STAG

[amazonAMAZON]

I generally agree with )))((( so figured I'd let you know how this record revelead itself to me. Took a long time to warm up to.
Here's my stag book of world records:

The Bit is probably my hands down favorite here, and as it's credited to Dale it's my favorite Dale song in the catalog.

I really distinguish between the studio tracks here and the "filler" for lack of a better term. Sterilized and Goggles are the DNZ or whatever the border zone in Korea is called.

Berthas and Buck Owens and Captain Pungent and Skin Horse presage the genius of Hostile Ambient Takeover. Dense, heavy, purposeful, bewildering. Skin Horse also has pitch shifted vocal, which you'll hear explored more on HAT with mixed speed recordings.

Black Bock is the catchiest Melvins song of the first two decades, and also the most evil fucking thing to hear.

Tipping the Lion is the best lead guitar / solo in any Melvins song ever, and it's not just one solo, but multiple throughout. Believe me, I made a spreadsheet.

Bar-X is the only Melvins song to feature a horn solo. It's major distinction is probably that it's the most punk fucking horn solo imaginable. It's awful and glorious and sounds halfway through like GG Allen is spitting in a tuba before resuming to be a horn solo in a Melvins uptempo radio "hit".

The Bloat has the Melvins best vocal cadence of all time. It's  over the best Melvin's bassline of all time with Dale's most unforgiving ribbon crasher pulse. Like a beautiful blend of With Teeth and that closing track on POTRE.

Stag is the first Melvins record where a theme really pops... animals in consumption, food and size and gluttony and the food chain.

Goggles is the harshest recording of this band being a band in the whole catalog. Here it's a deliberate choice and it works.

This is also only album where even the "filler" grew on me. Cottonmouth sounds like a toss away, he's singing something about a mouth full of cotton and headphones. Is he singing through headphones? Are the headphones damaged? I don't know, but the joke never gets old.

Soup used to confuse me, just a blip followed by another blip, but once it comes on I feel reset, relaxed, and yet surprised.

In short I used to have complaints about this album, but it does reveal itself. I probably have a review here in this thread  where I was harsher about things on this record I now praise and love. I think it's immaculately timed and sequenced for contrast. Every "song" has a personality. There's a hook to each segment of listening. It probably has the highest ratio of any album in terms of "things I thought I wouldn't like but found out I love and am grateful I trusted it."

[cooter]

It took me twenty years to warm up to this record! It finally clicked and i realized this is a great album!

[cooter]

With the Third Man record pressing of Stag, I noticed something at the end of side A. It ends with the bloat. Dale hitting his ribbon crasher over and over in rhythm. But since you have to turn the record over to side B, obviously you have to wait for tipping the lion to play. To me Dale's part sounds stretched out longer since you have silence until you turn the record over for the next song. It's like listening to it for the first time. Maybe I'm concentrating on that part harder. If this makes any sense...

[amazonAMAZON]

Totally makes sense. I love a good headscratcher of an ending to a record, and vinyl gives you more ending spots.

[cooter]

Totally makes sense. I love a good headscratcher of an ending to a record, and vinyl gives you more ending spots.

With The Bloat, Soup, Lacrimosa, and Cottonmouth all as side endings, that's pretty weird.

[cooter]

STAG is 25 years old today! 
https://www.facebook.com/100044414466919/posts/377606920396454/

[cooter]

https://thequietus.com/articles/30228-melvins-stag

[Dumpster D]

Dunno when it was covered here before? Didn't notice a third artwork version on this promo cassette copy of Stag until someone pointed it out...or I forgot, or my brain couldn't handle all three variants.

Curious how this artwork had three different faces, wondering how this came about... someone would have to ask Mackie about it.

[amazonAMAZON]

Huh, that is perplexing. I guess for the cassette it makes sense to have to redraw in that form factor.

The middle one (square with smaller flower face) is pretty lame. I'm glad the top one (spiral eye) is the CD image I've known and loved all my life.

[the bloat]

This has probably already been said a few times, but I think of Stag as the Melvins 'White Album' - a disjointed collection of all their different styles packaged together

[))))((((]

This has probably already been said a few times, but I think of Stag as the Melvins 'White Album' - a disjointed collection of all their different styles packaged together

That's a good analogy actually. It just needs to be a double album!

[black stallion]

good point with the White Album comparison!

[amazonAMAZON]

Is there any track you wish had been removed the album?

When I first got into this album it felt like nine-or-so great studio Melvins tracks and some weird experiments and joke tracks. But now I can't really imagine dropping any of the instrumental or lo-fi tracks.

[black stallion]

i think the album is perfect from start to finish, just like Stoner Witch

[GrimReaper]

i think the album is perfect from start to finish, just like Stoner Witch

I agree and Happy New Year Brother!