'Twas one sleety Seattle night, gui-
tarist Steve Turner was at the Vogue
watching the Night Kings. Singer Mark
Arm was sitting in his room flipping
Terry Jacks' "Seasons in the Sun"
backed with "Put the Bone In," single
over and over. Bassist Matt Lukin and
drummer Dan Peters were snuggling in
respective bungalows, rekindling the
flames with respective new brides. When
all of a sudden, blammo! Time to meet
your maker, grungemeisters.
Mudboney, this is the Spirit of Grunge
Past... I'm taking you back, back to a
time before you were discovered...
Steve: Well, see, the sad thing is we
weren't discovered at all. We told
Jonathan and Bruce (head cheeses at
SubPop) that we were a band now, and
they said, "We'll put out your record." That
was before we recorded anything. We
played the first show after we recorded
and I remember Bruce was all fucked-up
outside, and he was like, "Please, don't go
mud
to Touch and Go." We were like, "We
hadn't thought about it, you said you
were going to put something out."
Back, back to a time when you disap
pointed all the kiddies by cutting your
problem bair, wben Mark reveled in a
review that called bim a "wheezing
windbag"...
Mark: So, Dan was called a "thought-
less barrage
Dan: Just 'cuz you were called some-
thing bad, you don't have to tell everyone
I was called something bad too.
Mark: We cut our hair and they real-
ized there wasn't anything to look at any
more and they had to concentrate on the
music: "I thought they were cool, and
then I looked at them. But now I realize
that they're ugly. Plus, Mark is a wheez-
ing windbag."
I am the Spirit of Grunge Present...
Look at you. Look at each other. Just
listen to yourselves.
Dan: No. Steve's playing is really cool.
It's like high point sort of shit, like (in crit-
ic's voice), clutch motor techno fuzz.
Steve: Danny, he plays drums. He sort
of hits them a lot. Sometimes he hits a
whole bunch of them, sometimes he hits
just one of them. Really fast or hard some-
times. It's pretty rap pop wap ch ch ch.
Mark: The mood that Matt evokes from
his bass guitar playing is sort of a sensu-
al, snakelike, slithering, sniffling, sneezing
kind of...beauty. Ramming, ramming like
honey
Sonic Youth crashing head on into
Motörhead. Bbrrrrr. We're talking like
Black Sabbath in the bathroom, tak
ing a big dump.
And this new album, Piece of
Cake! This 16-track thing pro-
duced by Conrad Uno on a Stax
mixing board...
Mark: It's Part Two of our dessert
trilogy
Steve: It's totally different. It's
kind of a milestone.
Mark: Imagine us not even being
involved.
Steve: Imagine a different band
putting out a record, like if there were
four different people.
Dan: We only want to get as big as
Devo and smooth noodle maps.
Ob Yeab? Well, I'll bring in some
thing to show you your fate. But
in walks Matt Lukin, freshly wed
stunning the Spirit of Grunge
Future and rendering it speech-
less. Mudboney dismisses the
spirit as a goth rocker
Dan: Hey, mister married man!
How did it go?
Matt: It went alright. It was one of
those first ones in the phone book-
Double A Vagabond. It had artificial
turf and a bunch of lights. It cost $60.
and we got a video. It was the same
woman who married Conrad (Uno)
at the Mariner's game.
by Jennifer Boddy
Steve: Dan didn't buy the video,
can you believe that? (Dan also
recently went on a bender and ran off
to Vegas to marry his girlfriend).
Dan: When we took off and went
down there, we just walked out of the
house and got on the plane, and I
didn't have any cash on me whatso-
ever. Well, the next plane was leav-
ing at ten and it was six in the morn-
ing, so we thought we'd go down
there and drink at the airport. I had
my checkbook, but I needed a cash
express place to write a check and
get cash. It was more like a financial
thing, because I was more into
gambling than watching a video.
Disgruntled, the Spirit of Grunge
Future ambles off, coloring Mud
boney clueless but bappy.
Mark: Now, instead of being the
bundle of mindless energy I once
was, I'm a more serene Kung Fu
master. With the flick of a tiny finger
I can knock someone down instead
of putting all this excess energy and
waste of emotion in it.
Dan: He went from a mere fighter
to a master.
Mark: Yes, I can think people to
death.
Steve: Mark has snatched the
pebble.
Mark: I snatched the pebble and
my hands didn't even move.
SOUL ASYLUM
... ONE OF THE MOST CRIMINALLY
UNDERRATED BANDS OF THE '80S...
SOUL ASYLUM HAS PROVEN ITS
METTLE, AND NOW WE ALL GET TO
DANCE ON THE GRAVE." -SPIN
"... SHORT ON POSING AND LONG
ON THE KIND OF RAPPORT THA
CAN ONLY ARISE FROM HARD
WORK SHARED HISTORY AND
MUTUAL RESPECT... ONE OF THE
BEST BANDS AROUND." -MUSICIAN
"GRAVE DANCERS UNION"
58 AMER
David Yow, vocalist for
Chicago's Jesus Lizard.
stands onstage breathing
raggedly between songs.
Sweat drips from every inch
of his five-and-a-half foot
frame and his soaked skin
gleams against the bright
club lights. A trickle of blood
runs down the small of his
dirt-covered back. He
ignores it, pauses just long
enough to take a swig from
a bottle of beer, then throws
himself to the throngs
below, while the band plays
a loud, distorted, bluesy
and brutal rhythm. Through
the rest of the show, Yow
stage dives dozens more
times. When he exits nine-
ty minutes later, he limps so
badly he can hardly stand
When Yow performs, he's
a complete madman with
no concern for his own well-
being, that continually
comes back for more.
"Rock and roll should be
pretty physical stuff," he
says in an soft, warm voice.
"I like making contact with
the audience. I don't neces-
sarily enjoy the pain, but I
feel this obligation to put on
a good show. I desperately
don't want to be boring."
He needn't worry. The
Jesus Lizard will never be
deemed boring. Yow's self-
abusive activity, along with
the band's jagged, soulful
punk assault make Jesus
Lizard one of the most excit
ing and scary acts around.
"Scary? I don't see myself
as scary," argues Yow. "I'm
more like a class clown than
a wild man. I really look at
myself as just sort of a fool."
Yow formed Jesus Lizard
in 1987, after Scratch Acid
broke up. He hooked up.
with bassist David Sims and
guitarist Duane Dennison.
The drum-machine pro-
pelled Pure was produced
before the group recruited
drummer Mac McNeilly.
Head soon followed, then
came the bluesy Goat Lp
which hinted at the explo-
sive energy that Liar pro-
jects. "Some songs in the
past have been real losers."
says Yow. "But I don't think
this record has any total
crap songs on it. At least not
many." -Jon Wiederhorn
JESUS LIZARD
ROCKET
from
the
CR
It's a warm, sunny day on San Diego's Ocean Beach. The surfers are check-
ing the waves, the skaters are wasting the curbs, and the girls are soaking
up the sun. From this sun-drenched city comes Rocket From The Crypt.
San Diego's premier underground band. With a rumble that fuses 80s punk
with 60s rock into hard-driving yet melodic songs, they go beyond the limits
of sound itself. "It's hard to pin down a single style or band that has influenced
us," says John Reese, the band's singer and rhythm guitarist. The vocals defy
definition. You're lucky if you can make out a single line. "We're more inter-
ested in how words go with the music than we are in having people under-
stand them," says John. "I don't like to spell it out for anybody, if you get some-
thing from the lyrics you do, and if you don't, you don't." -Jesse Fischer
THEIR COLUMBIA DEBUT FEATURING
SOMEBODY TO SHOVE.
JOIN UP.
PRODUCED BY CHAEL BEINHORN.
MIXED BY ANDY WALLACE
COLUMBIA
COLUMBIA REG.
1992
PART OFF MARCA REGISTRADA
PIC ENTERITUMENT INC.
59