BROKEN WILLS

(Touch & Go)

This Chicago-based duo take the lean, mean logic of the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion one step further by losing the second guitar. That leaves singer/guitarist J. Humphrey and drummer Scott Giampino free to get down to the dirty business of cranking out their own high-octane formula of gutsy blooze punk without having to worry about stepping on anyone's toes.

The result brings to mind the Flat Duo Jets raised on the wham-bam slam of Motor City madman Ted Nugent rather than on the rockabilly twang of Billy Lee Riley. Humphrey strips Detroit Rock City riffage down to its no-bullshit essentials on his Gretsch Country Gentleman while Giampino pounds out muscular, Bonham-style beats. I'm not sure what Humphrey's crooning about most of the time, but you get the general idea from hard-luck titles like "Lonesome Stranger," "Train to Ruin," and "Death Note." It's classic Americana from the wrong side of the tracks -- meat-and-potatoes rock for spirited low-rollers.

-- Matt Ashare

(Cash Money open for the Grifters this Saturday, June 14, at T.T. the Bear's Place. Call 492-BEAR.)