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Standing in the rain on a hot summer day in Tallahassee, Buzz “King Buzzo” Osborne sounds a little grumpy and a little content. As founder and guitarist for the heavy metal-cum-art rock band The Melvins, being a little of both has been Osborne’s job now for over 15 years. Credited with revitalizing and influencing Seattle music as it birthed Nirvana, Soundgarden, and others, Osborne, with his trademark snow-topped cloud of frizzed-out hair, along with longtime Melvins drummer Dale Crover, will likely go to his grave with the epitaph “Grandfather of the Seattle Scene.”
Since their first sludge-packed record Gluey Porch Treatments was released in 1987, when Kurt Cobain their roadie, the Melvins have released a slew of albums, odd-sized singles, flexis, and tape compilations on an array of independent labels with such fun names as: Alchemy, Leapard (sic)Gecko, Boner and Slap-A-Ham. And beneath every jack-hammered bass line and every tempestuous drum-dribble there has been, and continues to be, a layer of arty goofiness, experimental envelope-pushing, anything-goes spontaneity, and a Dadaist challenge meant to entice and try the patience of its audience.
Dropped from Mammoth/Atlantic after a three-album deal (1993: Houdini; 1994: Stoner Witch; and 1996: Stag), the Melvins once again return to the indie world with not one new album, but a trilogy, on the equally eclectic Mike Patton’s (Faith No More/ Mr. Bungle) Ipecac label. Released earlier last year, Maggot began the series with what Osborne describes as “[songs] like the heavier songs on our last Atlantic Record.”
Leaving Atlantic because “All the people that were into our band left or got fired”, The Melvins released Honky in 1997 on the Amphetamine Reptile label. An ep, Live at the (unprintable) Club, followed, and the Melvins recruited current bass player Kevin Rutmanis from Am Rep band, The
Cows. Urged by their friends in the band Tool to sign up and run away with the Ozzfest, The Melvins came away from that experience both bitter and jaded, and with the unexpected impetus for the trilogy.
“Except for a very few, we really didn’t think any of the bands on the Ozzfest were heavy or metal,” says Osborne, singling out Coal Chamber for negative and unprintable commentary. “If it wasn’t for Tool [who provided the Melvins with monetary compensation and a free ride on the Tool bus], we wouldn’t have been able to do it. The Ozzfest carrot is the possibility of getting to hang out with Ozzy (Osbourne). But Ozzy is in horrible shape. He’s heavily medicated and should be home in bed.”
Swearing that the Ozzfest will be the Melvins’ last package-tour appearance, Osborne sums, “We came away from that experience wanting to do something way more brutal and cut a real heavy metal record.”
For most, Maggot, released in May of 1999, fit that bill as only a Melivns record can. Released in August of the same year, the second volume, Bootlicker, is “a complete 180,” says Osborne.
“It doesn’t even sound like the same band. This has some songs that could definitely be considered pop.”
In example of what might attract radio attention from Bootlicker, Osborne offers ‘Let It All Be’, a song not without its charm, but one that serves as a classic example of the Melvins’ tendency to hang, interminably, on a single note. “I think there have been songs on all of our albums that could easily have been used on radio,” Osborne says.
In between Melvins projects, Osborne also joined Patton in the even weirder sci-fi side project The Fantomas, released in April of 99.
“That one is more kind of Japanese noise mixed with heavy metal. There is a lot of weirdness (including Patton’s wordless vocals) and some songs that seem not to have any structure at all. It is the hardest stuff I’ve ever played,” says Osborne, who does not read music. “We practiced 14 hours a day as the music came out of Mile Patton’s little head.”
Completing the Melvins trilogy is the album Crybaby, which features guest vocalists including former teen heart throb Leif Garrett doing a cover of Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’; Crybaby came out early last winter. Patton, too, puts in an appearance on Crybaby, along with Beck, Jim (Foetus) Thirwell, members of Tool, the Pain Teens, The Jesus Lizard and shitkicking punker Hank Williams III covering Merle Haggard’s ‘Okie From Muskogee’.
“Doing all this stuff is pretty easy because we like to work. We like to tour. We even show up on time because, unlike many other bands,” says Osborne, “none of us have raging heroin habits.”
The Melvins play at The State Theatre in St. Pete on May 3rd.
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