The most excited you've been for a new Melvins release.

[black stallion]

I think it was Stag. It involved a lot of people and a lot of running around.

Back in 1996 my best mate was M**. We lived in Coventry and we were both blissfully unemployed. I was better with money than he was, so on this occasion we'd arranged for me to go out to Spinadisc the day Stag was released, buy it and go round to his place where he would have arranged some weed and a bunch of his mates would bring booze (we were a co-operative). It was a proper planned-out evening, like a special occasion; we'd been excited about this since the release date was advertised.

It would be easy for me to not tell you a bit more about M**, but I will, not least because he was (and still is) a much more interesting person. His mom and dad were musical and had made folk albums in the 70s. As a consequence, M** could play anything he picked up. When I met him, he was getting a hardcore punk band together called Dirt Box. A bit later he formed Frog Poison with his girlfriend and a couple of mates, and they were much more Godflesh-sounding and at least as good. Frog Poison would practice at the same practice space and at the same time as Cathedral - on Friday evenings there would be a 'who can play the loudest' with Cathedral in one room and Frog Poison in the other. They were some of the funniest and noisiest Friday nights I've ever spent. (M** later met a Spaniard who almost bit his cock off in Madrid, but that's another story.) He moved back to the Midlands and is now playing bluegrass with his dad, amongst other things, and so that's the story of M**.

So, that afternoon in 1996, I bought the Stag album and took it round to M**'s place where they were all waiting. There were about six of us, his girlfriend, his brother, me and a few more close friends who were as eager to hear the new Melvins record as anything. You could have cut the anticipation with a chainsaw. At one point, M**'s brother Tom stormed upstairs (probably during “Soup”) and could be heard throwing things around in anger in his bedroom because (as it turned out later, he confessed) he was pissed off not every track was as heavy as Egg Nog.

what a great story! thanks for sharing

[Helen83]

Absolutely without a doubt The Trilogy. I got all the cds before the vinyl came out....they all arrived together in the mail when they were released and I played them in order....by the time Let It All Be dropped the rhythm section I kind of lost my shit.
AMAZON, Green Manaleshi, Let It All Be, Jew Boy Flower Head, Rambling Man with Hank III and of course the crowning glory Mine Is No Disgrace....those had the immediate holy shit impact upon first spins back in 99/2000.

[Helen83]

Oh and the other best thing about the Trilogy was the fact when I bought the vinyl box set in early 2000 it was mailed to me and I assumed it was just a gatefold with 3 black 12”s. That was a pleasant surprise to have such wonderful music houses in such a stunning package.

[nobodyinteresting]

I wish I could have bought the trilogy set when I had the chance.