Something 4 The Weekend # 138

The Jesus Lizard: Down: "Countless Backs Of Sad Losers" [mp3]

Of course, the remastered re-release of the entire Beatles catalog was the musical event of the season, if not the entire year, and for good reason - the original CD mastering sounded like absolute ass, and the new versions are stunning by comparison.

I like The Beatles, who doesn't? I respect their prolific output, and their songwriting skills are impeccable, plus I always felt that their musical progression is a rather remarkable mirror of the 1960's in general, from their innocent skiffle beginnings of the early '60's to the drug'n'mysticism influenced latter years when the counterculture ruled the pop culture landscape. More than any other band, The Beatles owned that decade. The Beatles were the 1960's.

But you know what? I was much more excited about the remastered re-release of The Jesus Lizard's Touch'n'Go recordings, which just hit the streets last week. I was excited, their great fucking music aside, because I owned those albums on cassette, and those cassettes had certainly seen better days, having been played and played and played to within an inch of their lives. And nobody plays cassettes anymore, including me.

The Jesus Lizard are one of those bands that pretty much defines what Rock music is to me - an unrestrained expression of the human Id. The Jesus Lizard were unpredictable, ugly and oftentimes violent, both musically and lyrically. David Yow sang about nasty people doing horrific things to themselves and others, cutting right to the heart of the human condition - the idea that underneath the thin veneer of civilized society, we are really just a bunch of animals with sick thoughts and poor impulse control. If that ain't Rock'n'Roll, I'm not sure what is.

Hotcha! Hank