King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

The unfettered sonic exploration that defines King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard frequently causes listeners to mistake the group for an overlooked survivor of the 1960s psychedelic surge. Their far-out sound, sometimes barely cohesive, conjures the eclectic rock experimentation heard in Frank Zappa’s early recordings with the Mothers of Invention, the anything-goes attitude of the Flaming Lips, and the unhinged joy of an obscure 1960s band unearthed from a Pebbles compilation, all while the musicians chase their impulses wherever those impulses lead. The band’s relentless output has produced albums at a dizzying rate, and their determination to chase fresh sounds has taken them through expansive jazz-rock on the 2015 release Quarters, semi-acoustic ballads on that year’s Paper Mâché Dream Balloon, sci-fi prog on 2017’s Murder of the Universe, trippy garage rock on 2014’s I’m in Your Mind Fuzz, explorations of microtonal tunings on 2017’s Flying Microtonal Banana, and straight-ahead classic rock on 2024’s Flight b741, so that each successive record differs markedly from its predecessor. Several of their albums, particularly the 2016 effort Nonagon Infinity, stand alongside the strongest psychedelic rock ever recorded, and even their boldest experiments, such as the death-metal song cycle Infest the Rats Nest from 2019, the single-chord-change album Changes in 2022, or the analog-synth-loop-driven Butterfly 3000 in 2021, register as decisive successes. Energetic live performances and the intricate architecture of their recordings built a substantial audience, and by the arrival of the all-synthesizer concept album The Silver Cord in 2023 the group had become festival headliners able to sell out multiple nights in one city and pack the Hollywood Bowl.

Formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 2011 by friends who often jammed together before spontaneously deciding to perform live, the original lineup featured vocalist/guitarist Stu Mackenzie, harmonica player/singer Ambrose Kenny-Smith, guitarists Cook Craig and Joey Walker, bassist Lucas Skinner, and dual drummers Michael Cavanagh and Eric Moore. The band issued two garage-rock-inspired EPs in 2011, Anglesea and Willoughby’s Beach, before delivering their debut album 12 Bar Bruise in 2012. Maintaining the feverish pace that would become their norm, King Gizzard returned five months later with 2013’s Eyes Like the Sky, which they characterized as a “spaghetti Western audio book” narrated by Ambrose Kenny-Smith’s father, the noted Australian musician Broderick Smith. A third album, Float Along, Fill Your Lungs, appeared in 2013 and was followed quickly by 2014’s Oddments and I’m in Your Mind Fuzz. Still moving swiftly, they released the Quarters EP in early 2015, comprising four trippy, free-jazz-inspired jams each running precisely 10:10.

After signing with ATO Records, King Gizzard shifted from extended jams and fuzzy freak-outs toward concise yet eccentric pop songs performed solely on acoustic instruments for the 2015 album Paper Mâché Dream Balloon. The next record, 2016’s Nonagon Infinity, was tracked at Daptone Studios and delivered some of the band’s most intense psychedelic rock to that point. Constructed so that each track flows into the next and the final song loops back to the start, the album was promoted by the band as the “world’s first infinitely looping album.”

King Gizzard spent 2017 touring while preparing five albums for release that year. The first, Flying Microtonal Banana, found them exploring microtonal tuning, a non-Western system employing intervals smaller than a semitone. After receiving a custom guitar built for the purpose, the musicians acquired additional equipment and modified their instruments to accommodate microtuning. Their second 2017 album, Murder of the Universe, arrived in March and was divided into three extended sections, each recounting an apocalyptic story of humanity’s conquest by cyborgs and AI, underscored by prominent synths and spoken-word narration. Shortly before that release, the band completed a collaboration with Mild High Club’s Alex Brettin, who journeyed from Los Angeles to King Gizzard’s Flightless HQ studios in East Brunswick, Melbourne, where he and Stu Mackenzie sketched initial ideas that the full group later developed. Issued by ATO in August 2017 under the title Sketches of Brunswick East, the album blended soft rock, psych-pop, and cosmic jazz. Released only months later, the comparatively direct psychedelic work Polygondwanaland was offered as a free download with master tapes made available to anyone wishing to press and sell physical copies; ATO was among the first labels to do so, followed by several others. Completing their pledge of five albums in 2017, the band slipped Gumboot Soup under the deadline. The set of thematically and sonically unrelated tracks, unusual for the group, appeared digitally on December 31 and received a physical release in April 2018.

King Gizzard eased their schedule through most of 2018, playing occasional concerts and withholding new albums until November, when ATO reissued the band’s first five records simultaneously. The group maintained a measured pace for new material through the first half of 2019, issuing the February single “Cyboogie,” which pointed toward a blues-rooted direction, followed in early April by “Planet B,” which veered into thrash-metal territory. When Fishing for Fishies arrived in late April, its sound aligned more closely with the former single, as the band delved into boogie rock, biker jams, and blues-rock refracted through their distinctive musical and lyrical lens. Later that year they pursued the direction signaled by “Planet B” on Infest the Rats Nest, a ferocious metal album thematically centered on Earth’s demise and the colonization of neighboring planets. Recorded by a reduced lineup often reduced to a trio, the album was released in August. Around the same time, King Gizzard embarked on a worldwide tour whose live recordings were compiled on the 2020 album Chunky Shrapnel; a documentary film of the same name chronicling the tour appeared alongside the record in late April.

Refusing to let even a global pandemic interrupt their recording momentum, the musicians began work on new material while sequestered in their Melbourne homes. Returning to the custom instruments featured on Flying Microtonal Banana, they produced something of a sequel to that album while incorporating acid-disco elements on the track “Intrasport.” K.G. appeared in November 2020, the same day the double-live set Live in San Francisco ’16 was issued. The former marked the first King Gizzard release without drummer Eric Moore, who departed in August to focus on his label, Flightless.

K.G. represented only half the material generated during the band’s socially distanced sessions; the remaining songs surfaced in early 2021 as L.W. True to form, King Gizzard refused to remain in a single lane, and their second album of the year proved one of their most daring to date. Assembled from loops generated on vintage modular synths, Butterfly 3000 consists entirely of major-key melodies, sun-warm arrangements, and affirmative atmospheres. Released on the band’s own KGLW label in June, the album preceded the group’s first post-lockdown performance in Norway. Although King Gizzard had planned an extensive tour after the album’s release, dates were postponed until 2022. Fans were sustained by periodic drops of archival live recordings and by the early 2022 appearance of Butterfly 3001, a remix collection featuring reinterpretations of Butterfly 3000 material. Artists such as Héctor Oaks and Fred P steered tracks toward the dance floor, while Flaming Lips and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith adopted more cerebral approaches. During their time off the road the band reconvened in the studio at the earliest opportunity to begin work on 2022’s Omnium Gatherum. Spanning styles that included lite-jazz, thrash metal, hip-hop, and funk, the album was the first in some time to lack a unifying sonic concept or overarching theme, instead functioning as an assortment of unrelated songs. Shortly after its April 2022 release, the group launched an ambitious series of live dates.

King Gizzard resumed their release schedule in late 2022 with Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava, an album constructed from free-form studio jams that Stu Mackenzie edited into songs before the remaining members supplied overdubs. The result was characteristically expansive, filled with guitar excursions, apocalyptic lyrics, and buoyant energy. In the ensuing weeks the band performed rescheduled concerts at Red Rocks, issued Laminated Denim comprising two fifteen-minute pieces that had served as intermission music for those shows, and finally released an album they had developed intermittently since 2017. Built on variations of a single chord change and touching on jazz, hip-hop, laid-back funk, and late-night soul, Changes explored the gentler side of King Gizzard’s palette without relinquishing their customary giddy experimentalism.

The band maintained a heavy touring schedule through the first half of 2023, appearing at festivals, in caverns, during four-night residencies, and at the Hollywood Bowl. Just prior to their June performance at the latter venue, they released their second consecutive straight-ahead metal album, PetroDragonic Apocalypse; Or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation. Like Infest the Rats Nest, it was recorded primarily by the core of Stu Mackenzie, guitarist Joey Walker, and drummer Michael Cavanagh, with songs centered on planetary-scale death and destruction. That album was succeeded by another unpredictable turn. Prompted by the acquisition of a Simmons drum kit, the group chose to create an entirely electronic record utilizing every synthesizer and keyboard in their possession. The Silver Cord drew from the pulsing disco of early Donna Summer and the driving grooves of Technotronic, incorporating rapping and omitting guitars altogether. It was offered in both a thirty-minute edited version and an expanded edition allowing each track more than ten minutes to unfold. King Gizzard continued relentless touring, traversing Europe and the U.K. through the first half of 2024. During that period they established a new label, p(doom), and began recording what would become their most unexpected album to date. Devoid of any guiding concept beyond enjoyment and straightforward rocking, the sessions featured the musicians playing inexpensive amps pushed to high volume, incorporating pedal steel guitar, laying down loose, Stones-inflected riffs, trading lead and backing vocals, and indulging their collective affection for upbeat 1970s classic rock. Flight b741 emerged in August 2024, after which the band embarked on an extensive North American tour.