THE JESUS LIZARD MAKES SOME NOISE
NESTLED AMONG THE VARIOUS POP, ELECTRONIC, HIP-HOP AND EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC AT DAY FOR NIGHT ARE A PAIR OF SURVIVORS. ONE IS HEADLINER NINE INCH NAILS, WHICH ERUPTED FROM THE ’80S UNDERGROUND WITH A PARTICULAR PLAY ON INDUSTRIAL ROCK TO BECOME ONE OF THE BI
The other is the Jesus Lizard, which formed out of the beloved ’80s postpunk band Scratch Acid to become an influential noise-rock band in the same decade. The Jesus Lizard — singer David Yow, guitarist Duane Denison, bassist David William Sims and drummer Mac McNeilly — gurgled and grated out of Austin before settling in Chicago to make six albums too committed to an unnerving abrasiveness to ever cross over like Nirvana did.
But those albums, bearing one-word titles — particularly “Head” (1990) “Goat” (1991) and “Liar” (1992) — have aged remarkably well, particularly because their externalized chaotic sound feels less tied to an era than the internalized mopiness of grunge.
After splitting in 1999, the group pulled together for some reunion shows in 2008 and then went quiet again. Their Sunday evening set at Day for Night is part of the band’s first tour in eight years. Yow talked some about the group’s history and his affinity for a particularly beloved Texas music icon.
Q: Your music was the first reference I’d heard to “mouth breather.” Did you know that its use as a pejorative dates back to 1944?
A: I did not. That song is about an old friend who was house-sitting for (producer) Steve Albini. A lot of things got (expletive) up while he was keeping an eye on Steve’s house. So Steve was talking to us about all the catastrophes that had happened. He said, “Don’t get me wrong, he’s a nice guy. But he’s a mouth breather.”
Q: Jesus Lizard is very much tied to Chicago, but your roots — first with Scratch Acid — were in Austin. Did you feel uncomfortable playing your music there?
A: Um, I mean, all of us were in this Austin punk scene, and we never felt very well liked by the normal people there. The college kids didn’t care for us. I don’t know if it was just Austin or things that were going on around the country at that time. But I still feel like Austin and Central Texas had something going on that nobody else did. With the Big Boys, the Dicks, the Butthole Surfers, the Nuns. It was generally more entertaining than the punk rock on the East Coast and the West Coast. I’ve been asked what I attribute that to. And I just don’t know. It wasn’t necessarily the heat. I don’t know what to give credit to for those bands.
Q: The Jesus Lizard is interesting because the entirety of its discography is contained to the ’90s. You’ve resisted making
new music.
A: To do another album to me seems close to impossible. We live in Manhattan, Nashville, Chicago and Los Angeles. We all have busy lives. So no, I can’t imagine doing another record. I can’t imagine making time to write new songs and coordinating everybody to make them good and record them. But you know, I previously said these reunions would never happen. So I’ve had to quit saying “never.”
Q: I feel like I read once Willie Nelson was your favorite songwriter. What do you dig about his work?
A: Golly, I love the sound of his voice. The words he’s written, the music he’s written. He’s an outrageously underrated guitar player. You hear something — whether he’s singing or not — and you know immediately it’s Willie Nelson. That’s enough right there. I never really put him in a country category. I guess it is country. But it’s just as much jazz and folk. It’s just Willie Nelson music. And it was always more contemporary than any straight-up country. I always wanted him and Elvis Costello to do a record together. They’re similar in that they’re both clever and very good at what they do.