king gizzard & the lizard wizard
how i got into king gizz
when i was a lot younger, i very much became a "born in the wrong generation" kid. i never really listened to music outside of osts until i discovered david bowie (one of the only artists from that point of my life that i still listen to) and from there went through a ton of classic rock stuff. that was the way it was for a good year, until one day i heard of king gizzard & the lizard wizard, i think through anthony fantano actually. i forgot about them until i didnt. what can i say, the name stuck with me.
one day, i just started looking into them, found what most people considered their best album was (nonagon infinity of course) and listened. it wasnt an immediate falling in love but i definitely liked what i heard. then about half a year passed, and they suddenly came back into my brain, at which point i got curious again and started listening to the rest of their albums (i was getting into them around early 2019, before fishing for fishies dropped, so they only had 13 albums out). king gizzard not only quickly became one of my favorite bands, and then my all time favorite band, they also opened my mind up to listening to newer music. these days, most of what i listen to was made within the past 2 or 3 decades, and i really have gizz to thank for it.
why king gizz is my favorite band (and why you should listen too)
i think the one thing everybody knows about king gizzard is that they have a shit ton of albums, and that they put these albums out insanely fast. as of writing, theyve put out 27 albums since 2012, and that doesnt mention their comical selection of live albums or any other projects (chunky shrapnel, their 3 eps, a fucking web browser video game, etc). maybe im biased, and by that i mean im definitely biased, but these albums are really fucking good. with a couple exceptions, i like all of their albums, and most of them have very consistent tracklists. im pretty sure i could sing the melodies of at least 90% of their songs.
the one other thing most people know about gizz is their insane variety in genre. when i was getting into them, they were dropping singles for their album fishing for fishies, a cheerful boogie rock album, and only a couple weeks after dropping it's bright and colorful title track, they put out planet b, a fucking thrash metal song. this is what its like to be a fan of king gizzard. theres no real predicting what genre or style theyll attempt next. they can go from progressive thrash metal to analog synth pop to blues rock to orchestral pop, and do at least a decent job at all of them (and yes, im pulling from real albums theyve made). theres no band i get more consistently excited to hear a new album from, since whatever they drop, i know itll be something ive never heard before.
its also just the fact that theyre so active that makes me love following them. whenever i see a new artist with a dense discography and a lot of history, my autism senses tingle and i just wanna dive head first into whatever the hell they have going on. since king gizzard are always up to something new, as well as the fact that ive followed them for so long at this point, i feel like im a fucking historian, and i really love that. the feeling that you know everything there is to know about a band (within reasonable limits of course) is really satisfying in my opinion.
how should you get into king gizz?
at this point, i think its really tough to get someone really into king gizzard. i dont just mean someone whos listened to a few songs or albums, but like knows their music and their history. but, ill try my best!
since they have so many albums that play with so many genres, i strongly believe that even if youre very picky about the kind of music you listen to, you will find an album or at least a song that you enjoy in their discography. if you wanna try out a bunch of their styles at once, try listening to an album that seems them hopping between genres a lot. at this point they have 3: oddments, gumboot soup, and omnium gatherum. oddments is their 4th album, from 2014, and in my opinion, its one of their weakest. the consistency just is not there, but they have some good tracks and its a decent show of their earlier sound. gumboot soup is my personal favorite of the three. the last of their 5-album run in 2017, its basically a collection of tracks that didnt fit on albums earlier that year, and i think its quite consistent, and somehow has really good flow between tracks? dont know how they managed that. omnium gatherum is, in a sense, their most up-to-date version of this type of album, but in my opinion, its too long and again, not quite consistent enough, to recommend fully, though i do like this one much better than oddments. if you want, listen to one of these, pick your favorite songs, then go from there.
im not sure how much this applies these days, but ill make an argument for starting at my favorite album, im in your mind fuzz. their second album from 2014 and the first to get them significant attention outside of australia. this album garnered them that attention because its fucking awesome. every song is great and catchy as fuck, and although there is plenty of variety in mood between tracks, they all feel like they belong on the same album. the lo-fi, psychedelic production creates a lot of very memorable moments all throughout the album, and it seems them experimenting a bit with stringing multiple songs together, something that would become a standard on king gizzard albums eventually. most importantly, i think it shows their sound at the most fundamental form. instead of seeing them trying on different genres and aesthetics, im in your mind fuzz is mostly a pure distillation of them as a psychedelic garage rock band, and i think it makes for a great starting point because of it. however, they have moved away from that garage psych style in recent years, so at this point it might not be the most relevant way to get into them. i still think its a great fucking album though, so you do what you want.
what are my rankings of their albums?
im glad you asked! from best to worst, in my opinion (pls dont get mad):
- im in your mind fuzz
- nonagon infinity
- paper mache dream balloon
- petrodragonic apocalypse
- ice, death, planets, lungs, mushrooms, and lava
- flying microtonal banana
- float along - fill your lungs
- infest the rats nest
- fishing for fishies
- flight b741
- gumboot soup
- murder of the universe
- phantom island
- quarters
- changes
- 12 bar bruise
- kg
- polygondwanaland
- laminated denim
- omnium gatherum
- sketches of brunswick east
- the silver cord
- lw
- butterfly 3000
- oddments
- made in timeland
- eyes like the sky
my experiences seeing them live?
king gizzard live is a completely different beast compare to their studio albums. they love to string songs together, often songs from completely different albums, and they tend to jam songs a loooot longer than their studio versions. some songs can more than double their length live. plus, their sets are never just their most recent couple of albums, but rather songs from all throughout their discography. you could easily hear songs from 20 albums ago at any given show, and furthermore, they try to never play the same song two nights in a row, so youre always getting a fresh set. in the past few years theyve also experimented with acoustic sets, rave sets, and orchestral sets most recently.
ive seen them 3 times, each time in philadelphia: 2022, 2024, and 2025, the most recent show being an orchestrated one. ive loved each and every show, but theres a few specific songs that stand out. firstly, her and i (slow jam 2) in 2022. from an 8 minute song to a nearly 20 minute one, this performance was absolutely captivating. i have trouble believing it was improvised at all with how fucking incredible the build up was. plus, this is one of my favorite tracks from my favorite gizz album, so obviously i loved it. in 2024, they played the river, a fan favorite song. ive heard a number of live versions of the river, but i think this one tops them all. the way they built tension during that second part still has me in complete awe every time i hear it, and that going into this little, tender, almost ambient section was incredible to hear live. plus the way they tease ice v (another favorite song of mine) at the end was a wonderful little treat. in 2025, i honestly wasnt expecting them to play any songs outside of phantom island, but alas, they did. oh my fucking god, crumbling castle. all of it was fantastic, and the orchestral arrangement really added a ton to this track, which is another fan favorite i might add. but that ending. replacing the distorted guitars and stu's deep vocals was just cavs' drumming and the orchestra gradually building into this insanely dramatic and apocalyptic finale. absolutely mindblowing experience.
