Messages

736

Melvins Album Discussion / Re: Everybody Loves Sausages

« on: March 21, 2015, 02:13:29 PM »

So I just read through all 36 pages of this thread. It seems like the concensus is as follows:

"Station to Station" and "Dream Home," the epics, are at the top of everyone's list, with "Female Trouble" and "Romance" also favorites.

"Art School" and "Timothy Leary" are probably the least liked tracks after many listens, but most people enjoy the entire album as programmed.

"Black Betty" and "Best Friend" are the most polarizing songs.

"Carpe Diem" and "Heathen Earth" are never disliked, but for many they really grow on you.

It's interesting because this is pretty much how I feel about it, too. Though I fall into the camp of loving both Best Friend and Black Betty. I think the Queen cover is the Melvins finding a new avenue to be badass.

737

Melvins Album Discussion / Re: The Maggot

« on: March 06, 2015, 01:11:05 AM »

THOUGHTS:

This album has the unique distinction for me of requiring zero time to grow on me. I bought it new at the store around the original release, took it home, and it has been a favorite ever since.

I love the split tracks. I think it's one of the best attacks in Buzz's career long campaign to subvert CD track numbering.

To answer a question from four years ago... Open your CD drive, stick in The Maggot, open your CD ripping program (ExactAudioCopy is good in windows) and select to burn the entire CD to CUE format. This will produce two files, one called the maggot.cue which you could delete, and the other which is the maggot.wav which you can play seamlessly in any audio program.

738

Melvins Album Discussion / Re: STAG

« on: March 05, 2015, 01:00:25 AM »

THOUGHTS:

This album has probably the highest number of songs that remain in the live show of any album.

I think of Stag as "dense" as in "tightly packed with ideas." It has a pretty high learning curve but is also endlessly rewarding.

Much of the album seems to be about flesh, food and obesity. Especially "The Bit" which might be about eating a giant steak or burger. Also "The Bloat" as a song title is great.

Bar-x-the-rocking-m - Is this song title a physical description of its guitar riff? For some reason when I hear this song I laugh. It seems like maybe the a&r rep told them they needed "a hit rock song with power chords and a verse chorus verse structure and like a horn part so we can get on the radio" and Buzz was like "fuck you, here's bar-x, that's what you asked for. Melvins, bitch." For many years when I said the song title in my head it was "Bar TIMES the Rocking Em" as if the X was multiplication.

"Tipping the lion" is now probably my favorite Melvins guitar solo.

If you don't like this album yet you will. Everyone has a number of listens it will take to begin to appreciate it. Once you get close to memorizing the way the pieces fit together you will really fall in love with this record, not just this or that song.

739

Melvins Album Discussion / Re: Pigs of the Roman Empire

« on: February 27, 2015, 05:22:36 PM »

This lands in my heart somewhere similar to Egg Nog - an essential part of the catalog, loads of great songs that you'd love to hear live. Even though the running time of this one is plenty long, it simply doesn't feel like you're getting a full experience once it's over. It leaves you wishing there were more of it, but not a thing you could imagine changing about it.

740

Melvins Album Discussion / Re: Hostile Ambient Takeover

« on: February 25, 2015, 11:20:17 AM »

I stand corrected on all counts.

What's the story on "Lizardus" then? I thought he said laserdiscs.

741

Melvins Album Discussion / Re: Hostile Ambient Takeover

« on: February 23, 2015, 11:24:55 AM »

THOUGHTS:

Can you guys stop writing "HAT"? It sounds stupid. If you can't spell out Hostile Ambient Takeover, could you please just write "Hostile" or "this album" when context supports it? Thanks.

That mini-song presumably about laserdisks really got me this time. I love the Melvins. That sounds like Dale, especially Dale humor. Is that Dale?

I used to think Antivermin Seed was unnecessarily long and there was too much keyboard noodling, but this recent listen I think I just let that heavy black opium molasses seep in the whole way and it was great.

Drumming on this record sounds "sloppy" to me despite others describing it as "tight." I don't mean bad, but just loose. I hear flams that are like two separate hits almost together.

742

Melvins Discussion / Re: Hold It In

« on: October 24, 2014, 12:47:13 AM »

Album has a great mix of songs that pop immediately, songs a little too big to just get right off the bat, and stuff that makes you scratch your head until you eventually love it. My only gripes after playing it through a dozen times are some minor issues with pace. There's a few too many "got your eyes on you'd and way too much of the vocoder voice on track two that doesn't go anywhere. Also the ending of the last track is awesome but there are a lot of stretches where it sounds like all the players are waiting for everyone else to do something. Tracks 5, 7, and 9 are epic and "Hollow Moon" and "Crankenstein" are the real deal.

I've always been a fan of plenty of bands influenced by the butthole surfers, but not so much of the butthole surfers themselves. I think this album may have finally forced me to take the plunge.

Also... Even though there's six songs here that decidedly sound like the melvins, the album as a whole feels more like something else (similar to pigs of the roman or chicken switch). In the end my desire for a melvins album is not quenched. In fact I am thirstier.

743

Melvins Discussion / Re: The Next Melvins Collaboration Should Be....

« on: October 19, 2014, 02:14:26 PM »

Can we all beg them for an OZMA record... In the style of Beck's Record Club... Invite over a bunch of friends and do a mix of classic renditions and new interpretations. Get all the ipecac and amrep boys in on it. Book three days in the studio. When they run out two days doing wacky versions of three songs, we'll get Buzz and Dale to power through classics like they play them on stage. End up with half of ozma rerecorded similar to gluttony and lust.

744

Melvins Album Discussion / Re: Sugar Daddy Live

« on: August 21, 2014, 05:40:05 PM »

I thought I posted this already, but I guess I didn't. I listened to the Sugar Daddy songs vs the studio recordings back to back.

Nude w/ Boots Drum and feedback as intro. Faster. Fiercer. More Buzz vocal.
Dog Island Condensed arrangement.
Dies Iraea No whistling or melodica or whatever that signature lead sound was. More guitar in the mix playing the lead.
Civilized Worm Feel of the intro changed slightly. More Buzz vocal. Second half of the song is more aggressive. Different drum outro/ending.
Kicking Machine All I can say is it feels funkier even though the arrangement sounds the same.
Eye Flys Awesome seven minute intro. Brotastic vocals.
Tipping the Lion Distorted bassline. More aggressive. New drum outro.
Rat Faced Granny Perhaps a bit faster?
The Hawk Drum solo slows down. More Buzz vocal.
You've Never Been Right No significant variation noticed.
A History of Bad Men Totally different outro. Gang vocals.
Boris Slower, longer, dynamic. Gang vocals on the last verse that go almost a cappella.

This exercise was very rewarding and I recommend it to any other fan. Big takeaways are really getting to hear more of Buzz's voice on these songs, faster, more aggressive performances, vocals are belted out instead of whispered, and many of the intro/outro/transitions are very cool. The few old songs are the only ones drastically different from the studio recordings.

745

Melvins Discussion / Re: Hold It In

« on: August 04, 2014, 05:11:16 PM »

Funny. I read up on the Butthole Surfers on Wikipedia, when they announced last summer that they were touring with Pinkus. There were multiple references to them living in a van, in or near Dallas.

I read up on buttholes and surfing on wikipedia. Very good reading.

746

Melvins Discussion / Re: Buzz Osborne: The Top 5 People That Influenced My Career

« on: July 02, 2014, 11:38:46 PM »

Minneapolis is in Norway.

747

Melvins Discussion / Re: Best produced melvins album.

« on: May 09, 2014, 03:17:45 PM »

I DIDN'T REALIZE SO MANY MELVINS FANS WERE DEAF TO SONIC PROPERTIES...

Stoner Witch and Stag are among the best produced albums I own (and that's well into the ten thousands).

There was a time that now has passed. A time when a big five record company could throw $100,000 or more at an album from a "developing artist" and send them to the best studios, hook them up with a killer producer, spare no expense on recording equipment and engineers.

"Stoner Witch" is where the Melvins were able to really nail their heavy sound (especially the first four songs). The stars had aligned. They got through their growing pains in recording Houdini. They were with Gggarth's supervision (his other records from around this time were all also great sounding). As noted elsewhere, the engineer Joe Baressi was on board and he was genius. They had enough budget for two assistant engineers. I wouldn't be surprised if these guys end up doing something ridiculous like holding a $20,000 microphone on an isolated boom mic a precise 7" away from Dale's dirty splash. Or maybe they stood out back and smoked cigarettes. Who knows? But Joe and Gggarth were on board. Also remember Mark D was an experienced recording engineer at this time, too, which may have been relevant. SToner WItch has many of my favorite Melvins bass moments.

On Stoner Witch you also have gems like "June Bug" and "Goose Freight Train" where you get clean tones, lots of air, mood. This record is amazing. Everything is on point. You could listen to this album on repeat for a week straight and your ears would never fatigue. You would catch a new nuance on Sunday.

Stag goes even further, taking basically the same team and letting them get a little freakier with the sonics and techniques. There's some demo-ey experimental stuff on there that goes pretty far out and might hinder repeat listenability. But if you look at the core of the Melvins setlist songs on there ("The Bit," "Bar X," "Skin Horse," Captain Pungent," "Tipping the Lion,'" "The Bloat" and a few others) you'll hear that same kind of excellent heaviness that worked on Stoner Witch and is evident here on even more unconventional material.

I don't have the liner notes in front of me, but the mixing and mastering on these records was ace. You only had a couple in-demand mastering gurus at this time (I want to say Howie Weinberg, Grundman, Ludwig, Tom Baker, and a few more) and if they weren't on this record, then whoever did master it was at least competent enough to not screw anything up (which is the real danger of good mastering). I want to say Tom Baker did Stag but I could be wrong.

Honky seemed to have much of the same approach, but probably cut some corners due to budget. The sound is still excellent.

I think (A) Senile Animal is the best sounding record they did after that, although as mentioned elsewhere Pigs of the Roman Empire has the band sounding supreme. We'll leave the soundscapes out of this discussion as it's not really relevant to comparing albums.

I've heard Buzz on numerous occasions defending against blanket attacks on the major label system. There is/was a lot wrong with it, but that system allowed the band to make three amazing albums with mostly their own creative freedom. Buzz has found various outlets to explain what didn't work about the relationship with Atlantic (bad touring demands, music video hassles, marketing budgets and possibly misrepresentation) but I've never heard him express regrets about the recording/mixing/final product of those three records especially Stoner Witch and Stag.

I also want to say that Bulls & Bees sounded great (listening to the CD). Tres Cabrones sounds pretty awesome in most places. Sausages is all over the place (the Melvins Lite songs and the Bowie song are the ones I really dig sonically). Bride Screamed sounds great.

In reference to sample replacement on snare... this is so common among sound engineers you would be amazed. Probably 80% of rock albums in the past two decades have used this. People commonly pull Bonham or Grohl or a few other butt naked snare sounds from exceptional recording sessions. I worked with a producer who had a coveted collection of them. If you got rid of all records that had a sample beefing up the snare, you'd probably lose half your favorite records.

748

Melvins Album Discussion / Re: Solo Albums: King Buzzo/Dale Crover/Joe Preston

« on: May 06, 2014, 05:56:51 PM »

I prefer listening to all eleven songs the way I once randomly burned them on a single CD, by ordering them from shortest to longest:

Dale Crover - Hex Me.mp3 (1:14)
Joe Preston - The Eagle Has Landed.mp3 (1:58)
King Buzzo - Skeeter.mp3 (2:03)
Joe Preston - Bricklebrit.mp3 (2:36)
Dale Crover - Dead Wipe.mp3 (2:47)
King Buzzo - Isabella.mp3 (3:15)
King Buzzo - Porg.mp3 (4:02)
Dale Crover - Respite.mp3 (4:16)
Dale Crover - Hurter.mp3 (4:22)
King Buzzo - Annum.mp3 (4:29)
Joe Preston - Hands First Flower.mp3 (22:59)


You pack the first ten minutes with mostly mean Melvins-y straightforward rockers. Mid-way you get more heavy songcraft and a little drone. And you close out with the amazing Bootlicker-esque "Annum". Much like "Lividity" terminates Stoner Witch, you can absentmindedly continue through your day as the epilogue "Hands First Flower" slowly gets under your skin.

Joe's record isn't exactly bad, but it is tough to hold it up on its own as a remarkable work. Dale wrote good songs, but I can't help wishing for a more powerful vocalist and guitar sound. Buzz's similarly lacks some Croverism, but is hands down the winner in a brawl. Taken all together it's a good variety that feels not unlike Honky or Electroretard.

Is there proof that Buzz didn't play on Skeeter at all? Couldn't he have been a part of the session even if Grohl put it out on his own demo? Either way it's the track that I think of first when I think of these EPs. I give credit to Buzz even if it was only curatorial.

749

Melvins Album Discussion / Re: Favourite Trilogy

« on: April 19, 2014, 01:18:27 AM »

There's great songs in all of them, but it really comes down to the recording quality to determine listenability for me. Here Senile-Nude-Bride takes the cake, unless I can take the Atlantic Trilogy and swap Gluttony for Houdini.

The one that best exemplifies my taste is Maggot-Bootlicker-Crybaby. I know that sounds like a contradiction, but it's not. I love those records and I get tingly looking at the art. It feels like they were recorded to be played privately and I love them. But I can't rank it strongest.

Bullhead-Lysol-Eggnog is probably the trilogy I am most likely to get to know better in the near future. The sonics are not as good, but songs like Your Blessened, Sacrifice, With Teeth, Boris, Antitoxidote seem to represent the crystalization of Melvins genius.

Songs-Gluey-Ozma has some good songs but relatively poor recordings. And they hadn't tapped into all the things I love about Melvins records of the last two decades.

Would you all count Bulls & Bees, Tres Cabrones, and This Machine as the latest trilogy? I am pretty sure Sausages was a compilation and Freak Puke was somehwat a diversion, but I think "We Are Doomed" and the seven originals on Tres represent a powerful phase of Buzz's songcraft leading toward his solo acoustic record.

Poor orphans I still love: Hostile Ambient Takeover, Honky, Prick, Buzz-Dale-Joe, Pigs of the Roman Empire.

750

Melvins Album Discussion / Re: Singles 1-12

« on: April 19, 2014, 12:06:01 AM »

PRO TIP: Use a media player or youtube to play them as 12 songs from the A-sides only. Then later play just the 12 b-sides.

I had always hoped they would do a letterpress version with this track layout.

SIDE A Album: you get a powerful album of eight awesome cover songs, some rare Melvins songs, one epic live improv, and a pleasant noise experiment to close it out. No filler!

Then on the almost unlistenable b-side disc you start to get into some chickenswitch/colossus/prick territory with the occasional brilliant payoff. Ten minutes of A&R demos leads off before you get to Theresa Screams and some actual near-classic Melvins tracks.

It's the only way I can listen to the album(s) now. It makes so much sense! And I love Prick and I enjoy the other challenging/experimental Melvins full-lengths so rediscovering this wicked record is a true joy.