The Jesus Lizard, Pure (Remaster / Reissue)
The Lizard emerges from the underground with leering menace already in place
Pure, the five-song debut from the Jesus Lizard, is a relative oddity in the band's catalogue. On the one hand, the band's aesthetic is definitely there, albeit in somewhat fetal form. On live staples such as the excellent "Blockbuster" (complete with screamed vocal harmonies) and the heavy-breathing "Bloody Mary," Yow's vocals exude a menace that comes off as slightly gothier than what he would later evolve into. (Nick Cave was, is and would remain Yow's primary vocal influence, even after the Lizard had established themselves.) Duane Denison's guitar riffs owe more to traditional noise rock than subsequent records, but the primeval squall is there. David Wm. Sims' mid-rage bass sound and swinging vibe is pretty much perfect.
The weak link is the drum machine. While it gives the songs a somewhat low-rent vibe, which is rarely a bad thing when dealing with the Lizard, it sometimes makes the songs feel like unusually well-considered, well-record demos. The game-changingly brilliant drummer Mac McNeilly had yet to join the fold, which his really when the Lizard evolved into the depraved force of nature we know and love. His appearance on the live version of "Bloody Mary" that appears here as an extra track confirms this. Also, they cover Neil Sedaka's "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" as the industrial "Happy Bunny Goes Fluff-Fluff Along." So there's that.
