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 their 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 right 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, groping and ripping at him, trying to be 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.
The Jesus Lizard Book is a valuable document that brings us back to
the era when artists were conditioned to practice the art of
self-defense.-- "Pitchfork"
The Jesus Lizard 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"
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"
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"
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