Buzz's 13 Favorite Records

Started by deatheats, July 18, 2019, 10:17:41 AM

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bUTTHOLEmAN

Quote from: deatheats on July 19, 2019, 04:55:40 PM
Quote from: Dumpster D on July 19, 2019, 04:22:46 PM
Tom Waits always tries to sound like a drunk fried, chain-smoking bastard on every tune...is that a schtick or is he really a dirty old mumble-crust?

I think you and Tom would get along quite well  :P
I could completely see this working. Not a schtick at all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbKMX2vFOaQ
if you CALL ME ON MY CELLY
i'll LET YOU RUB ME BELLY!


"I can push over twelve year old girls easy." - Fart
kill yr idols
emperors wear no clothes
"We don't have alot of information right now, but for all we know monkeys might fly out of my butt"- rictus

Mount Ambulance

I think there is certainly some schtick involved ...

this is my favorite Tom on TV bit ... Tom on Fernwood 2 Night ... Martin Mull, Fred Willard, and Waits ... hilarious ...

https://youtu.be/O_ScWtP2IxU
It was a big night out on the town for the Id and the Reptile Brain ...

like a brick wall, like a dream waiting to be!

Mount Ambulance

Quote from: (PAUL) on July 19, 2019, 12:46:58 PM
Quote from: jonE5 on July 19, 2019, 07:55:24 AM
                       I would also be willing to sever a finger to see him live.

Me too, but like someone else's finger.

this works perfect right, (Paul) cut's off jonEs' finger ... both get to see Waits live ... serendipitous two birds, one finger kinda shit. You're welcome.

It was a big night out on the town for the Id and the Reptile Brain ...

like a brick wall, like a dream waiting to be!

ilduclo

Waits is best taken in micro doses, IMO. He's a decent actor, though. That new Coen bros. Western skit movie, Buster Scruggs was great, his song was good, too.

Puttting any Waits on my top 13 is a complete nonono. Where's stuff like Glenn Gould Goldberg Variations or Miles on the Corner there?

jules

Quote from: ilduclo on July 20, 2019, 07:26:46 AM
Waits is best taken in micro doses, IMO. He's a decent actor, though. That new Coen bros. Western skit movie, Buster Scruggs was great, his song was good, too.
Loved that. Had a flatmate once who played Waits morning til evening and it drove me mad. Love some now, but in small doses as a result of that.

DToxico

Decent, slightly-surprising list. Honestly would have expected to see On the Corner there before something fro ma band like the Pixies. Sure as hell better than his list of favorite books/authors.

Dumpster D

Quote from: jules on July 20, 2019, 01:46:40 PM
Quote from: ilduclo on July 20, 2019, 07:26:46 AM
Waits is best taken in micro doses, IMO. He's a decent actor, though. That new Coen bros. Western skit movie, Buster Scruggs was great, his song was good, too.
Loved that. Had a flatmate once who played Waits morning til evening and it drove me mad. Love some now, but in small doses as a result of that.

I think that's what I mean, he's god to people who *think* they have eclectic taste in music...but the rest of the shit those people tend to listen to sickens me, and it sort of ruins the whole genuine aspect of Tom's real genius.

I met Mose Scarlett once here, he was pretty cool, white suit, had a 1930's guitar he'd restored, knew how to handle a crowd of drunk assholes. I have a lot of respect for the guys Who Tom has worked with.

amazonAMAZON

Best to read it here: https://thequietus.com/articles/26822-buzz-osborne-melvins-bakers-dozen-interview?page=1

But just in case, here's the full text for bb posterity:

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Melvins founder King Buzzo takes tQ through a list of his thirteen favourite records, from Tom Waits to Butthole Surfers via PiL, Pixies and The Who

"Don't quiz me on which thirteen records I picked because I can't remember," Buzz Osborne of Melvins tells me, moments before we're due to begin our chat about his thirteen favourite records. "Sometimes, it changes hourly," he adds. I explain that I have a list of choices he sent over a few weeks ago. "Phew, that's alright then! I might change my mind though."

Just a few moments into our conversation and I'm treated to all the humour, surrealism and angst that's characterised one of the hardest working bands in music. Their 1987 debut album Gluey Porch Treatments was considered the blueprint for grunge, and since then the band have unapologetically experimented with manifold styles and ideas, drawing on influences far and wide. Via various evolving line-ups (Buzz and Dale Crover are the constant staples), Melvins have released an album almost every year for 30 years – not to mention various EPs, live albums, covers, collaborations and side projects that simultaneously co-exist alongside their seemingly ceaseless output.

"There wasn't actually a single person at my school who even knew who David Bowie was," Buzz tells me, explaining that he didn't bond with a single person over music at his school in Montesano, Washington until the tenth grade, where he met Mike Dillard – one of the founding members of the group. "I was totally on my own until then," Buzz explains.

His parents weren't supportive either. "My parents never bought me records, they had no interest in my love of music at all." Seeking out his favourite records via mail order catalogues, a young Buzz discovered the intense innovation of Public Image Limited and the Pixies alongside the rockier outings of The Who and humour-hippies The Fugs, the latter being one of the "greatest influences" of all on the Melvins, according to Buzz.

He also shows his fiercer, uncompromising side too, explaining that he has "no time" for musicians or audiences who aren't open to new ideas or experimentation, something that's always been at the core of the Melvins' style. "If you start listening to music with the idea that, 'This music's for my age, for me', you're just a fucking moron. I have zero respect, and I can learn nothing from you. You have to be totally open." He reveals his intense distrust of people who don't like his choices too. "If you don't appreciate it, there's nothing I can say to you. I have absolutely no time for you!" he says of people who don't like Elton John's Captain Fantastic.

A new album is of course on the way at some point soon. "We never wait too long. I have no reason to believe we won't be in the studio again soon." And their plans? "No idea. So far so good. We'll keep on doing that. Whatever that is."

Tom Waits - Blue Valentine

I first time I heard that record was in about 1986 and that was the first record of his that I heard; I believe when I was about 21 or 22 I believe. I don't know that I picked up on it right away, but eventually it became something that I've probably listened to every single week since I first heard it.

There's a couple of songs on there, one in particular, 'Kentucky Avenue', that my wife can't ever listen to because if she listens to it, she starts crying, no matter what. That one's banned in our house. I think it's a particularly difficult song to digest because people don't really pick up on it or know what exactly he's talking about in that song, and I like to leave it that way.

I like his other records and I think his newest album is really good, but that record for me is just such a go-to record in my life and it's probably in my top-five albums ever. I think lyrically it's pretty amazing and I really like the fact that he recorded the whole album live to two-track. I guess it would be a straighter album for him which I liked too. Maybe not as straight as some of his earlier stuff, but the musicianship is really something.

'Romeo is Bleeding', 'Postcard from a Hooker in Minneapolis', 'Christmas Card' all help to make it just a fucking great record. Oh and 'Whistlin' Past the Graveyard' of course. It's my go-to album for Tom Waits: it's his benchmark.

Public Image Limited - Flowers Of Romance

This album is the one that absolutely everybody hated at the time when it first came out and I couldn't quite get my head around that because I thought it was really cool. I thought it was amazingly adventurous and absolutely the right album for them to make at that time. Some of the greatest stuff I've ever heard from them is on this album actually, it's the best record they ever made for me. I don't understand people who don't get that. The drum loops are really cool on it, there's no guitar and actually, there's no bass either I don't think.

What makes it a great record is that it is just really weird and odd and I think I appreciate that from any artist; the weirder the better, always. You can't make anything too weird for me. If it's too weird, you're too old!

It also seems like that record was a huge influence on the sound of the Melvins as well...

Absolutely. It's a huge influence on us, the whole record. I mean, it is kind of song-oriented, but it's more the whole thing, the concept of it that is important mostly because its unlike anything that went before. The whole experience of listening to songs on that album massively shaped us and more.

The Who - Who's Next?

I heard that record when I was about twelve, I guess it would've been about 1976 and it was 'Won't Get Fooled Again' that first hit me – that and 'Baba O'Riley'. A lot of people don't like that era of The Who and I can't figure that out because for me it's one of their best. Townshend is one of my all-time heroes as far as songwriting is concerned. I think that's the best record they ever did.

I really like Sell Out and Odds & Sods too, that weird B-side record. But this is the album to me, where I think that they really hit it right and they hit everything with thunder. The only thing I don't particularly like on that record is the John Entwistle song on there, 'My Wife'. It's okay but I never listen to it, I always skip that one!

I read that you struggled to get a hold of music when you were younger. How did you seek it out?

I ordered this particular album through mail-order which is how I had to get stuff back then. My parents never bought me records and never cared about that sort of thing at all. They had no interest in my love of music at all and I think they thought it was a waste of time. Years and years later, when I was about 18 and I started playing music, which at the time was influenced [by this record] they had zero – and I mean absolutely zero – interest in it. They weren't in any way encouraging as far as, like, 'Oh yeah, you should do it', not in the least. They viewed it as a waste of time. I tried to make a career out of making a living by wasting time, you know, but it worked out.

What about the kids you grew up with? Did you find any fellow music lovers amongst them?

No, I didn't know anyone that liked that stuff: I didn't have one person. When I was getting into music when I was about twelve, I had no friends whatsoever. Nobody that I knew, young or old, liked music. I didn't have people that I hung out with at all. I was pretty much on my own until about tenth grade until I met Dillard and the guys that ended up being in the Melvins. Dillard especially got it, but I introduced the guys to all that stuff, whether it was Bowie or whatever.

Elton John - Captain Fantastic

Most of his stuff I can't listen to – I do like a lot of it, but I think Captain Fantastic was a really brilliantly weird album that is very underappreciated. I think him and Bernie Taupin brought out the best in one another.

Those lyrics were very advanced and top-notch on that record and I fell in love with it primarily because of those. I've never stopped, there's never been any time in my life I didn't love that record when I come to think about it because it's a fucking great record all the way through. 'Better Off Dead' is a really weird song and the weirder the better for me.

I think bands like Queen were super influenced by Elton John and I don't think people really pick up on that. I love Queen, but I think that Elton John really had something. I finally got to see him a couple of years ago and it was great. I just think that's a record that if you don't appreciate it, there's nothing I can say to you! I have no time for you!

I probably know all the lyrics in the whole album and I have since I was that teenager – easy-peasy. That record's easy to like. 'Bitter Fingers' and 'Captain Fantastic' are really amazing and so too is 'Better Off Dead', which is a really awesome song.

Pixies - Bossanova

I like their other records, but I think Bossanova is easily the Pixies' best record. In the last couple of years I've gotten to be friends with their guitar player, Joey Santiago, and I asked him about this album. He told me, "That's my favourite, that's the best Pixies record." It's weird because I never hear anyone talk about that record with them, it's always, always, the earlier ones and this kind of gets missed. I think those earlier ones are good, but this record is where they really perfected exactly what they were doing.

I'd heard the other records, but I actually bought this one around the time it came out. I was just like, 'Oh, check this out' and that soon turned to 'Oh my fucking god, this is the best fucking record they ever did!' I just have never heard one single person say that and I don't know why: it seems weird to me why it isn't as valued as the others.

It sounds the best because it's got way better means of production than their earlier ones. The other ones just sound boxy and normal. This is linear, and you can hear how they thought about how to make it sound good, effectively live in a studio.

When you first started recording with Melvins, did you try to emulate certain ways of production like this as you were finding your way?

Interestingly, we were working with this guy, Toshi Kasai, we were probably still working with him in the early 90s actually. He said we were the only band he'd ever worked with that didn't bring other records in and say, 'This is what we want to sound like'. We didn't do any of that. We just started recording and we didn't want to sound like this or that band, we didn't do any of that. I've heard of lots of other bands doing that but to me it just seemed ridiculous. Most bands tend to overthink it, which is too bad, because nobody gives a fuck about that...you have to do your own thing.

When you met the other guys and were able to share your love of music finally after the issues you had growing up, that must have been a great moment.

Completely. I met guys that were open-minded to the idea of what I was into, but they didn't know anything about that stuff. Nothing. Eclectic music for most of the people I was around was Led Zeppelin. I love that stuff, but I was into so much more than that. It was tough. I lived in a small town, a long way away from any big city and I had a hard time. I hated it. I hated everything about it. It was not fun for a person like me there.

[With the Melvins] we bonded over tons of things, I couldn't pick a single one because we realised we liked all kinds of things, we're all over the map. It didn't matter to me if it was arena rock or punk rock but I veered more towards punk rock because I like the intimacy of it, and I liked going to places that were much better to enjoy a show than an arena, you know?

Gang of Four - Solid Gold

I got that record probably about 1980, I think. I just thought that I'd never heard anything like it. Never. I haven't even heard a record like that since. I've no idea what they were listening to, I've no idea where that came from – it was just incredible and unlike anything I'd ever heard. The songs from that record are very well put together and even though there's certain [moments] where each guy is doing their own very different thing, it still fits together perfectly. They're not playing off of each other at all either and I think that's a really wonderful thing.

I think that was a massive influence on our band – much more so than people think actually. Certainly, on our second record, Ozma. That was one of the main records we were listening to and one that probably influenced it more than most. I've never not listened to that record. All I ever hear people say is that 'Entertainment!'s better', but it is not better. Solid Gold is a way better record – way better record – on every level for me. I think it's their best album.

When people don't get that record, I say: 'don't even bother with them!' [laughs] or 'oh, you're not using your ears!' Entertainment! is a good record, the first song on Solid Gold, 'Paralysed', that's one of the best songs they ever did. It's weirdness, top to bottom and the musicianship is top notch. It's a gigantic influence on what we've done. I didn't see them live a lot, but I saw them when they reformed, and we played with them at All Tomorrow's Parties festival, which was cool. But beyond that, I don't know them. I'm not good at networking, meeting people, stuff like that. I'm really bad at it. I don't feel comfortable doing it.

The Fugs - The Fugs

The Fugs were a hippie band from the 1960s that I can get behind purely because they were not all 'peace and love.' They were weirdos who wrote strange lyrics and a lot of these lyrics would be weird even now. I thought some of their songs were hilarious actually purely because they went against what was expected so much. I thought the musicianship was great on that record and the classic songs for me are 'Kill for Peace', 'Frenzy,' 'Skin Flowers'. It's a fucking awesome record.

I think as well as it being funny, it's well-conceived: it's everything that Frank Zappa tried to do and couldn't. It was much funnier than Frank Zappa. It's the kind of hippie ideology that I can get behind. To me, it makes more sense to be hippie like The Stooges, or hippie like The Fugs, or hippie like Captain Beefheart, not this peace and love bullshit which isn't real. None of that is real. These guys are real, and they're funny. They have an eighth-grade sense of humour and they're not politically correct at all. Plus, they're smart guys. Their songs are very well-conceived, the ideas are hilarious, and I think the people who don't like that stuff aren't using their ears. I love that stuff. I've been listening to that probably since, I don't know, '84?

All of the bands we're talking about have, for sure, no question, influenced the Melvins but The Fugs are the ones. We have a lot of their sense of humour in in us, their style and approach.

The Gun Club - Fire Of Love

It's just that sound...they came from LA but it's totally different and I still listen to it all the time because it's stood up. The lyrics are really good too and I like the production. It's very low-key, and I just think the stuff is simple but it's well-executed and well-conceived. They wore their influences on their sleeve, like Robert Johnson, and it's obvious, which I like. They're much smarter than most of the punk rock stuff, and it stands out because of it.

Judas Priest - Unleashed In The East

I think it's the best 70's record ever made. I think all the live versions of the songs on that record are great but I think the drumming is exceptionally amazing. I think that guy set the framework – whether people know it or not – for heavy metal drumming as we know it, a guy named Les Binks.

amazonAMAZON

Quote2/2

I think songs like 'Victim of Changes' are everything that newer metal bands are still trying to do but can't. I think if you listen to that, and then you want to do that same kind of thing, you've got a hard road. You're not going to be better than that, I think that stuff is fucking great. I think that me and Dale both think it's the best heavy metal album ever made. By far. By far, without question.

The songwriting is amazing, the performances on that record are unbelievable. 'Live in Japan', I don't know how live it is, but regardless it's a fucking great record. That's my go-to record for them. For somebody like me, you know, in the hip, underground rock world, not a lot of people notice how great a band like that is, but I do.

It was impossible, impossible, for me to see live bands growing up where I was from. Until I was mobile, until I was able to move myself. My parents were not driving me to a concert – they were like, 'it's not happening!' which ultimately made me appreciate bands like Judas Priest more. I saw Three Dog Night, Kiss, bands like that in the 70's and I loved it. Still do. Arena rock didn't really influence the Melvins but certainly punk rock did. They showed me how I could make it work, bands like The Ramones, Sex Pistols, The Clash, Black Flag.

TSOL - Dance With Me

I think that record is in the top five of great records that came out of California. I never tire of that record. The musicianship on that is a level far above what most bands of that calibre – you know, that work in that genre – were capable of. The songwriting is very advanced, the lyrics are really cool and it was different than most of the records that were coming out at that time, certainly in that punk rock genre. I really appreciated that even then. I still listen to it all the time, I think it's a great record. I wouldn't change a thing on it. I never tire of it. I also really like the 'Weathered Statues' 7", I think that's really good too. Their first record's good also. I listen to too much of them still.

Redd Kross - Teen Babes From Monsanto

This is a record of cover songs that they really loved. I think it came out about '84 and they did all these great covers of Bowie, Kiss, the Stones, Stooges and for us, it was just like, 'Oh my god, this is a band that's into the same kind of things we are!' It was a revelation. They picked out all these great songs and did amazing versions of them. I was in love with it.

And now, you know, here it is, 35 years later, we're playing with Steven [Shane McDonald]. We're playing that record. They did cover songs of what influenced them and not many bands did that and now here we are. We did the same thing a few years with that in mind, on a record called Everybody Loves Sausages. It was a collection of all the songs that have been influences on us that maybe people hadn't thought of as an influence: it was really fun.

We've been playing their version of 'Saviour Machine' but I don't know how many people in the audience really realise what we're doing. But that song meant a lot to me and it's really cool we're playing it. We love playing cover songs, we always have. I'm sure some people [in the audience] appreciate it, some don't. I have no idea what they appreciate. I can't concern myself with that.

Would you do another covers album in the future?

I've no idea! I was thinking that we should do an album of all the covers of songs we absolutely hate and try to make them better. But we'd really have to hate the songs, you know? There's lots of songs to pick, lots of terrible songs to choose from!

Flipper - Generic Flipper

I was 18 or 19 when I heard this. It was way different than anything I'd heard up to that point, and they certainly ended up being a huge influence on what we were doing. I liked the lyrics and I like the simple nature of the riffs, it was really good, dirty stuff. I thought they were really funny too. I knew lots of people who hated them and I never could understand that. They were a massive influence on us. We've done covers of their songs for a long time and always will, I think.

Butthole Surfers - Psychic... Powerless... Another Man's Sac

They were doing something that was different when they emerged, which I really appreciated. I hadn't heard anything quite like that before, which was attractive to me. I saw them a bunch of times about the time of this release, and before that, and now we're playing with Jeff [Pinkus] which is unbelievable, actually. It's strange how the world works! I think this is another tremendous record. Again, quite underrated and one of the best records that's ever come out. Ever.

You've mentioned before that seeing them live helped you appreciate them more...

Seeing them live made a huge difference in me appreciating them in general. But I thought their records were great regardless. I would've liked them anyway, just for the records. 'Cherub', 'Negro Observer' – that's such a good one – 'Mexican Caravan'. Those three from that album were the best probably. 'Lady Sniff', that was really good too.



(PAUL)

Any particular reason why you made it so squinty small?
Hail, not fail.
PS:  fuck him.

amazonAMAZON

Quote from: (PAUL) on July 29, 2019, 05:04:33 PM
Any particular reason why you made it so squinty small?

Mostly to support the publication by encouraging you to visit the actual site and read it there instead, pay their bills with ads or whatever.

(the) Razor

There you have it.

Proof music is subjective!

We all have guilty albums. Pretty sure I even have a Pearl Jam album in my top twenty... :lol:
Favorite albums can mark a time in history, a place, friends, etc...can be more than music or name dropping obscure bands for imaginary credits.


Don't click this

Dumpster D

Quote from: (the) Razor on August 03, 2019, 09:30:30 AM
There you have it.

Proof music is subjective!

We all have guilty albums. Pretty sure I even have a Pearl Jam album in my top twenty... :lol:
Favorite albums can mark a time in history, a place, friends, etc...can be more than music or name dropping obscure bands for imaginary credits.

This is very true for albums you grew up with.