Bang

Album Review

Trip merrily along with the fun-loving fellows from your favorite noise rock band, now sadly defunct. Bang assembles material from the Jesus Lizard's EPs and singles, throwing in a few unreleased tracks as well. So it's not someone's idea of a best-of collection (if it were, omitting "Nub" and "Puss" would be inexcusable), nor is it as cohesive and powerful as 1991's tour de force Goat. But if you don't want to go searching for the "Mouth Breather" 7", and you simply have to hear their cover of Trio's "Sunday You Need Love," Bang is a more than worthwhile purchase. Speaking of Trio, the Lizard must have some inordinate fondness for the German synth pop group, as Bang also features a previously unreleased cover of "Anna." (So where's "Da Da Da," we wonder?) The band obviously has fun doing other people's songs, smoking through the Dicks' "Wheelchair Epidemic" (singer David Yow and bassist David Wm. Sims were originally in Scratch Acid and were most likely influenced by the Dicks, as they're all from Austin, TX) and a Chrome medley that they entitle, simply, "Chrome" (the original songs are "TV as Eyes" and "Abstract Nympho"). And the live tracks are appropriately blistering, like the mind-blowing "Killer McHann," with all it's creepy lyrics and unorthodox time signatures. And "Dancing Naked Ladies" and "Fly on the Wall," from Goat and Down, respectively, vary from the versions found on those albums, making them necessary for completists.