The Miracle of Love

David Yow's Presence Elevates Qui To Powerful Levels

originally published October 10, 2007

"Oh, you can only use the official Scrabble Player's Dictionary," insists David Yow, vocalist for the band Qui (pronounced "kwee"). As a veteran of post-punk freak act Scratch Acid and renowned fiendish group the Jesus Lizard, Yow is no stranger to dealing with goons in the press. And now as he has reentered the Roman coliseum of underground music, one of the many "perks" of his job includes plunking down next to the horn from his home in Los Angeles and dealing with legions of fanboy rock-crit hacks (i.e. people like me).

The infamous frontman is reserved, polite and slightly bored throughout my softball questions regarding his return to the touring circuit, but my interview subject only really perks up when the subject matter turns to Scrabble. And this is a little surprising coming from the man whose idea of starting a song is snarling, in a fairly convincing manner, "Give me something to stop the bleeding!"

For the uninitiated, David Yow's contribution to the true reptile-mind spirit of rock and roll is significant; he has, in fact, helped it retain its lifeline. Clad in cowboy boots and jeans, Yow's tendencies found him on top of people's heads as often as he was onstage. Beer bottles were wielded as weaponry betwixt performer and audience. Indecent exposure was a common problem. The word "feral" was thrown around a lot. Like Iggy Pop and Birthday Party-era Nick Cave before him, Yow's unabashed disregard for life and limb spelled out the most important word in blues-based electric guitar music in towering, fiery letters: DANGER.

A witness to the staggeringly weird world of Texas punk rock - The Dicks, The Big Boys, The Butthole Surfers - Yow first started sneering, sputtering and wailing into microphones in 1984 with Austin, TX, band Scratch Acid. After developing a deservedly feared-and-dreaded reputation for his performances, Yow relocated to Chicago alongside stone-solid deadpan bassist (turned mild-mannered accountant) David Sims to launch the Jesus Lizard, which built upon and refined Scratch Acid's formula: dustbowl-dirty, spaghetti-western shitkicker guitars atop a markedly disgruntled, minimalist drum-and-bass pummeling.

Yow is the only member of the aforementioned bands in Qui, but the backstory is worth discussing because the members of Qui - formerly a duo comprising Paul Christensen on drums and Matt Cronk on guitar - are admittedly acolytes of Yow's former bands. Traces of acts like the Melvins and the Minutemen are evident in the power duo's compositions as well; their debut as a trio, a tender package released on Ipecac Records known as Love's Miracle, is a solid show of force. Explaining how he came to be, as he himself puts it, a "Qui-man," Yow has this to say: "We had some mutual friends, and they liked the shit that I'd done in the past, and they asked me to do a cover of 'Willie the Pimp' by Frank Zappa. We played that live and then we did another song and another song, and I started singing songs that Matt used to sing and it just kind of… happened."

Generally shying away from stages since the Jesus Lizard broke up in 1999, it's worth noting that Yow's decision to join a band full-time was preceded by a pair of already-legendary shows in Athens and Atlanta with the Melvins in late October of '06. It's also safe to bet that a handful of Scratch Acid reunion shows in 2006 (in honor of the band's former record label Touch & Go reaching the quarter-century mark) didn't hurt. Now that he's performing under non-anniversary-based circumstances, Yow says his interest in getting the old acts back together for touring is minimal. "I can't really see the point," he says. "If we were to do a real tour and get together and all that shit, I don't think it would be an artistic thing, I think it would be like, 'Well, look, we can make some money,' and that's never what we were about before." And is that what Yow thinks the recent gaggle of Now That's What I Call Grunge! reunions are all about? "Yep!" Hello, Billy Corgan!

Taking a break from his career doing graphic design for movie posters ("Even though it's marketing, I thought that since it's movies, it's somehow more valid… I was wrong"), Yow is no stranger to Athens, where the Jesus Lizard's 40 Watt appearances have become storied tales of biblical violence. The world can be dumb and cruel, and the smartest music often needs to reflect this. With Qui, Yow has re-emerged with an excellent vehicle for his rapid appraisal of man's less desirable qualities. I'm not sure if we can thank God for David Yow's return, but someone should definitely be thanked.

Jeff Tobias

WHO: Qui, Pride Parade
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Tuesday, October 16
HOW MUCH: $10