U:MACK
presents
The Jesus Lizard
Tuesday September 22.
Button Factory
Doors 7.30 (early show)
Tickets €24 From Road, Sound Cellar, Spindizzy, City Discs & online at www.tickets.ie/umack
www.myspace.com/thejesuslizardpage
www.myspace.com/umackproductions
The reformed Jesus Lizard are coming to Dublin! Don't miss this chance to see one of the best live bands of all time.
THE JESUS LIZARD
1969 has its own song - by the Stooges - "now I'm gonna be 22, I say, poor me and boo-hoo." 1979 is recalled wistfully in a song by the Smashing Pumpkins, who remember something ... 1999 too - Prince was anticipating an exemplary party.
1989 has no song. The passage of time and blurred hindsight has cast the .80s in a cathode ray glow where geometrical haircuts and clothing blend with booming electronic drums in one long Safety Dance. But by 1989, the blush, faint in even the best of times, was decidedly off the MTV-era rose. And if the thought of late period Genesis and hair metal power balladry induces a particularly prolonged shudder, it should be noted that the music underground was at a crossroads as well. Husker Du, Big Black, and The Birthday Party were all long gone. The Butthole Surfers, Killdozer, and, arguably, Sonic Youth, were heading into career lulls or getting ready to disappear completely.
Into the void and vortex stepped the Jesus Lizard, a largely unknown and not easily categorized quantity who would, in time, do their best to represent, for better and for worse, the full breadth of the American experience in the early 90s. Deep in the pancreas of Texas, a guitarist named Duane Denison had begun breaking down a large chunk of the history of music into its most primal, indispensible components, and preparing it for some kind of unforgiving delivery to a live rock audience. Reaching out for collaboration, Denison took the unlikely step in 1988 of roping in Austin compatriot David Yow to play bass on his fledgling compositions. Yow was well known in underground circles as the lead singer of Scratch Acid, a highly regarded and corrosive alternative to the jangly folk rock then pervasive in Austin. But Yow was a man of modest instrumental gifts. He eventually suggested Denison enlist Yow's Scratch Acid bandmate David Sims instead - a player
of substantially greater musical ability, who 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.
presents
The Jesus Lizard
Tuesday September 22.
Button Factory
Doors 7.30 (early show)
Tickets €24 From Road, Sound Cellar, Spindizzy, City Discs & online at www.tickets.ie/umack
www.myspace.com/thejesuslizardpage
www.myspace.com/umackproductions
The reformed Jesus Lizard are coming to Dublin! Don't miss this chance to see one of the best live bands of all time.
THE JESUS LIZARD
1969 has its own song - by the Stooges - "now I'm gonna be 22, I say, poor me and boo-hoo." 1979 is recalled wistfully in a song by the Smashing Pumpkins, who remember something ... 1999 too - Prince was anticipating an exemplary party.
1989 has no song. The passage of time and blurred hindsight has cast the .80s in a cathode ray glow where geometrical haircuts and clothing blend with booming electronic drums in one long Safety Dance. But by 1989, the blush, faint in even the best of times, was decidedly off the MTV-era rose. And if the thought of late period Genesis and hair metal power balladry induces a particularly prolonged shudder, it should be noted that the music underground was at a crossroads as well. Husker Du, Big Black, and The Birthday Party were all long gone. The Butthole Surfers, Killdozer, and, arguably, Sonic Youth, were heading into career lulls or getting ready to disappear completely.
Into the void and vortex stepped the Jesus Lizard, a largely unknown and not easily categorized quantity who would, in time, do their best to represent, for better and for worse, the full breadth of the American experience in the early 90s. Deep in the pancreas of Texas, a guitarist named Duane Denison had begun breaking down a large chunk of the history of music into its most primal, indispensible components, and preparing it for some kind of unforgiving delivery to a live rock audience. Reaching out for collaboration, Denison took the unlikely step in 1988 of roping in Austin compatriot David Yow to play bass on his fledgling compositions. Yow was well known in underground circles as the lead singer of Scratch Acid, a highly regarded and corrosive alternative to the jangly folk rock then pervasive in Austin. But Yow was a man of modest instrumental gifts. He eventually suggested Denison enlist Yow's Scratch Acid bandmate David Sims instead - a player
of substantially greater musical ability, who 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.
