Call and Response with Buzz Osborne

Here's an article that is in the July 2006 issue of Decibel Magazine. They do this type of thing every month, they have someone talk about songs without telling them which band is playing the music. It's sort of hard to recreate the article since it's semi-dependent on layout, but I think I pulled it off. The one thing that might not make sense is "The Skinny". That is the Decibel editors' quick opinion on the track. Just a phrase. There is also album art in the actual article; naturally I haven't included it here. I don't have a scanner, sorry! Buy the magazine, there's also an interview with Mike Patton.

"Call and Response with Buzz Osborne" We sent Melvins frontman Buzz Osborne eight tracks, each identified only by title. Here's what he had to say about or selections.

TRACK 1: Genghis Tron- "Asleep on the Forest" from Dead Mountain Mouth The skinny: More PS2core than Nintendocore "I already like this song title without even hearing it. It starts out with a sort of Mario Brothers synth thingy, then jumps into a double bass drum pattern with the synth part. Kind of cool; then after about eight bars, a metal-sounding guitar kicks in, followed by Cookie Monster death metal screaming, which is always nice. The guitar pattern is actually pretty clever and the whole scatterbrained nature of this song attracts me to it. It's good."

TRACK 2: Zombi- "Digitalis" from Surface to Air The skinny: Extremely white Zombi "This one starts out with a synth pattern that reminds me of the Devo song "Red Eye Express." It's very Kraftwerk. It could be Kraftwerk until the prog drums start up about halfway through. This would be really great driving music for, like, a LONG trip across Canada. Death metal screaming would have been good over this as well, but that's really not important."

TRACK 3: Korpiklaani- "Happy Little Boozer" from Tales Along the Road The skinny: BYOM: Bring Your Own Mead "Again, I like this song title without even hearing it. It sort of sounds like heavy metal Pogues or a heavy metal Irish Spring commercial combined with a soccer hooligan chant, or Riverdance on crystal meth. I like the idea of heavy metal, hyperactive, drunken Leprechauns flipping out over this stuff. It's very catchy."

TRACK 4: Dragonforce- "Through the Fire and Flames" from Inhuman Rampage The skinny: Ball-clinchingly good power metal phenoms "It starts out like a Kansas song and then ends up sounding like the singer from Iron Maiden singing along with a typewriter. Actually THAT sounds like a cool idea and that's what these guys SHOULD have done. Standard-sounding 200 MPH guitar leads start about halfway through and don't stop until the ending, which reminds me of an overblown ending to a cheesy "Vegas" rock show."

TRACK 5: Lacuna Coil- "Our Truth" from Karmacode The skinny: You can handle "Our Truth" "Well, if this is a new band, I wouldn't know it. It sounds like Jefferson Starship mixed with Journey with that chick from Heart singing, except I'm sure this is a dude. Do new bands still put out stuff like this? Are there people out there right now who BUY stuff like this? It's like these guys have been in a "hair metal" time warp since about 1982, and that's not a good time warp to be in."

TRACK 6: Misery Index- "The Medusa Stare" from Discordia The skinny: No frills (read: solos) death grind "It's some sort of death metal, which is usually OK by me. I think the kick drums are too loud and too clicky and the singer needs to shut up more, but that's not a big deal. There's no stupid-sounding lead guitar, which is nice. It's pretty great, really, with a tempo that's not too fast. I would have mixed the bass guitar louder, but again, that's not a big deal. I think this is good and I'd buy it for sure."

TRACK 7: Tool- "Vicarious" from 10,000 Days The skinny: It's all the same, only the names will change... "This is obviously Tool. I must have heard Adam play this guitar riff 1,000 times in the last five years. This new record was recorded by Joe Barresi, who the Melvins have worked with in the past on three different albums and I think it was a REALLY good idea for Tool to use him. This sounds a lot tougher than what they've done before and I think it's great. I can't wait to see them do this stuff live."

TRACK 8: T.I.- "What You Know" from King The skinny: If only these rappers would stop rapping! "Synth with a rapper. I'm not a big hip-hop fan, except for Dalek. Once the rappers start, they never shut up for the whole rest of the song. I'm really not a good person to judge this kind of stuff. My one and only favorite rap album is N.W.A. Straight Outta Compton. If it's not songs about "gangsters" capping cops or other "gangsters," then who cares?"