The Essential: Melvins

 

The Melvins are headed for the upcoming Soundwave Festival across Australia, but before then will be stopping in New Zealand for a whopping five shows! So I thought I’d do a quick little guide on them in time for their first show of the tour tomorrow night at the Kings Arms in Auckland.

The complete schedule for New Zealand, with Oakland’s High On Fire supporting, is:

February 19 – The Kings Arms, Auckland

February 20 – ReFuel, Dunedin
February 21 – Al's Bar, Christchurch
February 22 – Bodega, Wellington

February 23 – Whammy Bar, Auckland (w/ Kylesa)

Formed in 1983, with an original lineup consisting of Buzz Osborne, Mike Dillard, and Matt Lukin, the Melvins are still going strong almost 30 years later with at least 18 full-length albums and countless other releases to their name. Buzz (guitar) was joined in 1984 by Dale Crover on drums while a long list of bassists have come and gone. The current lineup features two drummers after a merger with Big Business members Coady Willis and Jared Warren (bass).

Here are a few albums to check out (if you don’t have time to sit down and listen to all 20 to 30-odd releases): 

Houdini 

& Houdini Live 2005: A Live History of Gluttony and Lust

(Atlantic, 1993 & Ipecac, 2005)  

 

The definitive Melvins album, Houdini is straight up heavy sludge/grunge from start to finish. Songs such as Hooch, Night Goat, Lizzy, Hag Me, Set Me Straight, and Sky Pup remain amongst the best of their kind. The lineup had Buzz and Dale joined by Lori Black on bass and Kurt Cobain adding guitars for Sky Pup.

A Live History of Gluttony and Lust came about after repeated calls from fans to play the Houdini album and proving its legendary status. They updated the tracks giving them a live yet very polished feel with Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle, Fantomas) providing the bass.

 

Stag

(Atlantic, 1996)

Stag opens with The Bit, a thunderous beast which generates momentum for the rest of the album. What follows are a real mixture of styles; Bar-X-The Rocking M includes a trombone and turn-table like effects making it feel ahead of its time, Black Bock is almost Melvins unplugged sounding more like Blind Melon, Skin Horse has some downright freaky helium vocal effects, and The Bloat is just classic Melvins sludge.

(A) Senile Animal

 (Ipecac, 2006)

(A) Senile Animal marked the start of the current formation of the Melvins; half Melvins, half Big Business. After over 20 years together, the band gained a new edge with the two drummers providing extra crunch and a somewhat more cohesive feel. The addition of Jared Warren’s vocals to accompany Buzz gives extra force to an already powerful sound. Standout tracks include; The Talking Horse, Blood Witch, Civilized Worm, A History of Drunks… shit, I could just name the whole album.

    

The Maggot, The Bootlicker, & The Crybaby

(Ipecac, 1999-2000)

 

I was going to put Honky here as it is considered the Melvins most experimental release, however putting out three albums in the space of a year to help kick start the Ipecac label is a more Melvins type thing to do and these three albums are pretty strange in their own right.

The Maggot starts off with two tracks called amazonAMAZON, telling you all you need to know about the Melvins; they don’t operate like other bands. The move to Ipecac Recordings allowed them the creative freedom to do whatever they wanted (although they seem to be doing this anyway). and

The Bootlicker is the best of this trio of albums; it’s typically slow, and at times haunting. Up the Dumper and Lone Rose Holding Now are great but the centerpiece is Let It All Be which is almost two tracks joined together by ambient noise creating 10 minutes of brilliance.

A distant hint of Nirvana ends The Bootlicker and The Crybaby runs with this by opening with a cover of Smells Like Teen Spirit and then adding covers of Jesus Lizard and a couple of country artists. Mike Patton also makes an appearance on G.I. Joe.

  

There is a lot more Melvins to check so go and do so. Here’s their latest video for Electric Worm off last year’s album The Bride Screamed Murder: