Jesus Lizard, The "Pure" LP

In 1988, deep in the pancreas of Texas, a guitarist named Duane Denison was hard at work breaking down a large chunk of the history of music into its most primal, indispensible components, and imagining some kind of uncompromising delivery to a live rock audience. Reaching out for collaboration, Denison would find David Yow, well known in underground circles as the feral lead singer and junior contortionist for the highly regarded and corrosive Scratch Acid. Yow would in turn lead Denison to enlist Yow's Scratch Acid bandmate David Sims. In addition to his estimable bass playing skills, Sims also happened to own a drum machine.

The following year, the three moved to Chicago and recorded the EP Pure, a title which has nothing to do with virginity, drugs, musical notes, or hell. While widely viewed as slightly "pre-Lizard" or "solo Duane" because it lacks drummer Mac McNeilly, it opens with a bone-crushing trifecta - "Blockbuster," "Bloody Mary," "Rabid Pigs" - thoroughly riveting compositions featuring some of the Lizard's most endearing characteristics, including: (1) Denison's guitar (it is not an exaggeration to say that his playing on "Bloody Mary" suggests blood oozing at an alarming rate from a large wound), and (2) Yow's lyrics ("Blockbuster" features a protagonist asking a young guest, who may later be barbecued, if sodomy is something he thinks he might enjoy. The joyous sing-along chorus presses the question, "Well, do ya, motherfucker?!!"). Pure's excellent cover art set the bar for all future the Jesus Lizard releases.

Tracklist
A1 Blockbuster
A2 Bloody Mary
A3 Rabid Pigs
B1 Starlet
B2 Happy Bunny Goes Fluff-Fluff Along