MELVINS - WORKING WITH GOD (NEW ALBUM!!!!!!!)

[black stallion]

Stallion, i recall you saying over the last few releases Dale's drumming is becoming more conventional. more of a four on the floor type feel than his previous style that always threw us curveballs. nothing wrong with either in my book necessarily. i'm more about Buzz's riffs to be honest.

yes, of course. i think after the collaboration with Big Biz the drumming changed in a more conventional style. i think the drums is not the first thing you notice now. live is a total different story fortunately

[))))((((]

i think drumming is super weak and generic on this album.

According to the liner notes, Dale did play some drums on both of the 1983 records. I wonder what he contributed and on which song/s.

Speaking of art, what would you think of a Van Gogh self portrait if you saw one up close? Maybe you have. Personally, I was mesmerized by the three dimensional aspect of each painting. Every blob of paint had its own set of characteristics: volume, colour, shape. They were practically sculptures rather than paintings. Oops, I'm digressing. What I'm getting at is that your art history classes must have exhaustively covered intention/decision making in every brush stoke, so I find it interesting that those considerations didn't cross over into your musical analysis. In a sense you're lucky, though; if you decide to dig deeper into what the Melvins are doing you'll be gobsmacked at how good Dale really is. It was a revelation to me when I first "got it".

I agree. I've seen a couple of Van Gogh's paintings but not recently enough that i can remember what they were like exactly. However i know precisely what you mean by that. Quite a few painters use paint in sort of sculptural qualities. Often many paintings have a very different effect on us when we stand before them than simply seeing flat reproductions in magazines or on a screen or such. Rembrandt for example is someone who up close the paintings like a jumbled mess. Just disparate forms scrapped of brushed dry onto the work. Yet it is only in the whole that everything gels wonderfully together. Truly for me that is one of the things that make paint and paintings fascinating - that merging of surface and depiction. How they interact and tip over into one another. It has to SHOW something while also BEING something.

As you suggest, im sure some of that analysis for art probably does venture into the music i enjoy to some extent. But then music has been something that i explored parallel to my art studies. Both growing in my mind in their own ways. I am indeed pretty analytical about a lot of things (and myself) in life but rather weirdly not really with music. I just take it in like one might with eating food that one enjoys. I don't stop between each chew and break down what it is i am tasting and overly evaluate it. I just eat it. So yeah i guess for me music would be more closely aligned with food or some other activity that you just take in very naturally than something i would scrutinize or deconstruct.

[amazonAMAZON]

Using the art analogy, I love how Melvins tracks sometimes hide startling things in the background. Whether it's bonus bits in between tracks, or noises and fills, or intentional hiccups in the timing.

On this album there are bits that are starting to appear. I got really into Dale's bass on "Fuck You" today. It's aggressively overplaying. It's ridiculous and it sounds great.

"Good Place" is really growing on me, too. I'm not tempted to skip any part of this record.

"Brian" is more like "Jeff Thomas" rather than the lesser novelty songs of previous 1983 records. 

[el gep]

You've got it right, Mamazon!
Maybe some of the most interesting parts in this last album are the things a little hidden like what I call "harsh guitar" overdubbed (some things Buzz is playing here are totally crazy!).

[johnnyg]

I liked this one a lot. Here's my review: https://www.punknews.org/review/17471/melvins-working-with-god

[amazonAMAZON]

Could have been the best EP in a decade if they'd left off the covers and Brian and Hot Fish. The six bangers on here are fire.

It's cool either way, I guess.

[el gep]

The covers are great!
And Brian AND Hot Fish too!
What do you dislike in Hot Fish, this is real close to the evil spirit of Flipper?! Acid and nihilist dude!

[))))((((]

Im not sure why people hold 'Bouncing Rick' up there so highly. Im not so much for that one myself.

[el gep]

The first riff is ridiculously heavy and catchy.
Then you have a sort of very weird heavy pop song, listen to the vocals and chorus, you got something like The Sparks mixed with Guns And Roses and Ministry... fucking in a SM club backroom.
This is pure genius, ahahahah!

[el gep]

Oh sorry, I was thinking of Brian, not Bouncing Rick...
Rick is cool but not THAT cool, agree.

[amazonAMAZON]

It's not that I dislike "Brian" or "Hot Fish" or the covers. Each has its own appeal.

I just made a playlist on Amazon Music to hear how it sounds without them and it did what I expected... Sounds much like The Maggot or a Senile Animal... Pure rocking goodness throughout. You could hand this EP off to a friend who has never heard of The Melvins and be confident it's a home run. You won't have to explain away anything.

"Hot Fish" is a fine song, just repetitive. The lyrics are probably the biggest detractor.

"Bouncing Rick" is dope. I don't know what you all are not feeling.

[(the) Razor]

I didn't like a single song on it.

Oh well.

[el gep]

Maybe try skateboarding instead.

[))))((((]

I didn't like a single song on it.

Oh well.

I didn't think there would be a legitimate Melvins fan who didn't at least like Caddy Daddy, Negative No No, Boy Mike and Hund. I guess i was wrong!

[Colonel Cheese]

Funny stuff