The Jesus Lizard

Bang (Touch & Go)
by Craig Regala

Well, it looks like The Jesus Lizard is done. A ten year run’s pretty good for an uncommercial rock band; some last longer, but not as full-on touring units (as these guys were). Bang collects about an hour’s worth of singles and a couple unreleased strokes. What’s to say? This is a good listen and an easy way to get an overview of their pumping adrenaline power and slurred and tweaked lyrical/vocal approach. As it’s on T&G, the material germinates from their tenure with them. With the basic guitar/drums/bass/vocals rock set up, they jammed together a viseral thing that existed in some sorta rockist prog-punk that didn’t subscumb to the pitfalls of either side of the hyphen. Consider the three bands they chose to cover on this disc: Trio (minimalist absurdo-pop), The Dicks (jacked-up, big-bellied blues punk), and Chrome (early entry in the underground weirdo rock – proto “industrial” but go easy on ‘m). They sent ‘m through the grinder and out they came, tumesent, shiny, and sweating blood, just like their other stuff. I’m glad I got to see ‘m; they were good and distinct. That’s about all you can ask for.
(www.touchandgorecords.com)