Since I just reviewed Big Black (see my review of Big Black - Atomizer here), I thought it would be appropriate to review another highly influential noise rock band, The Jesus Lizard. The Jesus Lizard is strongly influenced by Big Black, especially because Steve Albini, the ex frontman of Big Black, is their recording engineer. I think "recording engineer" is a title Albini made up, but it's basically the same thing as a producer. According to him, the difference is recording engineers solve problems in capturing sound, while letting the artist have complete control; on the other hand producers will often take control and ruin records. The Jesus Lizard's music often features a mix of low rolling guitars and bass, harsh shrieking guitars, slow drums, and weird shouted muffled vocals.
It's kind of hard to tell, but the cover of Goat is a naked woman with some image projected on her. To be honest, I'm not a fan of this cover, it's a bit boring and for a while I couldn't tell what it was a picture of.
My favorite songs on this album are "Then Comes Dudley," "Mouth Breather," "Nub," and "Karpis." The lyrics of "Then Comes Dudley" and "Mouth Breather" tell strange anecdotes. These anecdotes are a bit hard to summarize, so I wont get into it here.
When I first decided to listen to this album, I heard "Here Comes Dudley," and immediately was interested. I was like "man this is weird, I should check these guys out." First of all, "Then Comes Dudley" is a weird name, it sounds like the name of a sitcom. Secondly the music on this song is weird too. The song starts with a screechy guitar and a loud bass in the background, then after a while the guitar suddenly stops and muffled vocals start, "That woman's crazy!" My favorite part of this song is when he says "Dudley," he says it in a goofy, kind of fake spooky voice. This songs choirs also features the muffled vocals and a loud guitar, which overpowers them, which I liked and thought was pretty interesting.
"Mouth Breather" I mostly like because I think the lyrics are pretty funny. They go, "don't get me wrong, he's a nice, I like him just fine, but he's a mouth breather." I guess the narrator just really doesn't like mouth breathers. There isn't really much else to say about this song, but it also features similar vocals and guitars to "Then Comes Dudley".
Ok, here's my favorite song on the album, "Nub." The lyrics on this one are pretty straightforward, they are about someone who lost their arm, but what's interesting is the singer repeats the lyrics twice, once in English and once in Spanish. The thing I like most about this song is the guitars. During the song, the guitarist plays what sounds like a slide guitar. The sound of the slide guitar creates this really cool melody which results in a cool song that is really fun to listen to.
The last of my favorite songs is "Karpis." The lyrics of this song aren't as straightforward as "Nub," but aren't as hard to interpret as "Then Comes Dudley" or "Mouth Breather." I think this song is about prison rape. This song is cool because of the awesome guitar riffs and the unique vocals and lyrics. The singer does this yodel singing thing when he says "Alvin's feeling randy and ready to roll!" and he shouts "NO! NO! NO! YES! NO! NO NO!" for the chorus which is pretty catchy and results in a very memorable song.
Even though I don't think this was quite as good as Big Black (See my review of Big Black - Atomizer here), from which The Jesus Lizard got much of their inspiration, this album is definitely worth checking out.
It's kind of hard to tell, but the cover of Goat is a naked woman with some image projected on her. To be honest, I'm not a fan of this cover, it's a bit boring and for a while I couldn't tell what it was a picture of.
My favorite songs on this album are "Then Comes Dudley," "Mouth Breather," "Nub," and "Karpis." The lyrics of "Then Comes Dudley" and "Mouth Breather" tell strange anecdotes. These anecdotes are a bit hard to summarize, so I wont get into it here.
When I first decided to listen to this album, I heard "Here Comes Dudley," and immediately was interested. I was like "man this is weird, I should check these guys out." First of all, "Then Comes Dudley" is a weird name, it sounds like the name of a sitcom. Secondly the music on this song is weird too. The song starts with a screechy guitar and a loud bass in the background, then after a while the guitar suddenly stops and muffled vocals start, "That woman's crazy!" My favorite part of this song is when he says "Dudley," he says it in a goofy, kind of fake spooky voice. This songs choirs also features the muffled vocals and a loud guitar, which overpowers them, which I liked and thought was pretty interesting.
"Mouth Breather" I mostly like because I think the lyrics are pretty funny. They go, "don't get me wrong, he's a nice, I like him just fine, but he's a mouth breather." I guess the narrator just really doesn't like mouth breathers. There isn't really much else to say about this song, but it also features similar vocals and guitars to "Then Comes Dudley".
Ok, here's my favorite song on the album, "Nub." The lyrics on this one are pretty straightforward, they are about someone who lost their arm, but what's interesting is the singer repeats the lyrics twice, once in English and once in Spanish. The thing I like most about this song is the guitars. During the song, the guitarist plays what sounds like a slide guitar. The sound of the slide guitar creates this really cool melody which results in a cool song that is really fun to listen to.
The last of my favorite songs is "Karpis." The lyrics of this song aren't as straightforward as "Nub," but aren't as hard to interpret as "Then Comes Dudley" or "Mouth Breather." I think this song is about prison rape. This song is cool because of the awesome guitar riffs and the unique vocals and lyrics. The singer does this yodel singing thing when he says "Alvin's feeling randy and ready to roll!" and he shouts "NO! NO! NO! YES! NO! NO NO!" for the chorus which is pretty catchy and results in a very memorable song.
Even though I don't think this was quite as good as Big Black (See my review of Big Black - Atomizer here), from which The Jesus Lizard got much of their inspiration, this album is definitely worth checking out.
The Jesus Lizard - Goat
1.) Then Comes Dudley
2.) Mouth Breather
3.) Nub
4.) Seasick
5.) Monkey Trick
6.) Karpis
7.) South Mouth
8.) Lady Shoes
9.) Rodeo in Love
Note: This album was re-released with additional tracks, which I am not reviewing here, but are available to listen to on the Spotify page I linked to.
Note: This album was re-released with additional tracks, which I am not reviewing here, but are available to listen to on the Spotify page I linked to.
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