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Does anybody else have issues playing the first bonus disc of the Colossus of Destiny deluxe box set? It's the main reason why I got this quite expensive box in the first place, so this is a big bummer for me.

https://youtu.be/_slzgfUsCJU

I'm not expecting the 2023 versions to be superior to their 1986 counterparts (which is impossible in a way), but I am thrilled that they return to that material! Hope some of it will find its way into their live set.

Also I am curious about the version of the 1986 session they used... there are two:
Feb 1st, 1986 - that's the one released on 8/10 Songs, with the bright sounding bass string and the somewhat distorted vocals
Feb 8th, 1986 - re-recording session, released on the 6 Songs 7"

26 Songs has both, but the Feb 8th tracks are vinyl sourced and sound rather crappy. Not getting my hopes up, but a straight-to-digital Version without the vinyl step would be awesome...

Any idea when this was recorded and who is playing bass on this cover?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz4mgBQ6kdQ&t=1263s

The compilation was released in 1990 by C/Z records based in Seattle...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vsntBGHd24

Probably early 93 and one of Lorax' last concerts.

Next one that is supposedly mislabelled is
1985/10/08 MacEwan Ballroom, Calgary AB, of which we have a wonderful video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj3nRRsWOkk

They play the following songs on this recording:

• Over From Underground (cuts in)
• Into The Void (Black Sabbath cover)
• Now A Limo
• Heaviness Of The Load
• #2 Pencil
• Bang Bang (The Lewd / Cher cover)
• Disinvite
• Grinding Process
• Easy As It Was
• Snake Appeal
• Happy Gray Or Black

This looks VERY similar to a portion of the set they played on 1986/03/21 at the UTC Hall in Seattle for the Deep Six record release party (also found on Youtube):

• Iron Man (Black Sabbath cover)
• Six Pack (Black Flag cover)
• Reagan's War Puppets (The Accüsed cover)
• Over From Underground
• Now A Limo
• #2 Pencil
• Heaviness Of The Load
• Bang Bang (The Lewd / Cher cover)
• Disinvite
• Grinding Process
• Easy As It Was
• Snake Appeal
• Happy Gray Or Black
• Scared
• Tomorrow's Dream (Black Sabbath cover)
• Firehouse (KISS cover; jam)
• Set Me Straight
• Rip It Out (Ace Frehley cover; cuts in)
• Gluey Porch Treatments
• Reagan's War Puppets (The Accüsed cover)
• unknown (cover song?; cuts out)

On the other hand, check the set of the 1985/10/10 concert, which would have been just two days later - oddly, it doesn't look quite alike:

• At A Crawl
• "Running Wild"
• Bang Bang (The Lewd / Cher cover)
• Grinding Process
• Blessing The Operation
• Disinvite
• Snake Appeal
• Breakfast On The Sly
• She Waits
• Cray Fish
• Ever Since My Accident
• Loose (The Stooges cover)
• Sin City (AC/DC cover)

So I believe the video recording to be from early 1986 rather than October 8th 1985.

Can we come up with a list of any Melvins live recording circulating from before 1988?
I noticed some inconsistencies and mislabelled dates, maybe with all puzzle pieces lying on the table, it's possible to figure things out?

For a start, the recording labelled 1985/10/07 Wellington's, Winnipeg, MB is definitely not dated correctly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m6XDiL_slw

Listen at 0:30, Buzz says "here were are on a Thursday night". October 7th 1985 was a Monday.

According to the attached poster/flyer, they were supposed to play this venue on October 11th (Friday) and 12th (Saturday).
Also, according to the attached newspaper review, they already arrived in Winnipeg one day earlier and filled in for another band that cancelled. October 10th is a Thursday, so it seems quite clear that this is the real date of the recording.

Okay, what do you think about this?

This is from the Wiki here:

Dale Crover said this about the various C/Z Records versions of this release: "The way it was (recorded), it could have been better. We set up live in a 24-track studio and the original 7" sounds all boxed in. Since it was our first record, we really didn't know what we were doing. I think the songs are OK, but the sound quality should have been much better for what it was. The re-release of that on C/Z was actually a different recording. We recorded the songs twice because on the first one, the vocals were a little bit distorted, a little bit too hot, and our bass player (Matt Lukin of Mudhoney) had only changed one string on his bass, so this one string was really bright and the others were dead. We went back in the studio and did them again and put the second (session) out. When we listened back to the first one a long time later, we just thought it sounded way better, so when they re-issued it (on C/Z) we had them put that one out."

Quite hard to fetch what he says here (at least for me as a non-native speaker) but doesn't Dale say that for the original "6 Songs" release, they used the re-recorded versions, and when it was re-issued later (as "8 Songs", later "10 Songs"), they listened to the initial recordings again, liked them better than the re-recordings (despite the distorted vocals and the too bright bass string) and used those? Think nobody has noticed this yet, or at least I couldn't find it.

Side note: The crappy quality versions of "Show Off Your Red Hands" and "#2 Pencil" on 26 Songs (Tracks 18 and 19, presumably sourced from the "Outtake From First 7"" release) are exactly the same takes as the versions released on "Eight/Ten Songs" (Tracks 4 and 8 ). They are simply repeated on this release, but in much worse quality. Nobody seems to have noticed this yet either.

So the initial session (used on "8/10 Songs") featured:
Easy As It Was / Now A Limo / Grinding Process / #2 Pencil / At A Crawl / Disinvite / Snake Appeal / Show Off Your Red Hands / Over From Underground / Crayfish

The re-recording (used on "6 Songs") featured:
Easy As It Was / Now A Limo / Grinding Process / At A Crawl / Disinvite / Snake Appeal

Leaves Set Me Straight. Given that it is found together with #2 Pencil and Show Off Your Red Hands, I suppose it also belongs to the initial session. Makes sense because it is an older song that was already present in '83.

[B]

I'm wondering about the lineup of the Stiff Woodies track. The Stiff Woodies were a Melvins side project which went through several lineups involving later Nirvana members and others.

The artwork says:
Drum - B
Guitar - D
Talk - C
Bass - M

The only clean-cut case is the vocals, which is definitely Chris (Krist) Novoselic.
The guitar sounds very much like Buzz, which doesn't fit with the information from the artwork. So I thought maybe they accidentally swapped drum and guitar duties?
This would mean the drummer's first name starts with D. The first intuition says Dale, but despite being solid, the drumming sounds to weak to be him IMO. So much about my theory...
Others who are rumored to have been drummers for the Stiff Woodies are Kurt Cobain, Bob McFadden (who also drummed for a pre-Nirvana band for a short while) and Mike Dillard.
For the bass, an obvious guess would be Matt Lukin.

Bump! Jules?

Does anyone know when exactly Buzz and Dale left Aberdeen/Montesano/Washington state and relocated to L.A.?

When was the last show with Lukin/the first show with Lori?

Must be some time in 1987 or 1988, but I failed to find a more precise date.

Just announced on Facebook.
Some dates, no further info:

September 28  Reims, France  La Cartonnerie
September 29  Besançon, France  Festival Détonation
October 2  Paris, France  Alhambra
October 4  Brest, France  La Carène
October 5  La Rochelle, France  La Sirène

Basses Loaded will always be a compilation album to me, considering that half the tracks were released on singles prior and the band is not a cohesive unit throughout. Regardless, sometimes these records earn their right (ala Pisces Iscariot or Incesticide). Album counts.

Guess we'd need more background info on Basses Loaded.

Incesticide is generally considered a compilation album as opposed to the three other records.

Also unsure about Mike and The Melvins - Three Men And A Baby. Is this a fully qualified album or rather a way late release of an album that never happened?

Eggnog - EP for sure. Undoubtedly a milestone in Melvins early history, but just take a look at the runtime.
Bulls & Bees - runtime again - EP in my eyes.
Colossus - Hmm never considered that one TBH. Also, recorded 1998 but released 2001...
Chicken Switch - remix compilation album
6/8/10/26 Songs: EP or compilation album respectively
Mangled Demos: Compilation album
WWLAD: Fully qualified (double) album
Buzz/Dale/Joe/Steve: EPs and in part also side projects
Singles 1-12: Compilation album
Live History of...: Live album

This is where Buzz and I part ways, he views PAT as their 26th studio album I think it only counts as their 25th as Buzz considers Colossus of Destiny an album and their best one at that where as it's not a studio album but a live album.

1. Gluey Porch Treatments
2. Ozma
3. Lysol
4. Bullhead
5. Houdini
6. Prick
7. Stoner Witch
8. Stag
9. Honky
10. The Maggot
11. The Bootlicker
12. The Crybaby
13. Hostile Ambient Takeover
14. Pigs of the Roman Empire (w/ Lustmord)
15. Never Breathe What You Can't See (w/ Jello Biafra)
16. (A) Senile Animal
17. Nude With Boots
18. The Bride Screamed Murder
19. Freak Puke
20. Tres Cabrones
21. Hold It In
22. Three Men and a Baby (as Mike & The Melvins)
23. Basses Loaded
24. A Walk with Love & Death
25. Pinkus Abortion Technician

What's the source for this Buzzo statement? And where's the Sausages on that list?

I was recently thinking how many "proper" Melvins albums (including collaboration albums and albums released as special incarnations!) are out there as of today, not counting compilations, live albums, remix albums etc.
Ended up with a total of 26, although I'm not 100% sure about each and every one, especially some of the recent ones are hard to categorize. Curious about your opinions!

Here's my list (w/ comments on the "controversial" ones):
01 - Gluey Porch Treatments
02 - Ozma
03 - Bullhead
04 - Lysol
05 - Houdini
06 - Prick (one could argue this was released as Snivlem on a different label, there was no tour for that one, it is full of joke tracks anyway and therefore should not count, but I definitely consider this a solid Melvins album nontheless, even if it's a rather obscure entity)
07 - Stoner Witch
08 - Stag
09 - Honky
10 - The Maggot
11 - The Bootlicker
12 - The Crybaby
xx - Electroretard (I personally do not count this one. In my eyes this is a compilation album of experiments, covers and reworks, but not a proper album)
13 - Hostile Ambient Takeover
14 - Pigs of the Roman Empire (w/ Lustmord)
15 - Never Breathe What You Can't see (w/ Jello Biafra) (Buzz wrote all the music after all)
xx - Sieg Howdy! (leftover tunes, remixes, a live track, this does not count for me)
16 - (A) Senile Animal
17 - Nude With Boots
18 - The Bride Screamed Murder
19 - Freak Puke (as Melvins Lite)
20 - Everybody Loves Sausages (many guest musicians, but nobody disputes the Crybaby either, right?)
21 - Tres Cabrones (as Melvins 1983)
22 - Hold It In
23 - Three Men and a Baby (w/ Mike Kunka) (not sure if this one should count, after all, most of the music was recorded many years ago in 1999 and there was no tour for it either)
24 - Basses Loaded (or is this merely a compilation? Somehow feels too important to be put aside though)
25 - A Walk With Love & Death
26 - Pinkus Abortion Technician