Hello Mike? “Hey.” Can you hear me? “Yup. Hey.”

Rip It Up, Issue 205, 1 September 1994, Page 23

Hello Mike? “Hey.” Can you hear me? “Yup. Hey.”

OK. I wanted to ask about the punk boom. It seems like punk is making a comeback these days. You know, Fugazi have become huge, Green Day is charting, Bad Religion is on a major label and charting. Why do you think that punk has made this kind of resurgence now? “I figure the music that’s coming from the heart will eventually reach the people. It’s hard to say — a lot of times it baffles me as well [laughs]. It’s really weird. You know we put out that Some Old Bullshit compilation? And we had no idea of it entering the charts when we put it out, the idea was to just make it available. It’s like a totally weird thing, it’s not like it’s a current record at all — it’s a hardcore record we made years ago. It entered the charts and that kinda freaked us out." Okay, an obvious but difficult question — you guys are white, Jewish and you’re playing music mostly associated with blacks. And in this arena you have people like Public Enemy’s Professor Griff (quoted as saying “the majority of wickedness that goes on across the globe” is caused by Jews) and Farrakhan (controversial head of the Nation of Islam) making their stands, industry people like Tommy Silverman (white, Jewish founder of hip-hop label Tommy Boy) and Jerry Heller (white, Jewish manager of Eazy E) being verbally assaulted, mostly over being white and Jewish. And we have white rappers like Vanilla Ice and Marky Mark who, while they try very hard to be down with black people, are like punching bags for critics. This never seems to be an issue for you guys — how do you pull that off? “Um ... I don’t know actually [laughs]. I mean we got into doing hip-hop, listening to hip-hop, performing hip-hop, really at a point in the history of hip-hop — early on — when it was inconceivable that there were gonna be any white people in hip-hop. And then when we put out our first hip-hop singles — say like ‘Hold It Now’, ‘Paul Revere’, ‘New Style’ — some of the hip-hop community were into it kinda before anybody new who we were. We would get up in these clubs and people would almost look at us like we were from Mars. The new generation, the kids that come along, I’ll meet some of them and I’ll be a fan of their record and they’ll be like ‘No man, I grew up listening to your shit’.’’ Your first album {Licence To III) was massive, yet it brought on friction between Beastie Boys and Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin. Then after you guys became big with that record you stopped playing ‘Fight For Your Right’, which was your big hit. It seems that you tried to distance yourself in some ways. Looking back on it now how do you feel about that first record now? “Well, I think in terms of the record itself, we’re still real proud of it. A lot of the music is pretty amazing. And it’s definitely what we wanted to make at the time. So, that’s all a record can be. The bad stuff is more like moments that happened around the record as opposed to being on the record." Your second album was considered disappointing sales-wise when it came out, but unlike most rap records, it sells well years later. How do you feel about that record now? “We’re real proud of that record in a lot of ways and a lot of people still seem to be getting into it. We made a very different record ... we were into the record we made, so I don't know if it was such a bad thing that happened in terms of not selling as much.” Right now in rap music the ‘gangsta’ thing is huge, how do you feel about that? Is it all about people tellin’ it like it is or is it just a marketing manoeuvre? “Well, I’m real hesitant to comment on the categories of music ’cause in a lot of ways that’s misleading. A lot of rap groups are doing a lot of very different stuff, all these independent things and a lot of people try to lump it all together, kinda address it as one group.” At the moment it seems that to be a mass murderer is something to aspire to. “To me that’s the whole negative thing about .‘gangsta rap’. There are records that are very articulate, quality, from-the-heart records. There are records that are just emulating those records, diluted forms. But people will always eventually tell if it’s fake.” About your new album — you guys have always mixed things up quite a lot, but the new album seems really diverse: you have hip-hop and punk and jazz and dub. How do you guys usually go about building your tracks? “I don’t know ... all different ways. A lot of the stuff is from New York and then we did a lot of it here in our studio in LA. So sometimes we’ll get together and start doing a groove and Mario, our engineer, [is] on the multi-track, and we’ll just jam. Or sometimes we’ll take old tapes of stuff that we’d been

recording and we’ll go through them and find really cool moments ...” Do you mostly work off samples or do you play? How do you go about it? “Well, a lot of stuff we did completely live. And there’s a lot of stuff that we sample, or stuff that we played live where we’re sampling ourselves.” With the large variety of stuff you have on your record I get the impression that you must have a huge record collection. “We’re all vinyl collectors. We’re all like, fiends.” How many records do you think you have? “Last time I checked like ... over 3000 and that was more than two years ago. It has to be at least four by now.” The title of your new album is 111 Communication — where did that come from? “Well, we just took it from that line where we’re freestylin’ with Q-Tip, where it goes ‘Ma Bell we got the ill communication’.” So Q-Tip is on your record. Do you have any other guests on the record? “Biz Markee. Also, Keyboard Money Mark and Eric Bobo who are both regularly in our band. And DJ Hurricane who’s also a regular with us but now has his own record.” I listened to the record and my favourite tracks are ‘Root Down’, ‘Sabotage’, ‘Sure Shot’ and ‘Eugene’s Lament’. Are you releasing any of those as singles? “Yeah, ‘Sabotage’ and ‘Sure Shot’. I like ‘Eugene’s Lament’ ... I don’t know if that’s gonna be a single though. If it was up to me it would be the only single [laughs].” Your label, Grand Royal, what are your plans for that from

“Keep puttin' out stuff that we're into. Like I said we got the Hurricane record finished up. We got Luscious Jackson — we put out that EP. They just finished their album ..." You’re also involved with X-tra Large and also X-Girl. “Yeah well, X-Girl is more Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth and this girl Daisy Von Leuwerth who’s really responsible. We just help them in manufacturing and distribution.” So, anything else you want to say about the new album? “I don’t know. I think everybody should really give ‘Eugene’s Lament’ a chance!” KEITH CAHOON

The Jesus Lizard — the people and their music — are surrounded with tales of torridness. Heavily rhythmic, noisy and nasty. Live they are apparently more than a

sight and sound to behold. Singer David Yow has been described as ‘crazy’!,’ debauched’!, ‘mad’!, ‘nuts’! and ‘bonkers!’. Pictures I have seen of him come (scarily) to mind when I try to think of ‘suitable’ questions to ask him. David with crazed eyes and sweaty beer gut pushed toward the camera. David with his pants around his ankles on stage. David looking like a sick demented cousin you’d rather forget.

I got to speak to ‘mad’ David Yow, because they have a new full length album Down out now and will be commencing their tour shortly and because they are a damn good band — not boring by any stretch of the imagination — and we want to speak to them.

David and bass player David Sims started their musical career in the seminal and adored-by-many Scratch Acid. They split, and the addition of Duane Dennison to the Yow / Sims duo saw the first incarnation of the Jesus Lizard. Their debut album Pure was done with a drum machine, with Steve Albini producing, and with Yow’s killer voice and the band’s unique heavy-but-melodic style it stood out amongst a sea of boring releases. Sims briefly left Jesus Lizard to join Steve Albini’s short-lived and infamous group Rapeman then rejoined Jesus Lizard, as they continued, bulldozing their way through the masses and recording the humdingers Head, Goat, Liar, and the famous split single with Nirvana, ‘Puss’ (with Nirvana’s ‘Oh, the Guilt’). Luckily for me I am conducting my interview over the telephone — long distance, and luckily David and the Jesus Lizard are not on tour at the

moment. When David is on tour he drinks “everyday” and has known to be slightly obnoxious and a little hard on unsuspecting journos who have to encounter him on tour.

Instead I am greeted by a woman’s voice, whom I presume is David’s wife. “Day-veed it’s your innerview,” she informs him sweetly.

I ask ‘mad’ David what he’s been doing today. "Well the day’s been okay, but I’ve been pretty flustered trying to figure out something on the computer.”

The computer! Aren’t pre-conceptions just so wrong. We’ve been lead to believe from reading any articles on the man that he might be at home devouring a murderous novel or just being plain nuts in the kitchen making his famous ‘lots of vegetables’ soup. Instead I encounter a very polite man with only short moments of the ‘onstage’ David creeping in, usually when he is explaining something to do with the Jesus Lizard.

Er, what have you been doing on the computer, I ask shakily?

“I’ve been trying to design a laminate for this up-coming tour.”

Ah yes, touring. Touring with the Jesus Lizard is said to be a very Rock ‘n’ Roll time indeed. ‘Mad’ David really does go quite mad apparently, drinking a bottle of vodka a day, and going quite batty on stage — which is quite appropriate really considering the music the Jesus Lizard play. To call them ‘strong’ and ‘powerful’ would be an understatement to say the least, and to have anyone else but David front the band would be a joke. Everyday life and life on the road are two completely different things for him. “They’re a lot different. At home, y’know, I’m married and I pretty much hang out there. I don’t go out too often. I don’t really drink at home. When I’m on tour I drink every single night and make a fool outta myself 24 hours a day.” Is alcohol your friend or foe? “Both. Very much so, both. Sometimes we get along, sometimes we don’t get along very well at all [laughs].”

Is it hard for you to make the transition from ‘wild ‘n crazy’ guy to the mellow at home type? “No, it’s always a pleasure. I like touring a lot but it’s always nice to get home and relax." On stage, David appears to exert himself rather a lot. Hurting himself isn’t an issue. And he hurts himself a lot. There was the incident a while back when they played a gig and David’s elbow split open in all the action — but he paid no mind to the fact, and kept playing with his

elbow sticking out of the skin — quite proud of the fact even.

“I enjoy it an awful lot. There’s nothing that I’d rather be doing,” he states simply. Well you've seen a lot and done a lot, where’s the weirdest place you've played? “What do you think David?” David asks David Sims the bass player, who is also at David’s place, “What’s the weirdest place we’ve played?”

A bit of conferring goes on ... David Y comes back with the answer.

“Wynton, Alberta was pretty interesting. We played in a strip mall. During the day the club was, like, a strip bar they had a bunch of ugly girls take off their clothes, and at night-time they have metal bands come in and play. We got booked with a band called The Disciples of Power [said with much scorn], and the room was just full of teenage boys with black heavy metal T-shirts on and a bunch of hair, listening to this unbelievably shitty crap music that this band was playing, and we were pretty much laughin’ our hats off. And when we played I started spoutin’ off and makin’ fun of them, and all the teenage kids started throwing ash trays and bottles at us and about five of them offered to kick our asses, and were very politely telling us at the same time [puts on a strange Alberta accent which sounds kinda Welsh/lndian to me] ‘eh, you don’t have to be rude eh, if you would like to go outside and get in a fight we can do that eh’. “But y’know, we’re coming up to our 500th show and it’s kinda hard to say, they’re all pretty weird.”

So is it all instinctive for you, or was it a childhood aspiration of your’s to play in a band? [Chuckles] “When I was a kid I never thought I’d be in a band, but then when punk rock came out, and I realised that anybody can do it — you

don’t have to play an instrument or anything — I thought, well hey, this is for me. So I sort of dropped out, fucked up and got into this.” David’s lyrics often revolve around unfortunate incidents. Does the fact that he lives in Chicago — one of the most violent cities in the US — help as far as hearing nasty stories and events goes?

“I think maybe just a little bit. I think that it’s got to have some subconscious effect. There is a great deal of crime happening here, but I’ve never been mugged and have never been involved in a robbery or anything. Hell, I’m okay!’’, he confirms gaily.

The Jesus Lizard have had a great deal of success as far as an ‘underground’ band goes, they haven’t had to do other jobs to make a living for a couple of years now, and are still going up in the world, as ‘alternative’ music seeps into the mainstream.

“Oh man, I’m freaked out about how big we are,” he says. "I never thought we’d be as big as we were a couple of years ago, and it keeps getting bigger.”

David says that he wouldn’t mind being bigger “just for the money”, but is aware that his personal life would probably suffer, so he isn’t keen on that side of it, and doesn’t really think it will come to that anyway. We talk about the recent death of Kurt Cobain and if it has changed things for famous people, and if the public will ever stop scrutinising famous folks. “No, they’re [the public] too stupid. I think it’s something that a few people will be upset about for a long time. But it’s already forgotten,” he says.

So what do you want out of Jesus Lizard in the long term, how far do you want to take this lark? "I think we’d all like for it to go further, we’ve done more than I’d ever expected us to. I think that next February, I believe we’re playing Japan, Australia and New Zealand, and I never thought I’d be in a band that got to do that. . . then what next? I dunno, India, Madagascar?” What do you most despise about being involved in the industry? “The music. Most of it sucks."

And to end, with a nice warm, family feeling — David says, just to quash his image once and for all, “Once the band breaks up, which is inevitable, I’m sure we’ll get the hell outta Chicago. Y’know, my wife and I wanna make babies and I don’t wanna bring them up in Chicago. Hell, there’s a lot of places I’d like to live.”

a lot of rap groups are doing a lot of very different stuff, ail these independent things independent things and a lot of people try to lump it all together here?

“When i was a kid I never thought I’d be in a band, but then when punk rock came out, and J realised that anybody can do it — you don’t have to play an instrument or anything-— I thought, well hey, this is for me. So I sort or dropped out, flicked up and got into this.”

SHIRLEY-ANNE CHARLES