The Melvins preview

The Melvins, Big Business
Double Door, Chicago
Thursday, September 28, 2006

IE probably should have done a feature in the magazine about the Melvins new record, (A) Senile Animal, because, well, as hard rock/metal icons they deserve it. But the thought of interviewing frontman King Buzzo, who seems to take a genuine pleasure in hating the press, scares the shit out of us, frankly. So the “Stage Buzz” format, where we talk about Buzzo and not with him strikes us as a much better idea.

And (A) Senile Animal (Ipecac) is definitely worth talking about, not only because it’s the fucking Melvins, but because they recorded it with criminally underappreciated two-man noise job Big Business! So technically Senile is a Melvins record, but the collaboration between the two bands — both Washington-based — sounds exactly like that, a collaboration. King Buzzo and drummer Dale Crover go through bass players almost as quickly as they release records – about one a year – so it would have been easy to simply plug Big Business bassist Jarred Warren into that role and let BB drummer Jared Coady bash away behind Crover and churn out another Melvins record. Instead Warren’s vocals are as prominent as Buzzo’s throughout the album, giving the main course of Melvins a hearty side of Big Business. If anything Senile answers the question so many of us asked while listening to BB’s stellar debut, Head For The Shallow: These guys are pretty f’n badass with just drums and bass, but what if they had some sludgy Sabbath guitar? The two-drummer attack isn’t immediately obvious, but the more you listen the more you’ll hear the percussive mayhem of tracks like “You’ve Never Been Right” and “Rat Faced.”

If seeing these two perform together Thursday night wasn’t enough, Big Business also will perform their own set; they have a new record in the can that will be released by Hydra Head early next year.

– Trevor Fisher

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly