#God hates a coward by Tomahawk | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

pretty-aud-lady · 3 months ago

Text

Ideally, this will be the beginning of more brief, chill reviews. I still have a good amount to say about other albums, but less tinfoil hat rants about character arcs and in-depth song-by-song reviews (until the underdark by funeral diner)

The Jesus Lizard were around in the late 80s and early 90s and were one of the touch-and-go bands along with Slint and shellac. Most of their stuff was done with Steve Albini as well. They also did a split with nirvana, which is probably the most exposure they got.

They came out of the ashes of a post-punk band called Scratch Acid, where the most unique part of The Jesus Lizard was first explored: David Yow's voice. He considers himself a vocal expressionist more than a singer, which shows in chunks of scratch acid. The band is much faster and more chaotic, and lacks the angular post-hardcore guitar of the Jesus lizard. They have a discography album called the greatest gift that's got some cool tunes. Crazy Dan, cannibal, and the title track are my favourites.

When Duane Denison started to record and form a band, he tried to recruit David Yow on bass. Yow was smart enough to ask for the vocalist role, and brought his scratch acid band mate David Wm. Simms on for bass. Mac McNeill rounded off the band on drums after their first Ep.

The Jesus Lizard sound is pretty easy to define, more so than the previous bands I reviewed. Their bass tone is heavy and proto-industrial, holding a great sharp but thick shape. When I think of a Fender Jazz bass, I think of this tone. It's often driving the songs with fierce riffs, rarely becoming boring strumming behind chords.The drums are precise and methodical, comparable to Brendan Canty from Fugazi.

Duane's guitar work is noisy and angular, sometimes hiding on top as a texture and pivoting around the rhythm, other times smashing our face with riffs. He uses a Travis Bean guitar similar to Albini, and the tone shines here. Duane was also in a super group called tomahawk with the drummer of helmet and Mike Patton of Faith no More. Their song God Hates a Coward is fucking sick, highly recommend if you like The Jesus Lizard.

Then, there's David Yow's voice. Awful, howling, expressive, screaming, shrieking, moaning, grunting, ranting. An album review of goat has stated that his delivery sounds like a kidnap victim with a gagged mouth shouting from the trunk of a car.

Their sound (as some could infer) is perfect for the Steve Albini sound. Heavy, thick, and somehow so clear and crisp. It's the kind of music that makes you want to punch someone or two step but really heavily and slowly. Just filled with rage and badass tones, and brings forth a visceral feeling. I think it was a great transition from classic rock and stoner doom for me, maintaining a relatively dynamic-less “I think I'm cool” tone mixed with some bite, but with much more sloppy punk attitude. Also way more emotion on average, with Yow's delivery inspiring the shit out of me to this day.

In a linear note for the album's tracking and recording, there's a room mic listed as being taped on Yow's forehead. I always wonder if that's what we hear in the background of monkey trick's bridge.

Last thing I'll say before we get more into the songs: I've written a ~50 page, 20k word novella loosely based on this album. It's mostly just based on monkey trick's ominous lyrics, with each other song shoehorned for completionist sake and to try and make it a full length novella. It's about a small town that suddenly becomes abandoned overnight, with a David Lynch esque cut up and mostly irrelevant story exploring the residents experiences. It's kind of just a bucket of short stories that felt similar in tone, dark and comedic and grimy. If I'm prompted maybe I'll edit my work and publish it (but I know I won't be)

The album opens in full force with Then Comes Dudley, the perfect song to showcase the band with. It kicks off with a driving mid tempo bass line and drums locked in together. The kick and snare sit right where you want them to in the bass line, and it just makes you want to stomp your feet while you walk. The guitar plays dissonant semi tones shifting around on top. It's broken by an amazingly creepy guitar at one point, then a two chord stop before the guitar drops out for a verse on top of that main riff. Halfway through that verse the guitar jumps in with delayed palm muted notes following the bass and it's so simple but so sick with the sharp Travis bean tone.

David Yow is talking about a despicable couple and someone who is going to fuck them up. The chorus makes no sense to me, some have suggested it's about vegetarianism. His moans and grunts in this song are sick. The chorus is the same main riff, but the first time sparkled with some sick staccato guitar chords at seemingly random off times.

Mouthbreather might be their most popular song besides puss from the nirvana split? At least that's what I gathered when I surfaced from my cave of obscurity to mingle with more normal human beings.

The guitar opens up with a sharp angular riff that just slides between C and C#, playing power chords and 4ths. It's got a bit of a weird time, with some fun stops that make it sound bouncy. The drums help the song kick ass as always, having this badass feeling. When testosterone ran through my veins and it wasn't killing me, this stuff got my blood pumping so fucking hard.

The lyrics are about Britt Walford from Slint. He took care of Steve Albini's house one time when he was still a teenager, and the house was in disrepair when he came back. Apparently he locked himself out and would climb in and out via an upstairs window, and pipes spilled piss and shit onto Steve's drumset. Yow's howl of “I leave my home” is great.

Nub is maybe my second least favourite song on the album? The guitar is all done with a slide, giving it a weird ZZ Top vibe. The bass line before the first chorus while Yow just seethes is my favourite part. The lyrics are partially in French and about someone losing their arm sticking it out a moving car. How's that ghost limb? Wicked.

Seasick is fun for Yow's vocals and hits hard as hell at first, but gets old really quickly. Palm muted open E broken by some diminished G chords, I could've written this as my first song. Yow's shouts and moans and squeals are sick, especially in the bridge. Awful that we have to sit through so many “I can't swim”s to get there. Lyrics are basic as hell but service the song well. There's a live video of them performing this where David Yow dives headfirst into the crowd the moment the drums kick in, and when he returns to the stage he gets clocked in the head by a beer bottle that shatters and collapses to the stage - but still finishes the performance.

Monkey Trick is “the best song ever written in the entire history of the cosmos, ever,” according to the band, and I tend to agree. It's definitely the best song of theirs by a mile. It opens with a D sharp power chord 8 times, but the drums play a straight kick and crash for the first 4, then introduce a snare-kick-snare-snare pattern for the last four. Then the bass line starts. It rides a low C, chugging a staccato off beat rhythm, broken at the end of two bars by a climb up to F sharp. The drums kick in, a barely closed high hat on slow eight notes with a pair of kicks on 1 and 3, and a kick-snare on 2 and 4. It’s a quite simple blues beat behind an otherwise off kilter bass, something I personally would have never come up with. Simple, powerful, elegant. The guitar glides on top with two semitones, one pair a slide and the other two ringing out in dissonance together. The hook introduces a single note line on the guitar with sharp two note stops, while the bass and drums hold a similar position as the verses. David Yow merely speaks over this before the two note chords repeat and swell back to the D sharp chords from the beginning, accompanied with a shrill shriek from Yow. That shriek was the moment my heart began to crave OLTH without knowing it.

The verse is the same opening bass riff, but the guitars clang in with some dissonant chords before playing the paired semitones. Yow howls the same line twice, ending the second repeat with a shriek. We get another spoken hook with a different vocal pattern that will be mirrored in the final hook. He whines and howls his way through the end of these hooks in confusion.

Verse two hits us with the bassline and Yow mumbling at us uneasily and violently. This erupts into some wide guitar chords and a more flowy open passage with more spoken word that is unevenly doubled, creating more confusion. It ends with a whispered “here” Sucking the open chords back in, hitting us with that bassline and dual semitones again. Believe it or not, we're not sick of that rhythm. It still rocks and begs us to let rage boil our circulatory system.

AN ABSURD GAG, A MONKEY TRICK. AN IRISH BULL, A CHILDISH JOKE

The words are spit at us violently, the joke shrieked, and out from behind it Duane's guitar plays a high face melting lead akin to black metal tremolo picking but with two notes fighting for extra dissonance. The drums and bass lock in adding extra volume and flair behind the leads.

This cuts to a single guitar chord played on off eighth notes with violent upstrokes while Yow screams in pain over and over again. Ow, ow, OWW!! the drums play solid eighth note kicks and quarter note crashes and lock in on 2 and 4 with the snare to center us. Once in a while Yow gets quieter and lower, then awakens with more pain. The guitar does two quick full tone slides to break it up at one point. Sick.

Final chorus, body parts all in over this town, what are they doing!

The lyrics? I have no fucking clue. Or 50 pages worth of clues, I don't know. Read them yourself and determine a whole new 50 pages worth of meaning. You tell me what they're doing.

Karpis is a prison r*pe joke played very strangely. A carton of smokes for ten minutes of pleasure, if I cannot have you nobody will. Feel that there? I shaved my ass. Come here boy. Not sure what's going on, is the joke that Alvin's paying the smokes to GET fucked? I think it's just an excuse for Yow to scream Nooo again and again while they get to be edgy and laugh. The guitar line of the verse is fun to play, and the choruses are pretty heavy. The bridge is a weird time, something rare for them.

South mouth kinda just sucks honestly. The main riff is fun and bouncy but not in the “I'll kick your ass” tone the rest of the album has. “hey sometimes we act like animals, and we act sometimes like little girls” I like the little bridge at the end where he kinda mumbles “hey sometimes” on some colorful guitar chords.

Lady shoes was both the worst and best part of the novella to write. Lyrically it's about a messed up dream Yow had. A girl plays a piano while her mother gives her an enema. Then the dad comes in and does what everyone seems to do in this song, masturbate. Meanwhile, a nurse in a maternity ward kills all the babies with a big fucking sledgehammer. She shouts at the doctor “look what I've done” the doctor jerks off in his cap. Then a hotel manager comes by and takes a shit in his hand and puts it on like lipstick. Hope this helps.

Instrumentally it's actually pretty interesting. A very surfy low E tremolo picked, with seemingly random changes to an F sharp and G that catch you off guard. When Yow does vocals on it he's real obnoxious and loud and muffled. It's broken on one end with big power chords strummed for half notes with Yow speaking. On the other side it's broken by some weird angular leads with the maternity ward stuff and some cool bass.

Rodeo in Joliet is my second favourite song on this, but only because it barely belongs. The almost ALMOST clean sounding arpeggios on the first two riffs are so colourful and interesting, in an odd 6/4 we haven't heard this album. Hard to avoid using the word angular, goddamn. The drums do really engaging stuff too, avoiding snare for the first half of progression one then throwing in off kilter snares for the second half. Progression two locks in much more with a high hat and two distinct chords, with less strings ringing out all at once. This breaks into some strummed chords that upstroke closed with the snare on 4 of the 6/4 meter. Yow does his thing, which is quite fun on this song. Especially when it leads to him screaming “the gray!” when the chords break into distorted single note arpeggios rather than ringing out picked chords. Some other really weird stuff happens especially near the end that make a determinable layout harder to picture. End scene.

Sick album. Lyrically and thematically shallow compared to the previous reviews, and the instrumentation is much less dynamic, but still fun and emotional - just in a less introspective way. It's on repeat way less for me, especially with estrogen making anger less appealing. I love the angular, sharp tones and punctual rhythms, and still love to digest a taste of this tone when mixed in with more joliet-esque low chill chord sections. Ultimately, it was the third of four albums that really helped me get into newer genres and made me approach music in a vastly different way.

The old windbag blows

#the jesus lizard #jesus lizard #post hardcore #post punk #punk #noise rock #steve albini #Slint #Aud reviews

0 notes