August 28th, 2010
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

I’ve seen quite a number of heroes since my early show-going days; in fact, I can’t think of any band that existed during that (this) period that I really obsessed over and didn’t get to go see in person. It’s been a privilege and an honor to see so many of these great musicians and/or personalities in the flesh.

But this one’s different. Exactly twice have I actually felt like I was in the presence of Majesty, that I was really blessed to be able to do this thing, that I was watching someone who really got me and what I was looking for. It happened to be the same guy both times.

It’s an interesting thing, I suppose, to be so enthusiastic about the particular sound of a particular musician’s gear and way of playing. It is the personality sometimes. It’s not about virtuosity, it’s about delivery. A good comedy analogy: Steven Wright isn’t Steven Wright without the dead, tired monotone. He’s a guy who says marginally funny one-liners. You lay his reading over the top of that and you get a weird, vaguely creepy, and undeniably unique perspective on life. The delivery effectively alters the meaning.

If you’ve ever played a bass guitar—a good, resonating bass guitar—you know that it feels a very certain way. It growls in your hands, and you feel it in your skull. Most bass rigs just don’t sound like that. They sound too round, too whole. Too plastic. The bass, rolling on your hip and vibrating at a pace you can almost measure, is organic and sexual.

David Wm. Sims brought a noise that wasn’t entirely unique; others before him had managed to nicely capture what I thought a bass was supposed to sound like based on how it felt, but Sims nailed it. He sounds like it feels to play a bass. That’s the easiest way I can put it. And when I first heard it, it hit me deep. The Jesus Lizard was an amazing band in so many ways, but I’m certain that without that particular sound I never would have latched onto them the way I did. It’s magnificent.

There are others, of course, and it’s basically impossible to choose so I didn’t work very hard on it, but from the 2009 remasters, here’s one of the tracks that I always felt offered one of the best presentations of the Sims sound-and-style combination that the band wouldn’t be the same without.

The Jesus Lizard : The Art of Self Defense : Liar

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    1. natcromlech reblogged this from shanecyr and added:
      Perfect music for...excellent description
    2. thedza said: I saw The Jesus Lizard for the first time at The Outhouse in Lawrence, KS. David Yow’s balls almost made contact with my face. Mac McNeilly talked with me about drums and Duane Dennison told us, “just make the chords up.” Majesty indeed.
    3. shanecyr posted this