 "Photo: Courtesy of Kevin Willis")
The Melvins are heavy. Their influence on heavy music is astounding - giving the My War-era Black Flag sludge some screaming amplification helped develop the then-young doom metal scene. They encouraged heavy bands to fly their freak flag high, which Japanese experimental metal lords Boris, named after the Melvins' first track off of Bullhead, took to heart. Their punky attitude told Dead Kennedys' fans, "Hey, it's okay to like Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper!" All these aspects culminate into why the American underground's favorite sons are just that.
"Music's supposed to be fun. And after all, it's only rock 'n' roll," first drummer Dale Crover said.
"Slow is the new fast," some elitists like to bicker, but Crover doesn't mind.
"It's nice to see that we're riding the bandwagon everyone else is jumping on," he said.
However, the dudes in the Melvins, save for second drummer Coady Willis, are heavy. When I called Crover, the band had just finished chowing down some fried chicken at the Beacon Drive-In in Spartanburg, S.C. Crover describes the group, rounded out by vocalist, guitarist and founding member Buzz Osbourne and bassist Jared Warren, as "fat bastards" for their eating habits. Crover and the band love Texas barbecue - no surprise given that their appearance tonight at Emo's is their third Austin stop in less than a year - but warns that the band's appetite could have some consequences.
"We will be too full from barbecue to play the show in Austin, so we're gonna cancel it," Crover said jokingly.
The band is currently touring in support of their album A Senile Animal. The album contains many of the Melvins' trademark (using "trademark" quite loosely) elements, including Osbourne's left-of-center guitar work, strange vocal harmonies and lyrics that seem distant from some of the doom-and-gloom bands that worship Lysol. The Melvins always have to throw someone in a loop, and this time, they have Big Business, Willis and Warren's primary outfit, as part of the rhythm section.
Big Business sounds like a Death From Above 1979 more focused on balls-out RAWK, making them a fine choice of sonic excess. It's not every day you see a band with a punk background with two drummers, but in true Melvins fashion, the decision was more spur-of-the-moment rather than an ELP-like calculation.
"They were in the right place at the right time. They happened to be thinking of moving to L.A., and we were in the market for a bass player," Crover said. "We decided we'd throw in the drummer, as well."
Given the band's experimental tendencies and the addition of a drummer, one would think the Melvins were studio hogs, but Crover saw the making of Animal just like the making of most of the Melvins' albums. According to him, the album was recorded in just 13 days.
"Envision, execute and move on. That's the way we work," he said.
Collaboration with other artists, as seen with the Big Business hook-up, is an important aspect of the Melvins' music. In the past, the band has teamed up with dark ambient pioneer Lustmord, Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra and Mike Patton-led weirdos Fantomas, which Osbourne also plays guitar in.
"We like to work with other people," Crover said. "Working with Jello was fun."
What makes the Melvins truly a great American band, however, is their undeniable love of KISS. Osbourne and Crover were '70s kids, so they couldn't escape KISS-mania, but they took it to a whole new level in 1992, when each member released solo EPs as an homage to KISS's 1978 solo albums. The band even tried to pose as an unmasked KISS once.
"On our first tour, we toured around the country in a van that had a Magic Marker mural of KISS on the side of it. We were at a Laundromat in Pensacola, Fla., and there were all these welfare-style mothers with curlers in their hair. One of them came up to us and said, 'Hey, are you guys in that band KISS?' We said, 'Yeah.' She said, 'I always wondered what y'all looked like with your make up off,'" Crover said. He was baffled that they could think KISS "would be in Pensacola, Fla., doing their laundry in some ghetto Laundromat."
The zaniness, genuine attitude and sonic innovations of the Melvins have made them one of the most persevering and relevant bands of the post-punk movement. The only certainties in life are death, taxes and, now, the Melvins.
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