The Jesus Lizard’s David Yow Talks About His Famously Interactive Approach to Performing

With Rack, the Jesus Lizard’s first full-length album in 26 years, the band returns to form as the noisy post-punk group that thrives on delivering guitar-driven tunes with an art rock ethos. During a recent phone interview from his L.A. home where he was prepping to head to Nashville to rehearse for the winter leg of the band’s tour in support of the album, singer David Yow talks about the antics that have made him one of underground rock’s best frontman.

What are you doing with your time off?

Yow: So far today, it’s just been interviews and eating pistachios. Later, I’m going to a pot luck for Thanksgiving. I offered to make either mac and cheese or bourbon chocolate chip bread pudding. The bread pudding won out. I’m going to head out later to get the ingredients for this recipe. The recipe is in the Jesus Lizard book. Buffalo Trace is not necessarily my favorite bourbon, but you have to use Buffalo Trace in this recipe. When you open the bottle, it smells like bananas. It’s the perfect thing for this recipe.

You’ve taken a very interactive approach to performing live. What first inspired that approach?

Yow: It wasn’t Day One. The first show the Jesus Lizard played was an invitation only dinner and show at a Thai restaurant in Chicago. We played first and then another band played and then [the indie rock act] Slint played. That night I stayed on the stage. It was in front of a group of people having dinner. The next show was at a record store in Chicago, and I went into the crowd for that show. I used to do that with Scratch Acid but not as much. Now, it’s weird. You might get some weird disease if you fuck around with people too much. Or you might get #me-too-ed People might say, “Well, he did this to me.” It could ruin your life.

Any significant injuries?

Yow: Several. I don’t even know how many times I’ve been hospitalized. There are some injuries that have stuck with me. Each injury is named after whatever town it happened in. St. Louis is just left of my spine where the top of your pants go. There’s this numb patch if you put pressure on it. The audience threw me back on stage backwards. I couldn’t break my fall, and I landed right on the monitor, which was a diagonal cube. It was bad. I don’t think the show stopped. Very few were showstoppers. There was one where I got completely knocked out in Zurich and one time in Tucson, the stage was too high and this kid grabbed my hand and pulled me and I did a backflip and landed right on my tailbone. I couldn’t stand up. My legs weren’t working. All these people were trying to help me. I pushed myself up against the wall and told people to get away from me. I had to get anti-inflammatory and crutches. We had to cancel two more shows. Whenever we had to cancel shows for whatever reason, we would do a make-up show.

When I saw you at Lollapalooza, you still managed to run through the amphitheater.

Yow: That Lollapalooza tour was less than fun because of that kind of shit.

The band had a great run on the indie imprint Touch and Go Records. What was it like to transition to Capitol for Shots in 1996 and Blue in 1998?

Yow: There wasn’t a whole lot of difference to us. Once we realized we wanted to leave Touch and Go, and we had [owner] Corey [Rusk]’s blessing, we talked to a handful of labels. Part of the reason was because Gary Gersh seemed like a good guy. He wasn’t an asshole. Jimmy Iovine was just a prick and we were not interested. They did their best at keeping their fingers out of our whatever you stick your fingers in. There wasn’t a lot of difference. When we had these meetings with Gary, I told him we wouldn’t sell any more records on Capitol. He said he didn’t agree, but we didn’t. We signed a three-record deal. Not too long after the second record, they said we could go and cut us.

Did you like working with Garth Richardson and Andy Gill, who produced Shots and Blue respectively?

Yow: Garth was a blast — a very strange fellow. With Andy, we became fast friends. I was really inspired. I mean, he’s Andy Fucking Gill. It was great to become friends with him. Every time I would go to London, we would hook up. Everytime he came here, we would hang out. People who really cared more about the stuff we put out on Touch and Go would rag on the Capitol releases. [Jesus Lizard bassist] David Sims said if you want to listen to Jesus Lizard really sounds like, listen to Shot. It’s a great bass, guitars and drums record. If you listen to Blue, the album that Andy did, it’s an amazing headphones record. It’s so textural, and there are so many cool things going on.

Do you have fond memories of Steve Albini, who produced many of your records?

Yow: Yeah. I have about a million great memories of Steve. For quite a while, we would go to a cafe in Chicago and shoot pool for ten hours a day. He would get really experimental with a lot of vocal recording techniques. I can’t believe I’ll never get to see him again. He was a pretty funny motherfucker. He was so smart. He remembered everything he ever learned. And when he talked, he was so eloquent. Every sentence sounded like he had been working on it all day long. 

When you started writing songs for this new album, it was back in 2019. What was the process like?

Yow: We all live in four corners of the country, so it was very unnatural and inorganic sending MP3s back and forth and trying to make changes. It was not nearly as fun or naturally collaborative as it has always been. It was slow-going and arduous compared to the old days. I hope that if we do another record, which would surprise the fuck out of me, that was don’t do it like this last one. I had suggested we should go to Bermuda for two months and write a record and record it and come home.

“Lord Godiva” dates back to the ‘90s. What’s the origin of that tune?

Yow: I think we wrote that in 1997. I think the first three Nick Cave records are pretty good. After that, it’s mostly adult contemporary crap. Then, he put out that record Murder Ballads, which I like a lot. I think it’s the only record that doesn’t have his face on the cover. Some of the songs on that record about bragging about killing people and being a real asshole is what Godiva is about. I’m really proud of those lyrics. I think that’s some funny ass shit. “I’ve given golden showers to folks who have been dead for hours.” That’s great!

Why did it take so long to finish?

Yow: I don’t know why. I know we did demos back in the old days but it never made it onto any record. 

“Cost of LIving” is a digital b-side. What’s the story behind it?

Yow: I just called it the “West Side Story” song. It’s got everything from that in it. I don’t know what the story is behind that. Originally, it was supposed to be the beginning of another song, but Duane wanted to make it its own thing.

You still doing the stage dives or are you staying on stage?.

Yow: Both. We’re hoping do more club dates, which are more fun. We’ve been doing festivals, and it’s a little dangerous because the stage is 8-feet high and there are barricades. Generally, we’ll figure out a way to get there.

Photo credit: Joshua Black Wilkins

2024 Tour Dates
December 5 Louisville, KY Old Forester’s Paristown Hall

December 6 Columbus, OH Newport Music Hall

December 7 Detroit, MI Saint Andrew’s Hall

December 8 Cleveland, OH Agora Theatre

December 9  Pittsburgh, PA  Stage AE

December 11  Brooklyn, NY  Brooklyn Steel

December 12  Boston, MA  Roadrunner

December 13  Philadelphia, PA  Union Transfer

December 14  Washington, DC  Black Cat SOLD OUT

December 15  Washington, DC  Black Cat

December 17  Asheville, NC  The Orange Peel

December 18  Atlanta, GA  Variety Playhouse

December 19 Birmingham, AL Saturn

January 7  Glasgow, UK  QMU

January 8  Manchester, UK  Academy 2

January 9  Leeds, UK  Brudenell Social Club SOLD OUT

January 10  Bristol, UK  The Fleece SOLD OUT

January 11  London, UK  Electric Ballroom SOLD OUT

January 12  Brighton, UK  Concorde 2  SOLD OUT

January 14  Belfast, UK  The Limelight

January 15  Dublin, IE  Button Factory SOLD OUT

January 16  Dublin, IE  Button Factory

May 2  Solana Beach, CA  Belly Up Tavern

May 3  Los Angeles, CA  The Fonda Theatre

May 5  San Francisco, CA  The Fillmore

May 8  Portland, OR  Revolution Hall SOLD OUT

May 9 Portland, OR  Revolution Hall

May 10  Seattle, WA  Neptune Theatre SOLD OUT

May 11  Seattle, WA  Neptune Theatre

May 17 Paris, FR Elysée Montmartre

May 18 Brussels, BE Les Nuits Botaniques

May 20 Amsterdam, NL Melkweg

May 22 Copenhagen, DK Den Grå Hal

May 23 Oslo, NO John Dee

May 24 Stockholm, SE Debaser

May 27 Berlin, DE SO36

May 28 Köln, DE Gebäude 9

May 30 Lausanne, CH Les Docks

May 31 Bologna, IT Link

June 1 Rome, IT Monk

June 2 Milan, IT Magnolia

June 5 – 7  Barcelona, ES Primavera Festival

June 12 – 15  Porto, PT Primavera Festival