''Shot'' is an album by the band

The Jesus Lizard The Jesus Lizard is an American rock band formed in 1987 in Austin, Texas and based in Chicago, Illinois. They were "a leading noise rock band in the American independent underground… hoturned out a series of independent records filled with ...

, its first release on

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

. Some copies of the album were accompanied by a documentary titled "Sho(r)t".

Production

Impressed by his work on the album ''

Houdini Harry Houdini (, born Erik Weisz; March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926) was a Hungarian-American escape artist, magic man, and stunt performer, noted for his escape acts. His pseudonym is a reference to his spiritual master, French magician ...

'' by

Melvins Melvins (sometimes The Melvins) are an American rock band formed in 1983 in Montesano, Washington. Their early work was key to the development of both grunge and sludge metal. Initially, they performed as a trio but later also sometimes appeare ...

, the band hired producer

GGGarth Garth "GGGarth" Richardson is a Canadian record producer and music engineer. He is the son of music producer Jack Richardson (Alice Cooper, The Guess Who, Badfinger, Poco), a pioneer of the music recording industry in the 1960s and 1970s. Gart ...

to record ''Shot''. Of note on the album is the very different production of

David Yow David Yow (born August 2, 1960) is an American musician and actor born in Las Vegas, Nevada and best known as the vocalist for the noise rock bands Scratch Acid and the Jesus Lizard. Yow's debut solo album, '' Tonight You Look Like a Spider'', w ...

's vocals, which are now much clearer and higher in the mix than on previous recordings. ''Shot'' is the first studio album by the band that was not produced by

Steve Albini Steve Albini (pronounced ; born July 22, 1962) is an American musician, record producer, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman and Flour, and is a member of Shellac. He is the founder, owner and principal en ...

. It has been widely held that Steve Albini refused to work with the band because they had signed to a major label, although Albini himself denied this in comments made to a review of the 2009 reissue of the Touch and Go catalog that appears on the ''Paste Magazine'' web site.

Critical reception

Trouser Press ''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference to ...

'' wrote that "songs like 'Thumbscrews' and 'Skull of a German' prove Yow hasn’t lost anything in terms of horror-storytelling, but his stab at 'singing' (much in the manner he employed in his Scratch Acid days) is ill-advised." ''

Kerrang! ''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly magazine devoted to rock, punk and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent (the same company that owns electronic music publication ''Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one- ...

'' wrote that ''Shot'' "features avid Wm.Sims’ best bass playing," praising "the spiralling flourish at 2:37 on 'Skull Of A German'." '' Perfect Sound Forever'' wrote that "even though the band is bathed in 'clean' conventional studio mix, they are still the Jesus Lizard and that means dark, ugly and weird." '' The Rough Guide to Rock'' called the album "another wedge of death-metal-grunge that showed little sign of burnout."

Track listing

All songs written by The Jesus Lizard. # "Thumper" - 3:31 # "Blue Shot" - 4:13 # "Thumbscrews" - 3:10 # "Good Riddance" - 3:15 # "Mailman" - 3:26 # "Skull of A German" - 3:42 # "Trephination" - 3:34 # "More Beautiful Than Barbie" - 2:50 # "Too Bad About The Fire" - 4:00 # "Churl" - 2:53 # "Now Then" - 2:34 # "Inamorata" - 3:05 # "Pervertedly Slow" - 2:40 # "Shut Up" (Japanese CD only bonus track) - 1:20 # "Bad Guy" (Japanese CD only bonus track) - 2:20

Personnel

- producer *Jeff Lane and GGGarth - engineer *

Joe Barresi Joe Barresi (nicknamed "Evil Joe") is an American record engineer and producer who has worked with Kyuss, The Melvins, Tool, Chevelle, Queens of the Stone Age, Coheed and Cambria, Tomahawk, L7, The Jesus Lizard, Parkway Drive, New Model Army, ...

- mixing *Chad Bamford - second mixing engineer *Howie Weinberg - mastering *Michael Lavine - photography

References

External links

- Steve Albini discusses getting fired by the band in the comments below the review.
1996 albums The Jesus Lizard albums Capitol Records albums Albums produced by Garth Richardson {{1990s-punk-rock-album-stub