#49: The story of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard
I'm in your mind fuzz, riding a paper mâché dream balloon into nonagon infinity
Conventional wisdom says no band with a terrible name can be successful, but nothing about King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard is terribly conventional.
Start with their name, which is undeniably bad. (Worse, it’s partly inspired by Jim Morrison.) Then take their sound, which is all over the place. “Psychedelic” is the easiest descriptor, though KGLW—which sounds like a classic rock station in Des Moines—could easily hang with the jam-band set. The press release for the band’s new album, Omnium Gatherum, describes it as “16 tracks of gonzoid prog jams, dizzying pop nuggets, rubber-legged hip-hop odysseys and passages of pure thrash-metal abandon.”
The band also releases an insane amount of music. As a recent, effusive interview in Spin noted, KGLW—“Des Moines, you’re tuned into the Demon Dial! It’s KGLW, where rock rules forever!” [wolf howl]—have released “20 studio albums since 2012, including five in 2017 alone (each in a different musical style), umpteen official and unofficial live releases, a tour documentary soundtrack, rarities collections, one-off singles and wickedly creative music videos.”
That’s overwhelming for anyone who isn’t already a fan, which is probably why the press release for the new one likens it to a greatest hits album, only full of new music. “It’s the perfect entry point for newcomers, and a solid treat for the faithful as well.” (Said “perfect entry point” opens with an 18-minute song.)
But let’s focus on their name. An interview cited in Wikipedia says it was a sort of compromise between “Gizzard Gizzard” and the Jim Morrison homage “Lizard King.” I can’t confirm that, because everything else I found just parrots Wikipedia, but it tracks. A quick look through KGLW’s album titles reveals a whole bunch of psychedelic dada silliness. Among them:
I’m in Your Mind Fuzz
Paper Mâché Dream Balloon
Nonagon Infinity
Flying Microtonal Banana
Polygondwanaland
Fishing for Fishies
Infest the Rats’ Nest
This kind of thing invites the sort of questions you find over at the /r/AskScienceFiction Reddit, such as:
Is the Lizard Wizard a wizard who is also a lizard (which raises many more questions) or just an eccentrically titled herpetologist? Is Lizard Wizard just a nickname and not a job title?
What is the relationship between King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard? Are they allies, enemies, lovers, something else...?
Has King Gizzard and/or the Lizard Wizard ever been caught in a blizzard?
They have fun over there at /r/AskScienceFiction. No one answered the questions, though one person left a comment and deleted it later. (I mean, how can you top that blizzard line?)
Over at the official Reddit for KGLW, someone asked for “acceptable” nicknames for the band. Fans suggested things like Bling Gizzle & the Shizzle Nizzle. Jon Arbuckle & the Art Garfunkel. Gizzy Lizzy Wizzy. Guzzling Wizzard. Liz Wiz. Again, they have fun over there on Reddit, don’t they?
Despite their name, their overwhelming discography, and sprawling sound, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard are doing undeniably well: “King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard Keep Getting Bigger, And They’re As Surprised As Anyone,” says the headline of that gushy Spin story. Their current, massive tour will take them to myriad festivals—they played Coachella this month—and theaters around North America and Europe.
So much for conventional wisdom.
POST-SCRIPTS
I like how KGLW took the time to properly accent “mâché” in Paper Mâché Dream Balloon, but neglected to spell the first part right: “papier.” J’accuse!
Jon Arbuckle & the Art Garfunkel is a solid goofball name.