Melvins add punch with two drummers

Melvins add punch with two drummers

Washington alt-metal band proudly toils on indie circuit

• http://www.newsok.com/article/2972687/
• By Gene Triplett
• The Oklahoman

Two might seem like a crowd to some drummers, but timekeeper Dale Crover welcomes the company behind the traps in the new Melvins lineup. When it came time to replace yet another in a long line of bass players, Crover and singer/guitarist Buzz "King Buzzo" Osborne - the two founding members of this venerable alt-metal band from Aberdeen, Wash. - decided to fulfill a long-standing desire for increased percussive firepower. So, when they approached Jared Warren of Seattle's Big Business to step in on bass, they borrowed the band's drummer, Coady Willis, as well.

The foursome then proceeded to cut "(A) Senile Animal," the 18th album under the Melvins banner (not counting live discs), which features the familiar, menacing, Black Sabbath-inspired sonic sludge of King Buzzo's guitar, now driven by twin percussive engines of imposing punch. Whether it's the slow thunder of "Civilized Worm" or "A History of Bad Men," or the heat-lightning quickness of "A History of Drunks" or "Rat-Faced Granny," Crover and Willis are always pounding in perfect synch while frequently taking off on individual rolls and fills of their own that add extra texture to the proceedings.

"Coady has more of a karate approach, where I'm more of a kung fu man," Crover said of their differing styles during a phone interview from the road last week.

The double-drummer idea dates all the way back to the days when Melvins were touring as the opening act for another Aberdeen band called Nirvana.

"It was the very last tour that Nirvana did, and we were having Dave Grohl play drums with us on a few songs, and the next show was going to be him playing the whole set with us," Crover recalled. "And unfortunately, Kurt (Cobain) decided he had laryngitis and canceled the rest of the tour."

Melvin/Nirvana ties first began to form in the mid-'80s, when future Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic introduced Crover to Osborne. Later, after Melvins had formed, Osborne introduced Novoselic to drummer-turned-guitarist Cobain. Even before Nirvana got together, Crover recalls that Cobain and Novoselic became Melvins disciples, inspired by their grungy, muscular metal sound, as were several other bands that emerged from the Washington underground.

"I played on (Nirvana's) first demo, too, and that demo is actually spread out over their first record, 'Bleach,' and 'Incesticide' and the new box set," Crover said. "A third of the Melvins was in Nirvana, more or less."

Eventually, Nirvana enlisted Grohl as its full-time drummer and went on to well-documented fame and fortune far greater than Melvins would ever achieve. After the drug-addicted, manic depressive Cobain took his own life in April 1994, Osborne and Crover invited Grohl to join their band. But Grohl already had his heart set on stepping into a spotlight of his own, which resulted in Foo Fighters.

"He decided he wanted to play guitar," Crover said.

While the Melvins did manage to land a deal with Atlantic Records in the mid-'90s, their major-label success was short-lived, and Osborne and Crover are still laboring in the indie leagues after 21 years - and loving it.

"Well, we really like what we do, for one, and we've pretty much burned every other bridge, so there's nothing else we can do," Crover said with a deadpan tone to his voice.

He still likes "King Buzzo" enough to hang out with him "even when we're not doing band stuff. ... We've been friends for a long time.

"And we like to have our band meetings at Disneyland," Crover said. "And the new guys, they're all for that. They thought that was a pretty good idea. A pretty good way to start the day is goin' to Disneyland and talkin' about future music plans and things like that."