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King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard: All About the Australian Psych Rockers

A Guide to the Deep Discography of the Australian Group

By Benja NiesenPublished 6 years ago 13 min read
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King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. The music is just as weird as the name would imply. The seven piece psychedelic rock group from Melbourne, Australia, is composed of Lucas Skinner on bass, Cook Craig and Joey Walker on guitar, drummers Eric Moore and Michael Cavanaugh (Yes, they have two drummers, Eric also doubling as the bands manager, and record label owner), keys, harmonicist, and occasional vocalist Ambrose Kenny Smith, and vocalist, guitarist, bassist, flutist, drummer, songwriter, zurna player, and many, many other credits, Stu Mackenzie. The man is the mastermind behind the group, and is what gives the group their special sauce.

The band has been putting out albums since 2012, and as of today have put out 13. "13?" You might be asking yourself, and no I'm not making that up. The band has been on a roll ever since their debut album, 12 Bar Bruise came out in September 2012. The album has a garage rock, and lo-fi sound, combined with the young, teenage energy that would guide some of their future releases. The album is rough around the edges, sometimes even hard to listen to, especially on the title track being recorded on iPhones, but for a groups debut, its a great starting point.

Their next album, 2013's Eyes Like The Sky takes a complete different route in sound. The album focuses less on the garage rock sound they used before, and follows the band journeying into a spoken word story of the wild west, narrated by Ambrose's father, Broderick. While personally the album isn't as ear grabbing as their debut, it still is interesting to hear the band early in their career develop their sound.

Later that year, the group took their first step into psychedelic rock with "Float Along-Fill Your Lungs." This is their first "great" album in my eyes. The album kicks off with the 16 minute long trip "Head on/Pill. Songs like "Pop In My Step" later in the album is one of the most motivational, and upbeat songs the band has written. One last song I'll mention on the album before I go overboard would be their most psychedelic song "30 Past 7." Its reverbed guitars and distant sounding vocals create a soundtrack that fits any mood. Overall this album is full of great songs front to back and doesn't get as much recognition as it deserves.

2014 comes around and King Gizzard comes through with more albums, beginning with Oddments. The album is less of an album, and more of a collection of songs that didn't fit on other albums. Not B-Sides, but not fitting the sound of other albums. There are some songs on the record that were cut for good reason, but there's also freaky and uncomfortable tracks like "Hot Wax", and chiller songs like "Work This Time" and "Stressin." Lastly, you cant forget to mention the fan favorite "Vegemite." A song about eating toast with "avocado, tomato, and vegemite." This album is a mixed bag, but has some great tracks in it.

While Oddments was a mixed bag, I'm In Your Mind Fuzz is a diverse album, giving some of their most intense songs, and some of their slower, most chill songs. The album also shows their song to song flow, that shows up on pretty much every album that the band makes post 2014. I'm In Your Mind Fuzz begins with the "I'm In Your Mind" medley, which consists of four songs, all flowing as one song. "Am I In Heaven?" is one of my personal favorite songs by the band, with its frantic verse riff, and the simple, yet powerful chords in the chorus. Later on the guitars go into a long, extended solo, with a slower bridge, then erupting again. When listening to King Gizzard I'd recommend starting here, or on Nonagon Infinity, which I'll get to later.

You might be noticing a pattern of releasing two albums per year, and 2015 keeps with that pattern, starting with Quarters! The album shows the band changing their sound again, with showing a more jazz rock angle to their music, and hence the title, all four songs on this album clock in at 10:10. "The River" is the standout song on the album, being played live often, and is arguably their most popular song. "The River" also showcases them experimenting in odd time signatures, being primarily in 5/4. "God Is In The Rhythm" is one of my favorite songs to play along on guitar to due to its catch chord progressions, and laid back solos. This was the record that got the group a lot of traction and developed a larger fan base.

Paper Mâché Dream Balloon is another sonic change for the band, bringing forth an all acoustic sound. Songs like "Trapdoor" are tense, yet still catchy and "Sense" is one of their jazziest songs. My favorite song on the album is probably "The Bitter Boogie" which has vocals from both Stu and Ambrose. It's a standout in their discography, but is one of their best and is worth a listen.

2015 was also the debut year of Gizzfest. Their own music festival. It featured other rock groups from Australia, and also other groups from Eric's record label Flightless Records. Gizzfest still happens annually, yet no dates have been announced for 2018.

2016 was the year that King Gizzard had their breakout album, Nonagon Infinity, which is their best album in my opinion. The album's concept is unique, and I don't know of any other records that have the same idea. The album is 9 tracks long, all of which flow together, and the last song on the album, Road Train flows right back into the first song "Robot Stop." This was the album that I and thousands others found out about the group. The album is perfect from front to back full of furious, unrelenting energy full of chant-able choruses, fast riffs and solos, odd time signatures, apocalyptic lyrics, and Mackenzie's many calls of "OOOOOOH!" I could go on for hours about how amazing this album is. All of the songs have something special about them from the long solos in "Robot Stop," to the drum solo on "Gamma Knife," to the amazing music video for "People-Vultures" that shows the band in a giant vulture costume fighting random characters and destroying them with laser eyes. I'm getting a bit carried away on how perfect this album is, so I'll move on. Keep in mind you're not doing yourself a favor by listening to it.

2016 was one of the few years King Gizzard that didn't release two albums. How would they make up for this? They'd make five in 2017 naturally. This got them a lot of media attention. Would they really make five albums? Would they all live up to previous ideas? I was excited. Most bands make one album every few years, so to hear of a band just deciding to make five by default makes me excited for going against the norm and doing their thing.

2017 opened up with the album Flying Microtonal Banana releasing in February. This album shows the band adding frets to their guitars, to get microtones. Notes that are in between the western 12 tone musical scale. Microtones are commonly used in traditional middle eastern and Asian music. King Gizzard taking these concepts generally not used in a rock setting, brings out some interesting ideas. Songs like "Sleep Drifter" show off microtones really well, especially in the main descending riff of the song, and the jammy outro. This album also features the 7 minute long lead single "Rattlesnake." It's probably King Gizzards most repetitive song, with rattlesnake being said a total of 51 times. This may seem like lazy lyric writing, but it fits with the mood of the song. It feels like you're staring down a snake. Even if you think lowly of the song, good luck getting it out of your head. There's the other seven-minute song "Open Water", which similarly to "Rattlesnake", doesn't have a traditional format for such a long song length. Generally songs that long have a multiple part feel, but on these two songs they don't vary that much and sort of put you in a soundscape that goes around to different jams the band has. This album is King Gizzard's most forward thinking album, and I hope to see them take these ideas forward in the future.

The next album King Gizzard made in 2017 was Murder Of The Universe, releasing in June. This three disk album tells three different stories, each of which being around 15 minutes, and features some of King Gizzard's heaviest songs. The first disk tells the tale of the Altered Beast, with lyrics referencing transformation, but the lyrics aren't what steals the show for me here. The music during this chapter, is completely insane. It's some of King Gizzard's best. Its heavy, fast, complex, and noisy. The time signatures on this chapter are some of the weirdest the band has worked with. The fast tempo that Michael and Eric play at while making a groove in 11/8 is astounding. Listen to "Altered Beast IV" to hear what I'm talking about. The next disk tells the tale of the fight between the Lord Of Lightning and Balrog. While both the songs about them are amazing, "The Lord Of Lightning" is easily the best song on the album. The noisy guitar screeches, brittle sounding harmonica, and constant explosions of energy make it one of the most unique songs the band has ever made. The last disk tells the tale of Hanty-Umi, a cyborg. "Digital Black" is the highlight on this disk, with "Vomit Coffin" being another personal favorite of mine. Its lyrics being a bit gross, describing Hanty-Umi having vomit building up inside him, which on the following track, "Murder Of The Universe," he lets out which eventually swallows and destroys the world. The only problem I have about this album is it over-relying on the spoken word passages. They can be a bit annoying when the pop up when the music itself is outstanding, but the album is still great.

In mid August that year King Gizzard released Sketches of Brunswick East. A collaborative album with American psychedelic jazz group Mild High Club. This album shows the band making calmer, jazzier music, but still complex and catchy. The song "Countdown" is a prime example of the sound the band is giving off on this album. It has more laid back drumming, with the vocals and vibraphone harmonizing at times, with Stu's vocals shifting from their usual loud, almost yelling sound, to a lot softer, higher pitched delivery. Other songs on the album such as "Dusk To Dawn On Lygon Street" and "The Spider and Me" show some unique bass lines, not always used in the bands discography. While I feel like at points this album can fade into background music (even if that at times could be the point), it's a must listen to if Quarters! was up your alley.

November came up and King Gizzard did something I've never heard of another band doing. Their next album, Polygondwanaland was released for free. Not as in it's a free download, but as in anyone could do whatever they wanted with it. This quote from the bands website about sums it up. "Ever wanted to start your own record label? GO for it! Employ your mates, press wax, pack boxes. We do not own this record. You do. Go forth, share, enjoy." On the websites were mp3 files, Vinyl masters, and a collection of images that you could use for covers, including the bands "official" cover for it. On Discogs, there are currently 203 different versions of the album, in all different pressings, with some of which were sold and had the proceeds go to charities.

Polygondwanaland feels less like a collection of songs on an album, and instead one long flowing song similar to Nonagon Infinity minus the ending loop back to the start. The album also features loads of polyrhythms, hence the title, and showcases a lot more of a progressive rock sound than any other of their releases. It opens up with in my opinion King Gizzard's best song, "Crumbling Castle." Totaling at almost 11 minutes, and shows a diverse range of sound. At the start of the song, its quiet with guitars going up and down scales, by the middle there are more tension building moments, climaxing with a synth arpegio where the band then explodes into a fast paced, harmonica wailing piece of madness, where a guitar chord is held until the band comes back in with a HEAVY, distorted outro. Its an amazing song, and if you take anything out of this, it would be to listen to the song. The rest of the album, features crazy rhythms, and guitars climbing up and down exotic sounding scales. Take for example the song "Horology." The main riff and bass are playing in a differnt time signature than the drums and vocals, with the synths feeling like they're doing their own thing as well. "Searching..." features some odd percussion and a really nice groove in the verses of the song. The album end with the song "The Fourth Colour," a song that has one of the catchiest riffs the band was made in my opinion. This album feels like something that would be right for you if you like really any progressive rock or metal band, whether it be Yes, Tool, King Crimson, or anything else. Its an amazing album.

Coming in on the last day of 2017, Gumboot Soup released on December 31st, and similarly to Oddments, has a lot less of a cohesive concept, and is a collection of songs that didn't fit on other albums. Some of the songs on this album like "Greenhouse Heat Death" and "The Great Chain Of Being" show the band going into more of a sludge rock and metal direction, and doing it almost perfectly for a debut in the sound. Other songs like "All Is Known" feel like they could've been written around the same time songs from Nonagon Infinity were written. The song "Beginners Luck" is one of the bands best more ballad-y songs and feels like it'd fit snugly on Sketches Of Brunswick East, alongside "Down The Sink," which is one of only a few songs by the band sung by Cook, aside from his solo work. What Gumboot Soup lacks in a concept, it more than makes up for in delivery and sticks out in their discography just for the contestant quality of songs it has.

When talking about King Gizzard, you also have to mention their live shows. For most of 2018, they've been touring, and teasing a new album sometime by playing new songs live. I had the chance to see them live in June and it was one of the best concerts I've ever seen. Mackenzie's stage presence is amazing to watch. He'll scream into the mic, dance around back and forth, stick is guitar right up to the amp for feedback, and have nice moments of banter with the crowd. All of the guys in the band seem like great guys, and deserve more than all the attention they have right now.

With that being said, I hope you listen to the band. Start with Nonagon Infinity and I'm In Your Mind Fuzz and decide what to listen to from there. The band has so many albums that even if you don't like one, there's almost guaranteed to be another one you do.

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About the Creator

Benja Niesen

Music is pretty cool

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