Sasha Frere-Jones On Jesus Lizard

“The action in Jesus Lizard songs is in the contrast between the tight, regular grid that the three players create and the way Yow jumps all over it. As a singer, he’s not much interested in melody; rather, he acts like a storyteller who has just arrived, out of breath and perhaps drunk, with the need to tell us something unsettling. Over the course of six studio albums and three EPs, Yow screamed, moaned, spat, hollered, and barked-it’s hard to find anything on them as pedestrian as singing. The lyrics are unwholesome.”