Details

Basses Loaded is out today! Check out all the details on the album below. There's a slight production delay with the vinyl until July 1st, but you should be able to find the CD/Digital versions at the usual places, including the Melvins webstore where they have a few different t-shirt/hat bundle options as well. Stream the album below or over at the feature article from earlier this week on MLB.com!

It’s 2016 and the Melvins have an album called Basses Loaded coming out that features six different bass players. That’s right SIX different bass players. NEW Melvins bass players for this go around are Steve McDonald from the legendary Los Angeles glam punk band Redd Kross and their old friend Krist Novoselic from Nirvana! Making return appearances are former and probably future bass players Jeff Pinkus (Butthole Surfers), Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle/Fantomas), Jared Warren (Big Business) and Dale Crover.

Six bass players? Is this a joke? What IS the deal with these ceaseless idiots? Can’t they just settle in and be happy with ONE line up?

Apparently not.

I suppose it figures considering how many goddam bass players they’ve had up until this point.

Nonetheless Basses Loaded actually works!

 

According to King Buzzo, “More is more! As hard as it might be to believe, all of these bass players contribute something of their own to Basses Loaded which gives the whole album a good kick right in it’s big fat ass.”

Recording with Krist Novoselic is something that should have happened a long time ago but rumor has it that he’s been busy doing things like playing bass with Paul McCartney and getting his ass inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It’s hard to believe he even bothered with this! Ha!

Butthole Surfer and Honky member Jeff Pinkus played on the Melvins’ album Hold it In and has done shit load of touring with the boys in the last few years.

Trevor Dunn recorded the Freak Puke album with these guys as well as played bass on the Melvins’ record setting US tour where they played all 50 states plus DC in 51 days. This was also released as a tour DVD last year entitled Across the USA in 51 Days, the Movie!

Jared Warren is a Melvins’ veteran having recorded the Senile Animal, Nude with Boots and The Bride Screamed Murder albums as well as the Bulls and the Bees EP.
Dale Crover is usually the Melvins drummer but slid over to bass when they brought back original drummer Mike Dillard for the Tres Cabrones album (this line-up was called Melvins 1983).

Steve McDonald has been in Redd Kross since he was 11 and he’s a founding member of Los Angeles hardcore band OFF! plus he’s got REALLY good stories about the “rock scene” in Los Angeles! The Melvins have a shit load of touring planned with Steven this year so this whole thing is a really big deal.

Basses Loaded track listing with bass players:
1. The Decay of Lying (Steve McDonald)
2. Choco Plumbing (Jared Warren)
3. Beer Hippie (Dale Crover)
4. I Want To Tell You (Steve McDonald)
5. Captain Come Down (Jeff Pinkus)
6. Hideous Women (Steve McDonald)
7. Shaving Cream (Dale Crover)
8. Planet Distructo (Trevor Dunn)
9. War Pussy (Steve McDonald)
10. Maybe I Am Amused (Krist Novoselic)
11. Phyllis Dillard (Dale Crover)
12. Take Me Out to the Ballgame (Dale Crover)

Poster by Subterranean Prints

Details

Now that their Savage Imperial Death March with Napalm Death & Melt Banana is complete, Melvins have announced a new round of headlining U.S. tour dates for later this summer along with Helms Alee. Tickets for all dates go on-sale May 13th. Check out the list of dates below!

The Wall Street Journal also recently premiered a new track from Basses Loaded, a cover of the Beatles' "I Want to Tell You"! Remember, Basses Loaded is out June 3rd on Ipecac, and they have all kinds of pre-order bundles available on their webstore. The vinyl release date has been delayed until July 1st.

August 3, 2016 - Las Vegas, NV - Backstage Bar
August 4, 2016 - Flagstaff, AZ - The Green Room
August 6, 2016 - Boulder, CO - Fox Theater
August 7, 2016 - Ft. Collins, CO - Aggie Theater
August 9, 2016 - Sioux Falls, SD - The District
August 10, 2016 - Fargo, ND - The Aquarium (Dempsey's Upstairs)
August 11, 2016 - Minneapolis, MN - Prick Release Party at Grumpy's
August 13, 2016 - Eau Claire, WI - Foster Farms (Eaux Claires Music Festival)
August 14, 2016 - Rock Island, IL - Rock Island Brewing Company
August 15, 2016 - Des Moines, IA - Wooly's
August 16, 2016 - Lawrence, KS - The Bottleneck
August 17, 2016 - St. Louis, MO - The Firebird
August 18, 2016 - Louisville, KY - Headliners Music Hall
August 19, 2016 - Indianapolis, IN - The Vogue Theater
August 20, 2016 - Grand Rapids, MI - The Pyramid Scheme
August 22, 2016 - Columbus, OH - A&R Music Bar
August 23, 2016 - Pittsburgh, PA - Rex Theater
August 24, 2016 - Buffalo, NY - Iron Works
August 26, 2016 - Syracuse, NY - The Westcott Theater
August 27, 2016 - Northampton, MA - Pearl Street
August 28, 2016 - Hamden, CT - The Ballroom at the Outer Space
August 29, 2016 - Providence, RI - Fete Ballroom
August 31, 2016 - Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
September 1, 2016 - Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
September 3, 2016 - Cookeville, TN - Muddy Roots Music Festival
September 5, 2016 - Athens, GA - 40 Watt Club
September 6, 2016 - Charlotte, NC - Amos' Southend
September 7, 2016 - Charleston, SC - Music Farm
September 8, 2016 - Jacksonville, FL - Jack Rabbits
September 10, 2016 - Baton Rouge, LA - Spanish Moon
September 11, 2016 - Jackson, MS - During Hall
September 12, 2016 - Memphis, TN - Hi-Tone
September 13, 2016 - Little Rock, AR - Metroplex
September 14, 2016 - Tulsa, OK - Cain's Ballroom
September 15, 2016 - Oklahoma City, OK - The ACM @ UCO Performance Lab
September 16, 2016 - Norman, OK - Opolis
September 17, 2016 - Austin, TX - The Sidewinder
September 18, 2016 - San Antonio, TX - Paper Tiger
September 20, 2016 - El Paso, TX - Lowbrow Palace
September 21, 2016 - Tuscon, AZ - Club Congress
September 24, 2016 - Long Beach, CA - Music Tastes Good Festival

Check out the press release giving all the details on the upcoming premiere and future plans for The Colossus of Destiny - A Melvins Tale. The new official art by Shepard Fairey also looks great!


Official poster art by Shepard Fairey

Details

Melvins will be in Europe for a few weeks in June, mostly club dates interspersed with a few festivals. Check out the tour dates, below!

June 5, 2016 - Kortrijk, Belgium - De Kreun
June 6, 2016 - Amsterdam, The Netherlands - Paradiso
June 7, 2016 - Hamburg, Germany - Logo
June 8, 2016 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Jazzhouse
June 9, 2016 - Gothenburg, Sweden - Truckstop Alaska
June 10, 2016 - Oslo, Norway - Blå
June 11, 2016 - Malmö, Sweden - Babel
June 13, 2016 - Berlin, Germany - Postbahnhof
June 14, 2016 - Leipzig, Germany - UT Connewitz
June 15, 2016 - Cologne, Germany - Underground
June 17, 2016 - Clisson, France (Hellfest 2016)
June 19, 2016 - London, England - KOKO
June 20, 2016 - Leeds, England - Brudenell Social Club
June 21, 2016 - Glasgow, Scotland - Art School
June 22, 2016 - Birmingham, England - The Rainbow
June 23, 2016 - Bristol, England - Exchange

AmRep released PSYCHOPTICOTIC Vol. 1 today, a new 10" EP comp of psych/garage covers by some of your favorite AmRep bands, it includes a cover of The Wailers' "Hang Up" by the Melvins. The amazing art for this release is by HAZE XXL, check out a stream of the Melvins track below!

The folks behind The Colossus of Destiny documentary about the Melvins just released the official trailer for the movie and are going to be announcing a premiere date and location very soon! After the premiere they plan to show it in as many places as possible so keep an eye on their website melvinsmovie.com for more info!


Poster art by Benjamin Nylen

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No April Fools Jokes here, 17 years after originally recording the album, Three Men and a Baby from Mike & the Melvins is now officially out on Sub Pop Records! While 17 years was without question a healthy duration and at this point nobody involved is definitionally a baby, as expected the wait turned out to be well worth it! You should be able to find it in LP, CD, and even tape format both through your local record store and of course through the Sub Pop Mega Mart. There's even Mackie designed t-shirts to be had! For the time being you can stream the full album online thanks to Sub Pop & Rolling Stone:

"Now, the funny thing about that is, and you can't really tell, there's almost no guitar on it," Buzz told Rolling Stone about Three Men and a Baby. "I'm doing all the low-end bass, Kevin [Rutmanis, circa-1999 Melvins bassist is] doing all the slide bass and Mike's doing all the stuff that sounds like guitar. The whole idea was it was going to be three bass players. We got as far as we could get with that, and then it was time for him to do a bunch of vocals, and he just couldn't figure out what he was going to do, so he said, "I'll just take them home with me and then I'll finish them." And we never heard from him again. Just disappeared. Literally disappeared. Like phones disconnected. We heard that he moved out into the woods, then we heard some wild story about him getting whooping cough, which I was like, what is it, 1930?"

Mike Kunka was recently interviewed on Episode 9 of the Sub Pop podcast, he gives more info on Three Men and a Baby and also discusses his musical history in general. The interview starts around the 16 minute mark, check it out!

Rolling Stone also recently put together a countdown of the 100 Greatest Drummers of All Time. Dale of course made the list, they had this to say: "Crover's main gig is his ongoing 30-year-plus stint in unstoppable art-sludge institution the Melvins — equal parts earthquake machine, hard-sticking showman and ad hoc mathematician following the ebb and flow of Buzz Osborne's Beefheart–ian riffs. Fueled by his love for Kiss and Zeppelin, Crover's distinct sound comes from tom-toms that explode like cannons, metal slats that sizzle, double kick that sputters and a sweat-soaked attack that still hits harder than your favorite teenage punk."


Melvins are on tour! Poster art by Craig Horky

Details

Melvins announced today in a Rolling Stone article that on June 3rd they'll be releasing a new album that includes 6 different bassists! The appropriately titled Basses Loaded will be put out through Ipecac and pull together tracks from recent limited edition 10" records from AmRep as well as new recordings not released elsewhere. "In June the band will drop Basses Loaded, an album featuring a whopping six different bass players: four tracks with Redd Kross bassist Steve McDonald, a track with Butthole Surfers bassist Jeff Pinkus, one with upright bass from Fantômas' Trevor Dunn, four tracks as Melvins 1983 with drummer Dale Crover holding down the low end, one with the current Melvins lineup assisted by the two members of Big Business and, most notably, a collaboration with their old friend Krist Novoselic of Nirvana."  - Rolling Stone 

Ipecac also shared a stream of "Hideous Woman", one of the tracks from the album. The song features Steve McDonald on bass, who as previously announced will be playing bass on the upcoming tour with Napalm Death & Melt Banana. Hideous Woman is one of the tracks that was also included on the War Pussy 10" that was released earlier this year on AmRep. More of those 10"s will be available at the merch table during the upcoming tour this spring. 

Poster art by Haze XXL (Click here for larger image resolution)

Details

Happy Valentines Day! Amphetamine Reptile Records released a small batch of the new War Pussy 10" featuring Steven McDonald on bass last month. If you missed out on that have no fear, the majority of those will be available during the upcoming tour this spring with Napalm Death. The 10" has 4 tracks including a cover of the Beatles' "I Want to Tell You" and the opener "The Decay of Lying" which is now available for your streaming pleasure!

 

"FINALLY! An excuse to say Whar Pusshy" in a Sean Connery accent around the office, HR department, be damned! What we got here this is the mail order edition of (the) Melvins brand new 10". The HAZE XXL designed cover is a 3-color screenprint on classic chip stock & custom-cut, silk screened skull sticker adhered to the front. The record itself is in opaque orange with red & black splatters." - AMREP

Dale's side project Altamont has a new split 7" out with Jeff Pinkus' band Honky. It's part of a new series of splits being released by Valley King Records. Dale's played some live drums for Honky recently, but I haven't heard whether or not he plays drums on the Honky track. I do know that Dale was featured on Honky's previous 7" released through Valley King "Maid in China" so you might as well pick that one up as well while you're at it! This was pressed on both black and swirl-colored vinyl and can be purchased through Secret Serpents.


Altamont/Honky split 7" art by Alan Forbes


Poster art by Johnny Quinine

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