Today’s Vinyl: Scratch Acid

If nothing else, the Jesus Lizard reunion last year provided a clinic on stage diving, with the nearly 50-year old David Yow showing as little regard for his own health and safety as he did back in the eighties, when Austin’s Rabid Cat released this rude bit of noise. While the Washam/Sims sound isn’t quite the tight, mean power drill to the temple that it would become with the formation of the Jesus Lizard, Yow’s addled mumbling and shrieking is fully formed (if such a thing is possible) here – he’s that angry, paranoid, homeless dude yelling at you about waves and radiation. This is the record you put on when you decide to throw away the thorazine and start planning your overthrow of the lizard people.

Disturbed men like writing about disturbed men, and the standout here is “Crazy Dan”, an expletive-laden Tell-Tale Heart involving marital immolation. Yow’s lyrics shine throughout the record, with lines like “Standing in a pile of ash they gobble dog or cat and chew tendon” and “Don’t mind if ya rape his woman.” I first saw them open for the Dead Kennedys at the Ritz around 1986, and it’s been love ever since. I went down to Record Exchange the next day and picked this up, and it’s spinning on the turntable this morning.