Disciples of Alternative Rock Rejoice The Jesus Lizard Is Reborn

The Jesus Lizard returnAfter disbanding in 1999, alt-rock monsters The Jesus Lizard are reuniting for a series of dates in 2009 including the Pitchfork Music Festival at Union Park in Chicago July 17th – their first hometown gig in eleven years. What’s more the band’s full lineup, consisting of David Yow, Duane Denison, David Wm. Sims, and Mac McNeilly will be back to wreak musical havoc to the sordid delight of those in the know.

Jesus Lizard is the unsung evil step twin, musically speaking, of The Pixies; wrapping devilishly rich poetry loaded with acerbic wit and grim post-modern fairy tales around a taut, sinewy and often sparse rock arrangements. They will share the opening night bill for the Chicago music fest with other 90’s alternative faves Tortoise, Built To Spill and Yo La Tengo. The gimmick here is not that Kurt Cobain will be exhumed for the encore but that each of the bands will play a set handpicked by fans. One can only hope that the band is asked to play such devilish leids as More Beautiful Than Barbie and Too Bad About The Fire from their album SHOT.

For whatever reason Touch and Go is re-issuing much of the band’s back catalog. Maybe it’s out of print or time for new cover art, or time to unload some bootlegs – likely nothing that can’t already be found online, but hey, if it puts some change back in the band’s pockets, then it can only be a good thing.

Jesus Lizard, Girls Against Boys, Dirty Three, Shellac – let’s hope the pendulum keeps swinging in this direction so that it can introduce a new generation to an amazing era that flew too far below the radar.



Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.