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No Sonic Youth-like whirlwinds or Slint-like minimalisms. The Jesus Lizard, rising from the ashes of Rapeman and Scratch Acid, formed in Chicago in 1988. The insane imbalance of David Yow and the tight rhythm provided by bassist David Sims and drummer Duane Denison create a fearsome lineup. The faithful Steve Albini produced all their albums from 1988 to 1994 (the band's golden period), and drummer Mac McNeilly joined the group with "Head," as they initially used a drum machine, in Big Black style.
They debuted in 1989 with the absence, indeed, of a real drummer, but bassist Sims "delights" us with his desecrating artwork featured as the EP cover. The trio was ready and excited (especially Yow) to spew out a damn sound that would even stun Kurt Cobain. The band is one of his favorites (and I also heard he loved "Red" by King Crimson too much...), and so, in just three minutes, the Jesus Lizard became part of the great and noisy American scene.
This time span, of course, is the opener "Blockbuster." They launch for twenty seconds a bass riff tinged with feedback, and we immediately become aware of the "voice" of the "new" David Yow. You instantly sense a "dark" project when caught in this crazy sonic black hole. The dirty, shrill, and dissonant guitar is the sound that will be the trademark of the colossal "Goat" and the rest of their career. A lesson thoroughly learned by a certain Capovilla and his various "dimensional theater men"... On January 8, the debut of Bunuel (Capovilla, Valente, Iriondo, and Eugene Robinson of Oxbow!.. the first single "This Love" is a thousand-speed panzer) will be released.
Returning to "Pure," we face the second track: already a masterpiece. "Bloody Mary," with its stumbling start of drum machine, where we immediately bask in Denison's note litany, we're in front of Yow's true expression. Desolation exploding in the chorus' scream, tacitly suppressed by David's fear-laden mumbling. Two minutes of blackout, one hundred and twenty seconds of high school for future generations. Reflective pauses, obsessive torments, and frantic accents. A life spent in haste, which fades out with the icy "Rabid Pigs." They give space to the instruments, letting the strings speak. A picturesque noisiness, yet nothing more expressive, realistic.
This persists with "Starlet," an instrumental where Yow struggles, croaking in the blindest uproar. You remain still, floundering in the dark, without a destination and without a God, with the chilling neurotic watercolor of "Happy Bunny Goes Fluff-Fluff Along."
This seemingly unstable and ruleless world will quickly take shape instead. They will become an institution with "Goat" and subsequently self-destruct little by little. Because they are real, stupid, human.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Blockbuster (00:00)
Your first mistake was to think you could fuck with the ranch
Here I come, here I come, with my dick in my hand
Do you think you'd like to have a blockbuster up your ass
Do you think you'd like that, well do ya motherfucker
Do ya, motherfucker
Do ya
We'll smash your eggs and then your head and we'll nab your kids
Take 'em outback on the deck and barbeque their ribs
Throw their heads into your ivy, water them with piss
Do you think you'd like that, well do ya motherfucker
Do ya, motherfucker
Do ya
Your first mistake was to think you could fuck with the ranch
Here I come, here I come, with my dick in my hand
Do you think you'd like to have a blockbuster up your ass
Do you think you'd like that, well do ya motherfucker
Do ya, motherfucker
Do ya, motherfucker
Do ya, motherfucker
Do ya
02 Bloody Mary (00:00)
She sits in a tub and relives, stories she never lived
And it makes me feel blank, it makes me feel blank like I missed
Lies in a bath with no water, and a bath full of blood
How happy are ya, to be alive
MARY, MARY, MARY, MARY
GET OUT
It makes me feel blank, it makes me feel blank like I missed
Read the words she wrote, she never lived
Lies in a tub with no water and a bath full of blood
How happy are ya, to be alive
MARY, MARY, MARY, MARY
03 Rabid Pigs (00:00)
Two sweaty sows, quick means to bad ends
I think they think they're smart, I think they think they think
Big pig and little pig, they're dumb as fuck
You can't expect too much from two braindead brickheads
They got no reaction time, they can't seem to duck
So we kick their ugly snouts in, kick their ugly snouts in, kick their ugly
The rotten pigs, wallow in the scum
The time has come to shut them down
But they've chewed off, more than they could chew
They're makin' babies, why do they reproduce
She's got her pack, a piglet papoose
They thrown grenaades, I pull the pins and throw them back and
Blow their fuckin' heads off, blow their fuckin' heads off, blow their ugly
(some incoherent talking)
04 Starlet (00:00)
The wood was ?? (engraved), oh when I get home
He's stealing my shit, oh
There was that house, why is there blood in my hand (incoherent talking afterwards)
Where, where, where did he go, oh where are you goin'
Where did you go, why is there blood on my clothes, without her clothes
I'd like, I'd like your home, there's blood on my sock
Oh, why do I thank the heaven (think they have him) why do I, why do I
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