I must admit, I like Scratch Acid an incy-bit more than the Jesus Lizard, but that's irrelevant.

I love every album I have of theirs, and I just bought the dvd which is also not crap. I wish I had more of an in-depth and descriptive back-up for my vote, but I do not.

In the most simplest of simplicity, NOT CRAP.

sack of smashed assholes wrote:not crap.
it was a band that definitely grew on me, more and more, with each listen.
I only know of two people around here that have any idea about this band.

my how things have changed. i lived in madison when TJL were in their late heyday (94-98) and believe me it was a spectacle. saw them at the barrymore and even the fucking regent st. retreat (amongst tons of places across the country around then - a roadhouse in dubuque...) - it was rediculous. everyone knew that band. insane sold out shows. i can't believe i hadn't posted in this thread earlier but best band ever.

seriously - when i lived in madison, that town sucked the cock of chicago indie rock - TJL, tar, u.s. maple, shellac, etc. talk to the high noon bartender crowd, they were all around back then in the o'cayz days and will tell great stories of that era. esp killdozer shows... don't get me started on killdozer at o'cayz... fantastic.

i'll admit to my fanboy status - i think i saw TJL 14 or so times live. (and not being a chicago resident then) they were amazing. truly formed the template in my mind for what a live band should be.

so long ago. your user name is from a form of rocket song too right? funny how ben from FOR started this thread (la salle...). before that he was in a band called power of means - my old band ng kindheit played with them at o'cayz back in that era. it was just different back then somehow - or maybe i'm just old now.

Most amazing live band ever. When I saw them, Yow kicked every single person in the room in the ass (with his cowboy boots), put his hands into some guys trousers (trying to stick his finger in the guy´s ass), threw equipment around, dropped his pants/pulled his cock, slapped my face, kissed me on the mouth (which was really disgusting) etc.

It was great. When I told my friends about it next day in school, they couldn´t believe that I had enjoyed this...

nick92675 wrote:

sack of smashed assholes wrote:not crap.
it was a band that definitely grew on me, more and more, with each listen.
I only know of two people around here that have any idea about this band.

my how things have changed. i lived in madison when TJL were in their late heyday (94-98) and believe me it was a spectacle. saw them at the barrymore and even the fucking regent st. retreat (amongst tons of places across the country around then - a roadhouse in dubuque...) - it was rediculous. everyone knew that band. insane sold out shows. i can't believe i hadn't posted in this thread earlier but best band ever.

seriously - when i lived in madison, that town sucked the cock of chicago indie rock - TJL, tar, u.s. maple, shellac, etc. talk to the high noon bartender crowd, they were all around back then in the o'cayz days and will tell great stories of that era. esp killdozer shows... don't get me started on killdozer at o'cayz... fantastic.

i'll admit to my fanboy status - i think i saw TJL 14 or so times live. (and not being a chicago resident then) they were amazing. truly formed the template in my mind for what a live band should be.

so long ago. your user name is from a form of rocket song too right? funny how ben from FOR started this thread (la salle...). before that he was in a band called power of means - my old band ng kindheit played with them at o'cayz back in that era. it was just different back then somehow - or maybe i'm just old now.

I was at the Barrymore show and the Roadhouse show. At the Roadhouse show they opened with "Puss", the place went apeshit, pure awesomeness, never saw or have seen anything like it. Anyway, they made living in Northeast Iowa bearable during the early 90's. I recall listening to Goat a until the tape actually wore out. Anyway, NOT CRAP, and Salut! Nick! For the memories.

- Jeremy

How could 5 people vote crap?

TJL was the second best band on earth, just after Shellac.

i hated them at first. then i heard slave ship.

holmes wrote:i hated them at first. then i heard slave ship.

That song is pretty amazing. One of their best, in my opinion.

Seeing them at CBGB (back when it was a good place to see shows, not the place it became) always meant two things:

Getting a pair of glasses broken and sustaining some sort of injury, no matter how far away from the crowd I stood.

Eventually, I was able to switch to contacts.

From the 'Most Disappointing Bands Thread', Aug 18th 06:

Isabelle Gall wrote:Despite owning four of their albums, a bunch of singles, and even seeing them live, I have no choice but to arrive at the conclusion that I was, and remain, immensely disappointed by The Jesus Lizard. I tried, tried again, tried thrice to like this band, and I just don't get it. Sorry.
They're far from crap, and it's difficult to think of a more impressive guitar/bass/drums trio than Denison/Sims/McNeilly-no doubt whatsoever that they're absolutely incredible musicians. It's simply very frustrating to me that a band of this calibre could be lacking in the mysterious quantity of 'greatness'...I hear this unbelievable sound which communicates absolutely nothing to me. I confess that i've never heard 'Goat', would I find it there? 'Liar' was impressive to me, but only like a dragster or a porn star's fucking technique.

From the 'Bands That Would Have Been Better W/ No Singing' thread, April 26th 07:

Isabelle Gall wrote:

Andrew L. wrote:
Yow trivialized their music with his hokey clown act. He blustered his way through every song with the same meaningless schtick and as a consequence all their songs 'feel' vey similar.

It's not that he couldn't sing. 'All my favorite singers can't sing.' It's that every song sets the same mood because of him. And it's not a mood that runs very deep. It's superficial and already sounds dated. This band hasn't aged well for me because of the vocals.

I would listen to this band much more, and take much more from the music if it weren't for the groggy-voiced 'crazy guy' shrieking about nothing all the time.

Excellent post, which I agree with 100%. I did see TJL live too, by the way.

Yow always sounded as if he's nothing more than vaguely 'angry' with his own ineffectuality to be anything other than vaguely or ineffectually anything. If that sounds mean, i'm sorry. I'm sure all you Jesus Lizard fans are really big, tough pussyfucking guys who can more than take it. I invested a lot of time and money in this band, and the results were entirely joyless (albeit with incredible drums and bass playing).

I've cut and pasted the above here as I wanted to demonstrate that I have taken very careful consideration into deciding whether TJL are indeed crap/not crap, largely because something akin to a Rolls-Royce with the 'flying lady' sawn-off and replaced with a plastic Ronald McDonald from a Happy Meal is difficult to register on the Awesome/Bullshit-O-Meter and, also y'know, isn't a Rolls-Royce impressive on one level but entirely meaningless on another? I called them 'far from crap' above, maybe disingenuously...in any case they seem not so far from crap to me now.

Whatever, it genuinely aggravates the piss out of me to see such a wonderful and intelligent group of people endlessly venerating this band en masse. So, David Yow, don't get me wrong he's a nice guy, I like him just fine.

But he's crap.

That's the way I see it Barry.

Sly Bug wrote:How could 5 people vote crap?

TJL was the second best band on earth, just after Shellac.

I'm sorry, Sylvain, but this is just bullshit.

shellac is absolutely nowhere near how good Jesus Lizard were live. never have been. Not once in the nine times I've sat through shellac have they even come within sniffing distance of the worst Jesus Lizard show I've seen.

now Brainiac on the other hand.....