The Melvins is a great band formed in Montesano, Seattle in 1983. They started to play before other bands like Nirvana or Soundgarden, and are considered one the godfathers of grunge.
The band was formed by:
- Buzz Osborne, guitarist and vocalist.
- Matt Lukin, bassist. later in Mudhoney
- Mike Dillard, drummer, later in Fecal Matter.
The trio attended the same highschool in Montesano, close to Aberdeen. Buzz Osborne was born in Morton, a little town between Seattle and Portland, and moved to Montesano when he was 12. Matt Lukin was born in Aberdeen and also moved to Montesano.
Mike and Buzz worked at the Thriftway, a food store, and started to play Jimi Hendrix and Cream covers, that way it began their story. The name of the band came from a guy who worked in the store, Mike and Buzz were so sick with his behaviour, and it sounded stupid to name a band like a dumb dude, but that's exactly what they wanted to.
Theydecided to make some noise behind the store, and one teenager went to watch that "performance", he was Kurt Cobain. It was not considered a show indeed, the first one was played in Olympia, at The Tropicana. Few weeks later, they played in the same place with The Fastbacks, and according to Kurt Bloch "The Mevins were unlike any other band".
Osborne and Cobain met in the school, they went together to art classes and became friends.
They also hanged out with March of Crimes, in that band played Ben Sherpherd, he was living in Bainbridge Island, and helped The Melvins to get some shows in Seattle.
During that time, Krist Novoselic became friend of The Melvins, Krist was living in Aberdeen. On the other hand, Mike Dillard was not involved enough and left the band, the band needed a drummer, and was Krist who introduced two friends of him. First of all, Krist introduced Aaron Burckhard (he later played drums in Nirvana), but Buzz was looking for something heavier, and then Krist introduced Dale Crover to them, and he fit on the band. Then Dale Crover replaced Mike Dillard.
The band moved to Aberdeen, they rehearsed in the Dale's parents house. Kurt Cobain slept one night there, he liked The Melvins.
Krist Novoselic even drove with his van, bringing The Melvins to the their first shows. Meanwhile Mike Dillard played in Fecal Matter in 1986, the first Kurt Cobain's band.
They put four songs on the famous "Deep Six" compilation of C/Z Records in 1985.
Then, The Melvins released their first EP, "Six Songs" released on March 11, 1986 through Ipecac. It has been released several times adding more songs each time, "Eight Songs", "Ten Songs" and "Twenty-Six Songs".
The debut album was called "Gluey Porch Treatments", released in 1987 through Alchemy Records.
It was recorded at Studio D in Sausalito, California by Mark Deutrom and Carl Herlofsson.
Ipecac Recordings released it again in 1999 with some extra tracks.
The song "Leeech" belonged to Green River as "Leech", but they never used it in their shows, so The Melvins got it.
Osborne and Cobain met in the school, they went together to art classes and became friends.
They also hanged out with March of Crimes, in that band played Ben Sherpherd, he was living in Bainbridge Island, and helped The Melvins to get some shows in Seattle.
During that time, Krist Novoselic became friend of The Melvins, Krist was living in Aberdeen. On the other hand, Mike Dillard was not involved enough and left the band, the band needed a drummer, and was Krist who introduced two friends of him. First of all, Krist introduced Aaron Burckhard (he later played drums in Nirvana), but Buzz was looking for something heavier, and then Krist introduced Dale Crover to them, and he fit on the band. Then Dale Crover replaced Mike Dillard.
 |
| First Melvins EP, Six Songs |
Krist Novoselic even drove with his van, bringing The Melvins to the their first shows. Meanwhile Mike Dillard played in Fecal Matter in 1986, the first Kurt Cobain's band.
They put four songs on the famous "Deep Six" compilation of C/Z Records in 1985.
Then, The Melvins released their first EP, "Six Songs" released on March 11, 1986 through Ipecac. It has been released several times adding more songs each time, "Eight Songs", "Ten Songs" and "Twenty-Six Songs".
 |
| From left to right. Matt Lukin, Buzz Osborne and Dale Crover |
 |
| First Melvins album, Gluey Porch Treatments |
The debut album was called "Gluey Porch Treatments", released in 1987 through Alchemy Records.
It was recorded at Studio D in Sausalito, California by Mark Deutrom and Carl Herlofsson.
Ipecac Recordings released it again in 1999 with some extra tracks.
The song "Leeech" belonged to Green River as "Leech", but they never used it in their shows, so The Melvins got it.
Between this album and the next one, the drummer Dale Crover recorded a ten song demo in early 1988 with Nirvana, those recordings were part of the wellknown album "Bleach", the first full lenght album of Nirvana. He also played a show with Nirvana in Tacoma on January 24, 1988. Finally, Buzz Osborne introduced Dave Grohl to Nirvana.
Then Buzz Osborne and Dale Crover moved to San Francisco, and Matt Lukin decided to stay in Seattle and form Mudhoney with Mark Arm and Steve Turner.
 |
| From left to right. Dale Crover, Buzz Osborne and Lori Black |
The band needed a bassist for the second album, and Lori Black, who was dating Buzz Osborne, started to play and stayed for some years. The lineup in that moment was:
- Buzz Osborne, guitarist and vocalist.
- Lori Black, bassist.
- Dale Crover, drummer.
 |
| Second Melvins album, Ozma |
The second album was "Ozma", it was released in 1989 over Boner Records.
The producer was Mark Deutrom once again, he was going to join them some years later playing the bass guitar.
They covered a Kiss song named "Love Thing", "Love Theme" for Kiss.
 |
| Third Melvins album, Bullhead |
The Melvins third album was released on May 3, 1991 through Boner Records. It was called "Bullhead".
The producer was Jonathan Burnside.
It was notorious how the band increased the length of their songs, they started to take more than 3 minutes, that pretty seemed to be a breaking point.
This album was released at the same year of Nirvana's album "Nevermind", their friends Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl had burst the mainstream market.
Cap comentari:
Publica un comentari a l'entrada
Gràcies per ser part d'aquest lloc