26 Years in the Making: “Rack” by The Jesus Lizard will be released this Friday.

Primal musical therapy at its best, The Jesus Lizard arise after 26 years to once again save your sanity, one musical movement at a time with their new album RACK.

“But it’s who you are…” extolled a pop culture cognizant teen as she defended Beyonce going country during a classroom side discussion about the merits of artists who change genres like they change underwear. Yes, snippets of conversations in high school classrooms are still a pretty good barometer of what is acceptable in pop music and culture. Darius Rucker ditches pop frat rock to go country. Ed Sheeran goes hip-hop. Gwen Stefani and Taylor Swift go.. everything. It begs the question: who are they really? The younger generations, to a large degree, feel comfortable with what the older generation views as selling out. Where is the integrity of songwriting if you have a team of writers who spin the pop music kaleidoscope for you and stop on whatever might generate the next buzz (and bucks)? Maybe it’s a reflection of the identity crisis that we all seem to be going through currently. Maybe it’s a reflection of our split-second attention spans driven by clicks and likes. Whatever it is, there is something still to be said for an artist or a band sticking to what it does best, likes best, and feels most defines who they are. The Jesus Lizard, reunited, recording, and releasing after 26 years, is one of those types of bands, proving that doing what you do best, and writing your own material, is still the best way to maintain not only longevity, but integrity.

The Jesus Lizard and integrity being mentioned in the same sentence is something the band’s followers might scoff at. That isn’t to say that The Jesus Lizard are not good at what they do, but “integrity” is a loaded word to a generation that was fooled over and over by so-called figures with “integrity.” How many public pop culture figures, leaders, and cultural icons checked out, gave up, or gave in on my generation’s watch? Too many. Some have remained faithful and maintained their credibility. They are very few though.

Anyway, how does this all apply to the new The Jesus Lizard album?

One listen to RACK and the answer is self-evident. Loud, noisy, crunchy and jagged, but never messy, RACK ranks up there with the band’s legendary releases GOAT and HEAD. Tracks such as “Armistice Day” grind with the same slow punk-come-grunge sludge that made “Then Comes Dudley” so appealing and groundbreaking in its time. “Alexis Feels Sick” staccatos along with an energy similar to “Mouth Breather.” The lyrically relevant “Dunning Kruger” sums up our current state of existence perfectly. This isn’t to say that The Jesus Lizard are repeating themselves. No. They are expanding upon a unique sound that made them alt-rock/grunge/noise rock legends in the first place. Music and musicians like these know what and who they are. Excursions into genre inbreeding unnecessary.

Bands like The Jesus Lizard are a dying breed. For a generation that wasn’t allowed, culturally OR by our uptight yuppie parents, to express any emotion or (gasp!) enter into therapy to help deal with the stresses of latch key life, impending Cold War annihilation, and, for many, parental indifference, divorce, and plausible deniability born of the “Me Generation”, bands like The Jesus Lizard stepped in and served as our therapeutic circle jerk of emotional release and community. When you ran into someone who liked The Jesus Lizard and moshed at one of their shows like you did, you knew you met a fellow self-medicator who medicated the right way: by bashing out the negativity with a bunch of other normal punks just trying to keep a handle on their crazy world while simultaneously remaking it in their own image of community, acceptance, and a little snark. So, to bands like The Jesus Lizard, and to The Jesus Lizard particularly, I say thank you for reminding us that you can still save yourself, be yourself, know yourself, and never ever need to sell out.

Track listing:

01 Hide & Seek
02 Armistice Day
03 Grind
04 What If?
05 Lord Godiva
06 Alexis Feels Sick
07 Falling Down
08 Dunning Kruger
09 Moto(R)
10 Is That Your Hand?
11 Swan the Dog

Catch this tour:

10-13 Las Vegas, NV – Best Friends Forever Music Festival
10-31 Dallas, TX – Longhorn Ballroom
11-01 Austin, TX – TBA
12-09 Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE
12-11 Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel
12-12 Boston, MA – Roadrunner
12-13 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
12-14 Washington, D.C. – Black Cat
12-18 Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse
01-07 Glasgow, Scotland – Queen Margaret Union (University of Glasgow)
01-08 Manchester, England – Academy 2
01-09 Leeds, England – Brudenell Social Club
01-10 Bristol, England – The Fleece
01-11 London, England – Electric Ballroom
01-12 Brighton, England – Concorde 2
01-14 Belfast, Ireland – Limelight
01-15 Dublin, Ireland – Button Factory
05-02 Solana Beach, CA – Belly Up Tavern
05-03 Los Angeles, CA – The Fonda Theatre
05-05 San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
05-08 Portland, OR – Revolution Hall
05-10 Seattle, WA – Neptune Theatre