Customer Reviews

Bang! (Singles Compilation)

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This concludes the Jesus Lizard chapter of albums, and it has got some fantastic extra tracks on it too, that weren't on their LP's, like "The Test", the Trio covers, and the Chrome medley. I would suggest buying all of their albums, because sooner or later, they will all grow on you and you will be converted to a Lizard fan. Of course if you hate them, you hate them, but if youare a fan of punk rock and pure chaos and great musicians, than you will eventually love them. It took me like two years before I finally got into "Down", but now I consider that album to be their finest.

"Bang" is a great overview of their work on Touch and Go, so if you want to start off, you might think about buying this and working your way backwards into the sick twisted land of David Yow, David Wm. Sims, Duane Denison, and Mac McNeilly.

this is one hell of a compilation. it features most of the early jesus lizard's work. it compiles mainly of b-sides and all of their 7"s on touch and go. it also has the "lash" triple 7". the main highlights of this comp. are a cover of a "chrome" song intitled "chrome" also "the test" is probably one of the best lizard songs i have ever heard. the "lash" portion of this comp. is excellent it has two of the most intense lizard songs: "glamorous" and "def as a bat". the afermath of that is 4 live versions of songs off of the "goat" and "head" album. if you like this and want to get another lizard album I would suggest "liar" or "goat". also you should check out duane denison's band "tomahawk".

I owned two Jesus Lizard albums for about three years. It wasn't until I picked this, best of, album up that they became my favorite band. I proceeded to buy the remaining ones I didn't own, along with a band called Scratch Acid that Yow and Sims performed in the 80's, which was completely ahead of its time. I always hear people complaining about the United States, and that's when I ask myself.... What country did the Jesus Lizard come from? But then again, what country does Chingy come from?

This album was my real introduction to the Jesus Lizard; before this, I had heard only two of their songs, but I was amazed by this band... and that led me to purchase this CD, because I was that intrigued. You will NOT be disappointed by this, and if you are, then get another album. It's a bunch of B-sides and live tracks, but it's still just as riveting as anything else they did in their decade as a band.

Fans who found the Jesus Lizard's post-Touch and Go releases less moving than a concrete enema will find much to love in the band's true final release. Because with "Bang," one of Chicago's last real rock institutions is going out not with newer, "Blue"-r material, but with a loud, proud, well...

"Bang" collects 20 of the band's hottest singles and cover songs (the "Chrome" medley, Dicks' "Wheelchair Epidemic," and two Trio tunes), including three previously unreleased tracks that, while doing nothing to improve the band's already-stellar reputation, do nothing to sully it, either. Happily fixated on better days than these, the disc reaffirms what we might've forgotten after the band signed to Capitol and started "experimenting" with the formula they'd already nailed: Original drummer Mac McNeilly and bassist David Wm. Sims were as precise and cliche-defying a rhythm section as has ever existed. Guitarist Duane Denison was to mean-eyed angular rock what Wes Montgomery was to jazz. Frontman and terminal loose cannon David Yow was rock's mightiest no-talent vocalist. And, until the mid-'90s, engineer Steve Albini (who recorded nearly everything on "Bang") was as much a part of the Jesus Lizard's sound as the band members themselves were.

Of course, these traits eventually waned, as a bitter Albini took his studio and went home, a motley crew of producers steadily intervened, and the Jesus Lizard ended up getting caught in Capitol Records' shredder. But, as all great retrospectives do, "Bang" hides the ugly truth about rock bands and aging, and just lets us remember how wonderful it can be to forget.

this is the first jesus lizard record i bought.

id recommend goat to any first time listener instead, though bang has some good tracks on it (but it kinda feels like a greatest hits record without all the best jesus lizard tracks.)

just buy goat instead then download boilermaker, gladiator, puss, destroy before reading, fly on the wall, chrome, and wheelchair epidemic and your jesus lizard collection will be basically complete.

The problem with death metal is the vocals. No matter how intricate and compelling the music, if you layer an irritating growly nitwit on top of it the resulting din is intolerable. At first I felt this way about Jesus Lizard. The guitar, bass and drum work of this now defunct quartet brought together jazz-like precision and understated menace to form a potent sonic assault. However, you can't listen to them without having to endure David Yow's maniac vocals, which almost always sound as though he's drunk, high and hearing-damaged. He's not as headache-inducing as, say, the lead singer for Naplam Death. But his screams and shrieks are unlikely to win a place in charm school anytime soon.

Nevertheless, although Yow's singing is an acquired taste, his crazy vocals are actually a necessary counterpoint to the buzzing riffs and clamoring backing of Denison/Sims/McNeilly. Aphex Twin's songs often have a beautiful melody but also a screechy nails-on-blackboard sound; you just have to accept the contrast. Jesus Lizard are similar. (I think the same theory applies (theoretically) to that mole on Cindy Crawford's face.)

"Bang" is a compilation of odds and ends from Jesus Lizard's stint at Touch n' Go. It has some live numbers, some b-sides and some classic singles-- a good introduction to their work. I disagree with the reviewer who said the live tracks .... due to the absence of Steve Albini. It's true that they don't have the same polished sheen as the studio tracks, but they're certainly listenable. Hearing the live bits now, you can sense what a force Jesus Lizard were in concert. The one time I saw them, I thought Yow was going to explode. You don't see that much genuine lunacy onstage. While that's probably a good thing, madness does make for exciting performance.

What other bands today are mining Jesus Lizard's groove? Their was an urgent, off-kilter, aggressive rock that dispensed with frat-boy booziness (Limp Bizkit et al) in favor of a genuinely unsettling sonic and lyrical attack. The sharp riffs and paranoid psychotic lyrics of songs like "Monkey Trick" and "Fly on the Wall" induce skin crawling even as you rock out. While that might sound unpleasant, it must be remembered that art is sometimes best when it doesn't soothe. The Lizard vexed.

The Jesus Lizard rock. They also love Voivod and the Stranglers- more power to them.