Lizerrd – L-T: Joshua Tafelski, Larry Johnson (drums), Anthony Anonymous, James North Photo by Doug Coombe
This couldn’t be just a one-off thing.
In the middle of October, the guys all started talking in these anxious terms regarding “…after Halloween.” When members of various Ypsi-area psyche/punk acts got together to personify/cover songs by the iconic noise-rock band The Jesus Lizard for a Halloween-themed concert, there was “a palpable chemistry,” said singer Anthony Anonymous (also of Jehovah’s Witness Protection Program (JWPP)). “We felt this unique vibe setting in that I just really loved, even before the show.”
This experiment wound up being a weird, noisy, jolting kind of decathlon for each member – guitarist Joshua Tafelski (a.k.a. “FluShot”) and Larry Johnson of Err…, with guitarist James North of All The Wild Children and bassist Jheremie Jacque of Zombie Jesus and the Chocolate Family Band – with each respective act having their own nuances. These players were used to operating with more minimalist means in genres that leaned closer to punk or a more eclectic psychedelic-tinged trip. This band, with five full elements firing together, as a burlier, beastlier, charging rock n roll band, was invigorating.
“Invigorating, yeah,” says Anonymous, “…and a little chaotic.”
But that’s what they need – they need to find that balance and thrive there – it’s been the main reason they’ve weathered what could have potentially been such an upsurge of volatile (albeit enthusiastic) energy and focus it into a band that has great potential to thrive as its own creature. And, to then, have it strengthen each player.
“The fullness of this band,” Tafelski said, “with our different styles coming together, really changed me musically.”
“Friends, whom I respect, would have such a mixed response, from horrified to just-couldn’t-handle-it to being really into it or dismissing it as something they just didn’t get. I was really interested and attracted to that.”
Anonymous appoints the provocative, gangly, confrontational essence of the Jesus Lizards’ imposing rock squalls as the gateway to his own musical odyssey. Similar to the sensibilities of Detroit band Child Bite, with whom Lizerrd will perform, on April 13 at Woodruff’s in Ypsilanti, the Jesus Lizard comparably have a sonic sensibility that is “just heavy…and dark…but precise,” says Anonymous.
“There’s a strange beauty to their songs,” continues Anonymous. “Even though it was heavy and, yes, dark and noisy, it wasn’t scary. Friends, whom I respect, would have such a mixed response, from horrified to just-couldn’t-handle-it to being really into it or dismissing it as something they just didn’t get. I was really interested and attracted to that.”
Anonymous (the wild-eyed bearded character pictured here), is the father figure to a close-knit clique of local bands known as The Ghost Family, which included bands with Tafelski, Johnson and North – so Halloween 2011 presented him the chance to fulfill two fantasies: A.) be his raucous hero, singer David Yow – and, more importantly, B.) finally collaborate, directly, with his comrades in a proper band-setting.
Since he always keeps his iPhone on “record” during JWPP practices, Anonymous thusly did the same for those initial October sessions. Inevitably, unavoidably, fatefully, members would begin jamming original riff-ideas between-rehearsals. These riffs, these jams, were showing unique potential.
Thus, Lizerrd was born. They were invited to play a second show at the Blind Pig in December 2011, and that synched it.
Good thing, too. Because if we can stress anything about this band, this new roughhewn, tumbler of finely scorched grunge-transmogrified into swaths of post-hardcore by way of a keyed-up, cutting, rock scrape, it would be their energy.
“I see bands that have great music, but I see them live and there’s no movement,” says Tafelski. “Everyone is stiff on stage, and I always leave feeling like I could have listened to the CD in my car and it would have been just as great. I like …no, actually, I love when I see a band or artist on stage and they’re dancing and head banging and they’re really into their music.”
Another kind of balance (beyond focus-versus-chaos) to maintain would be pushing this project (they hope to record an EP this month and maybe get on the road soon), without neglecting their other “main” bands. Err…has a new album coming while North is energized with All the Wild Children and JWPP are about to start writing the follow up to their 2011 LP.
“We’ve found something here,” Anonymous says, “that could really be explored, rewardingly, over the next few years.”
We’ll see what happens.
Lizerrd and Child Bite will perform alongside Reverend and SNAFU at 9 p.m. on April 13 at Woodruff’s.
Child Bite’s Monomania – design by Shawn Knight
Detroit’s Child Bite just released a new stuffed-EP’s worth of songs on 10” vinyl entitled “Monomania.” “No this is not the right place for you,” the wobbly, almost-sinister-sounding falsetto of singer/keyboardist Shawn Knight nibs at your ears in the midst of the mesmerizing dissonance and sludgey slaloming plods in “Nab Munch Is On…” This quartet has a knack for affecting a strange charm with such bent-up, gnashed-around tones and disorienting, detached rhythm schemes. The blended elements (guitar, bass, drum, voice) have, essentially, a ferocity to them – one that could lead them off a cliff and into a droning bog of gristly feedback, but they keep their sense for structure, held tight against the gales and even find some really awesome, gnarly grooves, amidst (what might only seem-like) tumult.
