Nude With Boots

[blacksanta]

blackie's delayed reaction review:

Well, jesus, let me first say how lucky I feel to be a fan. This is a band, like all of the best art made by humans, that personally changed my own outlook on the world. King Buzzo and Dale Crover have wrought the soundtrack to my dreams and have re-defined my concept of "pleasure" so many times that I have no words of thanks left, other than that their existence is the only reason, the ONLY REASON, why I would choose going blind over deaf if hypothetically forced to make such a rotten decision.

The other reason I feel lucky is the fans. I have not met one bbs user IRL, except maybe Idlehandz (but my memory is fuzzy on this point, pm me). But meeting other hardcore fans is a treat, and when I do it never fails to amaze me how interesting they are and how after a mere few minutes of conversation I feel like I have met a long lost family member.

Its funny when making a critique of a new melvins release how it's like pointing out flaws in a diamond. My own opinion means shit. But if one understands that mere knitpicking is not a judgment on the band, its idears or its current outlook or direction, nor a personal insult, it can be quite fun. I think it was an AMG review that described the output at the time  the review was written as mirroring such career arcs as Neil Young and Frank Zappa. I think that applies and its a good piece of commentary. How cool is it to have such a secret club that appreciates the importance of this band, that has continued since 1983? jesus, what could have the velvet underground accomplished if they had lasted for 25 years plus, toiling away in obscurity? Then again,, the years between HAT and ASA were long and fraught with compilations, re-releases, side projects and collaboration. ASA was like a full tumbler of patron anejo after a few years (FUN YEARS, dont get me wrong) of dilluted Pepe Lopez. My opinion of ASA took a year and a couple of shows to formulate. I no longer have the luxury of shows at this time, so NwB will have to be taken on its own studio merits.

The stunning one-two punch of Stoner and Stag finally proved, once and for all, the depth and beauty and uniqueness of the Melvins songwriting and versitality. After inventing "THE ROCK" for 10 years, they showed that they can invent or at least participate in building any "ROCK" they chose to. I always felt that the Maggot was a slightly boring step back as far as proving that they can facerape any rawk band in existence, and I also thought that the crybaby was somwhat lugoboriuaasss, but taken as a whole, song for song coupled with CoD and Electroretard, I(we) knew that King B and Dale C could do anything they wanted and be better at it than 98 percent of other musicians. I knew (and still know) that Melvins could do a british blues album and I would put it right there with my savoy brown or ten years after albums.

I'm not even going to attempt to squeezix an overview of the years between HAT and ASA. But here are a few thoughts I had during that time. Live: My thoughts of the 2002 portland show for HAT was negative, but this was probably due to: (a) the crystal ballroom got a better soundsystem, it sucked at the time; (b) I spent the majority of the show in the balcony and (c) I was in a very bad personal place. I hated the following Geek tour. I though the setlist was dull and I thought the show was too short. Coming off of the highs of the 3 set stag tour, 2 set 2X4 tour and the CoD tour, I felt that the performance was decidedly lame. I wrote a scathing review for the old .net site that was posted under someone else's name when the site was changed over. Not counting the Jelvins show, which I accepted as was it, I have had no complaints since. The Neither Here Nor There show in 2004 was the most viscous and heavy show I have ever seen. The two ASA shows since then has only confirmed that an hour of concentrated Melvins equals any band touring today.

HAT to me was (and is) a masterpiece. It distilled everything about the Melvins up to that point into a potent brew of heavy psychedelia. It was the mash up of Stag, Stoner, Honkey and the Trilogy that I was  thirsting for. The Anti-Vermin Seed is so absolute, such a penultimate piece of work that it just fucks me up every time I hear it.

I think Toshi is the current 5th Melvin. With HAT, it was a new sound. Very dry. Very Midrangey and drumb heavy. The variety of the material gave him so much to work with. It was on one hand a cheap and ugly sound, low budget, but he knew h0w to tweak the unique sweet detailed upper-register reheated meaty treats that made HAT such a pleasure. Production has always been such an unacknowledged part of the band, you could easily sashimi up the discography by sound. The Mark D era, the Jonathon Burnside era (the idea imo that Bullhead, Eggnog or Lysol were mishandled in recording in any way is absurd. JB = Ted Templeman), the Gggarth era, the Tim Green era and the Toshi era.Again, not taking into account the years between HAT and ASA, I feel that sound has defined the current sound of the band.

What I DONT like about the sound: the heaviness of Buzzo's tone is sifted away. What I DO like about it: drumbs, drumbs, drumbs......vocal hooks exagerrated.....the popiness apparent in Buzz's latest songwriting endeavours is pushed to the forefront, allowing newfags the chance to actually listen, like and buy. Moar fans equals moar chance of moar melvins, especially as Roger and Co. become OLD. Yup, OLD. They are OLD OLD OLD. I think its great, but I guess kids these days love teh young. Then again, find me a band that didn't become cool when they were young. (Dead Moon being the awesome exception that proves the rule.)

ASA - what i like: talking (great song outdoing ol black stooges), blood witch (fuck helmet), hawk (heavy beauty but see below).
what i dont like - the entire middle section as a whole is too much bluster, what has got to be proved. Taken individually the hawk stands out as one of ther few fast and furious songs I rate extremely high. the mechanical bride is cute for newfags.
what i love: civilized (with teeth follow up? beautiful melody); history of bad men (night goat my ass); a vast filthy (the torture never stops, and quiet complexity can be more horrifying to the soul than a thousand 2 minute metal songs).

K; new album:

The Kicking Machine: THAT RIFF......WANTON SONG, I KNEW THEY LOVED ZEP!! kills helmet dead in poor page's tracks, and so fucking jaunty MELVINS PICNIC!!!! but goddammit the melody of the last 30 secs brings me down.

Billy Fish - The whole 70's arena rock sound so prominent and worshipped in the later tunes. It's ok but I'm not THAT grooved by it. Yeah, I find it kinda boring, but if it was released as a single and I was the same person and I had never the Melvins, I would be no longer pissed that some douchebag was playing the radio and would eventually buy the whole discography, sign up on the melvins.net and generally annoy everyone about my extensive knowledge of the release history of Alice Cooper's Easy Action (Enigma retro still had the Straight logo....any broads wanna fuck? Im pierced and shit...).

Dog Island -  Dio island amirite? Great song, and if it was recorded in the Boner era as a single it would be better than Euthanasia. Boring mid range guitar overlay. I am sure in 6 months I will loudly be declaring another masterpiece. Currently = Mid-level Melvins heaviness (Hag Me) but destroyed by At the Stake, Your Blessened etc.

Dies Area - I always thought that "The Man With the Laughing Hand is Dead" was ciminally underrated, and that Fantomas was criminally overrated. This strikes the mix I knew was there and kills all in its path.

Suicide in Progress - Album two with the centerpiece is a supposed retread.....fuck that. I love this song. I love the cute-ass jaunty complex riff and the great Ween-esque breakdown into my fantasy 14 minute "Bloated Pope" breakdown. Yup, if its not the same damn riff its close. But I love the creepy quiet melvins making me afraid of the monsters outside the window. And this riff deserved refinement and close attention, much like Night Goat>History of Bad Men.

The Smiling Cobra - Oh HAY GUISE, I LURVE SlIpKnOt, YoU lIeK mEtAlLz ToO????? WaIt, WhAtZ tHiS, i'M SOOOOOOOO CoNFuSSSeddd!!!!!!!!!!! ItS LiEk NOIZZYYY!!!!! Great goddammmmm tune.

Nude With Boots - So fucking gehy Im tempted to remind myself of In the Rain. Except that this riff is the first time I have ever been raped by a cute flower. I feel it going up my ass, and i wanna protest too much, but i know when I wake up i will have a cock of steel, ready to impregnate a flower patch filled with butterflies, and I wont be stinky. My new name will be Diego Buttercup and I have an idea of a documentary I wanna make about YOU.....

Flush - Pigs of the Roman B-Side is Nike gud. Ya, you'll lurve CoD, better than Tool at least....its a cover of Three of a Perfect Pair remixed by Adrian Belew, and it doesnt have some fag name like "ten thousand days ago my mom was raped by jambi in the pot."

The Stupid Creep - wow. cute again. roger talking about bloodhound rape through a mouth of garbled poppy cheesecloth shit. will make the lyrics board fight to the death yet again for a great punk single released on Stiff in '78.

The Savage Hippy - THE HIGHLIGHT for us old school freaks, this is the third of a trilogy of noize and fucking nasty bad news that we need especially in this election year. Sorry, i just stuck my dick in an electric fan while listening to this thank god recognized does not deserve to be languishing on a fucking 'specialty am rep' release. Goggles>Speciman>The real savagefuckingnastyhippie.

It tastes better than the truth - jesus the melvins suck. is this message saved thank you big business remix? should be released as a b side to an ISIS collab ep amirite? lollerz. still, its fucking cute. NOT AS CUTE AS THE BACKGROUND MURAL CHANGING DURING ANOTHER 4th OF JULY......ruined in europe. Now that made my penor hard.

[(the) Razor]

 

[glen]

Nude With Boots - So fucking gehy Im tempted to remind myself of In the Rain. Except that this riff is the first time I have ever been raped by a cute flower. I feel it going up my ass, and i wanna protest too much, but i know when I wake up i will have a cock of steel, ready to impregnate a flower patch filled with butterflies, and I wont be stinky. My new name will be Diego Buttercup and I have an idea of a documentary I wanna make about YOU.....

hey man,  back off my theme song.

eerr,   does this mean you like it?   

ooohhhh duuuudyyyyy?? 

[bUTTHOLEmAN]

Does anybody else think that some of the vocals on Suicide In Progress sounds like Bugs Bunny? Especially this part: "There's a little animal...".

[dead mike]

got it today,  just listened through one complete spin and am in the middle of round 2.

some preliminary thoughts, subject to revision upon further listening:

- on the poppier-sounding tracks: when i want to listen to a glorified led zeppelin tribute band, i'll listen to wolfmother.
- on the more experimental tracks: when i want to listen to faux-bootleg quality recordings, i'll listen to "st. anger."
- in general: the melvins need to ditch toshi and john golden before they record their next album.
- beyond the music: did mackie throw together the album art five minutes before the bell at the start of Graphic Design 101?

it's not unusual for me to be overly critical of a brand new album by a band i like after the first few listens, but NWB doesn't thump me in temples and make my eyeballs burst the way HAT and ASA did; it's not mysterious and jarring the way Honky and POTR are; it's not even amusing and  maddening like PRICK and COD. NWB instead tries to be all those things in one album but falls short on each count.

to summarize: the new Two-Foot Yard record is still the best album of 2008, in my opinion.

[blacksanta]

Nude With Boots - So fucking gehy Im tempted to remind myself of In the Rain. Except that this riff is the first time I have ever been raped by a cute flower. I feel it going up my ass, and i wanna protest too much, but i know when I wake up i will have a cock of steel, ready to impregnate a flower patch filled with butterflies, and I wont be stinky. My new name will be Diego Buttercup and I have an idea of a documentary I wanna make about YOU.....

hey man,  back off my theme song.

eerr,   does this mean you like it?   

ooohhhh duuuudyyyyy?? 

Hey, put it this way: I would be embarrassed to play that song in front of a bunch of non-believers and then climb on to something high and yell, "This band changed the way I think about music!" It's bad. It sounds like RUSH, and not in a good way. I mean the bad RUSH.  The guitar tone sounds like something you'd find in an eighth-grade lunchbox. This song is the worst part of the 70's, MAGNIFIED. It is the sum of all of the displeasurable parts of NWB: wimpy guitar tone, cheesy vocals and anthemic melody -- anthemic melody being a huge negative in my book. "Watch THIS, I'm about to STATE something!" FUCK YOU, anthem. Take off your loud clothes and tell me something interesting instead of posting pictures of yourself:



(The song, not the band. Just relax, any of you sycophantic types.)

I was really drunk when I wrote the review. I do like it but I agree with Dudbean at the same time regarding the not so hot aspects of the album and the fact that I will be introducing someone to the band with this album but I'm not sure if its the impression I want to give of the band. But with 90 million albums and numerous style changes, its hard to give someone an accurate impression of the band without playing them all, preferably in chronological order'.

Take Zappa for instance. How do you pick one album and say, this is what he was all about?

[Idlehanz]

Nude With Boots - So fucking gehy Im tempted to remind myself of In the Rain. Except that this riff is the first time I have ever been raped by a cute flower. I feel it going up my ass, and i wanna protest too much, but i know when I wake up i will have a cock of steel, ready to impregnate a flower patch filled with butterflies, and I wont be stinky. My new name will be Diego Buttercup and I have an idea of a documentary I wanna make about YOU.....

hey man,  back off my theme song.

eerr,   does this mean you like it?   

ooohhhh duuuudyyyyy?? 

Hey, put it this way: I would be embarrassed to play that song in front of a bunch of non-believers and then climb on to something high and yell, "This band changed the way I think about music!" It's bad. It sounds like RUSH, and not in a good way. I mean the bad RUSH.  The guitar tone sounds like something you'd find in an eighth-grade lunchbox. This song is the worst part of the 70's, MAGNIFIED. It is the sum of all of the displeasurable parts of NWB: wimpy guitar tone, cheesy vocals and anthemic melody -- anthemic melody being a huge negative in my book. "Watch THIS, I'm about to STATE something!" FUCK YOU, anthem. Take off your loud clothes and tell me something interesting instead of posting pictures of yourself:



(The song, not the band. Just relax, any of you sycophantic types.)

I was really drunk when I wrote the review. I do like it but I agree with Dudbean at the same time regarding the not so hot aspects of the album and the fact that I will be introducing someone to the band with this album but I'm not sure if its the impression I want to give of the band. But with 90 million albums and numerous style changes, its hard to give someone an accurate impression of the band without playing them all, preferably in chronological order'.

Take Zappa for instance. How do you pick one album and say, this is what he was all about?

That's a great example.  What do you want?  The same thing over and over, or a band that changes styles?  So what if one or two albums miss you personal bullseye?  I'd take some change over repetivness any day.  Even if they try something new now and then and I can't agree with it.

[Justafilthylurker]

I think Nude with Boots is one of the tracks where the new guitar tones are more of a positive than a negative. The heavier songs end up sounding a bit generic sometimes.

Does anyone else think Buzz sort of accidentally "invented" classic rock? Like in that interview where he mentions he was going for a Gang of Four type of thing with the drums on the Kicking Machine. It's like he's sort of combined a lot of interesting elements without noticing that they all average out to something quite ordinary.

I do like this album though. It's normalish, but there are loads of interesting elements in each song and all the various parts are really well thought out. There is a lot going on in these songs.

[black stallion]

it's pretty funny to see how many people have been confused by this album, me first.talked with a lot of people who hate it.Buzzo is a fuckin genius,and i can't stop listening to his music

[suck poppet]

Does anybody else think that some of the vocals on Suicide In Progress sounds like Bugs Bunny? Especially this part: "There's a little animal...".

When my 3.5 year old heard it she said it sounded like burt from sesame street

[glen]

Hey, put it this way: I would be embarrassed to play that song in front of a bunch of non-believers and then climb on to something high and yell, "This band changed the way I think about music!" It's bad.

I hear you knockin.    considering you're approaching someone who has at least some grasp of underground music.    nude with boots is far from a prime example MELVINS track.

but seriously, I dig it.  theres a few tracks on NWB's that, upon first listen, I automatically associate with past MELVINS tracks.  The title track defies any association.     and that, my good man, is a little piece of what attracts me to MELVINS.  you just got to get past that opening gay little guitar riff. 

[norecess]

That's a great example.  What do you want?  The same thing over and over, or a band that changes styles?  So what if one or two albums miss you personal bullseye?  I'd take some change over repetivness any day.  Even if they try something new now and then and I can't agree with it.

That's about how I feel about Neurosis.

[dead mike]

OK, i

[Mad Arab]

I like this album. I got a feeling when you see them playing these songs live, you will appreciate the album more.

[I am the Sun]

You are correct sir.