Festwca

No pretazzo, noooo. You HAVE to like the Melvins! What have you been listening to?

vote. Hip-hop and modern electronic music are genres I haven't managed to dive into yet (but sooner or later I will). I've listened to some: GZA, El-P, Dalek, Aphex, some I liked (especially cLOUDDEAD) but I don’t know, I’m not really motivated to explore further...

Hehe, just saying. I had it in mind for about a year, but seeing that there were already quite a few Melvs ones, I set it aside. As for Stag, I’ll pass; it’s really beautiful and varied, but I’m not as attached to it as I am to this one.

In the meantime, the vote is unequivocally FIVE. Then, I wanted to do it myself, damn Donjunio you beat me to it! This is the one by the Melvins that I listen to the most, a 100-ton doom-metal behemoth. Along with the earlier Bullhead and Eggnog (especially the trio of megalithic pachyderms Boris/Charmacarmicat/Hung Bunny), it has shaped the sound of everything slow, heavy, and psychomanic from then on: the transcendental doom of Sleep (listen to the unsustainable masterpiece Dopesmoker to find a 60-minute Hung Bunny!), the kings of drone Earth and SunnO))), the Boris (who take their name from the Melvins' track), the acid-doom of Electric Wizard and followers, not to mention the more metallic stoner and so on. Lysol is a single track but the "songs" are well defined. The highlight is the initial snail-paced tank Hung Bunny (an OoOoOOOoommmm over an exasperatingly slow, exhausting Sabbathian riff; just consider that the drums kick in at the eighth minute - what a spectacle!). Even the Flipper cover is no less impressive. The Alice Cooper piece is quite faithful to the original, and the finale is entrusted to a typical Melvins track. All in all, this is one of their less bizarre records, despite its extremism.

In fact, I didn't get it :( Damn, these can't be found on P2P. Buying blind (well, not exactly: there's its excellent review) is out of the question! Too bad, because they seem extraordinarily uninteresting.

Well, your irony wasn't that clear. No hard feelings, right?

Oh really? And who was shooting them, you? This is one of the most civil and serious discussions I can remember. By the way, you were only part of it in the early comments...

I haven’t heard it. They’ve done too much! There would also be the 3 EPs by Buzzo, Crover, and Joe Preston alone, then the collection of singles released on AmRep, the collaborations with Jello, the Altamont, the early demos, and a thousand other things (many of which aren’t worth listening to). I’ve heard both good and bad things about Houdini Live; I might download it…

The Wipers are among the pioneers. Grab the Box Set with the first three albums and you’re set. Then, since I have nothing better to do, I’ll give you a summary of the Melvins, who, in my humble opinion, are by far the best of the bunch (and truly have little to do with grunge, and everything else). One of the most consistent, persistent, and influential bands of the 90s. It’s also true that you can’t make your way out of their discography; they’ve released a lot of material, almost all excellent. Early period: sludge-punk-stoner-metal inspired by My War and extremely spastic. Then they transitioned to sheer heaviness/slowness (Bullhead/Eggnog/Lysol period), with Black Sabbath taken to levels of almost unlistenable extremes. The peak of this era is Lysol, which at times even borders on drone-doom ---> bands like Sleep and Electric Wizard, as much as Sunn O))), owe a lot to these Melvins. Then there’s the trio of albums on major label Atlantic, all very good, featuring some straightforward songs that even recall the Metallica of the Black Album (Houdini is a good starting point for a newcomer), while still retaining that typical Melvins weirdness. After that, there are two albums of ambient psychedelic metal (the first is unlistenable, the second, Honky, is exceptional), released by the legendary noise label Amphetamine Reptile. Then comes the trilogy Maggot/Bootlicker/Crybaby on Ipecac where they truly do everything. And then various collaborations, side projects (the latest Men Of Porn is amazing, as is the one with Lustmord), and an anthology/remix released on Man's Ruin leading up to the recent H.A.T. (which some say is their best) and (A) Senile Animal (double drums for one of their more straightforward albums). Not always unlistenable, at times incredibly melodic, the problem (but also the beauty) of the Melvins is that you never know what to expect. They can hit you with 10 minutes of amelodic noise or shift rhythm/melody every 3 seconds, and even in their most beautiful albums, there’s always something annoying. They make music for themselves, more than for the audience.

It's true, HEX could have been the perfect soundtrack. And I think the Earth were quite inspired by Neil Young for their album; moreover, the photos inside the booklet fit the theme: landscapes of the Old West, Native Americans, buffalo herds. All strictly in a very dark black and white, which not surprisingly reminds one of Muller’s photography. I have Ghost Dog but I still need to watch it; I’ll let you know. So far, I’ve seen Daunbailò and Coffee and Cigarettes, both very beautiful. However, Dead Man is on another level.