Messages

is the man in this pic Gareth?

I think the guy Gareth was the dude with the mustache who did the merchandise?

I haven't heard this yet, but it's just spacey noise and shit for an hour from what I've heard, made onstage? So were the Melvins kind of stood there like Moss is when he plays in Porn? Like a grunge Kraftwerk? I can't imagine the set-up at all.

Shit man, I'd have loved to have seen Big Business do a 1-hour set..

Jared's a beast on that thar bass gitar, yes sir. How do the posters look?

still havnt worked out how to put pictures on my screen


anyway

cats, mice

casn anyone help me out with this track? have had what i remember of it runnin through my head since i woke.

I've been lusting after a recording of it too. Kind of dissappointed it wasn't on the Tour EP.

and i forgot to mention they played "porch song". well, the main riff from porch song over and over whilst dale pounded away.

was the first time you saw porn in dublin last year, eye in?
that was a really short set (compared to the set they were doing elsewhere on the tour). i think the deal was kid koala was playin in the same venue startin at 11, so big business and porn's set were cut short. very dissapointing, from memory they only made some noise and played "last song".

Yeah, it was the last Dublin Melvins show. From what I remember, the crowd weren't nearly as receptive to PORN last year as they were last night, either. I too would love to see what those guys could do with two hours (or more) of stage time. Pure thunder.

I asked about the box set on ipecac aswell and he said Mackie is still doing the artwork at the moment there'll be 500 made with all the ipecac recordings, electroretard and a bonus disc which he said he doesn't know what he's gonna put on it yet. I picked myself up the big business EP and a poster. The poster looks great but it says button factory October 5th instead of the 4th which is kinda annoying

Yeah yeah yeah, that's all well and good, but what we all really want to know is.... What kind of pizza did he order?

the outro track was okie from muskogee from crybaby

Ha, damn. I thought going in with 13 albums in my head would be enough to cover all eventualities - not with the Melvins.

same, ive seen porn a good 5 times now i think, and am floored by them each and every time. id even say my favorite act to see.

I've only seem them twice, but the first time I didn't pick up half of the nuances that were packed into last night's performance. They really, really killed it.

Well, as the old saying goes, "you haven't lived it unless you've wrote about living it on the internet," so here's my experience of the show at the Button Factory.

I got in pretty early, headed straight to the merchandise. They had the Big Biz Tour EP III, some old CDs, and a t-shirt each for the Melvins, Big Biz and Porn, XL only for Melvins and Big Biz, XL and L only for Porn. They didn't have any of the new Porn/Merzbow record, which was about the only other CD from BBTEPIII I would have needed. Bought a "See You In Hell" Melvins shirt, which is a bit big on me, but the awesome design compensates. Got the Tour EP and a poster too. The Big Biz shirt was one I haven't read about/seen on this forum, it was some blue skeletons/corpses close-up with yellow writing maybe, with a moon in the background? It was pretty well-drawn. Anyway, enough about the merch eh.

Leisurely ambled on over to a really sweet vantage point for the show. Good view the whole night, and I must say, the Button Factory is a really fucking plush venue. Unobstructed views from everywhere, leather seats, a great bar. PORN  first, with Dale hitting the stage at the same time as Moss, different from some other shows I've read about. I'm a fan of powerful, crushing, feedbacky music, because I'm a fan of the Melvins, and PORN were thoroughly powerful, crushing and feedbacky. Moss seems like the kind of guy who comes from a long line of wizards and alchemists and conjurers of demons. Whatever his lineage, he straddles minimalism and excess like a fucking pro. A million layers of texture, three-chord riffs, Dale soloing like a fiend, some guy beating the fuck out of his bass, beautiful.

No bubble machine this tour though? For shame.

Big Business next after a little break. Jared came out, said Hi, and I believe wasn't too stimulated by the "The Button Factory" motiff they had on the screen onstage. He asked the guy doing lights, "Could we get a picture of.. like a pizza, or something, that'd be great?" Halfway through the first song (Hands Up), Big Business are playing to the backdrop of a big fucking pizza. This kind of set a precedent, and before every song Jared would give the lights guy a request for an image. For Cats, Mice, he wanted "Cats, and mice... It's called Cats, Mice though, with a comma, so a cat and mouse with a comma as well, that would be ideal." For the next song, "I'm getting a link with God here... I want Offspring... I scream... Ice cream... Can we get the band The Offspring holding some ice cream?" The lights guy delivered with some shoddy photoshopping. Someone in the audience asked for Al Jourgensen, and Dale added that he should have a crack pipe. Cue a photo of Al Jourgensen with a crack pipe photoshopped on. Dale also requested that they get some name I can't remember onscreen naked, so he could guarantee himself that he'd have a wet dream later.. Jared remarked, "Dale's been away from home for a long time." As for the music.. Big Business dominated. The audience dug it, and the sound was as good as or better than I've heard at any other concert.. Seriously fucking piquant, clear, well-balanced and loud. I heard about three different guys saying, "Cats, Mice!" to their friends in a "how fucking awesome was that song, Cats, Mice?" kind of way. If the tour EP and their ever more bad-ass live shows are any indication, the new Big Biz album is going to be fucking monsterous. The Drift makes me want to weep like a baby.

A short interlude, enter the Melvins. Buzz used his new aluminium guitar the whole show I believe, great sound out of that thing. Great balance of sound for the whole show. The setlist was as usual, the band were super tight, the songs were so chunky, so clear. They may as well have sprayed their potent, territorial urine all over the crowd, such was their dominance as a four-piece. The lights guy seemed to think the Melvins and catalogue underwear models from the 70s would make for an interesting viewing/listening experience, so that's what we got for the rest of the night. The big crowd-pleasers were Honey Bucket, Civilised Worm, and History of Bad Men.  History just has the groove to it that people can't fight. I was surprised to see how excited people got for the Nude/Senile material - way more excited than for Eye Flys, Tipping the Lion or Boris. People were going way ape shit in the pit for the quiet part of Suicide in Progress, whereas Eye Flys only got cheers from one or two stonery sorts when they recognised the bassline. Whatever, every song was a gem in my book. Jared got into the crowd for Boris, the band took the song into kind of a Muppetsy direction with Jared screaming nonsense from the floor. They wrapped shit up with Okie from Muskogee, very funny.

I think that old cliche' applies here, and that I've gained a new appreciation for the new Nude material aftering hearing it made in front of me. Big tunes made bigger and better by a live show. Good times. "Family entertainment on another level." Disney Doom. Beautiful.

Woah. That's a really, really beautiful piece of vinyl.

yeah, hasn't he been recording albums for them since H.A.T. or before? that was like 2002. i'm 21 now and there is no way he is younger than me. if i had to guess he's probably like jared and coady's age.

Yeah, H.A.T.'s the first album were he's credited as mixing/recording for the Melvins, so if he's 18 now, he would've been 12 when he did that.

I listened to it a few more times and I find I am liking it more.

One thing I did notice is how prominent Mr. Rutmantis's bass is on this one (as opposed to, say, The Maggot, where he just seems to follow Buzz's guitar around... not that its a bad thing when the album KICKS THAT HARD!!!!). 

Its nice to hear him more.

-al27

A lot of the stuff that sounds like guitar on the Maggot is actually Kevin's bass.

They're both men of considerable talent I think, they both bring their own unique dynamic to the outfit. Jared's got the skill man, although I wish he was mixed a little more distinctly from the guitar on ASA and NWB sometimes, like Rutmanis used to be.

its got some tracks I had to learn to appreciate moreso than other albums.

people are looking for another HAT or the maggot.  we should know that wasn't going to happen.  so clear all that out of your mind and try to listen to the album for what it is.
stand it all by itself and then re-evalute it.

the title track came off as completely ghey at first.  then it clicked with me.  this is a totally new song from MELVINS in every way.   thats what makes melvins MELVINS right?

Maybe man, maybe. I like the production and the tones and a lot of the vocals, it's just that there isn't a stellar track on it that really makes me go, fuck, yes, only the Melvins could craft something this ridiculously weird and intense and.. Melvinsish. The content just isn't clicking with me as much as everything else I've heard from them. It's a new Melvins, yeah... They're working in a new zone.. Not unlike when they worked with Lustmord and then had a brief flirtation with electronic music, or the way they worked with a really eclectic pallete on Stag... So maybe this is a phase  where they're toying with classic rock. That's fine and dandy and natural and commendable and all, it's just that it's not really a sonic palette that's to my tastes as much. Buzz likes Alice Cooper, I'm no Alice fan. That's the way it goes.


That said, I didn't like HAT or Houdini much to start with either. It's like a way, way more deadpan and intelligent Spinal Tap? Does that make sense? A serious joke, that isn't really a joke but is a joke, but isn't?... Just me?


The Drift, by Big Business... There's an original song that's tickling my in between balls and ass area more than anything on Nude.

That sounds hilarious / terrifying. What kind of self-hating, suicidal fuck berates an already berated-to-the-limit Jared 8-foot Warren?

A muumuu is "a loose dress of Haiwaiian origin that hangs from the shoulder," whereas a tunic can be a whole range of things. I think what's happened here is the Melvins have taken a floral muumuu and a tunic with a neck and made them into some some weird, perverse hybrid, no doubt calling on all manner of goblins and ghouls and whatnots to aid in the whole inversion ritual... Maybe what we're dealing with here are.. TuuMuus?

It wouldn't surprise me if the diabolical TuuMuus were actually lined with human flesh/leather.

I love that poster, but the date reads October 5th, when the Melvins show is definitely on October 4th. Feel free to berate me if it's an old poster, but I'm pretty sure the venue, The Button Factory, hasn't been called The Button Factory for very long. Anybody know who made it so maybe an email could be fired their way before it gets printed?

Try this link:   http://www.gigposters.com/forums/members/scrawled.html

Thanks, just messaged him. I''m thinking now it's kind of a petty thing and he might be more irritated by me telling him than appreciative. Hm.