Steven McDonald EP

[the bloat]

I'm not seeing this album covered in the Melvins album discussions thread. I feel like this could be their most controversial release and deserves scrutiny. How do we feel about this album? Played along side the other Melvins EP's, it seems oddly polished. Is Steven in his own league?

While I'm not a huge fan of Steven McDonald era Melvins, this four song nugget deserves it's own credit. This is a batch of pretty good songs! Agreed?

[black stallion]

i love it, i mean it's Steven . my only problem is this shouldn't have been part of the Melvins solo albums, which was a project from many years before, it has nothing to do with it. not sure if Steven plays all the instruments but you can tell he can write good pop songs. i would love to find a copy of this EP one day

[the bloat]

Does Dale play drums on it?

[black stallion]

Does Dale play drums on it?

i was wondering about that too, did a quick research, it seems Dale and Toshi both did something on this

[amazonAMAZON]

It's a great great record. They missed a golden opportunity to include these songs on the Escape From LA cheapy CD. Though I'd pay for a cheapy CD alone.

The standout for me is the Sparks song "When Do I Get to Sing My Way" although that ended up on a Redd Kross record, so it somewhat invalidates its inclusion here.

The first track felt a bit too Black Crowes or Blackberry Smoke (?) or nearly Blues Traveler/ Hoodie and the Blowfish. And yet I can appreciate the craft. It's a good song.

The second song is the only one I could imagine fitting into a Melvins set. But that's more that it's a dirge in a minor key, there isn't really anything Melvinsy about it.

The third song is great. If you hate both "Embrace the Rub" and "What's Wrong With You" then you likely will dislike this, too. But this is a solid uptempo rock song with some punk attitude.

I was listening to Steven interviewed on  the Nothing Shocking podcast the other day. He mentioned that he's like a wind-up toy, and Buzz/Dale sort of cue him up and see where goes. I think that "try anything" attitude is bad ass. Knowing more of his personality, I kind love this EP now as an artifact of hazing... "Hey Dale, I'm thinking of bringing Steven in." "From Off? Ok cool but what about the rerelease of the solo EPs? That's gonna be weird." "We'll make him do his own." "Haha, yeah, that'll be weird." "It can't be worse than a kid crying at Walgreens." "Alright. Let's see what he does. No direction, right?" "Yep just like KISS, no direction."