Eels - A Line In the Dirt

Cacking Hell! Another Eels album already? I'm not complaining, just wary of E wandering into Frank Black/Black Francis territory. Thankfully, new album End Times at least distinguishes itself thematically from 2009's Hombre Lobo. But that's another story for the Guardian and NME. I want to talk about the first single taken from the album.



The record is officially released in the UK on 1st March, but eager beavers can snap it up at the Eels' online store right now. Artwork comes from Adrian Tomine, who has wonderfully rendered Eels main man E to match the stylings of the End Times artwork. The whole package is a pretty nice deal since this thing actually has a spine like an LP, and an inner sleeve; a really pleasing if somewhat unnecessary touch.

'A Line in the Dirt' continues the bizarre Eels trend started on 'My Timing is Off' of producing a video and heavily promoting a song before doing a total u-turn and sticking it on the B-side and using some other album track as the A-side.

'Little Bird' has been around on the Eels' website for a few months now as a free download and even made AOL Music's list of the best 25 songs of 2009 (a truly wild and unfathomable list!) Here's the video:





The song is immediately recognisable as classic Eels; a quiet, pretty reflection on lost love, hinging on a husky "God damn" from the world-weary E. Although familiar, the song has enough sincerity to make it stand aside from other similarly beautiful-but-broken moments from Blinking Lights and Other Revelations and older favourites like 'It's a Motherfucker'.

Eels have also produced videos for End Times tracks 'In My Younger Days' and 'Unhinged', so it's not clear at all as to why 'A Line in the Dirt' has leap-frogged all these songs to end up as the first (and likely only) single from the album. Maybe simply because it's just that good?

The track opens with the same piano chords as 'Manchester Girl'; an early Eels song that I would place in my top five all-time favourite Eels tracks, and treads the same maudlin path, although going on to encompass a restrained, subtly uplifting brass section. The choruses are delicate - E adopting the high, slightly strained vocal approach he uses to such fractured effect (think 'Selective Memory' from Daisies of the Galaxy).

This is great single with two top-notch tracks, presented here as the cream of End Times in a thoughtfully-produced package. Not much to offer the listener who already owns the album, but still worth getting hold of in my opinion if you are a fan of this man's work. There is just something so much better about listening to these songs on an old beat-up record player than on a shiny new iPod. Still, if you must you can get 'Little Bird' as a free download here.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Sweet N Sour

Third and final in my unplanned trilogy of Pussy Galore-related reviews is The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's 'Sweet N Sour', released 24th June 2002.

The track was the second single from 2002's Plastic Fang, an album that found the raucous rock 'n' roll revivalist sound of JSBX sounding increasingly hollow and cliched. By this point in the band's career they sounded like they were flogging a dead horse. The act was always more about style and attitude over substance, but here the songs, and Spencer's vocals particularly, sound like a pastiche, sans the irony, and do little to set themselves aside from their already vast back catalogue of samey material. For me, JSBX begins and ends with 'Blues X Man' and once you've heard and loved that all that's left is album upon album of songs that are similar but not quite as good.

All that said, 'Sweet N Sour' isn't a bad track. If I'd never had heard a rock 'n' roll song before I'd have said this was brilliant, but as it is, this comes across at best as a novelty or at worst a tired retread. The video is HOT though, produced by Swedish collective StyleWar:





This type of music usually lends itself better to the live experience (how good can shaking, sweaty RnR be in the confines of your home?) and I remember seeing a smoking performance on Later with Jools Holland, memorable not only for Jools' piano accompaniment, but for Spencer stomping all over said piano. You just can't capture this stuff on disc:





The artwork ties in to the concept of the Plastic Fang album, with all design by Chip Kidd. Kidd is a pretty big name in graphic and sleeve design (particularly books) and has used his success in this field to manoeuvre himself into music and writing. There's nothing that special about the imagery on show here; just some pretty cool retro graphics inspired by 60s comic-books and B-movies that match the Blues Explosion's punkabilly/rock 'n' roll throwback aesthetic well.



The B-side is a live version of 'Shakin' Rock 'n' Roll Tonight' (the album version later becoming the third and final single from Plastic Fang) that was recorded during a session for Dutch radio station VPRO on 9th February 2002. From what I've said above you can probably already infer what I think about this one. Let's just say it's better than the album version and call it a day!

Ween - Even If You Don't

I don't really know that much about Ween, other than that they are wearers of many a musical hat. This one finds them in super-polished radio-friendly pop mode, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, and seems to be the prevailing concern for their White Pepper album, from which this is taken.

The problem is, the song itself doesn't cut the mustard. It's quite sweet and catchy, and reminds me a lot of Paul McCartney; but just as a lot of his solo work misses the mark, so does 'Even If You Don't'. It just isn't that interesting. It is a grower, though, so check out the video directed by Trey Parker and if you don't like it the first time, give it another go!



To me, the B-side has always been more interesting. Whenever I've pulled this record out in the past it's been 'cos I wanted to get me some o' that Cornbread Red. 'Cornbread Red' isn't going to blow your mind, but it's a nice little ditty with violin, and that refrain of "Cornbread, cornbread red, all that cornbread goin' to your head," has a way of lodging itself in your brain for days. It's a chugging, twangy country jangle that certainly wouldn't be out of place on their 12 Golden Country Greats album.

The CD edition of this single also included a dub mix of 'Cornbread Red', which adds psychedelic elements to the track, sounding like a Beck outtake or even mid-80s Butthole Surfers. But was the CD coloured translucent green!? I think not!

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Weeping Song

I like it when an A-side has one particular B-side and that is that. The big, chart-bound radio-friendly song, twinned with its strange half-brother that was deemed too weird and wiry for mainstream album consumption. No juggling tracks about or sticking live versions or remixes on there; the two songs are to remain forever associated. The songs, though different in nature, complement each other, forming a one-two punch. And that's what we have here with 'The Weeping Song' and 'Cocks 'n' Asses'.

I'm very underwhelmed by the sleeve of the record. The cover has Cave and Blixa Bargeld sat in a boat under the moon. Bit Echo-y. Nothing wrong with that, but it's pretty naff and well-charted territory. The thing is, it's not a very good photo. I'm sure there must have been better pictures from the session. I mean, Cave is all kind of stooped and hunched up like a shitting monkey and appears to have been caught mid-sentence.

As seems the norm with other Bad Seeds releases of the 80s and early 90s there's some shoddy design work, with the band logo lazily slapped on top of the snap with 'The Weeping Song' in some kind of Sunday papers women's magazine supplement typeface.

'The Weeping Song' is a highlight of The Good Son. Like most of that album it moves away from the intense and visceral sound of previous album Tender Prey and concentrates on creating a delicately mournful song. Notably, Blixa Bargeld shares vocal duty with Cave in the role of the 'Father' answering his son's questions on the nature of human sorrow.

The title of 'Cocks 'n' Asses' is a wilfully puerile pun; the song is replete with samples of cockerels clucking and hee-hawing donkeys. It has the unenviable distinction of being earmarked by fans as one of, if not the, worst Nick Cave B-sides. A shame, as it's not really quite like anything else in the Bad Seeds' repertoire; a mostly instrumental drum-machine lead track sounding like a catchier Throbbing Gristle. The song seems to be improvised, built up around an industrial-lite programmed beat courtesy of producer/engineer Victor Van Vugt. Cave adds some hypnotically rhythmical piano, both doom-laden and bouncy and this continues throughout, making for a pretty odd vibe. He also mumbles and murmurs in spectral fashion. Layers of samples and guitar are built up gradually by Mick Harvey and some string synths get thrown in for good measure. The whole thing trips along for a few minutes and then ends in a blast of rapturous applause. I think it would be fair to say that the song doesn't really go anywhere and do anything much, which I suppose is a pitfall of improvised music, but while it's on I find it an enjoyable and creepy little song. Not every Nick Cave track has to be an epic exploration of the darker side of the human condition!

'Cocks 'n' Asses' was included on the 2005 compilation B-Sides and Rarities.

Black Francis - Threshold Apprehension

This one goes THRESHOLD APPREHENSION! THRESHOLD THRESHOLD THRESHOLD THRESHOLD THRESHOLD THRESHOLD THRESHOLD THRESHOLD which is quite good fun. Then a female voice goes Threshold Apprehension oo-ee-oo-ee-oo-ee-oo-ee-oo-ee-oo-ee-oh-ee-oh-ee-oh-ee-oh-ee-oh-ee-oh-ee-oh in her best mock-Kim Deal tones. And I guess therein lies the justification for Mr. Charles Thompson to revert to his old Black Francis psuedonym. It just about makes sense on this track which has the old Pixies vibe and the backing vocals and Black Francis kind of screaming and all that, but a lot of the other songs on the album this is from can't really be distinguished from Frank Black stuff. So, the past few years Frank Black has been getting more country-fied and folky, but if you stood most of Bluefinger against late-90s Frank Black you wouldn't detect a huge departure. Maybe after the Pixies reunion Thompson just realised that Black Francis is a far more marketable name?



One thing this certainly has in common with previous Frank Black releases is the underwhelming artwork, a trend begun in 1996 on the 'so bad it isn't quite good, but is certainly quirky and interesting' The Cult of Ray; continuing on 1998's 'computer graphics from the Crystal Maze's Aztec zone' Frank Black and the Catholics cover; crystallising on Pistolero's subtle blend of shit photography and amateurish design; and reaching a nadir with Fast Man Raider Man: a bland and over-saturated shot of Frank Black that is truly grim to behold.

God, I'm really giving Frank Black a hard time here. I shouldn't be. I really like him. I feel like I'm one of the few who can claim to be a true fan, and not just a Pixies fan that has a few FB albums. But sometimes he just makes it so hard! Crappy artwork; albums coming at you left, right, and centre; download exclusives etc. It's too much! We were considering starting a campaign in 2003 to preserve Frank Black's legacy by introducing some degree of quality control after he released three full-length studio albums in the space of twelve months and quickly followed that up the next year with Show Me Your Tears. Not that every albums isn't brimming with great songs, it's just that to the uninitiated a lot of them can seem samey and lacklustre and if you collected the best twelve tracks from three years' output and just released that, well Frank Black would have some classic albums on his hands by now. Instead we get Honeycomb, followed quickly by a DOUBLE ALBUM in the same vein and then a live/odd and sods album the next year. It's just too much of a good thing.

Thankfully, the rate seems to have slowed as Black Francis hasn't released anything since the Sevenfingers EP in early 2008, which means I just might have time to go back and fully digest everything. This makes me kind of twitchy, though. I feel like Frank Black is merely biding his time and working away furiously on something huge that will be unleashed when I least suspect it, probably when I have a mountain of other things to do and cannot placate its demands for my time and attention, like in 2002 when we suddenly got two albums on the same day. *



The B-side of this single is 'Get Away Oil' which is exclusive to this disc. Unless you go to Black Francis' official website and download the mp3. But that would ruin the fun, right? This is a cool bluesy rocker with plenty of screaming and Black-Francisy bits. Just as any lazy music journalist would do in this situation where they don't really feel like describing or critiquing a track I'll pull a couple of established bands out of the bag and let you imagine the sounds. So, it's a bit like The Doors meet GG Allin. But only a bit. And not quite that good.

* Okay, I've just found out the Golem film project Black Francis has been working on scoring is going to be released 'soon' and will comprise FOUR discs of music. Egad! It does sound like a beauty: a signed and numbered book with DVD, two CDs comprising the studio score, two more CDs comprising a live performance and other nice deluxe thingies. Sounds like a must-have. Why do you do this to me, Frank Black!?

Eels - My Timing is Off/Fresh Blood

Something is afoot. Something smells funny about the new Eels single.

Basically, this was initially released through iTunes to promote the upcoming Hombre Lobo album, Eels first full studio album since 2005. The tracks were 'Fresh Blood' and 'Devil's Dog'. Whilst I was glad to hear that Britain was getting an actual 7" release, I've been left scratching my head as to why someone has decided to make this a double A-side with 'My Timing is Off', effectively demoting 'Fresh Blood' to the B-side. Both of these tracks are on Hombre Lobo, whereas 'Devil's Dog' is not and now remains solely available as a download.

This record is quite telling of the current music sales market. The CD single has become a redundant format, losing out to the digital download. The thing the CD always had going for it was convenience and now that a more convenient format has come along the CD is going the way of the 8-track! For a tangible release the 7" has become the format of choice, having an inherent value missing from the CD; it's a desirable item for fans and adds a sort of underground kudos to a band's reputation. So, I reckon it could be that it was felt that fans would just buy this record whatever the track listing and that by leaving off 'Devil's Dog' they could entice fans to purchase both 7" and digital download. Sneaky. I'm not quite sure who this mysterious 'they' is, though. Surely not E.

Perhaps it was just felt that 'My Timing is Off' was a better lead single for the UK market? 'Fresh Blood' is pretty raucous and perhaps not fit for our frail British hearts and milky livers. The track (and video) find Eels leader E in the guise of 'Hombre Lobo'; the 'Dog-Faced Boy' all grown up and living a predatory existence on the fringes of a society that has snubbed him. As E says, "I wrote a song a few years ago called 'I Want to Protect You' that was about wanting to protect someone from the wolves. Now I am the wolf."

The song is in the vein of the hard-rocking Souljacker album - 'Teenage Witch' particularly springs to mind, although it is very different to anything already in the Eels repertoire. 'Fresh Blood' builds on the grimy, slow grumble of the bass to a hypnotic chorus full of intrigue courtesy of some creepy electronics and shuddering guitar work. Twinned with the video this a very noir affair.



The artwork for the record is a photo that looks like it may have been taken when they were shooting the video. E's beard is even bigger than in the Souljacker days and that's saying something!





'My Timing is Off' is a more typical Eels song: wistful and tender, but with an upbeat tempo. It's the kind of song you'd find on Daisies of the Galaxy, although it lacks the fragility of a lot of the material on that album and actually comes off more like a poor man's 'Numbered Days' or 'Somebody Loves You' from Shootenanny: both fine songs, but not that memorable. It's a nice enough song while it's on, but does little to differentiate itself from a dozen other similar Eels songs.

Anyway, 'Fresh Blood' has certainly done enough to whet my appetite for the new album. Hombre Lobo is out on Monday 1st June and the band's official website does a great job of keeping everyone up to date with developments, reviews and promotional appearances the band are doing. But don't go trying to follow them on Twitter:

3/25/2009- EELS TWEET:
Follow EELS on Twitter HERE.

4/24/2009- NO TWITTER FOR EELS:
EELS have abandoned their Twitter account. "The only tweeting I wanna hear is in my backyard. This shit is not for us," says EELS leader E.

I'm surprised they lasted that long on there, to be honest.

The Jesus Lizard - Inch

Well, I saw The Jesus Lizard playing last night at the Kentish Town Forum and it was awesome. Great setlist; 'Blockbuster,' 'Gladiator,' 'Boilermaker,' 'Then Comes Dudley,' 'One Evening,' 'Wheelchair Epidemic,' 'Puss,' 'Thumbscrews' and 'Fly On the Wall' were all played. David Yow did most of his crowd-pleasing tricks without it ever feeling forced or insincere, dove into the crowd about half a dozen times and rained down vitriol and manic terror upon London for 90-odd minutes against a backdrop of some of the tightest playing I've ever seen. Vocalist David Yow often takes most of the focus but the rest of the band are all excellent musicians and performers.

Duane Denison's taut and tense guitar is the perfect partner for Yow's vocals, adding anxiety and a heightening sense of alarm. David Sims' commanding stance on stage was a focal point, with the bassist hammering the neck of his guitar forward to deliver some bruising bass lines. Mac wore headphones and his precise, jazz-influenced drumming at times evoked the math rock that has become so prevalent in the intervening years since the band's split.

Not that you didn't already know all of that if you've ever heard a Jesus Lizard record.

Grails and Harvey Milk were the support, which was okay, but a bit disappointing since in an interview with Mark Prindle, David Yow suggested that if there were ever to be a Jesus Lizard reunion then Puss (all-girl Jesus Lizard covers group) and Jazzus Lizard (you can guess) would be the perfect support acts. For shame.

So, I thought it was about time I had a look at this Record Store 7" pack that came out for one day only a few weeks ago. The good news is that Touch and Go have included a download code, so I don't actually have to put these things on a turntable (not that I have a huge issue with that, but I honestly can't break these records out of their robust packaging). The pack is very cool - you can keep it all bundled up with its rubber band on a shelf or you can unfold it all and get a nice display of all the 7" covers to hang on your wall - either way it's a beauty.



So what have we got in here? Well, every 7" that the group released on Touch and Go, remastered by Bob Weston (of Shellac, who was an engineer on the original recordings) and repressed in an edition of 2,000. So, it's pretty much the Bang compilation without the bonus tracks. I think a lot, if not all, of these tracks will end up on the CD album reissues later this year. There's a couple of singles missing that were licensed by Touch and Go for release by other labels, but they're another story.

First up is 'Chrome' from 1989. The track is a medley of two Chrome songs: 'TV as Eyes' and 'Abstract Nympho', both from the 1979 LP Half Machine Lip Moves, which has to be one of the weirdest album titles ever and possibly an influence on Melvins' song titles? (e.g. 'Heater Moves and Eyes'; 'In the Freaktose the Bugs Are Dying'). I actually got to see the Melvins covering 'Chrome' as an encore with David Yow as surprise guest singer. Yow ate a pack of cigarettes. Anyway, The Jesus Lizard make the song their own with a rambunctious and upbeat track that would fit nicely alongside anything on Head or Goat. The B-side is '7 vs. 8' from the Head album. It starts with mid-tempo tom work before kicking into some classic Denison escalating guitar playing that dizzies you before kicking into a noise assault, eventually dying back down into the laborious lurch of the verse. It's quite a nauseating track in the vein of 'Then Comes Dudley' and I mean that in the best possible way.

The second disc is 'Mouth Breather' which originally came out in 1990 just before Goat, from which it is taken. It has the iconic Mickey Mouse bomb cover that went on to become one of the best alternative rock T-shirt designs of the '90s.



This track isn't a favourite of mine as it zips by too fast without having done too much and there are far better tracks on the rests of Goat. However, it’s considered a bit of a classic for the band, so who am I to talk? The B-side is somewhat of an anomaly in the tJL back-catalogue; a cover of song by German Neue Deutshche Welle group Trio. I had a German friend who nearly kicked me out of his car for saying I didn't mind the NDW compilation that was playing on the stereo, such was his loathing of Trio. The song chugs along kind of uneventfully with a seriously understated vocal (a la 'Blockbuster'). It is pretty catchy, but it barely sounds like The Jesus Lizard at all. It’s a piece of new-wave fluff rendered strangely flat and ominous. Curiously enough a further Trio cover was put out on the Bang compilation. Sadly it wasn't 'Da Da Da'.

Next up is 'Puss' which was originally issued as a split single with Nirvana. So, instead of 'Oh, the Guilt' we get a nice B-side of silence. Did I mention this reached no. 12 in the UK charts in 1993? Wow. 'Puss' pretty much seems to be a song about domestic violence, but with no pretence to morality; in fact it's just a catalogue of brutal acts with some amazing double-tracked vocals that trade off each other, making it sound like you walked into a bar where two equally vile and drunken David Yows are jawing at each other, slurring and hurling broken bottles. Scary, compulsive and cool. This was the first song of theirs I heard so it holds a special place in my heart. If you listen to it on your Walkman as I did back in the day the two vocals come through separate headphones just to add to the chaos and terror. Nice touch, Steve Albini. Also, this disc has beautiful artwork courtesy of painter Malcolm Bucknall who also provided equally impressive artwork for Liar and Down.



Next is 'Wheelchair Epidemic', the original issue of which I already wrote about here.

The fifth record is the 'Gladiator' single, originally issued as a one-off giveaway to punters at a gig in London in September 1992 and was never commercially available as far as I'm aware. The photo on the cover is now in colour as opposed to black and white. Finally after all these years we can see what colour shirts the guys were wearing. Glad I didn't die before I got to see that.



'Gladiator' could be the ultimate tJL song; muscular, grinding, tense, demented, complex but with a catchy underlying groove. The finale is intense to say the least. It also has the line "You run the risk of conceiving a bastard." Bliss! If you don't know it you should get yourself a copy of the album Liar. The B-side of this single is a live version of 'Seasick' from the Brixton Academy show on 9th May 1992. The song really lives up to the title as it chugs and lurches away in lurid fashion, hitting you right in the stomach. The band is on top form in this live recording, but it's pretty faithful to the album version.

Discs 6, 7 and 8 cover the Lash EP which was originally released on CD and as a triple 7" pack as a stop-gap between the Liar and Down albums. The first 7" is fantastic as it has two proper non-album songs; 'Glamorous' and 'Deaf as a Bat,' both of which got an airing at last night's show. I always thought it would have faired better as a stand-alone single, so it's nice to have to have it here as a separate disc. Although 'Glamorous' has its moments, it's fairly pedestrian by tJL’s standards and something of a precursor for some of the more unspectacular moments on Down. 'Deaf as a Bat' is a short and fast little ditty, reminiscent of 'Tight 'n' Shiny' from their debut album, but with some garbled vocals on top. It has a nasty attitude, but is lacking teeth, so it doesn't really do it for me.

Discs 7 & 8 I have to say have disappointing artwork. Touch and Go have just taken the panels from the original gatefold sleeve and used them as the covers. Seriously, a few scratches in black paint does not constitute a good cover! The back covers are nicer with photos incorporated into the paintings. Shame there weren't any old Malcolm Bucknall cast-offs hanging around that could have been used!


(Front cover of the 'Bloody Mary' 7" and back cover of 'Lady Shoes' 7")

Anyway, the first of these has two tracks recorded live at a show in Boston in November 1990 (or December depending on which sleeve notes you believe). 'Lady Shoes' has to be one of the sickest songs I ever did hear and this was the version I knew way before I got around to listening to the album version. This totally blew my mind when I heard it. The music, managing to be both foreboding and rollicking plays second fiddle to a jaw-dropping performance by David Yow in which he presents a series of seemingly unrelated and deeply unpleasant and bizarre scenarios populated by a constantly revolving list of perverse characters ("There's a little girl playing a big piano while her mother gives her an enema...and then the Daddy comes in..."). This is littered with examples of David Yow's random shrieks, bellows and other unworldly noises that erupt at random to elicit genuine disgust, horror and morbid fascination. Never has a front man sounded more convincingly terrifying and insane.

Nothing could ever really follow that, but 'Killer McHann' makes a good stab of it (see what I did there. Pretty poor, wasn't it?) This kind of whizzes by in a torrent of reckless abandon and raging vocals, displaying a lot more energy and feeling than the studio version.

7" #8 has two live tracks from the same Brixton show as 'Seasick'. I always thought of 'Bloody Mary' as one of the most Scratch Acid-y songs that The Jesus Lizard did, with Yow adopting a harrowed and pleading vocal delivery on the melancholic verses, before the song explodes into a Big Black-esque pounding chorus. I guess the fact this was written when the group had a drum machine instead of a drummer influenced that. It’s nice to hear it performed by the whole band. The B-side is 'Monkey Trick' which features a seriously indecent bass line. It lumbers along leaving a bad taste in the mouth until the climactic ending with some truly feverish guitar work and Yow sounding like he's trying to cough up a ballcock.

The final record is '(Fly) On (the Wall)' and you've got to love those parentheses! Check out my thoughts on the original issue of this 7” here.

As is the way with many obsessive collectors, I’m not really a big audiophile, so the remastering is lost on me, but I’m loving the packaging! Maybe a few more repeat plays on something better than my mp3 player will shed some light on exactly what tweaking has gone on.

Pure, Head and Goat are all out in September, reissued with bonus tracks. Until then you can keep updated at The Jesus Lizard’s (Official!) Myspace or by checking out David Sims’ blog which has all kind of cool gubbins on it.

The Jesus Lizard - (Fly) On (the Wall)

I’m listening to a lot of The Jesus Lizard in the run up to their London show on Monday, so I thought I’d find time to say a little about this single; ‘(Fly) On (the Wall)’. If we discredit the words set in parentheses then we are to believe this song is merely titled ‘On’. Brilliant.

The track is an earlier alternative version of ‘Fly on the Wall’ from the Down LP. According to the Touch and Go website it was released on 17th January 1994, although it appears there was an earlier green vinyl pressing limited to 1000 released in 1993.

The cover artwork juxtaposes a bizarre upside-down photograph of a bound man impaled on a stake with pictures of fireworks. If I had to hazard a guess then I’d say it was pretty likely that this issued forth from the mind of Mr. David Yow



Side A is a fine example of a mid-tempo Jesus Lizard song. The rhythm section lurches along with dizzying guitar from Duane Denison, leading to a jazzy breakdown. David Yow is a picture of paranoia, drinking to block out the sound of insects in his room (“It’s that fly that’s making me drink so I’ll pass out and sleep through his screaming.”) I can’t hear that huge a difference between this version and the album version. The album version is a little slower. The single version also has double tracked vocals on the choruses that don’t really work that well, cluttering the intensity of the chorus. The Albini treatment on the album version really focuses on that sick groove, emphasising the punch of the bass and kick drum.

Down is generally a very bass-heavy album and has a grimy vibe to it. The songs don’t really grab you at first. It seems to be considered somewhat of a disappointment in many quarters, but I used to consider it my favourite as it was their first album I bought. At the time, as a fourteen-year old Nirvana fan, I found it completely impenetrable, but after putting it away for a few years and discovering Liar something clicked and its full brilliance revealed itself to me. Down is the tar-pit of The Jesus Lizard’s back catalogue: black, bubbling, dense and dangerous. It amazes me to hear even the band speak about it disparagingly. David Yow has hinted at being dissatisfied with the way it was recorded, but in a recent interview with Rock-A-Rolla, Duane Denison defended the record saying “there’s parts of it where the jazz and blues kind of thing comes through a little more, it’s more of a slow-burning intensity.”

The B side of the single is ‘White Hole’ which represents a very much overlooked and under-explored aspect of The Jesus Lizard’s music. Following on from ‘Breaking Up is Hard to Do’ on their debut EP this track goes into the leftfield of more cold and clinical ambient/experimental rock. The track could be said to be a deconstruction of their work, as if the band were playing one of their usual numbers, but it was being distorted and skewed … by having travelled millions of light years through an intergalactic wormhole? Yeah, something like that. It shimmers and chimes while an undistinguishable sound whirls away in the background. A drum beat comes in that is sporadic and jerky, while someone mumbles at a barely detectable level. A searing scream melds into a harsh guitar sound (I think) and then it’s all over. This is evidently what The Jesus Lizard gets up to when there’s no pressure to produce a killer album as they produced a couple of similar tracks on their 1998 stop-gap EP for Jetset Records that were produced by John Cale and Jim O’Rourke. Although it’s pretty quirky and interesting it’s hard to get too excited about a track like this and it’s certainly more of a curiosity than a necessity.

All-in-all, this is a nice disc representing two extremes of The Jesus Lizard’s output. Both tracks were included on the 2000 singles compilation Bang, so go buy yourself a copy!

Roll on, Monday!

The Jesus Lizard - Wheelchair Epidemic

Amidst claims that I only own records by artists beginning with ‘D’ I have dropped my planned discussions of Dio, D:Ream, Dollar and Daniel O’Donnell and will instead be taking a look at The Jesus Lizard in anticipation of their new release on Record Store Day.

2009 is the year of The Jesus Lizard! To celebrate the reissuing of their remastered back catalogue the band have reformed for the first time in 10 years to play a string of dates this summer across the U.S. and Europe.

The first batch of reissues (Pure, Head and Goat: all remastered by original ‘producer’ Steve Albini and Bob Weston of Shellac fame) are due on 22nd September on Touch and Go Records. But, to tide us over until then and to commemorate Record Store Day 2009 Touch and Go are releasing something of a wet dream for this TJL-and-7”-single-loving fan: Inch. Inch is a collection of nine 7” singles, which have all been out of print for years now, all remastered by Bob Weston and presented in a clear vinyl display pack that allows the whole thing to be hung on a wall and frottaged (or just folded up and put away in a box). Here is an artist’s impression:

The downside is there’s only going to be 2000 copies. God knows how many of those will be distributed outside of the U.S. But if there’s a copy to be had, I’ll do my damnedest to get my hands on it. Check out some of the cool stuff in there: the super-rare ‘Gladiator’ single! The overly-long Lash EP! Love The Jesus Lizard, but balk at the idea of owning a Nirvana record? Then you’ll love the split single they released with Nirvana…now with the Nirvana side mysteriously removed! Hurrah! I still can’t believe that The Jesus Lizard scored a #12 hit single with this in the UK charts. I would LOVE to have a copy of Bruno Brooks or Dr. Fox or whoever running down the top 40 and having to introduce/apologise for that one! Also in there is possibly my favourite single that I own; ‘Wheelchair Epidemic.’

One of my favourite bands + truly unpleasant yet catchy song + truly unpleasant yet beautifully rendered artwork = one hot slab of plastic.

The A-side is a cover of a pretty nasty, cruel and completely un-PC song by Texan punk band The Dicks, sung in goading fashion by the irrepressible Mr. David Yow, most convincingly deranged front man on the planet? To justify getting a kick out this, I must say that it goes beyond offensive, tipping into the tastelessly cartoonish and then into comical. I suppose that were it not for the music chugging away in such rocking fashion it would be teetering on the brink of ‘novelty’ and that is not a good place to be!

The artwork is similarly crude and offensive, as if to emphasise the cartoonish, over-the-top nature of the track. So, the cover may not be much to look at, but check out the back:

What warped mind could be responsible for such lurid imagery? Surely not the same man who penned the lines, “there’s a girl playing the piano while her mother gives her an enema,” and “the dead princess lay silent and her cunt’s ripped?”

The B-side is a little tamer lyrically; just some stuff about being fucked up the arse by the personification of misery and illness. The track is ‘Dancing Naked Ladies,’ presented here in an even slower, queasier and more churning form than its album version.

Well, I almost wore this thing out before the singles CD compilation Bang came out and saved my record from a fate similar to Nirvana’s side of the ‘Puss’ single. Get yourself a copy of Bang or grab one of these on eBay but do not, do NOT buy a copy of Inch. At least not until I’ve got one in the bag.

Desert Sessions - Crawl Home

Since the new PJ Harvey/John Parish album came out last week I felt the urge to dig this out to check out a previous collaboration of Ms. Harvey’s. Back around 2000 I was heavily into Queens of the Stone Age and had all the Desert Sessions stuff, but by 2003 my interest had waned, so I never picked up Desert Sessions Vol.9-10. However, I couldn’t turn my nose up at this 7”, although I have failed to listen to it even once. So, let’s give it a go.

Well, first impressions are that this is not the Desert Sessions that I know. For a start, although everyone knew Josh Homme was the main man and extensive credits were given for each track, through volumes 1-8 there was a mystique and the players enjoyed a sort of anonymity. They got together away from their full-time bands, made some off-the-cuff music, and put it out there. But by 2003 this previously supposedly loose project is a far more considered affair. The very concept of a single tells us this, but that isn’t where it ends, oh no; we have a promo video, appearances on TV shows such as Jools Holland, and the backing of Island Records and Universal. A lot of the usual suspects have gone missing; people like Pete Stahl, the guys from Fatso Jetson, Fred Drake, and Nick Oliveri - basically most of the desert/stoner rock guys. In their stead we get more commercial rock names like Dean Ween, Dave Grohl, Josh Freese and Jeordie White (the former Twiggy Ramirez of Marilyn Manson fame). And of course, the jewel in the crown: PJ Harvey. Now, not to rag on PJ Harvey, but there just seems something cynical about taking the biggest and best-known name in the big ol’ session melting pot and releasing her track as a single, putting her photo front and centre on the single sleeve and featuring her heavily on the campaign trail and in the video.


Promotional photos from the time reduce the collective to two key members:


So, none of this feels like Desert Sessions. It feels like some other Josh Homme project. Maybe they should have just called it ‘Josh Homme & PJ Harvey’ since that is clearly what they’d have preferred it to be and have gone ahead and marketed it as. The music isn’t the weird, spacey rock of previous Desert Sessions, but a more slickly produced, mainstream rock record. Not that’s anything wrong with that. It’s just that it ain’t really Desert Sessions.

Harvey gets top billing in the writing credits for ‘Crawl Home’ along with Homme and most of the other players and it’s a fairly enjoyable breathy rock-romp, but not too memorable.

Of real interest here, and in true major-label fashion, is the non-album B-side ‘The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore.’ Written by Harvey and originally released on her 2000 Mercury Prize-winning album Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, the version here is basically just Josh Homme and Troy Van Leeuwen covering it to good effect. Hearing it performed with a male vocal (Homme) provides a nice counterpart to the original. Any big PJ Harvey fans would probably get a nice reward out of tracking this one down.

That said, a quick search of eBay throws up a $50 price tag for this record!!! Crazy. There’s no mention of it on either wikipedia or the official Desert Sessions website, so I guess this one crawled out and crept off. There seem to be reports of a Best of The Desert Sessions, followed by brand new Desert Sessions 11 & 12 due for release this very month! However, Josh does have a habit of talking up reissues, box sets and the like that never see the light of day and since Ipecac Recordings’ website gives no mention of this it looks like you wouldn’t want to hold your breath on this one.