"King Buzzo" by Charlie Thomason. India ink with brush and dip pen on paper. (Click to enlarge)
Over the last few years, The Melvins have become one of my favorite bands. Throughout 29 years of grunge/sludge metal awesomeness, their discography has grown pretty huge and they continue to tour to this day. In May of 2011, I got to see them at the Double Door in Chicago, where they performed their famous albums Houdini (1993), Lysol (1992), and Eggnog (1991) in their entirety. One of the best shows I’ve ever seen.
The band’s rotation has changed a few times, although singer/guitarist Buzz Osborne (aka: King Buzzo) and drummer Dale Crover are the longtime backbone. At different times throughout their career, the band has included bassists such as Krist Novoselic (Nirvana), Matt Lukin (Mudhoney), Lori Black (aka: “Lorax,” and daughter of Shirley Temple), Joe Preston (Earth), and others (they also now feature a second drummer, Coady Willis). In a 2009 article for Seattle Weekly, Novoselic reflected on the influence they had on grunge history and, especially, on Nirvana:
“Every Seattle band of the late ’80s owes a little something to the Melvins – a band that slowed down the tempo and played sludgy riffs. In 1990, Kurt Cobain and I were driving back from Los Angeles to Washington. We took the opportunity to stop by San Francisco and see our pals the Melvins, and mentioned that we were without a drummer. Scream were playing in North Beach and we all went to the show … Buzz introduced us to their drummer, David Grohl.”
Here are what I believe to be The Melvins’ 5 best songs (in no particular order):
Hooch (Houdini)
The opening track to what is arguably their best album (or at least their most mainstream) is absolutely ruthless. Dale Crover’s drums just get stronger and louder as the song progresses. The lyrics are what you might call poetic gibberish: “Exi-tease my ray day member / Half lost a beat away / Purst in like a one way sender / War give a heart like a fay.” This song is an excellent introduction to the band, given that it’s not as slow, drone-y, and feedback-laced as most of their other material.
Leeech (Gluey Porch Treatments)
There’s quite a bit of history behind this song. It started out as a Green River song (Green River being an early grunge band featuring future members of Pearl Jam and Mudhoney), although they reportedly thought the song was too repetitive and dropped it from their usual setlists (click here to hear a 1984 demo of the song on YouTube). The Melvins picked up the song and reworked it to be slower, shorter, simpler and, yet, much louder and grungier. About two-thirds of the way through the song, the guitars and bass fade out and Dale launches into a killer drum riff, which also gradually fades out into echos and reverb. Shortly after Gluey Porch Treatments was released, Buzz and Dale moved the band to San Francisco, while bassist Matt Lukin stayed in Seattle and formed Mudhoney with Mark Arm.
When Green River reunited in 2008 for Sub-Pop Records’ 20th anniversary, Mark Arm joked that the Melvins stole the song and never gave them credit. Green River’s 2008 live performance of the song is substantially better than their 1984 demo. See below…
 Second Coming/Ballad of Dwight Frye (Lysol)
Anyone familiar with The Melvins knows that when they cover a song, they truly make it their own. This combo of songs from their 1992 album are no exception. They the Alice Cooper song, slowed it down, and removed all the weird piano melodies, as well as the lyrics from the “Second Coming” part (which are some sort of odd religious stuff about “Hell is getting hotter, the devil’s getting smarter all the time”). What is left is a song that is much simpler than Cooper’s in terms of instrumental execution, but much angrier and crazier in terms of how the lyrics are sung.
Boner Records, who released the album Lysol, was initially unaware that the Lysol brand of disinfectants was a registered trademark. The album was later retitled simply Melvins, although fans still refer to the album by its true name.
Grinding Process (Deep Six)
By 1985, it had become clear that something very new and potentially important was happening in the Seattle music scene. C/Z Records was created for the expressed purpose of releasing an album that could shed light on some of the most notable bands within the scene. That album was Deep Six and featured songs by 6 early grunge bands: The Melvins, Skin Yard, Soundgarden, Malfunkshun, The U-Men, and Green River. One of the 4 songs The Melvins contributed was “Grinding Process,” which lives up to its title in the sense that it is a grinding, grueling, loud and crazy song that shows what The Melvins sounded like before they decided to slow things down.
The song was later featured on several Melvins EPs and compilations. More importantly, it was the first Melvins song I ever heard. When I started getting really in grunge in college, I purchased the compilation Sleepless in Seattle: The Birth of Grunge, which features the song as well as those of 19 other early grunge bands.
Joan of Arc (Houdini)
The intro to this song is so incredibly amazing to see live. In no other Melvins song (that I know of) will you hear Buzz scream at such a high pitch. Out of their entire discography, “Joan of Arc” is the ultimate head-banger and my own, personal favorite song of theirs. The song is really simple, and perhaps more mainstream that a lot of their other material—all I know is that, when they played this live last May, the crowd went INSANE.
The song begins with Buzz singing a slow, low-pitched verse against a palm-muted, distorted guitar. Suddenly, he bursts out with a long, dramatic scream and the rest of the band launches into a riff that is, in my opinion, their equivalent of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” If there is one memory of their 2011 show at Double Door that I will never forget, that is the moment.
End note: I created the above ink drawing specifically for this blog post. Please do not reuse without permission.
Tags: artwork, buzz osborne, dale crover, drawing, green river, grunge, ink, king buzzo, krist novoselic, kurt cobain, mark arm, melvins, mudhoney, nirvana, seattle
