The Melvins

Melvins
Melvins live, October 13, 2006
General information
origin	Montesano , Washington , United States
Genre (s)	Noise rock , hardcore punk , grunge , alternative metal , sludge , indie rock , stoner doom , stoner rock
founding	1983
Website	www.melvins.com
Founding members
Vocals , guitar	Buzz Osborne
bass	Matt Lukin (until 1988)
Drums	Mike Dillard (until 1984)
Current occupation
Guitar , vocals	Buzz Osborne
Drums , vocals	Dale Crover (since 1984)
Bass , vocals	Steven McDonald (since 2016)
bass	Jeff Pinkus (since 2018)
former members
bass	Lori "Lorax" Black (1988–1991, 1993)
bass	Joe Preston (1991-1992)
bass	Mark Deutrom (1994-1998)
bass	Kevin Rutmanis (1998-2005)
Drums, vocals	Coady Willis (2006-2016)
Electric bass, vocals	Jared Warren (2006-2016)
Tour musician at times
Guitar, bass, noise	David Scott Stone
guitar	Adam Jones
singing	Jello Biafra
bass	Trevor Dunn

Melvins are an American rock band formed in Montesano , Washington , in 1983 .

history

The Melvins were founded in 1983 in Aberdeen / Montesano, Washington by Buzz Osborne (guitar & vocals), future Mudhoney bassist Matt Lukin (bass) and Mike Dillard (drums), all of whom went to Montesano (Washington) high school . In the beginning the band played cover versions of Jimi Hendrix and The Who , later on extremely fast hardcore punk rock. In this constellation the Melvins recorded a demo. When Dillard left the band in 1984, he was replaced by Dale Crover on drums. The band's rehearsals then took place in Crover's parents' house in Aberdeen . A little later, the Melvins began to play slower songs. The result was a mixture of punk rock à la Flipper and Black Flag , heavy metal like Black Sabbath's Master of Reality and 1970s hard rock by KISS and Alice Cooper .

Kurt Cobain , a good friend of Dale Crover, was a huge Melvins fan and helped the band transport their gear a few times. Cobain also tried to join the band as a guitarist , but failed because he was so nervous while auditioning that he forgot all the songs. The Melvins were heard on C / Z Records Deep-Six Sampler with Green River , Skin Yard , Malfunkshun , Soundgarden and the U-Men in 1985, laying the foundation for what would later be called grunge . C / Z also released the first Melvins EP in 1986: Six Songs (which was to be re-released as 10 songs in 1990 ). In October 1986 the band recorded their debut album Gluey Porch Treatments , which was released in 1987 on Alchemy Records.

On January 23, 1988, Crover helped Cobain's band Nirvana during their first studio recordings on drums and played a gig with Nirvana that same day. Later in 1988, Osborne and Crover relocated to San Francisco . Lukin stayed in Washington and founded the band Mudhoney , he was replaced by Shirley Temple's daughter Lori "Lorax" Black on bass. In May 1989, the second album, Ozma, was recorded, which was released by Boner Records that same year. Ozma was produced by Mark Deutrom, who would later become a member of the band.

Since Nirvana had no permanent drummer in 1990, Crover jumped in for a short tour on the American west coast with Sonic Youth again with his old friends. Fortunately, Osborne gave Krist Novoselic's phone number to his good friend Dave Grohl , who had become unemployed after Scream broke up . After working on Bullhead , the Melvins went on a European tour. Her appearance in Alzey on January 23, 1991 was released by producer Tobby Holzinger on the German indie label Your Choice Records . Back home, a short EP with Eggnog was recorded and released.

Lori Black left the band and was replaced by Joe Preston. Preston can be seen on Salad Of A Thousand Delights (1992, Box Dog Video), has his own KISS-inspired solo EP ( King Buzzo, Dale Crover and Joe Preston, all 1992 Boner Records) and plays on Lysol . The EP Lysol was later renamed Melvins because the product name was used without permission and the band and label wanted to prevent legal action. There are three versions of the EP: the unchanged original edition, the original edition with Lysol lettering taped off in black and the Melvins version.

Preston's days with the Melvins were numbered soon afterwards, Lori Black was mentioned as bassist on the major label debut Houdini (1993, Atlantic Records ) co-produced by Kurt Cobain , but according to Buzz Osborne he and Dale Crover recorded most of the bass parts. After the recordings, Black left the band for good. Bass from now on played Mark Deutrom. In 1994 the Melvins released two albums: Prick (Amphetamine Reptile) and Stoner Witch (Atlantic). After long tours with, among others, Nirvana, the Nine Inch Nails , Rob Zombie and KISS, the last album of the later (from Atlantic) so-called Atlantic era was released in 1996 with Stag . Since the music of the Melvins is not exactly mass-compatible, they were dropped by Atlantic in 1997 due to unsuccessfulness. In the same year, Singles 1–12, a sampler of 12 singles, was released. A live album followed in 1998 with Alive at the F * ckerclub , which was made during the 1997 tour of Australia in Richmond Melbourne.

1999 began the collaboration with Mike Patton's Ipecac Recordings , which in 1999 released the first two parts of the so-called Trilogy of Madness ( The Maggot 1999, The Bootlicker 1999 and The Crybaby 2000). The Crybaby surprised with many guest musicians, such as from the band Tool or Hank Williams III . On March 13, 2012, the band released the five-track EP The Bulls & The Bees , which is available for free as a download from the Scion A / V label's website.

style

Often people try to put the music of the Melvins in drawers such as grunge , doom metal , stoner rock . Since few aspects of the Melvins relate to these genres (although the band has undoubtedly influenced artists in those genres), the Melvins find themselves in their own little niche of rock music. It is characterized above all by an extremely slow tempo, in which a large number of Melvins pieces are held, as well as a joy in experimentation that is often increased to the grotesque. Sometimes there are long passages and sometimes entire albums made up of drone / feedback sounds or “unmusical” sound scenarios.

Discography

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Nude with boots   US 148 07/26/2008 (1 week) Hold it in   US 187 11/01/2014 (1 week)

year	Album title	Record company	Catalog number
1986	Six songs	C / Z records	CZ
1987	Gluey Porch Treatments	Alchemy Records	VM103
1989	Ozma	Boner Records	BR16-2
1990	10 songs	C / Z records	CZ002
1991	Your Choice Live Series Vol. 12	Your Choice Records	YC-LS 012
1991	Bullhead	Boner Records	BR25-2
1991	Eggnog (EP)	Boner Records	BR28-2
1992	Salad of a Thousand Delights (Video)	Box Dog Video	BDV002
1992	King Buzzo (EP)	Boner Records	BR32-2
1992	Dale Crover (EP)	Boner Records	BR33-2
1992	Joe Preston (EP)	Boner Records	BR34-2
1992	Lysol (also known as Melvins )	Boner Records	BR35-2
1993	Houdini	Atlantic Records	7567-82532-2
1994	Prick	Amphetamines reptiles	AmRep 031
1994	Stoner Witch	Atlantic Records	7567-82704-2
1996	Stag	Atlantic Records	7567-82878-2
1997	Singles 1-12	Amphetamines reptiles	AmRep 063
1997	Honky	Amphetamines reptiles	AmRep 064-2
1998	Alive at the fuck club	Amphetamines reptiles	AmRep 072
1999	The Maggot	Ipecac Recordings	IPC-002
1999	The Bootlicker	Ipecac Recordings	IPC-004
1999	Gluey Porch Treatments	Ipecac Recordings	IPC-012
2000	The crybaby	Ipecac Recordings	IPC-006
2001	Electroretard	Man's ruin	MR2002
2001	Colossus of Destiny	Ipecac Recordings	IPC-014
2002	Millennium Monsterwork 2000 with Fantômas	Ipecac Recordings	IPC-019
2002	Hostile ambient takeover	Ipecac Recordings	IPC-020
2003	26 songs	Ipecac Recordings	IPC-038
2003	Melvinmania: The Best of the Atlantic Years 1993-1996	Atlantic Records	5050466574428
2004	Neither Here Nor There (Book & Best-Of-CD)	Ipecac Recordings	IPC-047
2004	Pigs of the Roman Empire with lust murder	Ipecac Recordings	IPC-054
2004	Never Breathe what You Can't See with Jello Biafra	Alternative tentacles	Virus300
2005	Mangled Demos from 1983	Ipecac Recordings	IPC-063
2005	Howdy win! with Jello Biafra	Alternative tentacles	Virus350
2006	A Live History of Gluttony and Lust (Houdini Live 2005)	Ipecac Recordings	IPC-076
2006	(A) Senile Animal	Ipecac Recordings	IPC-082
2007	The Making Love Demos	Bifocal Media	BFM026
2008	Nude with boots	Ipecac Recordings	IPC-105
2009	Chicken Switch	Southern Record Distributors (Soulfood Music)	B002IVLH8I
2010	The Bride Screamed Murder	Ipecac Recordings	IPC-112
2012	Freak puke	Ipecac Recordings	IPC-136
2013	Everybody Loves Sausages	Ipecac Recordings	IPC-144
2013	Tres Cabrones	Ipecac Recordings	IPC-150
2014	Hold It In with Paul Leary & Jeff Pinkus	Ipecac Recordings	IPC-164
2016	Basses Loaded	Ipecac Recordings	IPC-178
2017	A Walk With Love And Death	Ipecac Recordings	IPC-195
2018	Pinkus Abortion Technician with Jeff Pinkus	Ipecac Recordings	IPC-201

Web links

• Official website (English)
• Melvins at Discogs (English)
• Melvins on MusicBrainz (English)
• The Melvins at laut.de
• The MELVIN S. net - Extensive fansite (English)
• detailed Melvins interview at evolver.at

Individual evidence

1. ↑ buzz osborne breaks down 10 crucial melvins records - interview . Selftitled Magazine. Interview from June 16, 2010.
2. ↑ Sources US chart placements . Retrieved on March 26, 2020  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )