The Melvins: Contemporary after 25 years

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  • Tony DuShane
  • Wednesday, July 16, 2008

The Melvins are not the easiest band to describe.

"We're loud, quiet, heavy metal, ambient, experimental music," says the Melvins' singer Buzz Osborne, a.k.a. King Buzzo, of his band's eclectic catalog, which spans nearly 25 years.

"We haven't pigeonholed ourselves into one thing as much as lazy journalists want to pretend that we have," he says. "I could play five albums of ours, and it wouldn't sound like the exact same band."

The core of the Melvins has been Osborne and drummer Dale Crover. After kicking out their fifth bass player in 2006, they went metal by bringing on Big Business' Coady Willis as a second drummer and Jared Warren as bassist.

Osborne says he looks forward to a long-term relationship, "unless they blow their minds out with drugs or something, then I might have to let them go. I don't have a whole lot of patience with that stuff."

Osborne says that just because the band is often seen as a stoner metal act doesn't mean it condones the rampant use of drugs in the music industry. It's the main reason that so many previous members have been kicked out.

"Playing in a band is the only job where the first thing they do when you get to your job is offer you alcohol. That would never happen anywhere else. Get to the office; 'OK, do you guys want a six-pack of beer before you get to work?' " says Crover of a story Osborne told him.

Having two drummers brings more power to the Melvins' sound. Crover and Osborne discussed bringing in a second drummer years ago, and when the idea of collaborating with Big Business was presented, it seemed like a perfect fit.

"He's left-handed, so it's like looking into a mirror, which is good for me because when I look in to the mirror I see a handsome young fella over there," says the right-handed Crover.

What does it take to keep an under-the-radar band going for so long?

"We stay contemporary because we continue working. There's nothing else to that, but that's as a result of us doing the road work and homework and the whole thing," Osborne says.

"I've always liked what we were doing. I've always felt other people should like what we're doing. As far as I'm concerned, I always thought that we'd have an audience because we have good taste and make good music. I have no control over any of the rest of it."

- Tony DuShane, 96hours@sfchronicle.com

This article appeared on page G - 4 of the San Francisco Chronicle - http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/16/NSN611OT0G.DTL