Album Review: Tonight You Look Like a Spider by David Yow

Fans of David Yow's past work in Scratch Acid and the Jesus Lizard are sure to be jarred by this primarily instrumental album of surreal, sinister, cinematic music he began making on a whim years ago, but, in many ways, it encompasses the entire breadth of his expression. Born in 1998, when Yow began messing with Pro Tools recording software, Tonight You Look Like a Spider was originally created for Mike Patton's Ipecac imprint. Close to a decade later, Yow finished the strange, computer-y, vaguely classical, horror-movie-tinged, screeching, stomping LP, but, when Ipecac altered their plans, he took some time to find Joyful Noise.

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Releasing an album that comes with a concrete monolith is one way to grab peoples' attention. But for David Yow, on solo duties for the first time after years spent baiting audiences as the frontman of Scratch Acid and the Jesus Lizard, it's a minor footnote to a wildly unpredictable record. To say it's uncompromising would be correct, although somewhat redundant, as he hasn't ever dealt in half measures.

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Expecting this to rock? Don’t bother. David Yow has only ever made visceral music, whether howling psychotically with deranged post-punkas Scratch Acid or skulking through the layers of twisted, corroded metal at the Jesus Lizard’s dissonant core. You know it ain’t gonna be pretty, nor will it make for easy listening. Some performers talk about throwing themselves into their art, whereas Yow used to literally fling himself around the stage with such merciless disregard for his own well-being that you wondered what it would take to take him down.

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