Heavy music mavericks bring two-drummer line-up to Santa Cruz
A groundbreaking heavy rock band that has shaped the sound of punk and metal for over 40 years, the Melvins bring their reunited two-drummer line-up to the Catalyst in Santa Cruz Tuesday night.
Over the course of a 35+ year career playing by their own rules, Osborne and monster drummer Dale Crover have co-piloted their seminal underground rock band the Melvins through a wildly diverse exploration of heavy music. Inspired by the slow tempos and down-tuned guitar sludge of Black Sabbath as well as the dissonance of punk iconoclasts Flipper and My War -era Black Flag, the Melvins became legends in Washington State during their formative years in the early-to-mid 1980s after being founded in the small town of Montesano.
The band's combination of crushing riffs and lumbering grooves would end up influencing the entire Northwest music scene. Aberdeen natives and early fans Kurt Cobain (who at one point auditioned for the band) and Krist Novoselic were inspired to form Nirvana, while fellow grunge heavyweights like Alice In Chains and Soundgarden similarly updated the Sabbath template. The Melvins have been credited as a cornerstone inspiration for a number of heavy rock subgenres, providing the template for stoner-rock bands and experimental drone terrorists alike.
With a revolving cast of bassists, the Melvins have produced a veritable landslide of experimentally minded releases that have consistently pushed the envelope of alternative rock. Whether recording for major label Atlantic during the early '90s or issuing discs on numerous independent imprints, the group has forged a singular, instantly recognizable sound without ever being afraid to make major experimental detours. The band also received piles of critical accolades for their collaboration with equally heavy duo Big Business featuring bassist Jared Warren and drummer Coady Willis with the celebrated effort (A) Senile Animal in 2006.
Powered by a massive two-drummer onslaught (the two players used a huge overlapping kit that shared some drums), that album and follow-up recordings Nude with Boots and The Bride Screamed Murder showcased Osborne's twisted, tuneful riffs and some of the band's catchiest output yet. The group would also branch out with other collaborators, partnering with noted avant-rock bassist Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle, John Zorn and a bandmate of Osborne's in Fantomas) on the "Melvins Lite" album Freak Puke in 2012 with an accompanying record-breaking tour that had the trio playing 50 states and Washington, D.C. in 51 days with Dunn sticking exclusively to acoustic bass. They also reunited with original drummer Mike Dillard (with Crover switching to bass), issued a guest-packed collection of cover songs (Everybody Loves Sausages in 2013) and recorded with Butthole Surfers members Paul Leary and bassist J.D. Pinkus (who had already served as a frequent touring member of the band).
In 2016, the group managed to further ramp up its already prolific output. In addition to Sub Pop issuing a set of long-shelved recordings with godheadSilo bassist Mike Kunka that were recorded back in the late '90s (credited to Mike and the Melvins and entitled Three Men and a Baby), the band toured extensively with latest bass-playing recruit Steven McDonald of Redd Kross and OFF! fame to promote their another more recent release. The Ipecac Records effort Basses Loaded featured newer material recorded with McDonald as well as songs featuring a variety of recent bassists and a guest spot from Novoselic himself.
In addition playing some shows in conjunction with screenings of the documentary The Colossus of Destiny: A Melvins Tale by co-directors Bob Hannam and Ryan Sutherby, the band members also found the time to collaborate with with singer Terri Genderbender (Le Butcherettes) and Omar Rodríguez-López (The Mars Volta, At the Drive-In) in the new group Crystal Fairy for an eponymous effort on Ipecac as well as recording their first double album, A Walk With Love and Death.
The 2017 collection matched an album's worth of more traditional Melvins material with a second set of experimental recordings that serve as the score to an avant-garde short film entitled Love made by band friend and director Jesse Nieminen. Crover also released his solo debut The Fickle Finger of Fate via Joyful Noise Recordings. While he had already made a number of albums as the leader of his side project band Altamont, the effort gave Crover a chance to stretch out on everything from drum experiments to fractured pop tunes.
The Melvins presented a new mutant version of the band with its 2018 album Pinkus Abortion Technician that features both Pinkus and McDonald playing bass. A rare exception to Melvins releases that are usually dominated by songs written by Osborne, the new effort includes a couple of reworked Butthole Surfers songs (including a twisted mash-up of the R&B/rock standard "Stop" with the Surfers song "Moving to Florida"), a warped cover of the Beatles' standard "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and a mix of originals penned by Crover, Pinkus and McDonald.
The Melvins faced the downtime without touring during the pandemic by ramping up their work in the studio that came out in 2021. In addition to releasing a new effort Working With God that featured the 1983 version of the group reuniting again, the trio also issued Five-Legged Dog, a sprawling double disc acoustic collection with new recordings of songs from throughout the band's career as well as some new and reimagined covers of tunes by the Rolling Stones, Harry Nilsson, the Turtles and Alice Cooper.
While the December surge of COVID forced the band to cancel a pair of San Francisco shows that would have included a New Year's Eve concert, the Melvins returned to the road in 2022, joining Ministry and openers Corrosion of Conformity on a tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of the landmark The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste album. The band also issued the first of the new recordings it made during the shutdown, releasing the limited Lord of the Flies EP with two new songs and a pair of covers (a version of Soundgarden's "Spoonman" featuring Matt Cameron on drums and a mash-up of Led Zeppelin's "Misty Mountain Hop" and Devo's "Uncontrollable Urge") ahead of Bad Mood Rising, the effort released that fall featuring all new original music spotlighting more of Osborne's idiosyncratic songwriting and monolithic riffs.
A health scare in 2023 led to emergency spinal surgery for Crover, which forced him to sit out a co-headlining tour with Japanese heavy experimentalists Boris (Willis returned to the group to fill in) as well as the recording of the latest Redd Kross album -- a stellar self-titled double album released last summer. However, Crover recovered enough to play on the most recent Melvins recordings -- Tarantula Heart which once again utilized a two-drummer line-up, this time pairing him with Roy Mayorga (best known as a member of metal bands Soulfly and Stone Sour, currently in Ministry), and the band's latest collaborative experiment that teamed the group with Napalm Death ahead of the upcoming "Imperial Death March Part II" Tour that will travel across the U.S. this spring before heading to Europe in the summer. The upcoming tour also welcomes Willis back into the fold, bringing the band's two-drummer onslaught back to the stage.
The band is mounting a brief West Coast tour ahead of the impending extended jaunt that stops at the Catalyst in Santa Cruz for a sold-out show Tuesday night. The group is joined by caustic Los Angeles experimental punk band and fellow Ipecac Recordings artists CNTS. An all-star outfit featuring current and former members of Dead Cross, Qui and Retox, the group's latest effort Thoughts and Prayers was released after the band persevered through the challenges of Guitarist Michael Crain beating a cancer diagnosis and singer Matt Cronk losing his ability to speak after being injured in a car accident.
Opening the show is SF supergroup Desslok. A pandemic project that includes former members of beloved SF band Zen Guerilla Rich Millman (also a member of psych favorites Carlton Melton) on guitar and keys and Carl Horne on bass and ex-Acid King drummer Joey Osborne (who has played with Altamont and Frisco), Desslok is fronted by Bob Hannam on vocals and synths. While a relative newcomer to performing outside of being a member of SF Ace Frehley tribute act Frehley's Vomet (he also co-directed the 2016 documentary "The Colossus of Destiny: A Melvins Tale"), a couple of years ago Hannam sang a pair of Small Faces covers on the first release by Cabbages N' Mash, a band with Crover on guitar, Toshi Kasai on keyboards and a rhythm section featuring Blondie drummer Clem Burke and original Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock.
Delivering a dystopian post-punk sound that takes cues from classic Killing Joke and early Gary Numan/Tubeway Army (Desslok have covered deep cuts by both bands live) with nods to pioneering space-rockers Hawkwind, the quartet has played a number of San Francisco shows and tracked an album's worth of material at San Francisco's El Studio. The quartet put out its first corrosive single "What's the Use?" backed with a cover of the Hawkwind nugget "Ejection" in 2023 and just released their self-titled debut last week. The tour also stops at the Goldfield Trading Post in Sacramento on Monday for a sold-out all-ages show.
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