It's Surf Music? Isn't it Buzz?

By Manners (Manners) on Wednesday, May 22, 2002 - 12:03 pm: Edit

HooRay - well..., I got my copy of Electroretard ( a must have just for "Shit Storm" & "Youth of America) and the Ipecac re-release of "Gluey...." for $10US each but I had to drive to Portland and see another Melvins show in order to get the deal. It was worth it. This album "Hostile ...." is an epic masterpiece, I'm not kiddingyou one bit. You gotta turn it up loud thats for sure, to get the "full" effect. And if the Tour is coming to a town near you, DO NOT miss this oppurtunity to see King Buzzo destroy all thesed beautiful songs. Ha ha ha, cuz if you like the album, this tour is for you. Each show is 10X to 1000X better than the album cuz Buzz goes off all over those songs, right where you would expect and some places you wouldn't

By Jason Dryden on Saturday, May 18, 2002 - 08:02 am: Edit

I have recently named my apartment "The Brain Center", as all of us whom live here are thinking..................always thinking. Melvins have no ego, just drive......and plenty of hair.

By gjmannering on Friday, May 17, 2002 - 03:10 pm: Edit

Oh Well - I wanna add this to my review of the new cd, I think it's an epic masterpiece. It's very difficult to even begin to try to describe theMelvin's music in Words, like in english or spanish, but I came up with this; It's like a hippie trance band on acid. Not that I know anything about acid, but I do believe the Melvins are a Trance Band, they just like to blow shit up too. One more thing, they are selling the cd's (HAT) for ten bucks at the shows, oh yeah, mine is signed by King Buzzo and Dale. Buy it Now Goddammit. Hell as soon as I finish this I'm going shopping (online first) for the Ipecac version of Gluey Porch Treatment, and I think I need to have ElectroRetard too. Seeyall at a show

By gjmannering on Friday, May 17, 2002 - 11:27 am: Edit

Hello People, I picked up the album in the first week it was released. When I played it the first time (at home) my initial reaction was "Holy Shit I can't believe I paid 13.99 + tax for this piece of crapshit." Guess What?, I got over that, and now I just can't quit playing it. I keep playing the damn thing over and over - start to finish. Needless to say I fukken love it to death. I think seeing the band live this last tuesday and wednesday pushed me over the top. Tuesday nights show in Seattle was the best Melvin's show I've ever seen (out of 14) and they basically plasyed the album song for song. the next day I asked dale at soundcheck if that indeed was what they played the night before(the new cd) he said all except one song, and he acted real surprised and shocked that anyone knew what the fuck they were playing. The songs weren't exactly note for note, the show ran about 70 minutes. If they're coming to a town near you - don't miss this show.

By Anonymous on Tuesday, April 16, 2002 - 01:00 pm: Edit

AAAAAAAAAAARGH! I just drank a whole pot of coffee while I listened to H.A.T. for the first time and it's so fucking sick it makes me want to shit! Fuck all y'all, "Dr. Geek" rules! "Little judas chongo" is definetly my favorite at this point, though. This album, that song and "the fool" reminds me more of the old school Melvins much more than any of the trilogy. It's not as loud, but it reminds me more of "Bullhead" than anything else; experimental without being pretentious. "The fool" sounds kinda like "You're Blessened" to me in a weird way. NOISE! NOISE! NOISE! I almost had a cannibis induced orgasm when the vocals finally kicked in on "anti-vermin seed".

By Katherine Turman on Tuesday, April 16, 2002 - 12:47 am: Edit

Since 1987 this power trio has churned out Black Sabbath-influenced grind-sludge metal for a fanatical underground following. Part of the early '90s "Seattle scene," the Melvins never achieved the radio airplay of their contemporaries, though founding members Buzz "King Buzzo" Osborne (the eccentric, Afro-ed singer-guitarist) and Dale Crover (drummer-vocalist) are beloved and prolific fixtures on the indie rock scene. Their latest seven-song outing on fellow quirky musician (and Osborne's Fantomas bandmate) Mike Patton's Ipecac label will likely not boost them out of relative obscurity, but it's an entertaining aural journey nonetheless. From the heady 'n' heavy intensity of "Black Stooges," which ends with several minutes of drums and feedback, to the winning speedy, countrified punk power of "Dr. Geek" and the garage metal of "Little Judas Chongo," Hostile Ambient Takeover is, as the title suggests, at once more punky and more ambient than previous swampy efforts. There ar! e some lengthy, ponderous, slo-mo entries, which is not unexpected of the Melvins, while the nearly 16-minute album closer is a wash of mostly instrumental noise that ranges from ominous to space age (vocals kick in 10 minutes into the song). Oddball but engaging, the Melvins have carved out a unique niche, which they dig deeply into on Hostile Ambient Takeover, their 18th album of aural idiosyncrasy. --Katherine Turman

By Mike on Sunday, April 14, 2002 - 05:36 pm: Edit

I picked up HAT at the Santa Ana show last week.

Why does everyone hate Dr. Geek? The song writing, drums, and guitar work are awesome on that. To me it sounds a lot like an old MINUTEMEN song. I would like to know if the MINUTEMEN were the inspiration for that song.

The whole album totally and completely ROCKS! It's got every style that the MELVINS play on it. Heavy, slow, fast, distortion, no distortion, solos, no solos, short, long. Dale's drumming rules, Buzzo's mega rock riffs destroy any top 40 band, and Kevin's crazy ass bass/feedback squeal parts are tasty. That's my opinion.

Don't just download the whole album. Go out and buy this one. It is totally worth it.

By king scuzzo on Sunday, April 14, 2002 - 04:29 am: Edit

Why won't anyone ever give me details!?!?!? I've seen people on so many message boards claiming to have the album a week early but no one ever goes into much detail for the rest of us. If you have the album, tell us something about it please!!!

By cale on Saturday, April 13, 2002 - 09:24 pm: Edit

I think the entire album is great, except for that one really fast track. That's the first MELVINS song that I can say I do not like.

By king scuzzo on Thursday, March 21, 2002 - 11:19 pm: Edit

Hey man, I can definitely understand where you're coming from, as far as being taken aback that it's not the "heaviest" version of the melvins, but what do you expect them to do? There's only so much you can do with an open drop-d chord and the melvins have been working with that for almost 20 years. In a way, I think the new tracks are refreshing; more musical. It reminds me of stag and stoner witch in a way. Sure it's not heavy in the vein of bullhead and lysol, but they already made those albums. They can't recycle it over and over again. One of the things I've noticed about the tracks too is that like a lot of melvins albums, there is not really a standout track or a "single", but that the album is probably meant to be taken as one coherent whole, with the songs flowing one after the other. There aren't that many songs on it, and a lot of them are fairly short, so I'll withold judgment until the sixteenth. So far I'm very pleased with the five downloads, but even if the other 3 became available, I'll probably still wait. I'm sure it will be great.

By poo on Wednesday, February 27, 2002 - 06:37 pm: Edit

well, i haven't heard the whole thing yet, just the five tracks that are on audiogalaxy, but so far, i'm not really sure what i think.

black stooges -- i love those beats at the end, and the main body of the song is cool, but the end is nothing special. i think that the melvins covered the noise angle on "COD" just fine. by now, it's a bit tired. it just goes on for too long.

dr. geek -- too bad buzzo's guitar isn't distorted. the song would probably be incredible. as it stands, it just sounds like crazy surfbilly or something. this one's a disappointment.

foaming -- this one's pretty neat. i like the treated vocal/metal riff part. the end is just some boring bootlicker shit -- a repeating riff that isn't interesting enough to repeat.

brain center at whipples -- i think that this is my favorite. i love the melvins when they're just playing loud rock. that's my favorite melvins. this is kinda stag-stoner witch-y, and i'm glad for that. even so, this tune's fairly laid-back. it's kinda like "revolve" in feel, i think.

little judas chongo -- starts great, but never really goes anywhere. good vocals. i like the intro and the end, because that's where the big buzzo riffs are.

i really just need to hear the whole thing, in order, as it's meant to be heard, on a good, loud stereo instead of mp3's on headphones. i really want to FEEL this stuff. fucking april 16th, for crying out loud! why so long of a wait?