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.