Down the Rabbit Hole: Where Only a Lizard Can Go

The Discovery

You don't expect to discover your next musical obsession while heading to a baby shower, but that's what happened with me and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. Just 12 hours earlier, I'd been at a mind-melting Gesaffelstein house show, but it was my friend Jerm's absence that would prove more significant. He'd chosen a different musical journey that night - a promised three-hour King Gizzard epic in Austin.

Hitting the Runway

Jerm suggested starting with Flight b741, at the time their most recent and quote/un-quote approachable album. I took that advice initially started with their top five on Spotify just to dip my toes in the water before diving into an album. Two songs caught my ear...one was Le Risqué from Flight b741. Pure, powerful, (small) cocky 80s rock. The other was Phantom Island, a journey of a song starting with light piano building in a horn and jazzy elements and culminating with what can only be described as the sounds of the a battle cry as the horses chase you down on the battlefield. Or maybe that's just me :) Sounds almost like something from Led Zeppelin at this point.

Two songs on repeat for a couple days…and I started inching deeper into the catalogue. With any new band, it’s nice to get a heads up from friends or Pitchfork or NME or whatever your trusted source is for a base point. Where do you start? Usually, you don’t need an “approachable” album. Usually, you go to a band’s top album, maybe they’ve got a classic to start with Tame Impala, one could start Currents. However, with King Gizz, a strategic approach is required. There’s a lot there. And not just in the mouthful of a band name - King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - which I have fully repeated to my mom and others on several occasions. The intimidating factor here is a combination of the genre-spanning nature of their discography as well as the sheer volume of it.