Melvins
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 Melvins live in concert October 13, 2006 — pictured are Buzz Osborne, Coady Willis
and Jared Warren from left to right.
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Montesano, Washington, |
| Genre(s) | Grunge[1] Heavy metal Sludge metal Doom metal[2] Alternative rock[1] Stoner Rock Hardcore punk (early demos)"#wp-_note-All_Music_Guide_:_Audio_Samples">[3] |
| Years active | 1982–present |
| Label(s) | C/Z Records Alchemy Records Boner Records Your Choice Records Atlantic Records Amphetamine Reptile Records Man's Ruin Records Ipecac Recordings Alternative Tentacles Slap A Ham Records |
| Associated acts |
Altamont Fantômas Porn The Murder City Devils Lustmord Thrones Nirvana Big Business The Cows |
| Website | Official website |
| Members | |
| Buzz Osborne Dale Crover Jared Warren Coady Willis |
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| Former members | |
| Kevin Rutmanis Joe Preston Lori Black Mike Dillard Matt Lukin |
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Melvins are an American rock/metal 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, and they have occasionally added a guest or second guitarist for live performances. 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.
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
Though the group has received mostly positive critical notice, Crover's drumming has been especially praised; writer Patrick Kennedy describes his work as "astonishing, powerful, and daring."[6]
While the band has never found (and probably never sought) mainstream success, 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, Melvins have released various collectables throughout the years. These have included two-headed dolls, the Melvins skateboard, The Melvins Fetus!, specially canned Melvins meat, a Zippo lighter, and a myriad of various posters, t-shirts, and one-off fanzines.
History
Early days
Melvins were 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 bass, 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 and provide guitar on some songs (Guitar on Sky Pup, Percussion on "Spread Eagle Beagle" ) off 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 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).
With Nirvana
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 August 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 final full-time drummer.
Boner Records (The early 90's)
After finishing the work on the Bullhead album (which has been classified in part as a drone metal album,[7] 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 who is now in the band Thrones. 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 original name was used without permission). Preston departed from the band and so Lorax briefly rejoined.
Major Label Years
When Nirvana's Nevermind became a massive, unexpected success, Melvins were one of many groups to benefit from Nirvana's support: Atlantic Records signed them, and their first major label release was 1993's Houdini, a landmark for the band that entered the Billboard Heatseekers chart at 29 (and parts of which were produced by Kurt Cobain). Mark Deutrom replaced Lorax on bass shortly after the albums release.
Gene Simmons of Kiss played bass with Melvins at Lollapalooza in 1993 and 1994. He also played bass with Melvins in 1993 in a concert with Primus. At Lollapalooza he played almost the whole set with Melvins, but at the Primus/Melvins concert he played bass along with only one song, Goin' Blind, which was a cover of a Kiss song.[8]
Melvins released two albums in 1994, Stoner Witch (Atlantic Records) and Prick (Amphetamine Reptile Records, under the name SNIVLEM). Stag was released in 1996 and entered the Heatseekers chart at number 33. The band were dropped by Atlantic Records in 1997 after three albums.
Mid Nineties (with Amphetamine Reptile Records)
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. The same year, Melvins opened for Tool while they were on tour. Humorously, a picture on Tool's website depicts the members of Melvins along with the words "Melvins say...Tool Sux!" spelled out in lunch meat.[9] The photo was taken while on tour with Tool in 2002 in Australia. Moreover, in 1998 Melvins played the second stage at Ozzfest, along with Motörhead, Incubus, and others.
Late Nineties and early 00's (with Ipecac Recordings)
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 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 Melvins' experimentalist tendencies include Colossus of Destiny, a live set of synthesizer and sampler experimentation presented as two tracks, and described approvingly by one critic as "more like avant-garde electro-acoustic than anything else."[10] 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 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 Melvins. The book included a CD with selected tracks from their albums.
Mid 00's (various collaborations)
In 2004 Melvins 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, Melvins finished the year playing a few shows with David Scott Stone 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 Melvins toured with Jello Biafra in October and November of 2005, David Scott Stone filled in on bass.
(A) Senile Animal to present
In early 2006, Crover confirmed rumors of the members of Big Business joining 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 in the fall of 2006 tied in with their album (A) Senile Animal.[11] Melvins also toured briefly the United Kingdom in mid-December of 2006.[12]
A new song entitled "Suicide in Progress" has been played during the 2007 European tour, and will most likely appear on an upcoming album. According to ZU's website, Melvins and ZU are currently working on a collaboration.
Members
Current members
Also known as "King Buzzo". Plays guitar in Fantômas and Venomous Concept.
Founding member of Kurt Cobain's first band, Fecal Matter. Sings and plays guitar in the band Altamont, and drums for the band Porn.
Former Member of The Murder City Devils. Plays drums in Big Business.
- Jared Warren (Bass guitar/Vocals)
Former member of Tight Bro's From Way Back, Karp and The Whip. Plays bass and sings in Big Business.
Additional touring musicians
- 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, 1992)
- Joe Preston - Bass guitar (1991-1992)
- Mark Deutrom - Bass guitar (1993-1998)
- Kevin Rutmanis - Bass guitar (1998-2005)
Selected Discography
See: Melvins discography for the complete Melvins discography .
References in popular culture
- Beck's song Beercan uses a sample from Melvins song Hog Leg (off of the [[(Eggnog (album)|Eggnog EP).[13] King Buzzo also appears twice in the music video for the song.
- Anal Cunt poked fun at the connection between Nirvana and the Melvins in their song When I Think of True Punk Rock Bands, I Think of Nirvana and the Melvins
- In a 2007 issue of Total Guitar Magazine, Mastodon (band) guitarist Bill Kelliher selected the Melvins' "Honey Bucket" as a track 'he wished he'd written.'
- Eric Melvin, guitarist for NOFX, has stated that he likes Melvins very much, not just because they share names.[11]
Footnotes
- ^ a b Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Greg Prato. All Music Guide Bio. Allmusic.com. Retrieved on 2006-11-13.
- ^ Melvins Biography. Metal Archives. Retrieved on 2007-07-17.
- ^ Greg Prato. All Music Guide Bio. Allmusic.com. Retrieved on 2006-11-13.
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2],
- ^ [3]
- ^ [4])
- ^ [5]
- ^ [6]
- ^ [7]
- ^ [8]
- ^ [9]
- ^ [10]
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
- melvins.com - the official website
- Melvins at MySpace
- ipecac.com - Melvins at Ipecac Records
- Interview with Melvins
- Unofficial Melvins bebo
- themelvins.net - a fansite
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