The Jesus Lizard's David Yow On Coffee Table Books, Pant Pyrotechnics And Cat Puns

Summary: If you’d told us 20 years ago that The Jesus Lizard would someday put out a coffee table book, we would’ve had a hard time believing you. The explosive '90s alternative punk rock band was known for its aggressive onstage presence, virtuosic musicianship -- and a frontman, David Yow, who often spent more time crawling on top of his audience than standing on stage. However, the band members went their separate ways in 1999 -- reuniting briefly for a tour a decade later -- and now they've chronicled the band's story in a photo and essay-filled tome, simply titled Book. In a conversation with Soundcheck host John Schaefer, Jesus Lizard frontman David Yow, shares parts of that story firsthand. He fills us in on how the band got its start, where his commanding, often intimidating stage presence came from and why tight pants are better than loose ones when you're planning to light them on fire.    Interview Highlights: David Yow, on what inspired him to be a part of a more "dangerous" rock scene:  I saw a show by a band called The Huns in Austin, and I had heard of them because there was some sort of thing where they got in a lot of trouble and there was sort of a riot at the club, and the cops came and Phil Tolstead, the singer for The Huns, had kissed a cop while the cop was arresting him. And I just thought, this is so cool. I was into Brand X and Led Zeppelin and jazz fusion and stuff, but the idea of being intimidated by the band who's entertaining you blew my mind. I thought that was such a cool idea. It completely changed my life.  On why wearing tight pants when lighting them on fire is better than wearing loose ones:  If you spray butane all over your pants and then light it on fire -- because it's a lot of fun and it looks really neat -- if the pants are relatively tight then you're fine. But if they're loose, to where there's oxygen between your pants and your legs, then you're liable to burn yourself. On being physically injured during Jesus Lizard performances:  I never wanted to let anybody down. People spend their hard-earned money to come see some stupid singing group. I just wanted us to be... as good as we could be. Like the Marines or something like that. Don't they have sort of a motto like that? 'The Few, The Proud, The Many?' On his upcoming illustrated book of cat puns called Copycat: And A Litter of Other Cats: The idea is that anywhere "c-a-t" shows up in that order is fair game. Like "scatological" or "catastrophe" or "catatonic." I think the list got up to 94, and I think there are 74 in the book. Those remaining 20 were just too difficult to illustrate.