THE JESUS LIZARD

J: It's the Jabbatron here, on the very corner of a very 
big roof of a very big building in Sydney, and I'm talking
 to 50 per cent of Jesus Lizard from Chicago - David Yow 
and Duane Denison. 

DY: Is that fifty per cent by weight? Probably just about. 

J: Where are the other dudes? 

DY: Mac's in his room throwing up and Dave Sims is petting 
his broken leg. 

J: How did he break his leg? 

DY: A couple of weeks ago we played in Vancouver and this 
kid jumped up on stage and grabbed David and the two of 
them went tumbling off the stage. When he got back on stage 
his leg was hurt, and about a week later he went and got it 
x-rayed and his tibular was broken. 

J: And is it that kind of thing where you take legal action 
against the kid that did it? 

DY: No, take illegal actions! 

J: But if you jumped in the crowd and hurt someone, they'd 
take you to court as far as they could. Have you landed on 
a few people? 

DY: Sure, better them than the floor! 

J: Now last time you were out here there was a bit of a 
situation where you dived into the crowd and your wedding 
ring slipped off. 

DY: Yeah, in Auckland . . . 

J: And you had to totally stop the gig . . . 

DY: That was like a miracle! 

J: That you got it back! Tell us about that . . . did you 
just yell STOP? 

DY: I was being tossed around by the kids and I turned 
back to these guys and did the international symbol for
 stop . . I've never done that before, so they knew it 
was something important, and I said my wedding ring's 
fallen off. Everyone's looking in the mud, and one guy 
goes 'I've got it' - it was a miracle. 

J: Wow, have you lost anything else by jumping into the 
crowd? I mean shoes are probably a likely one . . . 

DY: Weight, self-pride, dignity . . . 

J: Fair enough. Now, four-letter words seem to feature in
 the titles of JL's releases: 'Shot', 'Down' . . . do you
 have a penchant for releasing songs with four-lettered 
titles? 

DY: Penchant? What's that mean, penchant? 

J: It's this French word that means this thing for something.
 Is that just a coincidence? 

DD: Yeah, I guess it is. 

DY: I have never noticed that . . . 

DD: It just makes it easier, you know, trying to pick the
 title of an album . . . 

DY: And the four-letter word, at least in America, and I
 imagine here, 'cause it's an English speaking country, 
has such a bad reputation that we're trying to help it 
out . . . 

J: You've given it a good name. 

DY: I think so - we haven't used things that I probably 
can't say on TV as record titles . . . all nice words . . . 

J: Your most recent album, 'Shot' - I chucked it on, and
 thought what's this? They've done a cover of 
'Eye of the Tiger'. Then I listened to it again and it 
sounds nothing like it, but it's got that dah, dah, dah - it 
sounds a bit like it, where you catch the symbol . . . 

DY: Chris likes that - well it just so happens that we 
recorded in downtown Chicago and it just so happens that 
'Eye of the Tiger' was recorded there. 

DY: Be sure and make sure you catch him (he goes to throw
 Jabba off the edge). 

J: Oh wow, you should do that; lean back and look at the city
 upside down (DY obliges). 

DD: Does that mean that any Rage Against the Machine songs
 actually are covers of Frankenstein? Probably! 

J: Well, that was a bit of a dud, but it just occured to me 
for a split-second while it was on, and then I thought damn,
 I wish it sounded a bit more like 'Eye of the Tiger'. . . 
They play it a lot at sporting events in Australia. 

DD: They do in the States too; it's more of a wrestling song. 

DY: Do you know what I think's really cool in the States with
the music they play with sports like football, and baseball 
- Gary Glitter and Queen songs - I think that if the tough 
baseball and football fans knew that they were singing along
to gay people's music, I think they'd really rethink
aaaaahhhh, maybe we should be listening to Bruce Springsteen 
instead. 

J: Pantera . . . 

DY: Or Pantera, but they're gay too. 

J: They are gay . . . I said, so when's your men's night;
they were in this strip club that they own, and they're 
like, no way man, we're not into that shit; there's no male 
strip club night, it's women, it's chicks. And I'm like wow,
no honchos in town alright. Well, what about that song they
play at the basketball, who does that? 

DY: Oh yeah, that's a good one. 

DD: Whoever wrote that one cleaned up . . . 

J: In a big way . . . Have you written any songs that have 
brought you good commercial returns . . . Anything that's
 been used in ads or films? 

DD: Yeah, we had a couple of songs, one of which was in a 
film called 'Clerks', did that make it out here? 

J: That was awesome, that film . . . 

DY: What do you have on your lips? 

DD: Chapstick. 

J: That's wise; up here, very windy. You guys come from a
 very windy city, is it really as windy as they say? 

DD: It really isn't. That term comes from the amount of 
wind bags . . . people just talk a lot, honestly. San 
Francisco is far windier . . . 

J: San Francisco's windier. That's like they call Seattle 
the rainy city or something . . . 

DY: It is rainy. It's always raining there. I did get blown 
over by the wind a few winters ago in Chicago, because I was 
walking in the street and the wind was blowing at me, and I 
rounded a corner and the wind shifted, and I slipped and fell
 on the ice. 

DD: It's not the windiest city in the U.S. not by a long shot,
 no way. 

J: Speaking of wind - now you guys stay there 
(picks up magazine) - when you were a kid, did your mum used 
to say "Don't pull that face because the wind could change  
and you'll end up like that" and what the hell happened here? 
(looking at magazine picture of Dave). What is that? 

DY: We just finished a tour with a great band . . . really 
funny guys, and one of the guys asked me if I'd ever broken 
my nose,and I said no, and he said really, did your face ever 
catch on fire? And you know, well (points at photo) . . . 

J: What is that? 

DY: Clear packing tape 

J: Oh, phew, I was thinking, wow, what has happened that you 
have recovered from? That looks great. 

DY: Yeah, well 

J: Well, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have run off and done that, 
'cause now I've gone off the track. Let's get back to 'Clerks'
 - what a great film. 'Mall Rats' has come out by the same guy. 

DD: How 'bout that film 'Amateur', did that make it out here? 

J: I think so. Are you a bit of a film buff? Or do you prefer 
to stay in the hotel and watch it on the small screen? 

DY: Yeah, I went to see 'Fargo', that was a great movie . . . 

J: Yeah, totally. What about when he's putting him through
the grinder (makes grinding sound). 

DY: That was a good movie . . . 

J: And what about that woman, is she from Cagney and Lacey? 

DY: Nooo. 

J: Well what else would you like to talk about? I've run out
of things that are relevant to what you're doing here. 

DY: Moreton Bay Figs, they are the most lovely tree. 

J: Yeah, there are a few out there, there aren't many left .  

DY: Are we in Queensland? 

J: No, you're going there next . . . 

DD: So did I read right that the next Olympics are here? 
That's good, boy. A lot better than Atlanta . . . 

J: Well, not for us, for you maybe, not for us . . . Do you 
watch it, are you sports heads? 

DD: The Olympic coverage in the States - it's so bad, it's 
like an endless USA number one. I mean, I like it there 
and everything, but you couldn't see anything, and only a 
few US people were in the events and I thought, come on 
let's see some of the other stuff; some of the other 
countries. They show slow-motion heart-rending stories of 
heroic deeds, and when anybody would win anything. 

DY: What I liked about the last Olympics was that in the 
States they focused a lot on the women's gymnastics, but
before that they were focusing on the amount of crying the
wrestlers were doing. Men were just weeping all over one 
another, I thought that was really good. 

J: When they won or when they lost? 

DY: Both. Just crying, crying, crying . . . 

J: You've grown up with rock'n'roll wrestling, I mean it's 
an emotional sport . . . 

DY: Oh, it really is (pretending to cry) . . . 

DD: Yeah, I saw a show where they had a rock band, then a 
wrestling match, then a rock band, then a wrestling match.
 This was in Texas - boy was it awful, I think the IQ level 
there averaged about 75. 

J: That's like the Seinfield episode where George only gets 
an 84 or something and Elaine takes the test for him. There 
seems to be so much American culture in Australia and it seems
to be increasing and increasing. Are there times when you go
to other countries, when you think wow, that's here . . . 

DY: It's weird, the westernisation of a lot of places, most
of them, especially Europe and Australia and stuff; it doesn't
really bother me that much, but Japan - it almost hurts to 
see the Japanese trying to be American; you think, man, don't
do that! 

DD: It's like the car culture here, it's like in the States 
with the hot rods. In Europe they're all space-efficient and
cars are strictly transportation; then you come here and it's 
like the States, where cars are meant to be driven; driving is
fun, and if you've got a big V8, hit it! 

J: Is that all around the States, or just Los Angeles? 

DD: It's all around the States, but it's not like it used to be. 

J: Do you have the techno music that comes out of the cars,
like 'boomb, boomb, boomb'. That's what we have here. 

DD: That's the soundtrack of our neighbourhoods. 

J: Is that part of the reason you do what you do? 

DD: No, I like some techno . . . 

J: Here's Johnny! Bam bam bam chick bam bam bam. Oh, I was 
going to say to you about the sport thing - you know how you
 were saying you get a lot of American coverage? We have 
cricket, and whenever there's a final, Australia's in it. 
We're never ever going to have a final where it's Pakistan and 
Sri Lanka because you'd get five people turn up at the gigs, so
you know what I'm saying (whispers that 'they're rigged'). But
every other country must have their own fanatical sports thing. 
Like when Sudan win a medal, they spend the whole time covering 
it and replaying it. 

DD: Sorry, but since when was volleyball an Olympic event? I 
can't picture the ancient Greeks playing it. Softball?! Come 
on, what next, egg toss? Sack race? 

DY: Three-legged races. Is chess one? 

J: It's about nothing, it's about the mind. Are you guys 
gamesmen, chess or dominoes or pick up sticks? 

DY: Scrabble. I'm the second best Scrabble-ist I know . . . 

J: If I bring the board to Brisbane . . . 

DY: It's in the room . . . 

J: I'm there . . . 

DY: O.K. I just got my highest score about a month and a 
half ago, 506, thankyou very much . . . 

J: I don't think I've ever gotten over 250 - 506 is pretty
good. Do you ever hang out with Pavement? Steve is meant to
be a bit of a crossword wizard. 

DY: Sure, I played Steve, I played Bob, Steve's really good . .  

J: He challenged Courtney; I think it was to a crossword 
competition and he flogged her and she was very . . . 

DY: I have a story - when we did Lollapalooza I went across to 
Hole's dressing room and I was talking to Eric, and Courtney
 stumbled in and she's going, 'Hello, I read somewhere that 
you like playing Scrabble.' I said, 'Yeah, I do, and anytime
you want, I'll kick your ass in a game of Scrabble.' Courtney:
'I don't think so, you don't have half the vocabulary I do." 

J: My god, what has happened to that woman? The recent thing 
she's come out with is that the band never knew Dave Grohl,
they never spoke to him, Dave Grohl was never mates with Kurt.
She's in a good position to be talking about it now . . . 

DY: I can't wait 'til one day, Chris comes out and says all 
the things he knows, 'cause he's been really hush-hush. He 
won't say anything, but man, what he knows he could take her
under . . . 

J: Is there anything happening with his band, Sweet 76? 

DY: I don't know.

J: Well, I think we've covered everything here. 

DY: You can work with that . . . 

J: Yeah, I think we can leave it there. Oh yeah, Stipe 
turned up at the airport at the same time as Bob Dole 
and Stipe turned around and mooned Dole twice . . . 

DY: Really? Cool, that's great. Man, I bet that was a horrible
sight . . . Wow, I love REM now. 

J: It's hard to grasp over here, that there are people who 
would vote for someone like Bob Dole. 

DY: Man, there're some funny people running around over there.
 I saw a bumper sticker in the States, you know years ago in the 
White House when Clinton said 'Well, I have smoked pot', I think 
it was in Georgia, a bumper sticker said 'Clinton doesn't inhale,
 he sucks!' Like wow, you're really cutting into the core there. 

J: Cutting political commentary. Well, it's a bit tricky for me. 
I think I'll leave it to these guys . . . 

DY: Thank you very much 

J: Thank you so much 

DD: Bye