pacificlectic : concert reviews & eclectic music news

I saw the Melvins open up for Mike Patton’s Tomahawk (a Patton collaboration with Jesus Lizard’s Duane Denison) on the Tomahawk – Mit Gas tour. The other opener (before the Melvins), Skeleton Key, was more interesting to me at the time than the Melvins. Anyway, I dug the Melvins as well on that tour, but I never got any of their albums (I still don’t besides the “Fantômas-Melvins Big Band” album — but now they’re at least added to my Lala list).

The Melvins have been around forever (25 years or so)… which is forever in the rock band sense. They’re what some might call “sludge metal” or “slow punk.” They’ve got tons of albums (on majors like Atlantic, on indies like Ipecac). They’ve worked with the punk realm (Jello Biafra), the grunge realm (Melvin’s drummer Dale Crover used to play with Kurt Cobain), the avant-garde/noise realm (Buzzo is in Fantômas with Mike Patton), and with the art metal realm peeps (Adam Jones of Tool has played with them live / the Melvins have opened for Tool on several tours). They’ve also collaborated with Lustmord (who recently remixed some of Maynard’ James Keenans Puscifer tracks), and they plan on collaborating soon with Zu (an Italian hardcore/free-jazz band). Anyway, the Melvins are “well connected” in the scene. They’ve got a guitarist/singer (Buzz “King Buzzo” Osbourne) with very recognizable hair (video link).

Anyway, the main purpose of this post is that I’m totally diggin’ the tracks on MySpace from their upcoming Nude with Boots album (Ipecac – July 8th). Totally diggin’ as in… just about every track.

They’re going to be in Eugene, OR (W.O.W. Hall on July 24th). I’ll be in Cincinnati, OH, for a wedding. Rassen-frassen…

~Dan – np: The Melvins – Nude with Boots (from MySpace)