The Jesus Lizard Are Back. Hooray?

The Pitchfork Music Festival is starting to roll out the acts playing Chicago’s Union Park July 17-19, with the slate for Friday night—where bands will play setlists chosen by ticket buyers—being announced. The lineup is loaded with indie’s elders: Built to Spill, Yo La Tengo, Tortoise (wait, who knows names of Tortoise songs?) and the reunited Jesus Lizard. Built to Spill and Yo La Tengo are obvious big names for the Pitchfork set, and Tortoise can likely coast on Millions Now Living Will Never Die But what of the Jesus Lizard? I recognize that they’re hometown boys, but outside of the possibility of getting reacquainted with lead singer David Yow’s genitals, are they that big of a deal?

Sure, Michael Azerrad wrote about the band, they recorded for Touch and Go, and they put on an electrifying show (or at least they used to). But I’m not sure their catalog backs up the semi-legendary status that inclusion to that Friday night lineup implies; hearing how great the band was in nearly every “college rock” publication for awhile in the ’90s didn’t really help convince me. Is the Jesus Lizard one of those bands we’ve all just convinced ourselves we like?

Two videos from the band’s glory days:

“Nub”:

“Puss”:

Reunited Jesus Lizard to open Pitchfork festival with set list handpicked by fans [Turn It Up/Chicago Tribune]