King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard is an Australian Psychedelic Rock and Garage Rock band. They were formed in 2010 in Melbourne, and they consist of members Stu Mackenzie (vocals, guitar, wind instruments), Ambrose Kenny Smith (vocals, keyboards, harmonica, saxophone), Cook Craig (guitar), Joey Walker (guitar and vocals), Lucas Harwood (bass), Eric Moore (drums 2010-2020), and Michael Cavanagh (drums). They probably rank among the weirdest bands to ever come out of the Australian psych-rock scene.
The band was originally going to be called "Gizzard Gizzard", which was conceived by lead vocalist Stu Mackenzie, but another member of the band wanted the band to be named "Lizard King", as a tribute to the nickname of Jim Morrison. They eventually decided to compromise and name the band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
The band also famously has a lot of time on their hands. Since 2012, they have recorded twenty-five studio albums, fourteen official live albums, and four EPS, each of which have different sounds, while still sticking to their roots and trademark songwriting motifs.
They started releasing material in 2010 with two self-released singles; their next release the following year was a four-track EP released on CD and titled Anglesea. (These releases were all unavailable digitally until they were included on the 2020 Bandcamp-exclusive release Teenage Gizzard.) The Willoughby's Beach EP, also released in 2011, was what got the band noticed in Australia and chosen to play at the Meredith Music Festival in December of that year. Around a year later, they would self-record and release their first full-length album, 12 Bar Bruise. Its sound can be summarized as Surf Rock and Garage Rock with a psychedelic flair.
With the release of their fourth and fifth albums, Oddments and I'm In Your Mind Fuzz (both in 2014), King Gizzard became rather popular and would start to become more professional. In 2015, they started recording Quarters!, a Concept Album that has four songs — each of them lasting 10 minutes and 10 seconds — and contains influences from Jazz Fusion and Progressive Rock. Later that year, they would release Paper Mâché Dream Balloon, which was a mostly acoustic album influenced by Folk Rock acts like The Byrds.
Their output only grew more ambitious from there. In 2016, they released what many considered at the time to be their magnum opus: Nonagon Infinity. It was designed to be an infinitely looping album, containing nine songs that all segue into each other, including the beginning and ending tracks, hence the title of the album. To add upon its success, they decided to release no less than five more albums in 2017: Flying Microtonal Banana in January, the first in an ongoing series of albums where they experiment with microtones (which are the notes that are in between semitonesnote ); Murder of the Universe in June, a Concept Album split into three separate narrated stories, following the same styles as the previous two albums; Sketches of Brunswick East in August, a collaboration with the band Mild High Club, which saw them move away from their sound almost completely and into improvisational psych-jazz; Polygondwanaland in November, a psych/prog rock album put on their website and Bandcamp page for people to download, rip to CDs, press onto vinyl, etc.; and Gumboot Soup in December, a Genre Roulette of an album containing songs that didn't quite fit into the other four releases, some resembling their sound and others representing completely new styles for the band.
With a promise of new music in 2019, King Gizzard released a single in late January called "Cyboogie", which detailed a funkier, synth-laden boogie-rock sound inspired by the likes of Canned Heat, Little Feat, and ZZ Top. This new release, coupled with B-side "Acarine", seemed to confirm a new album, which wasn't officially announced until early March, eventually releasing in late April under the title Fishing For Fishies. Not long after the release of Fishies, they released two new singles: "Planet B" and "Self-Immolate", which completely ditched the happy-go-lucky, lighthearted sound of Fishies in favor of a darker Thrash Metal sound with lyrics about climate change and environmentalist themes. This was announced on June 21, 2019 to be coming from their second album of the year, Infest the Rats' Nest.
In July 2020, they released the single "Honey", a return to the microtonal tuning used in Flying Microtonal Banana. In the following months, they would release "Some of Us" and "Straws in the Wind", the latter flowing seamlessly into the former. In lieu of simply releasing the next single, "Automation", King Gizzard released the song's stems and plenty of footage for fans to create remixes and custom music videos with. In November, they would release their next album K.G., the second volume of their Explorations Into Microtonal Tuning series, alongside the music video for the album's final single, "Intrasport". Not even three weeks would pass before they released an animated music video for a song called "If Not Now Then When", which begins right where the final song from K.G. ends, all but confirming suspicions that a direct sequel to it was on the way.
In 2021, the single for "If Not Now Then When" was quickly followed up with two more singles, "O.N.E" and "Pleura", the latter being accompanied by a music video recorded and edited in the 24 hours before it was released. Accompanying the release of "Pleura" was the official confirmation of the K.G sequel album, titled L.W., released one week later on February 26, 2021. On May 7, they announced that their next album, Butterfly 3000, would be released a month later with no singles. On December 17, the band announced the long-rumored album Made in Timeland, which was to be released at the Timeland festival on New Year's Eve. This festival was cancelled due to concerns over COVID-19, and the release of the album was delayed to March 5 with their festival Return Of The Curse Of Timeland. Made in Timeland is an electronic album that consists of two fifteen minute songs, "Timeland" and "Smoke and Mirrors."
Their twentieth album, Omnium Gatherum, was announced on March 8, 2022 and released on April 22. At over 80 minutes, it is the band's longest album yet. On September 7, they announced three new albums to be released in October, matching their 2017 record of five albums in one year: Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava (released on October 7), Laminated Denim (released on October 12), and Changes (released on October 28). Their next album, PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation, was released on June 16, 2023 and showed the band returning to their thrash metal sound. Bassist Lucas Harwood stated that the album would be the first of two released in 2023, with their twenty-fifth album The Silver Cord being released on October 27. This album takes inspiration from electropop and focuses on synthesizers rather than guitars.
Their official website can be found here.
Their 2017 album Polygondwanaland, meanwhile, was released to the Public Domain; it can be listened to here, while the individual songs and cover art can be freely downloaded here.
Principal Members:
- Stu Mackenzie - lead vocals, co-lead guitar, bass, flute, zurna, wind instruments, keyboards, percussion
- Ambrose Kenny Smith - harmonica, keyboards, synthesizer, saxophone, vocals
- Cook Craig - rhythm guitar, bass, keyboards
- Joey Walker - lead guitar, bass, setar, vocals, keyboards
- Lucas Harwood - bass guitar
- Eric Moore - drums, bongos, percussion, management (former member - left in 2020 to focus on Flightless Records - a label the band had started so they could self-publish, which then ballooned into a reasonably large Independent Label in the Melbourne area.)
- Micheal Cavanagh - drums, bongos, percussion
Studio album discography:
- 12 Bar Bruise (2012)
- Eyes Like the Sky (2013)
- Float Along – Fill Your Lungs (2013)
- Oddments (2014)
- I'm in Your Mind Fuzz (2014)
- Quarters! (2015)
- Paper Mâché Dream Balloon (2015)
- Nonagon Infinity (2016)
- Flying Microtonal Banana (2017)
- Murder of the Universe (2017)
- Sketches of Brunswick East note (2017)
- Polygondwanaland (2017)
- Gumboot Soup (2017)
- Fishing For Fishies (2019)
- Infest The Rats' Nest (2019)
- K.G. (2020)
- L.W. (2021)
- Butterfly 3000 (2021)
- Made In Timeland (2022)
- Omnium Gatherum (2022)
- Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava (2022)
- Laminated Denim (2022)
- Changes (2022)
- PetroDragonic Apocalypse; or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation (2023)
- The Silver Cord (2023)
Other releases
- Sleep/Summer! single (2010)
- Hey There/Ants & Bats single (2010)
- Anglesea EP (2011)
- Willoughby's Beach EP (2011)
- Cyboogie/Acarine single (2019)
- Live in Paris '19 live album (2020)
- Live in Adelaide '19 live album (2020)
- Live in Brussels '19 live album (2020)
- Chunky Shrapnel live compilation (2020)
- Live in San Francisco '16 live album (2020)
- Demos Vol. 1. Music To Kill Bad People To (2020)
- Demos Vol. 2. Music To Eat Bananas To (2020)
- Live in London '19 live album (2020)
- Teenage Gizzard EP (2021)
- Live in Melbourne '21 live album (2021)
- Live in Brisbane '21 live album (2021)
- Live in Sydney '21 live album (2021)
- Live in Milwaukee '19 live album (2021)
- Live at Levitation '14 live album (2021)
- Live at Levitation '16 live album (2021)
- Demos Vol. 3. Music To Eat Pond Scum To (2021)
- Demos Vol. 4. Music To Die To (2021)
- Live at Bonnaroo '22 live album (2022)
- Live at Red Rocks '22 live album (2022)
- Live at Chicago '23 live album (2023)
- Demos Vol. 5. Music To Think Existentially To (2023)
- Demos Vol. 5. Music To Burn Money To (2023)
- Satanic Slumber Partynote EP (2022)
This band provides examples of:
- Always a Bigger Fish:At the end of Polygondwanaland, the unnamed Protagonist has ascended to apparent godhood. However, they first allude to being controlled by unknown beings:Many fingers, many minds andMany eyeballs puppet my feet
- Furthermore, at the end of the vinyl version of the album, Han-Tyumi makes an appearance:
- The implication is that having ascended to Godhood, the protagonist has now attracted the attention of something much, much worse than himself.
- Apocalypse How: Class-X4. In Murder of the Universe, Han-Tyumi destroys the entire universe by vomiting.
- PetroDragonic Apocalypse concerns a Class-6 apocalypse. A witchcraft ritual to undo the Earth's transformation into an ecological wasteland in the far future instead ends up summoning King Gila, the titular petrodragon who consumes the world and all living creatures.
- In Infest The Rats' Nest we follow humanity through a Class 3-b on earth by the Superbug disease, then 3-a on Venus through the blimp-colony catching on fire, then what is implied to be a Class 3-a on mars via Satan and the vengeful souls of the damned invading Mars to "Infest the rats' nest".
- Arc Words: nonagon infinity opens the door
- "i think i see an altered beast"
- "altered beast, alter me"
- Big Brother Is Watching: Combined with conspiracy theory on the first four tracks of I'm in Your Mind Fuzz.
- "'Cause everybody's sucking on flouride... When I'm in your mind, then I'M IN YOUR MIND"
- Bookends: K.G. and L.W., respectively starting and ending with a song titled K.G.L.W., sharing the same main melody, but while the first is a simple, minute long instrumental intro track, the second is an epic metal jam in excess of eight minutes, with ominous, repeated vocals.
- Their first microtonal album does this as well, starting and ending with the sound of blowing wind (notably brought back for the first K.G.L.W.)
- The final track of Polygondwanaland ends with a Dark Reprise of the first.
- Their first microtonal album does this as well, starting and ending with the sound of blowing wind (notably brought back for the first K.G.L.W.)
- Call-Back
- Part of "Robot Stop"'s solo incorporates "Hot Water"'s melody.
- The cover artwork for I'm In Your Mind Fuzz, Nonagon Infinity and Murder of the Universe all feature the same mountainous landscape, with several elements from the former two's being in a decayed, vomit-covered state on the latter.
- "The Lord of Lightning vs. Balrog" has this all over, starting with a snippet of "People-Vultures", the phrase "Nonagon Infinity" being said several times in the first half, "Lord of Lightning"'s outro incorporating multiple elements from "I'm in Your Mind", same with "The Balrog"'s outro to "Trapdoor". "The Balrog" also contains a face-melting riff built from a combination of bits from "People-Vultures" and "Evil Death Roll".
- Both K.G.'s version of "K.G.L.W." and the microtonal section of "Timeland" have the same blowing wind effect heard at multiple points during Flying Microtonal Banana, namely during "Rattlesnake" and the title track.
- From Butterfly 3000, "Dreams" specifically calls back "The Castle in the Air", while "Ya Love"'s video is a treasure trove of little references and call-backs, with the Nonagon-era's multi colored sages being brought back as astronauts, the Fishing for Fishies sign being briefly seen submerged in a puddle, a physical appearance by "The Castle in the Air", as well as a tree-monster with a head beneath its shoulders, calling back a lyric from "TCITA".
- From Omnium Gatherum, "Magenta Mountain" features a lyrical call back to "Blue Morpho" ("clouds of glue, anamnesis crashing though"), "Evilest Man" has a backing synth line taken from "Cyboogie", "Predator X "sneaks in a brief return of the "Perihelion" riff, and "The Funeral" ending with the tick of clock, even fading perfectly into Made in Timeland's songs.
- From PetroDragonic Apocalypse, "Dragon" uses a riff from Polygondwanaland's "Tetrachromacy"
- The Silver Cord contains a callback to a song in PetroDragonic Apocalypse in every single song. The extended editions even contain lyrics from PetroDragonic Apocalypse.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: As you can see from their many strange actions, their name, and some of their more...out there lyrics, (Insert song about the entire universe being engulfed in puke here.) I think it's fair to say that they're an odd bunch.
- The Comically Serious: Han-Tyumi is a disturbingly emotionless and sociopathic robot. With this in mind, seeing him put into ridiculous scenarios like wearing a fishing outfit on the cover of Fishing For Fishies or acting as the Only Sane Man to the the bandmembers as they drink Timeland Juice is hilarious.
- Concept Album: Almost all of their material has a distinct musical concept behind it.
- Nonagon Infinity is an infinite, nine-song loop.
- Flying Microtonal Banana is entirely based around microtones, the notes between the ones most Western listeners are used to.
- Murder of the Universe has a spoken-word story narrative.
- Made In Timeland and Laminated Denim both consist of two fifteen-minute songs at a precise 60bpm, but vary widely in style from trance to EDM to krautrock to psychedelia. Their titles are anagrams of each other.
- Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms And Lava features seven tracks, one each each of the Greek modes and corresponding to a word in the title - Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian.
- Omnium Gatherum's whole concept was that it doesn't have a concept. Instead it's a complete Genre Roulette where no two tracks sound remotely the same. It was the only one of their five(!) 2022 albums without a concept, so it became the "anti-concept" album.
- Crapsack World: Earth in Infest the Rats' Nest has transformed into a dying planet where the only form of nutrition is human corpses. When a group of rebels attempt to find a new home on Venus and fail, they return to earth to find that it has turned into the biblical description of hell.
- Dark Reprise: The Fourth Colour serves as one to Crumbling Castle, bookending Polygondwanaland.
- Downer Ending: Surprisingly frequent, despite the whimsical nature of the band's name and music.
- Murder of the Universe ends with the murder of the universe by the cyborg Han-Tyumi, who vomits so much that the entire universe is converted into vomit.
- The "Inner Cell" / "Loyalty" / "Horology" suite on Polygondwanaland ends with all the rebels who attempted to overthrow a despotic ruler being killed or maimed. One is left blinded.
- A storyline on Infest the Rat's Nest sees its protagonists journey into space and return to Earth to discover that it has literally become Hell.
- Either/Or Title: A particularly impressive one. PetroDragonic Apocalypse or, Dawn of Eternal Night: An Annihilation of Planet Earth and the Beginning of Merciless Damnation.
- Epic Rocking: Most of their songs, though "Rattlesnake", "Open Water", and all of the tracks on Quarters! are notable examples.
- 'Crumbling Castle' is a staggering eleven minutes long.
- "Head On/Pill' (The opening track to Float Along - Fill Your Lungs) was the bands single longest track, at an even more staggering 16 minutes.
- Both tracks on Made in Timeland—"Timeland" and "Smoke and Mirrors"—are 15 minutes long.
- Ditto for both tracks on Laminated Denim—"The Land Before Timeland" and "Hypertension"—since the album is a self described Spiritual Successor to Made in Timeland.
- "The Dripping Tap" (The opening track to Omnium Gatherum) is now the longest at 18 minutes. The album version was the first thing they recorded after reuniting in the same room after the COVID lockdowns, and is cut down from six hours of variations of the tune to get back in the swing of playing live together.
- Every song on The Silver Cord has an 'extended edition' that expands the 3-4 minute long tracks to up to 20 minutes.
- During live performances, they've become well known for playing extended, jammy versions of certain songs as a closer, sometimes into the area of thirty minutes, with the previously mentioned Head on/Pill and The Dripping Tap, as well as the shorter but similarly structured Am I in Heaven?, already having long ending solos, being the most popular choices.
- Fading into the Next Song: Done so often it'd be a pain to list all the examples. But a special mention must be given to Nonagon Infinity, which is designed to be an infinitely looping album with no clear beginning or end, so every song flows into one another.
- Fake High: The Timeland Juice skit:Han-Tyumi: That shit is just water.
- Fanservice: The music video for Intrasport, which features the band members in various stages of undress.
- Garage Rock: Most prominent early in their career.
- Genre Mashup: Flying Microtonal Banana and their other microtonal albums combine Middle-Eastern music with psychedellic and acid rock.
- Genre Roulette:
- Garage rock? Check. Spaghetti Western-inspired rock? Check. Psychedelic rock? Check. Acoustic folk? Check. New prog? Check. Experimental acid rock? Check. Prog metal? Check. Jazz rock? Check. Boogie rock? Check. Thrash metal? Check. Prog jazz? Check. House? Check. It gets to the point where every album of theirs is a New Sound Album, and it's glorious.
- Omnium Gatherum came out alongside four concept albums and is instead an anti-concept album, with every song drastically different in genre to every other. There's everything from Krautrock to Hip-Hop influence.
- Predating Omnium Gatherum, Gumboot Soup and Oddments are similarly anti-concept albums.
- A God Am I: Polygondwanaland has two characters like this; the unnamed Despot, who brags himself as a godlike figure in Loyalty:I see all there isAnd has ever beenI am not a manI am everythingPicture of purityPrehistoric godTheophany...Here's a testI am Lord, fear my wrathI am Lord, I am death
- As well as the also unnamed Protagonist, who believes himself to be a god after ascending at the end of the album, although it's implied he also isn't (see below):
Now I am aGod. - Go-Karting with Bowser: In the 'Timeland Juice' video, the band members casually sit with and offer drinks to Han-Tyumi, a psychopathic robot who has/is/is going to destroy the world.Aw, you alright Han.
- Green Aesop: The devastation caused by climate change and industrial contribution to it is a recurring theme throughout the band's work, to the point where many analysts describe their material as "cli-fi." Stu Mackenzie stated that "I spend a lot of time thinking about the future of humanity and the future of Planet Earth. Naturally these thoughts seep into the lyrics."
- Green Gators: The band's mascot is a green alligator, originating in the video for "The River" and appearing on merchandise and album covers.
- Heavy Mithril: The Gizzverse seems to be a strange mashup of various sci-fi and fantasy concepts.
- Idiosyncratic Cover Art: The covers of I'm In Your Mind Fuzz, Nonagon Infinity and Murder of the Universe feature the same mountainous landscape in the background.
- Jump Scare: Han Tyumi's terrifying appearance at the very end of Polygondwanaland.
- Similarly, the explosion at the end of "Paper Mâché" has caught many a fan offguard.
- Kudzu Plot: Combined with rotating and utterly open-ended arcs, Retcon, and
a total lack of definitive statements by the band (that one time they claimed to have the storyline written out is the closest we've gotten), leading to the unholy mess that is the Gizzverse. - Last Note Nightmare: "Paper Mâché", the last song of the album Paper Mâché Dream Balloon, is a gentle instrumental melody of the rest of the album rendered in flutes and guitars. The last third of it is the rest of the song played backwards and sped up, like a rewinding tape, before ending with a deafening BOOM sound effect.
- A similar effect is used to close out the "Tale of the Altered Beast" saga in Murder of the Universe (specifically the track "Life/Death"), where a seemingly triumphant reiteration of the theme from "Altered Beast III" on Mellotron is rendered uncanny by having the music slow down via tape varispeed (it even effects Leah Senior's voice), before it suddenly speeds up and stops. Then, from out of nowhere, there's an explosion of synths as Leah Senior recites the final stanza declaring that the Altered Beast is no more.
- The vinyl mix of Polygondwanaland ends "The Fourth Colour" with Han-Tyumi abruptly saying "hello" in his iconic Machine Monotone voice. Since it doesn't appear in other mixes, it can be quite a shock to the first-time listener.
- Looped Lyrics: A frequent feature in their songs:
- "I say, oh I say, I say, oh I say, I say, oh I say..."
- "Rattlesnake, rattlesnake, rattlesnake, rattles me..."
- "Wah, wah, wah-wah, wah, wah, wah-wah..."
- "With cellophane, cellophane, cellophane, cellophane..."
- "DANGER MONEY, DANGER MONEY, DANGER MONEY!"
- "Balrog, Balrog, Balrog, Balrog, Balrog..."
- "Boogie, boogie... Boogie, boogie..."
- "K.G.L.W., K.G.L.W., K.G.L.W., K.G.L.W...."
- "Ya love, ya love, ya love, ya love..."
- “Drip, drip from the tap don't slip, drip, drip from the tap don't slip on the drip…”
- "The volcano is death, the lava is death, death is life, the lava is life..."
- "Moooooooootor. Spiiiiiiiiiirit. Mooooooootor. Spiiiiiiiiirit."
- "Theia, theia, theia..."
- "Slay the mighty Set, slay the mighty Set, Slay the mighty Set..."
- Lyrical Dissonance: Despite the often bright and cheerful sound of most songs on Paper Mâché Dream Balloon, many of them feature lyrics about murder, corpses, and death in general.
- Meaningful Name: Quarters! (each of the albums four songs are ten minutes, ten seconds in length, therefore each a quarter of the album) and Nonagon Infinity (Nine songs that fade into each other, including the end into the beginning, theoretically allowing it to continue infinitely with no breaks)
- Also, Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava, which is a mnemonic for the seven Greek musical modes (Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian). Which is a fitting for an album where each of the seven songs are based from jams using a specific Greek mode.
- Metal Scream: Stu Mackenzie's unmistakable "WOOOOOOOHHH!"
- Mind Screw: As one would expect from a psychedelic garage rock band from Australia there are some really weird sights described in their discography. Hats off for a soy protein munt machine that can engulf the entire universe not only spatially but at all points in time as well.
- Mushroom Samba: Intrasport apparently describes one of these:Dissolving in a tear...My face splashes in the sky...My hair is liquifyingMy tastebuds are igniting
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: "Evil Death Roll" is named after a technique used by crocodiles to eat their preys. No shocker, the song itself is about a crocodile feasting on one.
- New Sound Album: Taken to its extreme, where every album is one.
- Nothing Is Scarier: After the protagonist of Polygondwanaland ascends to godhood, there's an eerie ambient portion for a few moments, before violent, dissonant drumming, screeching feedback, and horrific distant screams of agony. It's...disturbingly unclear what this means in terms of the narrative.
- A possible interpretation is the protagonist using his newfound godlike powers to go on a murderous rampage, before Han-Tyumi shows up...
- Psychedelic Rock
- Remix Album: Butterfly 3001 is made of remixes of songs from Butterfly 3000.
- Rhyming Names: The band's name: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
- Rock Opera: Murder of the Universe is one with three movements pertaining to a specific concept with an overarching narrative between the three.
- Carried over three albums (at least) with the release of Polygondwanaland. The story of the "Gizzverse" begins with Nonagon Infinity, is given two new features and the start of a universe ending story arc in Murder of the Universe, and concludes with the four chapters (and four colours) of Polygondwanaland. Whether I'm in Your Mind Fuzz, Quarters, Flying Microtonal Banana, and Paper Mâché Dream Balloon describe events in the same fictional universe is subject to debate.
- Cyboogie has a backwards-masked and pitch altered monologue from Han-Tyumi, The Confused Cyborg who talks of the titular "Cyboogie" as a species, possibly placing the single within the Gizzverse.
- Infest The Rats' Nest depicts humanity's ill-fated attempts at escaping the overpopulated Earth.
- Carried over three albums (at least) with the release of Polygondwanaland. The story of the "Gizzverse" begins with Nonagon Infinity, is given two new features and the start of a universe ending story arc in Murder of the Universe, and concludes with the four chapters (and four colours) of Polygondwanaland. Whether I'm in Your Mind Fuzz, Quarters, Flying Microtonal Banana, and Paper Mâché Dream Balloon describe events in the same fictional universe is subject to debate.
- Shout-Out: The "Tale of the Altered Beast" on Murder of the Universe comes to mind, as does the battle between the Lord of Lightning and the Balrog.
- Sketches of Brunswick East is likely one to Miles Davis's album Sketches of Spain.
- Guiron with wings and additional eyes appears on the album cover of the Willoughby's Beach EP.
- Likewise, Alien Guts appears holding a chalice on the album cover of Oddments.
- The lyrics "Now come on a safari with me" from "Hot Wax" are inspired by "Surfin' Safari" by The Beach Boys.
- The band's name is partly inspired by Jim Morrison's nickname "The Lizard King."
- Snake Charmer: Featured on the cover of Flying Microtonal Banana (playing the titular guitar).
- Spoken Word:
- Played with on the album Murder of the Universe, which is split into three different narratives - the first two narrated by Leah Senior, and the third by a text-to-speech program.
- Leah Senior returns on Polygondwanaland to narrate the first half of The Castle In The Air.
- And before all that there was Eyes Like the Sky, a "cult western audio book" narrated by Broderick Smithnote .
- Surprisingly Gentle Album: Sketches of Brunswick East, where the band moved from heavy rhythmic psychedelic rock to calm, light jazz-rock. Fishing for Fishies also counts to a lesser extent.
- Synthetic Voice Actor: Han-Tyumi's distinctive Machine Monotone is provided by an unfortunately no-longer available TTS engine from the Natural Readers website.
- Take That!: A 2023 performance in Tennessee saw the band do the entire show in drag as a way of mocking the American Republican Party's push to criminalize Drag Queens, Tennessee being a very Republican state in the US.
- Tick Tock Tune: Made in Timeland, where the entire album is built around a consistent, ticking beat.
- Less notable, but still present, in Timeland's successor, Laminated Denim.
- Title Track: Most of their albums contain a title track. Two in particular ("K.G." and "L.W.") contain a song that is almost the title track, called "K.G.L.W."
- Triumphant Reprise: In classic Gizz fashion, the extended cut of many songs on "The Silver Cord" have more upbeat (or just as creepy-sounding) versions of lyrics from "Petro Dragonic Apocalypse".
- Uncommon Time: Many of their songs contain weird time signatures, like "Robot Stop", which has measures in 7/8, and "Gamma Knife" with a drum solo in 11/8 time! note In some albums, uncommon time is more common than common time!
- This is so common in KGLW albums that it's become a
meme, with fans often describing them as using ridiculously elaborate or non-existent time signatures for laughs.
- This is so common in KGLW albums that it's become a
- Wham Line: Polygondwanaland has Two, in very quick succession (only the first appears on non-vinyl mixes).
- At the end of ''Searching':
Now I am aBeat- Then at the end of The Fourth Colour:
- A Wild Rapper Appears!: Considering how Genre-Busting this band is, it's surprising that it took the band ten years after the release of their first album for them to take influences from rap and hip hop, but they did eventually with "Smoke and Mirrors" from Made in Timeland, as well as "Sadie Sorceress" and "The Grim Reaper" from Omnium Gatherum. Further, on "The Silver Cord", they have rapping on the songs "Set", "Gilgamesh", and debatably "Swan Song". And it works.
- Nonagon infinity opens the door
Nonagon infinity opens the door
Wait for the answer to open the door
Nonagon infinity- AAAHHHHH!!
