Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Jesus Lizard Book by The Jesus Lizard The Jesus Lizard Book – The story of the '90s influential and iconic indie-rock band. You don't need to be a fan of The Jesus Lizard or even the indie-rock genre to appreciate what this iconic band accomplished. They recorded seven albums in eight years, created dynamic and inimitable music, and played 1000+ legendary live shows. Their superhuman touring schedule is captured perfectly on the first page in a photo of the band's tour van odometer, turning over from 99,999 to 00000. The story of this influential '90s band transcends rock memorabilia or memoir, and unfolds an instructive tale of artistic triumph in the delicate balance between commerce and art. It's the victory of the underdog, it's David vs. the Goliath of the major label record industry. It's an inside look at the creative and business choices artists in any field must face as they work toward that elusive stage that defines success. Steve Albini, famous for his work recording Nirvana's last album, In Utero , said this of the band: "When I think of The Jesus Lizard, I think of them as the greatest band I've ever seen, as the best musicians I've ever worked with, and as the purest melding of the sublime and the profane." The Jesus Lizard Book was designed by vocalist and artist David Yow, with most of the content painstakingly recorded by the band's exacting bassist, David Wm. Sims. All four band members contribute their perspective and experiences, in a loose structure starting with the band members' backgrounds, how the band formed, each studio recording, and their astounding performance chronology. This template is peppered colorfully and playfully throughout with concert posters by the iconic Frank Kozik, recipes by singer David Yow (his Chocolate Bourbon Bread Pudding sounds delicious!) and photographs ranging from backstage polaroids to professionally shot panoramas. The epic shot from the band's perspective onstage at Reading Festival – one of the largest rock festivals in the world – speaks volumes of what this band built up with sheer tenacity, inventive musicianship – and a sense of humor which draws the reader playfully into their world. Anchoring the book throughout are well-written, vivid and poignant anecdotes and tributes from those whose lives they touched, and who touched theirs. Characters like Steve Albini, Mike Watt, JG Thirlwell, Hank Williams III, Frank Kozik, and Gang of Four's Andy Gill all provide a full spectrum take on the band's history. The range of different perspectives from all four band members on the same record is telling of the creative process and compromises that abound in collaborative art. For example, bassist David Wm. Sims strongly touts Shot as the best album he's ever played on, but the Steve Albini- engineered Goat is ubiquitously considered their masterpiece. But as a reader, you don't need to hear the songs to appreciate the story – and Book delivers the band right to your coffee table loud and clear. Take a look at other beautiful paper books at Wink. And sign up for the Wink newsletter to get all the reviews and photos delivered once a week. 30 Years of The Jesus Lizard’s Emotional, Meaningless ‘Goat’ The Jesus Lizard’s emotional yet meaningless 1991 album, Goat is full of head-spinning, swinging derangement that still leaves listeners reeling. The Jesus Lizard centers their music on feelings. They’re an angsty band, but they aren’t known for angst in a political or intellectual sense. They aren’t known for having much of a message at all, as we can discern from their 1991 album, Goat . The Jesus Lizard was never an image-heavy band, either. Of course, they were obligated through record label contracts to be photographed for promotional use, and these photos were stylized with the band dressed to appear a certain way to appeal to a certain audience. Still, they didn’t have a strong brand, and they weren’t heavily featured on MTV. In fact, MTV refused to play the music video for their single “Nub” due to imagery that the network deemed was “too much“. The Jesus Lizard never relied on mainstream exposure. What they did have is endurance, shelling out six full-length studio albums in eight years. The band succeeded in practice. This means making music and playing live shows — and they played a lot. Fourteen days after the release of their full-length sophomore album Goat (Touch and Go, 1991), The Jesus Lizard played a show at The Space in Washington D.C. Vocalist David Yow slunk around on stage with a charisma akin to Iggy Pop, stumbling in an inebriated stupor and diving into the audience and writhing as he surfed over their heads. Bassist David Wm. Sims said that he couldn’t understand how Yow could do that and still remember lyrics. Yow would often perform shirtless, wearing worn-out torn blue jeans and belting out mid-ranged shouting that is careless yet passionate. In a February 2014 interview with Vice, he asserts, “If people wanted me to take my clothes off and jump into the audience, then I didn’t wanna do it. But then three-quarters of the way through the show, I would do it anyway. Usually because of alcohol.” As Yow dove into chaos, the rest of the band strung out jazzy, complex rhythms, meandering through spacious progressions and arpeggios with a barebones presentation. Guitarist Duane Denison manifested his fiery guitar licks while Sims and drummer Mac McNeilly punched up the show with rattling basslines and focused beats. That same charisma of their live performances comes across in their recordings. The Jesus Lizards first EP, 1989’s Pure , and first LP, Head (Touch and Go, 1990), were worthy submissions for an up-and-coming alt-rock band. But it was Goat , released in March 1991 through Touch and Go Records, that shifted the band into a higher gear. Goat is somehow composed with both recklessness and precision. The album has a live energy that makes it sound as if only a few takes at recording each track were necessary, as if they weren’t interested in recording perfection. Tonally, the album is full of head-spinning, swinging derangement that still leaves listeners reeling. Goat is a collection of songs that grabs you by the shirt and forces you to move with an intoxicating groove. This is lolling, meditative, yet high-energy punk. Following the ’80s post-punk of the Fall and the Birthday Party, and perhaps to a lesser extent, hardcore punk bands like Minor Threat, the Jesus Lizard embodied the stripped-down, fed up, defiant ethos of late-’80s/ early-’90s heavy music. They continued through the ’90s with fellow punk, noise-rock outfits like Mudhoney and Nirvana. Sonic similarities can be drawn to bands like Unwound and Shellac, especially in terms of fuzzy guitar tones and repetitive song structures, which are likely influences for contemporary noise bands like Metz, Young Widows, and Daughters. Of course, it would be foolish not to mention Steve Albini’s influence. Albini is a producer who has worked on albums for major bands like Pixies and the Breeders, made music in the ’80s with his punk and noise bands, Big Black and Rapeman, and maybe most known for producing Nirvana’s In Utero . This man helped the Jesus Lizard shape their sound throughout most of their career as recording artists. He insisted that the bands he worked with stayed in control of their creations, that they don’t look at a producer as someone who can magically make their music sound good by applying production tricks that are meant to hide imperfections. Indeed, Albini’s musical philosophy was geared toward minimalism and authenticity. In an interview with Greg Milner, Albini said, “If your record takes more than five or six days to make, it’s bound to suck.” This is most likely why the Jesus Lizard’s records don’t even sound like they came close to being overproduced. Throughout their career, the Jesus Lizard managed to carry a punctuating attitude while retaining humor and avoiding pretension. Lyrically, Goat resembles a collection of oddball, low-brow stories almost in the vein of authors like Raymond Carver or Denis Johnson. The lyrics read like slice- of-life stories about losers or people down on their luck. “Then Comes Dudley” is a cynical take on pregnancy out of wedlock, and a man who’s going to fix them up straight, whether literally or figuratively speaking. “Mouth Breather” is evidently about Britt Walford, the drummer of ’90s post-rock band Slint, and how he wrecked Albini’s house while house-sitting for him. “Nub” is a pounding post-hardcore jam about a child whose arm is accidentally broken off and experiences phantom limb. It’s songs like these that pin Goat down as an album about specific instances of abnormality and discomfort. Each song is an unusual, surreal, disturbing, Lynchian scene. Yow seemed to have a haphazard way of piecing lyrics together. His words are nonsensical, but they aren’t devoid of depth. “Seasick”, the most aggressive song on the album, has a repetitive and obsessively screamed one-liner chorus: “I can’t swim, I can swim.” Yow continues to shout about an overwhelming ocean and waiting for a single person to help him. The imagery may imply a precarious nature of Yow’s frame of mind, being tangled in obscure control, possible (probable) drug use, and being strung out and pushed around and drowned by the motions of life. He doesn’t directly state these ideas. Instead, they can be pulled from the lyrics’ imagery. The meaning of “Monkey Trick” is elusive even to Yow, who probably had an idea during the song’s writing that slipped away from his memory. Like “Nub”, it includes imagery of dismemberment (Body parts all over town / What are they doing?). An underlying message may not exist in the lyrics of this song. However, an uncanny impression is undeniable. The Jesus Lizard were not interested in intellectualizing their music. It wasn’t necessary for them. For instance, when asked in an interview who came up with the band name and what it means, Yow replied, “We did and nothing.” It’s a Dadaesque answer that can be applied to the album’s lyrical content. Goat isn’t full of plunging thematic elements, yet it seems to be open to subjective meaning. More often than not, if words and images are put together, ideas can be derived. There will be a sense of mystery, a desire for meaning. There will be, at least, a feeling. And then there’s the dirt-cheap humor that stretches across the entire album. Quips about sex are ubiquitous in Goat . “Karpis” muses about Depression-era gangster Alvin Karpis’ time spent in prison and about sexual tension and jealousy. Then, there is the crude humor of “South Mouth” and “Lady Shoes”. These songs are full of vulgar expressions, which permeated parts of early ’90shard rock culture, but if anyone did want to send a perverted message earnestly, it was not the Jesus Lizard. The lyrics for these songs are joke poetry, albeit totally tasteless. The deepest meaning one could take from songs like these is that they are foolish and silly in their perception of sex. Goat finishes off with “Rodeo and Joliet”, a song with a tongue-in-cheek title about the unpleasant town of Joliet, Indiana, and its local prison. With Goat , the Jesus Lizard illustrate moments within a life controlled by desires or not controlled at all, or perhaps only made interesting by accident. The mood of the music fits. There’s no doubt that Denison’s nervous guitar work and Sims’s ominous basslines fused with McNeilly’s driving, frantic drums fit Yow’s depraved lyrical content. Goat is built out of dirty rock movements that create and sustain tension. This album feels like it’s fit for the disenchanted, slightly warped, haphazard swagman hung dry by misfortune. He’s disillusioned but unable to make a change. Goat is the soundtrack to the night for a stooge bound for trouble. Works Cited. Bennett, J. “Have You Seen David Yow’s Balls? The Jesus Lizard Wrote a Book About Them & Some Other Stuff”. Vice . 26 February 2014. The Jesus Lizard. Live at Venus De Milo, Boston. 4 October 1994. YouTube. Milner, Greg. Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music . Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. May, 25, 2010. The Jesus Lizard Book by The Jesus Lizard. The Jesus Lizard. In 1988, deep in the pancreas of Texas, a guitarist named Duane Denison was hard at work breaking down a large chunk of the history of music into its most primal, indispensible components, and imagining some kind of uncompromising delivery to a live rock audience. Reaching out for collaboration, Denison would find David Yow, well known in underground circles as the feral lead singer and junior contortionist for the highly regarded and corrosive Scratch Acid. Yow would in turn lead Denison to enlist Yow's Scratch Acid bandmate David Sims. In addition to his estimable bass playing skills, Sims also happened to own a drum machine. The following year, the three moved to Chicago and recorded the EP Pure, a title which has nothing to do with virginity, drugs, musical notes, or hell. While widely viewed as slightly "pre-Lizard" or "solo Duane" because it lacks drummer Mac McNeilly, it opens with a bone-crushing trifecta - "Blockbuster," "Bloody Mary," "Rabid Pigs" - thoroughly riveting compositions featuring some of the Lizard's most endearing characteristics, including: (1) Denison's guitar (it is not an exaggeration to say that his playing on "Bloody Mary" suggests blood oozing at an alarming rate from a large wound), and (2) Yow's lyrics ("Blockbuster" features a protagonist asking a young guest, who may later be barbecued, if sodomy is something he thinks he might enjoy. The joyous sing-along chorus presses the question, "Well, do ya, motherfucker. "). Pure's excellent cover art set the bar for all future the Jesus Lizard releases. It was unanimously agreed that replacing Sims' drum machine with a live drummer was a must. Dipping into his memory bank of hot shit drummers, Yow suggested McNeilly of the Atlanta band 86 for the job. The pivotal nature of McNeilly's decision to join the band cannot be overstated. Some elusive and intangible four-ness was achieved with the addition of Mac McNeilly to the Jesus Lizard. These four artists would release four full-length albums for Touch and Go Records over a four year period, roughly, give or take, each with a four letter title, that stand today as some of the most original, compelling, and visceral rock music ever recorded. Next, there is Head. (As dutifully reported by a magazine interviewer some years ago, the four letter titles were for continuity only - no meaning is to be attached to the words. So please do not think of sex, intelligence, forward motion, or toilets when considering the title of this record.) On it, Denison unburdens himself of an astonishing flurry of pent up riffage. "One Evening" builds to a central figure that is surely excavated from Physical Graffiti or Presence, and is played with such majesty and grandiosity, that laughter and tears both seem warranted. Elsewhere, Denison's fascination with texture, rhythm, and color are in evidence in the gnarled surfiness of "Waxeater," the elegiac PIL-like post-punk of "Pastoral," and the full minute single note outro on "If You Had Lips." Head comes to its thrilling climax with "Killer McHann," whose notes expertly convey flight, fear, and desperation. Yow sings as if tied down to a bench, gurgling and mewling through enhanced interrogation - extremely enhanced - before finally crying out some inactionable intelligence: "Scared of that man! Scared of that man! Scared of that man! Scared of that man!" The Pure EP is appended to Head on the CD version. A live version of "Bloody Mary" is included as a bonus track in a McNeilly powered version for your contemplation. "Chrome" is attached as well - a combination of two songs by the band named in the title, possibly the Jesus Lizard's best straight ahead rocker. Goat is the record after Head. Its title features four letters arranged in a way that do not bring to mind Satan, blame, garbage eating, or beards. Goat delivers on the Jesus Lizard promise in ways almost too numerous to mention. Denison, whose musical ideas continue to stun throughout, has found an almost impossibly sympathetic foil in McNeilly, and the intuitive connection is fully evident throughout. Take "Rodeo In Joliet" for example, and listen how Mac washes over, and rumbles below, and bashes through Duane's keening lines, and how the combination exquisitely conveys the doomy resignation of a too long winter. Or, listen to the propulsive abandon of "Nub," all slide and high hat. By now, the Jesus Lizard was composing more and more with an eye to the live situation. Bassist Sims is revealed as the band's secret weapon, precise and substantial in the studio, wide-eyed and mouth agape, stock still in anchoring an increasingly frenzied, chaotic stage show. Yow's complete disregard for his own health and safety in the service of fan entertainment is well-documented and the stuff of legend. That aspect of the Lizard experience is perhaps best captured among these CDs on "Seasick," a Yow tour de force that invariably sent him writhing and flailing on the raised hands of audiences around the world, screaming, "I can swim! I can swim! I can swim!" The CD reissue contains truly beautiful, and, one could argue, superior renditions of "Seasick," "Lady Shoes," and "Monkey Trick" performed live. Also included are two songs that are best described as "New Wave" - both bearing titles resembling Cure songs, and both executed quite humorously and winningly. The cover photo is by Sims, and is also worthy of contemplation and appreciation. Liar followed Goat. If it were to carry any meaning, 1992's four letter title might have suggested deceit, hate, exploitation, or treason. Liar is all of that, and none of that, in many ways a distillation of the Jesus Lizard aesthetic to that point in time. It delivers a the Jesus Lizard classic in "Puss" (albeit the only one ever to draw comparisons to Bad Company), it brings the doom in "Slave Ship," and, in "Zachariah," features another of Yow's crooner beauties in the tradition of "Pastoral." But Liar takes its gains in the new ways Sims, Denison, and McNeilly find to put each rhythm idea in an interlocking vice grip, first on "Boilermaker," the blistering opening track joined in progress, next on "Gladiator," which sounds like McNeilly slowly and mercilessly working over a speed bag, and perhaps most mind-bendingly on "Rope," a hopelessly complex hardcore send-up that is the album's crowning achievement. Don't miss Yow's rabid auctioneer recital of auto-erotic suicide, and a rare and magnificent Denison guitar solo - yes, you heard right - near the end. One can't help but ask, "How do they do it?" Down was the final offering of the Jesus Lizard's Touch and Go era. Like its predecessors, it features a four letter word for a title, this one not evoking sex, death, sadness, or soft, warm goose feathers. Remarkable in many ways, it features the Jesus Lizard's first Christmas song, in which a woman tells the story of being poisoned by her husband with mistletoe. "The Associate" is another love song, a noir-ish lament during which Yow tenderly comments to his beloved, "You've got skin like porcelain," while Sims and McNeilly tap out the jazz. "Crusty porcelain," Yow clarifies, "restroom porcelain." Two sub-three-minute rockers occupy the heart of Down. Yow's vocal presentation is almost conventional, a conscious move that gives Down a different kind of authority than previous records. Denison's work provides the hard rock liftoff on "Countless Backs of Sad Losers," and Tejas- flavored boogie on "Queen For A Day." The rock remains undistilled through "50 Cents" and album closer "The Best Parts," and continues into bonus tracks "Glamorous" and "Deaf As A Bat." Also, in what may be a first for the Jesus Lizard, nobody dies, a steep decline from the body count implied on earlier records. Rest assured, there is no shortage of madness, paranoia, and evil intent. By album number four, the Jesus Lizard had co-opted and redefined convention. By their standards, Down is typically, reliably excellent. That other rock records of 1994 presumed to occupy the same ether is laughable. In the end, that is the most rewarding aspect of watching and listening to the Jesus Lizard. Untethered from their times and plucked from the context of whatever trends surrounded them, these records and this band may sound better today than ever. The songs - and make no mistake about it, they are songs - can be approached from different angles, and will, in time, reveal all the things that make Rock good - rhythm, interplay, emotion, power, funk, noise, groove, humor� in the end, the words can never do them justice. "Our stuff is a little harder to get into, it's more of a challenge," Denison once commented. "Good music isn't supposed to be easy to digest." That said, it's hardly a chore to enjoy the Jesus Lizard. Their music is an astounding collage of four major talents working seamlessly and selflessly. The results are in turn punishing, soothing, harrowing, and uplifting. The Jesus Lizard Book by The Jesus Lizard. David Yow has been a very productive fellow lately. On the heels of a well-received Jesus Lizard reunion a few years ago, the plainly reinvigorated singer/bassist/actor/designer has released a fantastic solo album, Tonight You Look Like a Spider . The album is difficult to unconditionally recommend to fans of Yow’s past bands (TJL, Scratch Acid and Qui) - not that it’s bad , mind you. To my ears, at least, it’s extremely cool stuff. It just delivers entirely different kicks than Yow’s fans are accustomed to. There are lengthy prog instrumentals, moments reminiscent of Scott Walker’s idiosyncratic later albums, passages of computer-generated speech a la “Fitter Happier,” and some pieces that are just so completely unglued as to exist beyond simple classification, but Yow’s famous torture-victim-screaming-through-a-ball-gag vocal stylings are not to be found in any abundance on Spider . There’s a great deal there to enjoy if you clear your mind of ANY expectation of experiencing the concise, visceral gut-punches the Jesus Lizard delivered. But fans who still crave the Jesus Lizard thrill machine’s kinetic and oft-imitated signature sound aren’t left in the dark. Yow’s label, Joyful Noise, announced the impending release of a lavish coffee table book/7”/CD/DVD set devoted to the Jesus Lizard. In keeping with the band’s unbroken habit of four-letter titles, the book is called Book . (I asked Yow if the book would have happened at all had “book” not been a four-letter word. His answer was a laugh, followed by a swift and unequivocal “No.”) It’s impossible to properly review, as the release date is months away, so we went straight to the source and spoke to David Yow about what’s in it and how it came to be. Johnny Temple from Girls Against Boys, who runs a publishing company called Akashic, approached us/me, probably over three years ago. I initially didn’t have much interest in doing a book. I didn’t see much point in it, seeing how long we’d been broken up. But the impetus was just Johnny asking us if we wanted to do it, and the more we talked about it, the more I thought, OK, this could be worthwhile. One thing that was very important to me was that there have been a few things that have come out since we broke up that I didn’t have much hand in the design on, and with this, I just said “Well, I’m designing the book, I don’t trust anyone else to do it and I won’t like it if they do.” I designed it and had Henry Owings [Chunklet] help with the layout. There are bios, written by all four of us. Mac’s (McNeilly, drums), Duane’s (Denison, guitar) and mine go from childhood up to Jesus Lizard days. David Sims’ (bass) is more informational about the kind of stuff he’s interested in as far as recording. He also wrote a lot of notes about each of the recordings. There are contributed written pieces by a whole lot of folks - two of them in particular I think make the book worthwhile alone. Mike Watt wrote a piece that is so Dada/Beatnik/Abstract poetry that you can’t even tell exactly what he’s saying. It’s sort of like looking at an abstract painting and saying “I’m not sure I know what that is, but I sort of feel like it’s this.” Also, Alex Haacke from Einstürzende Neubauten wrote a particularly good piece. Albini’s in there. There’s tons of photos, a recipe of mine, and David Sims kept an exhaustive list of every single show we played, so that’s in there, with who was on the bill, the date, the venue, and whether we opened or headlined. That part’s really kind of cool, it’s fairly small type and takes up several pages. It’s a lot of fuckin’ shows! I would love for Book to be a tombstone, but with the recent Scratch Acid and Jesus Lizard re-enactment tours I’ve learned to never say never. It’s possible that there will be more Jesus Lizard shows. We’ll see. Book comes with my endorsement. I wouldn’t say this if I didn’t honestly mean it - it’s a worthwhile thing. It’s pretty cheap too, considering how big and heavy it is, I think it’s like $18-$20. [Per Akashik, retail for the regular edition sans pre-order goodies will be $24.95, though it’s a bit less on Amazon - RK] It’s a good book. It’s conceivable to me that somebody who didn’t even give much of a shit about the band could find it worthwhile and interesting. While the plain old book Book is due out in March, the pre-order version claims a mid-December ship date, and for $80 comes bundled with Yow’s Spider CD, a DVD containing 5 videos for that album’s “Opening Suite” by directors Adam Harding, Tim Rutili, Jared Varava, Todd Adam Phillips, & Jennifer Lynch (yes, David’s daughter), and a 7” signed by all four original band members, featuring never before released recordings of the JL songs “Fly On The Wall” and “Elegy,” recorded by John Loder at Southern Studios. And if you’ve never seen the man in action, good lord, watch some Jesus Lizard where they excelled most - in concert. Akashic Books. THE JESUS LIZARD (1988–1999) hailed from Chicago by way of Austin, Texas. They released seven records on the independent record label Touch and Go, and a few more on different major labels. Many have called them the best live band of the 1990s. Unlike most of their contemporaries, the Jesus Lizard managed to create a beast, an entirely autonomous being, an entity who outgrew and is very likely to also outlive its makers. While each and every personality in the group is an integral part of its mentality and thus ultimately irreplaceable, it is the rapport and friction between them which makes the music possible, allows it to blossom and eventually break free. The Jesus Lizard Book is the group’s first book. DAVID YOW is an artist, actor, and musician who is best known as the singer of the bands the Jesus Lizard—arguably the best and most popular indie rock band of the 1990s—and Scratch Acid. He lives in Los Angeles. He is the creator of Copycat: And a Litter of Other Cats . Join our Mailing List. The Jesus Lizard Book. Legendary indie rockers the Jesus Lizard’s idiosyncratic, impassioned document of their rock and roll conquests. We're Sorry. Available as an e-book for: What people are saying… Named the Best Music-Related Book of 2014 by Joel Gausten. “If you’re a Jesus Lizard fan or a David Yow devotee, you’re sure all over this. But even if you’ve never heard of the band, the book stands as one of the best ways to experience being in a tight, cohesive band. You get everything except the sweat, spilled beer, and blood. It’s a fun ride, and the closest thing possible to getting in the van with these guys.” — Mother Jones. “ The Jesus Lizard Book is a beautiful document of a band that wasn’t afraid to be abrasive, chaotic, brutal, and sometimes, ugly.” — The Chicago Tribune/Printer’s Row. “These guys deserve to pat themselves on the back . . . If the spectacular photography in The Jesus Lizard Book is to be believed, their shows resembled nothing more than that scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom where some poor dude has his still-beating heart removed in an elaborate ritual.” — The Paris Review. “As a reader, you don’t need to hear the songs to appreciate the story—and Book delivers the band right to your coffee table loud and clear.” — BoingBoing.net. “The gorgeously crafted, 176-page hardcover Book . . . dives deep and candidly into the Jesus Lizard’s first decade and touches a bit on that 2009 coda, too. Through many thousands of words, hundreds of photos, and collected ephemera, it celebrates the sweat, menace, humor, musicianship, lasting power, and genitals of one of the best bands ever coughed up by the rock underground.” — Village Voice. “ Book is a valuable document that brings us back to the era when artists were conditioned to practice the art of self-defense.” —Pitchfork. “Crawling out of the same noisy, punk and hardcore indie underground of the early 1980s, Dinosaur Jr. and the Jesus Lizard took somewhat similar paths on the road to becoming two of the most influential bands of their generation . . . Now the two bands have something else in common: books. Two beautiful volumes, The Jesus Lizard Book (Akashic) and Rocket 88‘s Dinosaur Jr. scrapbook . . . Both are loving tributes to two very unique bands.” —Flavorwire. “Imagine a round table discussion with the Jesus Lizard in a dark bar drinking all afternoon, listening to all the war stories.” — BeatRoute Magazine. “A series of essays and photos that illuminates the Jesus Lizard—humorous, jolting, sometimes surprisingly moving.” — The Chicago Tribune. “If there is any recurring theme within the 176 pages of the newly released The Jesus Lizard Book it’s this: The Chicago-grown noise rockers will be remembered as one of the greatest live bands to ever grace—or very well desecrate—the stage.” — Chicago Sun-Times. “ Book is pretty much the sort of thing you would want from any band you adore: thoughtful, articulate comments from all of the players, short essays, some only a few lines, from various folks who knew or worked with them and a ton of excellent photos.” — Austin American-Statesman. “ The Jesus Lizard Book by The Jesus Lizard (out now). Much like Dinosaur Jr., the band has created a detailed, full-color hardcover for its fans. And as a bonus, members are reuniting to promote it at South by Southwest and elsewhere.” — Pensacola News Journal. “Impressively candid, informed and informative history of a remarkable group of musicians. A ‘must read’ for their legions of appreciative fans . . . Highly recommended.” — Midwest Book Review. “Even if you’re unfamiliar with or disinterested with the band’s music, Book makes for an intriguing exploration of the alternative music scene of the ’90s—a short burst in time when a band as gloriously odd as The Jesus Lizard could do whatever they wanted to do and get a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.” —Joel Gausten. “ Book is FULL of cool shit: silly pictures, lots of stories, full band member auto-bios, and the band’s narrative.” — The Stranger Slog. “The only way to truly do this band justice in book form is with exactly the kind of energetic and engaging visual weight that Book provides.” — KGB Bar Lit Magazine. “There is finally a book that captures the godhead megalithic monstrosity that was the Jesus Lizard . . . know this is going to be one of my favourite books of all-time.” — The HuffPost Music (Canada) “The deluxe coffee-table book about The Jesus Lizard that we can’t believe exists.” —Oregon Public Broadcasting/NPR (editorial mention) Included in “A Book I’d Read” at the Washington City Paper /Arts Desk. “ Book suits the Jesus Lizard as well as, say, The Dirt suits Mötley Crüe . . . Everyone I know loves the Jesus Lizard, and all those same folks are going to love Book .” —Hank Shteamer, Dark Forces Swing Blind Punches. “It’s less a compendium of traditional rock band hedonism and more of an example of how things can be done right.” —Stand Up, Hippy! “Stunning new work of popular culture historiography . . . The Jesus Lizard Book is a work of art, and it should be treated as such.” —Alibi.com. “The big, beautiful Jesus Lizard Book . . . delivers a fun, albeit wild ride fans are sure to enjoy thoroughly.” —BookPeople (Austin) blog. Description. The Jesus Lizard Book is a coffee table affair of exclusive photography, art, and other imagery with written pieces by all four members of the seminal indie rock band the Jesus Lizard. The layout is stylish and elegant, particularly in contrast with the harshness of much of the band’s music. Included are many Polaroids by David Wm. Sims, a delicious recipe by David Yow, a concise list of every show the Jesus Lizard played, and writings by two producers who recorded the band—Steve Albini and Andy Gill. There is biographical material of each member that covers childhood to the demise of the group. Other contributors include, Mike Watt, Alexander Hacke, Steve Gullick, Rebecca Gates, Jeff Lane, Sasha Frere-Jones, KRK, Bernie Bahrmasel, and many more. The Jesus Lizard (1988–1999) hailed from Chicago by way of Austin, Texas. They released seven records on the independent record label Touch and Go, and a few more on different major labels. Many have called them the best live band of the 1990s. Unlike most of their contemporaries, the Jesus Lizard managed to create a beast, an entirely autonomous being, an entity who outgrew and is very likely to also outlive its makers. While each and every personality in the group is an integral part of its mentality and thus ultimately irreplaceable, it is the rapport and friction between them which makes the music possible, allows it to blossom and eventually break free. It was not just David Wm. Sims’s Monolithic basslines, but the stance he took in order to deliver them. Like a sailor manning a raft through a storm at high sea, he took position at stage left and pounded away at his instrument—stoic, reliable, and unwavering. Mac McNeilly’s drumming didn’t merrily serve as a time-giver, but as a display of unrestrained energy and a joyously bouncing, good-natured spirit. Somersaulting patterns and probability-defying breaks were stacked on top of one another, made to tumble and fall only to be caught again, as if a boxer was juggling dishes while pummeling an already delirious opponent. Duane Denison shaped his guitar work like a taxidermist dissecting a puppy. With cruel precision, he stabbed and sliced and inserted the limbs of chord progressions with bolts and rods and wire, smiling dreamily while his riffs danced around onstage like biomechanical freaks of nature. Then there was the man who is the embodiment of the band’s name, the tormented soul thrown about and struggling to withstand the torrent in the tornado of the music: David Yow spilled his insides while he spent most of the shows in —no, on —the audience, being lifted and carried by the masses that were groping and ripping at him, trying to be a part, greedily looking to get a piece of the action. He was the ingenious saboteur, the anarchistic oddball in this form of modern theater with the other three serving as the perfect “straight men” to his madness. Also check out David Yow’s book of cat portraits, Copycat: And a Litter of Other Cats . David Yow of the Jesus Lizard stopped by for a soundcheck with Girls Against Boys in Austria; check out the photo here. Read interviews with David Yow at Noisey (Vice Media Group) and at SongFacts. Listen to interviews with David Yow, Duane Denison, Mac McNeilly, and David Wm. Sims at Kreative Kontrol. Read a feature on The Jesus Lizard Book at Newsweek . Check out drummer Mac McNeilly’s and guitarist Duane Denison’s week-long guest editing of Magnet Magazine Online . Read an interview with Duane Dension, Mac McNeilly, and David Wm. Sims at The Quietus. Subjects : Gift Books, Music/Popular Culture/Art Tags : punk rock, The Jesus Lizard. Book Details. Hardcover : 160 pages Published : 3/4/14 IBSN : 9781617750809 e-IBSN : 9781617751219 Genre : Art/Music/Pop Culture. Authors. THE JESUS LIZARD (1988–1999) hailed from Chicago by way of Austin, Texas. They released seven records on the independent record label Touch and Go, and a few more on different major labels. Many have called them the best live band of the 1990s. Unlike most of their contemporaries, the Jesus Lizard managed to create a beast, an entirely autonomous being, an entity who outgrew and is very likely to also outlive its makers. While each and every personality in the group is an integral part of its mentality and thus ultimately irreplaceable, it is the rapport and friction between them which makes the music possible, allows it to blossom and eventually break free. The Jesus Lizard Book is the group’s first book. DAVID YOW is an artist, actor, and musician who is best known as the singer of the bands the Jesus Lizard—arguably the best and most popular indie rock band of the 1990s—and Scratch Acid. He lives in Los Angeles. He is the creator of Copycat: And a Litter of Other Cats .