The Jesus Lizard

While no substitute for its drunk-and-disorderly live performances, the studio albums by the Jesus Lizard are the musical equivalent of Everclear in the hard-rock liquor cabinet. Though utterly terrifying to commercial radio programmers -- in large measure because of singer David Yow's coarse subject matter and maniacal vocal spew -- the Jesus Lizard forged an original sound that merges the Birthday Party mania with Led Zeppelin stomp. Few bands made such consistently abrasive smash-mouth rock, particularly during the period when the group was a foursome with drummer Mac McNeilly (1990-96), indie-rock's answer to Zep's John Bonham in the way he kept even the band's most belligerent tunes swinging. Guitarist Duane Denison and bassist David Wm. Sims (who with Yow was in the legendary Texas art-punk combo Scratch Acid in the '80s) were masters of punk-metal sonic architecture, and it is their riffs, more than any sense of sustained melody, that make the band's best songs memorable. Yow's voice is the wild card: Clowning one minute, frothing the next, he uses words as rhythmic devices to batter the walls of taste.

Pure is a tentative start recorded with a drum machine, but the band gained confidence in the studio working with veteran noise-rock auteur Steve Albini (another former Sims bandmate in Rapeman). The height of the Albini-engineered albums is Liar, which finds Yow actually attempting to sing for the first time, and the band's corrosive power is captured on "Gladiator" and "Puss," later issued as a limited-edition split single with Lizard admirers Nirvana.

The departure of McNeilly after recording Shot was a blow the band never quite recovered from, and it broke up in 1999 after releasing its most accessible album, Blue, with drummer Jim Kimball. Bang is a posthumous collection of outtakes and rarities, and Show documents the quartet in its natural element: on stage, where it alternately baits, assaults, and entertains its audience. (GREG KOT)