Melvins

Melvins

The Melvins are an American rock band that usually perform as a trio. Singer/guitarist Buzz Osborne (aka "King Buzzo") and drummer Dale Crover are constant members, but several bass guitarists have been through the group. The band was named after a supervisor at the Thriftway in Montesano, Washington where Osborne served as a clerk (and vandal). Melvin was greatly despised, and the band's members felt it to be an appropriately ridiculous name.

The Melvins' music is influenced by Black Flag's My War era punk, slow rock acts like Flipper and Swans, and, most notably Black Sabbath-style metal, but their idiosyncratic approach, bizarre sense of humor, and experimentation make neat categorization difficult. The Melvins often favor very slow tempos, and their sludgey sound was a strong influence on grunge music, especially Nirvana and many other bands from Seattle. Their protegés, however, tended to use more conventional musical structures with this sound. The Melvins have influenced many doom metal bands, most explicitly Boris, who took their name from one of the Melvins' songs.

Though the group has received mostly positive critical notice, Crover's drumming has been especially praised; Patrick Kennedy describes his work as "astonishing, powerful, and daring."[1]

While never finding and probably never even seeking mainstream success, the Melvins have a dedicated cult following. They maintain an impressive schedule of new albums and tours, including two releases with former Dead Kennedys front man Jello Biafra. The band has been colloquially known as "Jelvins" during Biafra's tenure with the band. In appreciation of their devoted fans, the Melvins have released various collectables throughout the years. These have included two-headed dolls, an eight track tape, a plastic fetus in a jar, and a myriad of various posters, t-shirts and one-off fanzines.

History

The Melvins was formed in the early 1980s by Buzz Osborne (guitar/vocals), Matt Lukin (bass) and Mike Dillard (drums) who all went to High School in Montesano, Washington. In the beginning they played The Who and Jimi Hendrix covers and began playing fast hardcore punk. When Dillard left the band Dale Crover joined and the band's rehearsals moved to a back room of Crover's parents house in Aberdeen, Washington. It was soon afterwards that they started to play songs slower and "heavier" than nearly anyone else at the time.

Fellow Aberdeen resident Kurt Cobain (a good friend of Crover) was a huge Melvins fan and helped them transport their equipment to a few shows. Cobain also auditioned to join the band on guitar, but he didn't make it because he reportedly was so nervous that he forgot all the songs. Cobain kept his relations with the band and later helped produce parts of their major label debut, Houdini.

In 1985 C/Z Records was created to document the Washington music scene, the label released Deep Six, featuring four songs by the Melvins. In 1986 the band released their debut, the Six Songs EP, on C/Z Records (later rereleased as 8 Songs, 10 Songs and as 26 Songs in 2003 on Ipecac Recordings) that was recorded live to a two track at Ironwood, February 8, 1986.

In December of 1986 they recorded their first full album Gluey Porch Treatments, at Studio D in Sausalito, California, that came out in 1987 on Alchemy Records (later rereleased as a bonus on the CD version of their second album Ozma on Boner Records and in 1999 on Ipecac Recordings with some garage demos).

Crover helped out on drums when Nirvana recorded a ten song demo on January 23, 1988 at the Reciprocal Recording Studios in Seattle, Washington, and played a live show in Tacoma, Washington later that day. Later that year Osborne and Crover relocated to San Francisco, California. Lukin stayed and formed the grunge band Mudhoney. Lori Black (a.k.a. "Lorax") replaced Lukin on bass. The band recorded their next album, Ozma, in May 1989, and it came out later that year. The album was produced by Mark Deutrom, who later joined the band on bass.

In 1990, Nirvana was without a drummer, and Crover helped out by playing on a brief west coast tour with Sonic Youth. Osborne gave Dave Grohl from Scream the phone number of Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic; Grohl later became Nirvana's full-time drummer.

After finishing the work on the Bullhead album, the band then toured Europe and their January 23, 1991 show in Alzey, Germany was released as Your Choice Live Series Vol.12, without the song It's Shoved that appeared on the It's Your Choice compilation. When they returned they recorded their next album, Eggnog, that was released the same year on Boner Records.

Lori Black, daughter of Shirley Temple, left the band and was replaced by Joe Preston. Preston appears on the Salad Of A Thousand Delights (1992, Box Dog Video), had his own Melvins "solo" EP (King Buzzo, Dale Crover and Joe Preston were all released in 1992 on Boner Records, the concept and cover artwork inspired by the four KISS members' solo albums released in 1978) and appeared on the 1992 album Lysol (that was later renamed to Melvins because the name Lysol was used without permission). Preston departed from the band and so Lorax briefly rejoined.

When Nirvana's Nevermind became a massive, unexpected success, the Melvins were one of many groups to benefit from Nirvana's support: Atlantic Records signed them, their first major label release was 1993's Houdini. Mark Deutrom replaced Lorax on bass shortly after the albums release.

The Melvins released two albums in 1994, Stoner Witch (Atlantic Records) and Prick (Amphetamine Reptile Records, under the name SNIVLEM). Stag was released in 1996. The band were dropped by Atlantic Records in 1997.

Returning to Amphetamine Reptile Records, the band released their Honky album the same year and released a live show from August 1997 in Richmond, Melbourne Australia as Alive At The F*ckerclub in 1998.

1999 saw the beginning of a partnership with Mike Patton's Ipecac Recordings, which, in addition to releasing new Melvins albums, began remastering and reissuing much of the Melvins' discography. The Crybaby, their third Ipecac release in a trilogy, saw a number of singers and admirers guesting on most songs; an unexpected highlight was an oddly touching rendition of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", sung by 1970s teen idol Leif Garrett. Kevin Rutmanis, formerly of The Cows, was bassist during this era.

Examples of the Melvins' experimentalist tendencies include Colossus of Destiny, a live set of synthesizer and sampler experimentation presented as two long tracks, and described approvingly by one critic as "more like avant-garde electro-acoustic than anything else." [2] Other examples of their warped humor include their album and song titles, as well as their candor at live performances. Live antics include King Buzzo asking the crowd at a concert the question "Were you guys as surprised as I was to find out Rob Zombie was gay?".

In 2003 Atlantic Records (UK) released Melvinmania: The Best Of The Atlantic Years 1993-1996, a compilation of recycled tracks from the band's three major label releases (with at times amazingly incorrect liner notes). This release was unsanctioned by the band who had no input into the track selection or liner notes.

In 2004, Osborne and Crover toured to celebrate their 20th anniversary as a band, and also released an art book Neither Here Nor There. The book is a collection of art by creators of their cover art as well as friends of the band, and also contained retrospectives on the past twenty years of the Melvins. The book included a CD with selected tracks from their albums.

Also in 2004 the Melvins have collaborated with ambient artist Lustmord for Pigs of the Roman Empire and with Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra for Never Breathe What You Can't See and Sieg Howdy! released in 2004 and 2005 respectively. Never Breathe What You Can't See was supported by a mini-tour with Jello Biafra and Adam Jones from Tool. A planned European tour was canceled in early October 2004, reportedly due to unknown complications involving Rutmanis. Following the tour cancellation, the Melvins finished the year playing a few shows supporting the work of filmmaker Cameron Jamie in Europe and the United States.

When asked about Rutmanis and the canceled portion of the tour, Osborne and Crover stated that Rutmanis had "disappeared". Fans feared that Rutmanis had departed like so many bassists before him; however, Rutmanis returned temporarily in early 2005. In June of 2005, Rutmanis officially left the band with 'drug abuse' rumoured as the major cause. When the Melvins toured with Jello Biafra in October and November of 2005, David Scott Stone filled in on bass.

In early 2006, Crover confirmed rumors of the members of Big Business joining the Melvins. Commenting on adding another drummer, Crover said this about Coady Willis: "He's left handed, so we want to do this 'mirror image' type of thing. We've kind of fused our two drum sets together, and we're going to try and do some crazy thing with it. We're sharing these big toms in between us."

A tour of the United States, planned for the fall of 2006, will tie in with their new album titled "(A) Senile Animal" [3]. A tour of the United Kingdom is planned to start in mid-December of 2006 [4].

Members

Buzz Osborne (Guitar/Vocals)

Also known as "King Buzzo". Plays guitar in Fantômas and Venomous Concept. Played second guitar on Tool's cover of Peach's You Lied on the Salival album, not on the No Quarter (Led Zeppelin) cover as the booklet erroneously credits.

Dale Crover (Drums)

Famous for his phenomenal drumming skills. Known for helping out Nirvana on drums. He also was a founding member of Kurt Cobain's first band, Fecal Matter. He sings and plays guitar in the band Altamont and he is the current drummer for The Men of Porn.

Additional touring musicians

• Coady Willis - Drums
• Jared Warren - Bass guitar
• David Scott Stone - Second guitar, Bass guitar
• Adam Jones - Second guitar
• Trevor Dunn - Bass guitar
• Jello Biafra - Vocals (when touring to support their collaborations)

Former members

• Mike Dillard - Drums (early 1980s-1984)
• Matt Lukin - Bass guitar (early 1980s-1987)
• Lori Black - Bass guitar (1987-1991, 1993)
• Joe Preston - Bass guitar (1991-1992)
• Mark Deutrom - Bass guitar (1993-1998)
• Kevin Rutmanis - Bass guitar (1998-2005)

Discography

See: Melvins discography.

References

• Erlewine, Stephen Thomas & Prato, Greg. "Melvins". All Music Guide. Retrieved June 13, 2005.
• Press release. "THE MELVINS To Release 'A Senile Animal' In October - July 18, 2006". "Blabbermouth.net". Retrieved July 20, 2006.

External links

• Official Melvins website
• The M E L V I N S .net
• Melvins Interview
• Melvins Lyrics
• Melvins in French
• Melvins Live audio/video downloads
• Melvins at metal-archives.com
• review of "A Senile Animal"