Melvins: 26 Songs

Melvins launched their recording career in 1986 with the aptly-titled Six Songs on C/Z records. Five years later, they re-recorded (or re-mastered or something) those six songs, added one song to the end of each side and re-released it on vinyl as Eight Songs. At the same time they also added two more songs to the end and released that collection as 10 Songs on CD. These were all small releases that would barely see the light of day after that (I do have a cassette version of their next album, Gluey Porch Treatments, with Six Songs tacked on to the end), until 2003 when Ipecac would release the aforementioned 16 tracks, along with ten other odds-and-ends as this 70-minute beast entitled 26 songs.

What’s most amazing about this release is how fully-formed Melvins emerged from nothing into the sludgemasters they would still be five years later on Bullhead. They’ve evolved, of course, over the nearly 30 years since this seminal release, but their early sound is fully intact and delivered with the confidence of adolescent males who are assured of the force of what they have to say.

What really impresses me about the young ‘uns here is their ability to stay so firmly grounded in their abilities. They’re already quite proficient players and understand song structure, but they kind of invent their own sludgy genre by, often, forcing this deliberate rhythm on you with a harmonic progression that doesn’t seem to follow a pattern and, therefore, lights up what might otherwise be something plodding into a delightfully interesting jackhammer of an experience.

The Six Songs songs suffer from some sonic problems, but for the most part the album sounds better than a lot of what’s put out today, which is especially poignant given how Melvins traffic in distortion and muddy lower frequencies. I could also do without the last 14 minutes or so, dialogue of the boys recorded with a character (who thinks he’s some kind of superhero?) named Hugh, but hell, I’m also not going to let that spoil the wonder of this document. Thank God for Melvins.

Rating:

Love: “Grinding Process,” “Show Off Your Red Hands,” “At A Crawl (Six Songs version),” “Set Me Straight”
Like: “Easy As It Was,” “Now A Limo,” “#2 Pencil,” “At A Crawl,” “Disinvite,” “Snake Appeal,” “Over From Underground,” “Cray Fish,” “Easy As It Was (Six Songs version)”, “Now A Limo” (Six Songs version),” “Grinding Process (Six Songs version),” “Disinvite (Six Songs version),” “Snake Appeal (Six Songs version),” “Show Off Your Red Hands (v2),” “#2 Pencil (v2),” “Grinding Process (v3),” “At A Crawl (v3),” “Breakfast On The Sly”
Meh: “Snake Appeal (v2),” “Operation Blessing”
Hate: Ever Since My Accident/’Hugh'”
Filed Between: Melvins’ Hostile Ambient Takeover and Trick And Riddle Book from Neither Here Nor There
Song Notes: After the jump

King Diamond: The Best Of King Diamond

Always got King Diamond mixed up with King Crimson. Still don’t know much about King Crimson except they’re prog. Part of why I don’t know much about them is that they don’t allow their music on streaming services, so screw you guys, I’m going home. But anyway, an intro to King Diamond. You see that picture above? Well, that tells you pretty much all of it. The only thing that’s missing is timeframe (mostly late-80’s) and the fact that there’s a ridiculous amount of falsetto in his style. Growly stuff, too, but it’s the falsetto that really stands out.

And if you can get past that falsetto and the cheesiness of the macabre lyrics (oh, gee, Greek mythology sure had some scary characters in it), you’ll find some late-80’s metal that still stands up almost 25 years later. But that’s a mighty big “if,” one I’m having quite a bit of trouble with myself.

Still, lots of listening has helped me appreciate what’s here. Sonically there’s a lot of overlap with the first three Queensrÿche releases, though of course Geoff Tate’s natural range is so much more appealing than any falsetto. Even lyrically, early Queensrÿche fits a bit here, with its evil woman and vampire themes, though Queensrÿche got plenty more sci-fi-y.

There are also some big concept albums in King Diamond’s discography, and that’s evident here, as songs repeatedly bring back the same names, characters, and elements. There’s lots of Abigail, Miriam, Jonathan, and a very disturbing grandmother that recur. Wikipedia gives run downs of the plots if you’re curious.

But all of that is far more enjoyable than what, from what I can tell, was King Diamond’s big break: “No Presents For Christmas,” a track that throws so much shlock into the mix that it becomes completely unlistenable despite containing some of his best riffs. To be fair, it’s obviously the great, thrashy riffs combined with the ludicrous lyrics that made it so popular. Too much for me, though.

Finally, by rating some of these as “Like,” I was rating them relatively to the rest of the album. It’s very hard for me to say I want to listen to any songs with his falsetto in them ever again. “Abigail” is the best.

Rating:

Like: “Charon,” “Abigail,” “The Invisible Guests,” “Eye Of The Witch,” “Burn
Meh: “The Candle,” “Halloween,” “No Presents For Christmas,” “Arrival,” “A Mansion In Darkness,” “The Family Ghost,” “Welcome Home,” “Tea,” “At The Graves,” “Sleepless Nights”
Song Notes: After the jump

Guns N’ Roses: Lies

I remember liking this a lot more. And that’s weird because I’m super familiar with it, having listened to it maybe even more than Appetite For Destruction, since when these two came out I was super price sensitive.

It’s amazing that Guns N’ Roses followed up Appetite just a year later, given that it would take an additional three years before they put out their next album(s). It may not seem like it now, but anything more than two years back then was shocking. Especially for a band whose iron was as hot as Guns N’ Roses’. Of course, then there was the additional 17 years before their next studio album came out, but much ink has been spilled on that.

Anyhoo, here’s my new take on this. The first side (trust me on this, kids) was a re-release of their 1986, four-song, live EP Live ?!*@ Like A Suicide. These tracks all reveal the instrumental and performance prowess the band had, but gave no hint into the songwriting brilliance they would later have. There’s an Aerosmith cover, a Rose Tattoo cover, and two other songs that kind of fit into that blues/glam metal style. Including one that covers Rose’s move from Indiana to L.A., a subject he never seemed to grow tired of writing songs about (“One In A Milllon,” “Welcome To The Jungle,” etc.)

Then there’s the 1988 side, all acoustic. You’ve got the mega-hit “Patience,” which is a cut above all of the other “power ballads” (scare quotes because this doesn’t quite fit the mold as it doesn’t bring as much power with its complete lack of electric guitar) of the time, adding a bridge that elevates it but also reinforces that the rest of it is too long for what it is. Then there’s a wonderfully-performed acoustic version of the Appetite cut “You’re Crazy.” And then there’s the shit you can’t avoid. In order of less offensive to more…

“Used To Love Her” follows its title up with the lyrics “But I had to kill her/She’s buried right in my back yard.” In interviews the band said this was about “their” dog, but that doesn’t jibe because whose dog? What was its name? Why does Rose cheekily add the line “Take it for what it is”? No, misogyny making light of domestic violence and murder. Not funny. Nice song otherwise, but that’s a big fucking otherwise.

Then there’s “One In A Million.” Which is a fucking amazing song and moreso because it’s Rose being Rose. He’s being so true to himself and his core, inner, raw feelings, and that’s what makes this so fucking powerful…one of the most powerful artistic statements I’ve ever heard. Unfortunately, you’ve got the N-word, the f-word that means homosexual men, and a horribly isolationist and xenophobic rant against immigrants. The band took shit about it at the time, rightfully so, but I can’t believe the shitstorm this would kick off now. (Would be interested to hear better lettered critics than me take a crack at it.) The band says they didn’t want to include it but Rose insisted. Slash’s mom is black, for Christ’s sake.

There’s no excuse for this, and in particular when this kind of speech comes out in popular media, well, I’m glad it gets shot down. But I think the reception of this track is a big part of what set Rose off on his current trajectory. You’ve got a ridiculously gifted “small town white boy” who’s been anti-authoritarian his whole life, has a bit of a Messiah complex, and is the biggest rock star on his planet while being (mostly) celebrated for an album that celebrates debauchery and rugged individualism and triumphing against all odds and all that. Then he bares his soul, we find out how disgusting it is and rebuke it and him along with it. Add into all of it that he probably didn’t have the most solid of mental foundations to begin with and then give him more money than God and, well, you’ve got the last 26 years.

Programming note: Windows Phone 8.1 took away my hearts, so now I’m ranking things as Mix, Love, Like, Meh, and Hate. “Used To Love Her” and “One In A Million” both get knocked down for their hatred, and not just as punishment, but because when I listen to them that’s how I feel. And I kinda wish I didn’t like “One In A Million” so much. But fuck god that’s a great song.

Rating:

Love: “One In A Million”
Like: “Reckless Life,” “Nice Boys,” “Move To The City,” “Mama Kin,” “Patience,” “You’re Crazy”
Meh: “Used To Love Her”
Filed Between: Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite For Destruction and “You Could Be Mine” cassette single
Song Notes: After the jump

Ministry: Twitch

Okay, this sounds more like the Ministry I knew from high school. They’re much heavier here than they were on With Sympathy. “My Possession” has that metal-on-metal clashing sound that so defined the genre, and “Over The Shoulder” has a grinding like some giant saw. The beats are heavier, too, though not quite to a metal level yet.

Despite getting closer to their most successful incarnation, they’re really still figuring stuff out here. So much so that it’s a step backward while they regroup on a new sound. The lyrics are cringe-y bad (“We use them awhile then it’s over the shoulder,” for the eponymous anti-consumerism song), the sounds still evoke mid-80’s synths (which, given that this is from 1986, makes complete sense), and the songs are too long and self-indulgent. I’ve got most tracks as open hearts because they’re tolerable, but that might be me being generous. I’m not sure I would have rated them even that high if I didn’t know where this was going.

Rating:

– “Just Like You,” “We Believe,” “The Angel,” “Over The Shoulder,” “My Possession,” “Where You At Now? / Crash & Burn / Twitch (Version II),” “Isle Of Man”
– “All Day Remix,” “Over The Shoulder (12″ remix)”
Song Notes: After the jump

Screaming Trees: Clairvoyance

Screaming Trees’ first full-length album, their only release on Velvetone, was destined for a three-clown review, but it benefits from my busy schedule. I couldn’t find the time to sit down and hammer out the review so just kept listening to it and a lot more of the songs became a lot more fun to listen to.

So let’s start with my initial assessment, which really hasn’t changed. This is a solid disc with no bad songs on it. A couple of songs, “The Turning,” which was also on Other Worlds, and “Standing On The Edge,” rise above the crowd, but for the most part it’s an even listen throughout. It suffers from muffled, thin sound (though, to be fair, I’m listening on a new device (Lumia 920), and I’m pretty unhappy with its sound in general) and what I feel is poor drumming from original drummer Mark Pickerel. The band feels very rushed and the tempi are uneven. There’s no groove that they can settle in to.

Mark Lanegan’s voice has gotten rougher since Other Worlds, but he still hasn’t settled into what it will be. It feels like he’s experimenting with what he wants to do with it. Guitarist Gary Lee Conner has the clearest vision of what he wants to do, as well as the best chops, though those two things tend to go hand in hand. Even before I warmed up to the rest of the album I enjoyed his melodies and appreciated them being so forward in the mix.

The band as a whole still hasn’t found their later style yet, either. Again, their strengths lie in writing good melodies, but you don’t really get any sense of where it’s going to end up. On this album I heard a very strong influence of The Doors, something I’ve never heard on their other stuff (though I have a feeling I will from here on out). Lanegan definitely goes Jim Morrison in a few places, in particular on “Standing On The Edge” and the Doors-esque titled “Strange Out Here,” and the way they use the keys to kick off “You Tell Me All These Things” is reminiscent of “Light My Fire.”

So what changed to earn this album another half-clown? Just letting it run, spending more time with it, I started to differentiate the songs in the middle part of the album. And when the melodies weren’t there to carry a song, I started to appreciate that they were rocking pretty hard. And once I picked out Pickerel as the weak link in my experience, I was able to focus on what the Conner brothers were able to pull off in spite of his performance.

I’m not sure this album or Other Worlds would have been enough to grab my attention on their own, but getting to them via the band’s later stuff has been an enjoyable experience.

Rating:

– “Orange Airplane,” “Standing On The Edge,” “Lonely Girl,” “The Turning,” “Clairvoyance”
– “You Tell Me All These Things,” “Forever,” “Seeing And Believing,” “I See Stars,” “Strange Out Here”
Song Notes: After the jump

Various Artists: Deep Six

Originally released in 1986, this compilation album was a hallowed, storied holy grail of a record I thought I’d never hear as a kid turning on to the Seattle scene in the early 90’s. This legendary disc was always mentioned in hushed tones. Just check out the line-up:

• Green River – Probably the single greatest seminal band to come out of the Seattle scene. Featuring Mark Arm and Steve Turner, later of Mudhoney, and Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard, later of Mother Love Bone and then Pearl Jam. “10,000 Things” leads off this album, but the best song on the disc is the penultimate “Your Own Best Friend,” which would have been a full heart if they hadn’t gotten into cackling and spoken word weirdness at the end.
• Malfunkshun – Lead singer Andrew Wood would join up with Gossard and Ament in Mother Love Bone. Guitarist Kevin Wood is still rocking around in Seattle in bands like From The North and All Hail The Crown. Drummer Regan Hagar would go on to rock in Brad, Satchel, and From The North. Malfunkshun was quite a bit different from Mother Love Bone. These guys were very sloppy, but in a determined way. A live version of “With Yo’ Heart (Not Yo’ Hands)” would appear on the band’s posthumous Return To Olympus and “Stars-N-You” is nutballs, basically a couple minutes of the band coming off the rails, in a good way.
• Melvins – I don’t need to say anything more about Melvins except that they’re still kicking ass more than 25 years later. “Grinding Process” would appear on their Six Songs album, also released in 1986. “Scared” almost has an arena rock feel and includes xylophone (or glockenspiel or something?) and vocal yipping. Very fun. “She Waits” and “Blessing The Operation” are the band at their most simultaneously abrasive and progressive.
• Skin Yard – Featuring Jack Endino, who would produce a ton of great albums, including ones by Tad, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Seaweed, and Nirvana. Both of the tracks here are slow throbs (one is even called “Throb”). Endino’s comments here.
• Soundgarden – Need no introduction, but I’ll take the time to point out here that these guys seemed to be created fully-formed. Aside from Chris Cornell’s voice, which would evolve into the operatic feature it was, the band was making its best music early on. Two of these songs would be re-recorded for later releases and the other, “Heretic,” is one of the rawest things the band would ever do.
• U-Men – The senior members of this contingent. In hindsight, I always revered this band for their inclusion here, not for ever having heard them. I still don’t think I’ve heard any of their songs besides the lone track here. Which is is good, screamy, fun rocking with a Reverend Horton Heat hillbilly demon feel to it.

This is pretty far off from what the Seattle sound would become. But it’s clearly that sound coming together. Younger, rawer, more garage-y, I love it as much as the later stuff, plus it’s an awesome historical document. You can nitpick the sound, performances, etc. as unprofessional all day, but to me it fits in perfectly with what would happen over the next decade.

Rating:

– “Scared” (Melvins), “All Your Lies” (Soundgarden)
– “10,000 Things” (Green River), “Blessing The Operation” (Melvins), “With Yo’ Heart (Not Yo’ Hands)” (Malfunkshun), “Throb” (Skin Yard), “Heretic” (Soundgarden), “Tears To Forget” (Soundgarden), “Stars-N-You” (Malfunkshun), “Grinding Process” (Melvins), “The Birds” (Skin Yard), “She Waits” (Melvins), “Your Own Best Friend” (Green River), “They” (U-Men)
Filed Between: Deep Purple (Purpendicular) and Def Leppard (On Through The Night)