Pitchfork

"Bless me Father, for I have sinned. It has been, uh, a really long time since my last confession."

"Why have you taken so long to confess, my son?"

"Um... because, well, I'm not really Catholic. But I do have shame in my heart for something I did and I need to talk to someone about it."

"Very well, then."

"It's about the Jesus Lizard's new album, Blue. You see, for as long as the Jesus Lizard have been around, I've never really gotten around to listening to any their stuff. So I finally picked up Blue, but I feel ashamed for listening to one of their major- label albums first."

"I see. But did you enjoy the album?"

"Yeah, I generally liked it. It's hard to imagine such a horribly unmarketable band on a major label like Capitol. I mean, David Yow doesn't sing so much as spew bilgewater-- he sounds like a genuinely scary person, like a crazy bum with a rusty knife and his pants at his knees. The general atmosphere he brings to the proceedings is something along the lines of a low- life David Lynch-- Blue Velvet for ultra- urban scum.

"The rest of the band is really tight, though. Duane Denison sounds like Jon Spencer being electrocuted by his amp, spastic and twisted but still kinda rooted in malevolent, sticky blues. And David Sims and James Kimball are an excellent rhythm section, delving into evil jazz and pummeling rock rhythms with equal ease. Part of my problem, though, is that I tend to hear in the Jesus Lizard the other bands that have ripped off parts of their sound."

"Such as?"

"Well, you can totally hear how Nirvana wrote "Milk It"-- Kurt's slurred vocal delivery on that song, and most of his other songs as well, is lifted directly from Yow. And, this might be a new development in their songwriting, but "Needles For Teeth" has enough dancey propulsiveness to be a Garbage tune."

"I understand where you're coming from, my son, but you have to realize that the Jesus Lizard wasn't always that accessible. Their early Touch & Go albums were noisier than anything you'll find on Blue."

"That might not be too bad. You see, I kind of expected the Jesus Lizard to be a lot louder and more aggressive, so naturally I liked the more aggressive tracks on Blue, like the semi- automatic thud of "I Can Learn," "Cold Water" and "Postcoital Glow," full- throttle rockers injected with a truly malicious prescence."

"Do you think you might want to seek out some of their earlier albums because of your exposure to Blue?"

"Oh, definitely. If only to see how they've changed over the years."

"Well, my son, it doesn't sound like you've sinned; as long as an album like Blue interests you enough in a band for you to listen to their other albums, there's nothing wrong with that."

"But what if I still like Blue better than their earlier stuff after having heard it?"

"Enjoying a band's later material more than their earlier material is a venial sin. Come on, everyone knows that a band's old stuff is always better. Don't be such a lame-o."

"Oh. Uh, well, okay then."