Slugmag melvins interview
Mike from L.A. sent this interview in from a webzine located at www.slugmag.com read more for the interview......
- By Kermit Propulsion
- http://www.slugmag.com/htmauler/pages/Kermit_Propulsion.html
The Melvins were formed by King Buzzo in 1984 in the anti-punk rock town of Aberdeen, WA. At first, they ripped off Kiss songs and slowed punk down to an almost irritable listen. At the time period, the West Coast was hearing bands like Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, and other metal bands. Seventeen years later they are still just as slow.
SLUG: Since you deal with the darker side of ambient, please describe the seven layers of Hell?
BUZZO: We do in some elements certainly. I like the sound of that. It’s good. Since we do that, I don’t think of it in terms of that kind of stuff, even though I guess that if I had to decide I would say a seven-layer cake. Hell would be really fun. That’s my biggest problem with Satanists. To be a Satanist you have to buy all the Christianity stuff. I can’t do that. They are bigger God-lovers than me whether they know it or not. Can’t have God without Satan; it’s how it works. I tend to think that people have missed the symbolism of all that stuff. Or maybe people are just dumb. The ideas have been missed somehow. Every time I see orphanages burning, people dying of cancer, I say thank you God, it’s great. Thanks for being so wonderful to us. Wife beating, alcoholism, it is all very nice, thank you.
SLUG: Does humanity need to be weeded out?
BUZZO: If I were in charge, there’d be bodies swinging from every lamppost. Rednecks are unfortunate human garbage. The whole planet is full of people we don’t want to be around. You know this instinctively. It’s true. I don’t have love for humanity. Why would I? People are awful. They lie, cheat, horrible to others. We’re all in agreement about this; it’s just nobody ever says it. Remember Columbine? I knew exactly how those kids felt. I wanted to burn the fucking school to the ground. No surprise to me. Big fucking deal. It’s not like we are almost out of people, like Kevin Rutamanis says. There’s plenty left. All I have to do is be in the van on tour, reading a book, enjoying my life, pull into to get gas and it all comes blasting me in the face. Its just normal people are so fucking dull. Doctors are the trash of trash; no one ever accused them of being human. I don’t hang out with any of them. That’s why I love it when people like talk about race wars. You mean since I am white if I see other white people I don’t have to worry? Like cops or a bunch of bikers? No problem. Utter insanity. I haven’t had physical confrontations with people other than white. The streets are paved with gold nonetheless.
SLUG: In Kubrik’s Dr. Strangelove the world gets nuked. How might Kubrik have made a better president than Bush?
BUZZO: Fair enough, sounds good to me. Everybody hates Bush. Like there’s been a good president. Gerald Ford was the worst president since Kennedy. It’s absurd. Communists vote for one, we vote for two. There’s no difference. Everybody says Clinton was amazing. Clinton never told the truth in his life. He couldn’t even get a blowjob or keep one girl’s mouth shut. Do you think that would have happened to Elvis? Kennedy would’ve had her chopped into dime-size pieces. Nixon would have never let her leave the office. George W. Bush would’ve shot her in the head, "cause he can make a decision." For every single person that says we’re in worse shape than before, I bring that up. They just stare into space and don’t know what to say, because it’s true. What bothers me the most are people that vote just ‘cause of what their stand is on abortion. Like that has anything to do with how to run a country. They (politicians) have it all figured out. Clearly, all they do is cloud a bunch of issues with stuff like that.
SLUG: What would you say about Jello Biafra?
BUZZO: He’s got tens of thousands of records. I asked him how many rockabilly records he has and he said "at least 2,500.different rockabilly records." We’re doing an album with Jello. I have grown to like Jello honestly. He’s a weirdo. He’s the punk rock Howard Hughes. I’m all for him. All of his legal battles as of late are devastating. Horrible.
DALE: We were talking about Jello. His band members claim he ripped them off. After knowing him, there’s no possible way he would have done that. He’s incapable of doing such a thing.
BUZZO: He wouldn’t know how to do it. He can barely operate a cell-phone. There's no reason for him to rip them off. It’s not in the interest in his personality. It’s a travesty; it is one of the worst rock’n roll stories ever. Thing that kills me is, since 1986 he’s paid the two guys in that band two million dollars back royalties since they laid their guitars down. That’s for nothing more than denting a seat cushion. He’s not just some political rock n’ roll blowhard either. We are always arguing with him about things. It’s good. If you question him about things, he’ll know. Imagine getting into some long-winded discussion with you know Eddie Vedder? "Um lets talk about surfing."
SLUG: Tell us more about The Melvins/Jello Biafra project.
BUZZO: Jello is a rock n’ roller, I wrote some songs like that for him to sing. I thought he could put his head around a little easier than our normal stuff.
DALE: Three of them sound Black Flaggish.
BUZZO: Some of the songs he wrote musically sound Dead Kennedyish. You can hear that for sure. It’s coming out great and it’s going to be really cool.
DALE: We’ve been working on it for a year and a half. We work on it when have the time. We’ve gone through about half the material. There’s easily another album and a half of raw material, that’s not all finished.
BUZZO: We need to record twenty more minutes. One song I like is the political song, "Islamic Bomb." Jello comes to our practice space, we jam, then we record in San Francisco.
To concure, even in the dark spirit of Ambience, their music may seem dark, but their attitudes, humor and personas are genuine and Human. Is it truly a wonder that Buzzo would hate every Human being ever? If Buzzo hates Humanity so much that he would go so far as to say, he hates himself? If he did, then why would he be still touring, still making albums with people like Jello? There must be love somewhere along the line. Deep down secretly there still must be a passion for Humanity. For without humanity Buzzo would have never been paid for tours, albums, or life. In reality, unless he truly really hates doing what he does for Humanity, he loves to play music, which in reality, is a way of showing love for life. Vibrations and sounds keep the world turning, and as long as there is music, there will be love. The Inquisition has not been satisfied, there is more to Buzzo than meets the ear. The Melvins are on Ipecac Records. There most recent release Hostile Ambient Takeover is also available in a very limited three 7 inch Vinyl set.
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