Gods of Thunder

GODS OF THUNDER

http://www.sevendaysvt.com/music/spotlights/092706-copy-1/goin-to-the-country.html

Loud-rock lifers The Melvins came together in the early ’80s in Aberdeen, Washington — the same backwoods ’burb that spawned their famously troubled disciple, Kurt Cobain.

With their sludgy, narcotic take on punk, The Melvins stuck out like a sore thumb. A trio featuring guitarist/bandleader Buzz Osbourne, drummer Joe Preston and a string of bassists, the band combined the colossal grind of metal with the fuck-it-all ’tude of early hardcore. Their sound laid the groundwork for what would later be called grunge.

But The Melvins were never just about crunching chords and irreverence. Over the years, they’ve confounded both fans and critics with forays into experimental noise, releasing several albums full of ominous drones and bizarre samples. Still, they managed to get signed by Atlantic Records, who released their epochal Houdini in 1993. These days, they call avant-rocker Mike Patton’s Ipecac Records home. It’s a natural fit, as Osbourne also logs time with Patton’s spazz-metal supergroup Fantômas.

Recently, the Melvins lost another bassist, ex-Cows low-ender Kevin Rutmanis. Instead of simply replacing him, they drafted hipster metal duo Big Business into the fold. With two drummers on board, the band’s upcoming disc, Senile Animal, contains considerably more pummel.

The new record finds the band revisiting the Motorhead-meets-Black-Sabbath sound of their ’90s work. Leader Osbourne delivers cryptic non-sequiturs in his signature melodic bellow, as the band tears through riff-heavy songs that seem destined to become Melvins staples.

Seven Days recently spoke to Osbourne from his West Coast home, at first missing him due to an extended band rehearsal. It seemed oddly appropriate that his outgoing message was the theme to “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.”

• SEVEN DAYS: How do you keep delivering the goods after all these years of van tours and dank nightclubs?
• BUZZ OSBOURNE: Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we still like doing what we’re doing. It’s hard to say; I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it. I guess I could work at Staples or something.

• SD: Do you think you’ve accomplished what you set out to when you started the band?
• BO: When we started, we thought it would be cool to just play a show. So yes, I’ve accomplished that.

• SD: Is there a retirement plan for rock vets, or do you just tour ’til you drop?
• BO: I have no interest in stopping, but we’ll see what happens. What am I gonna do? I’ll go back to school, maybe get a scholarship playing football.

• SD: It’s probably best not to stare into the abyss.
• BO: You can stare, but you should never think you know what you’re doing. That’s when it gets dicey. Besides, every time The Rolling Stones do a tour, it makes it OK for old people like me.

• SD: Even if they’re mummified.
• BO: It doesn’t matter.

• SD: Did you ever feel that you’d been unfairly lumped into the grunge genre in the ’90s?
• BO: People just need to identify with things, I guess. They need to have you pigeonholed; I’ve dealt with that my whole career. We sound similar to some degree — there are guitars, and I sing. But can you put us in the same category as Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam? I personally don’t hear it.

• SD: Kurt Cobain used to carry your amps for you. Do you feel responsible for his putting together a band?
• BO: I consider myself responsible for his death, how ’bout that? I’ll take full credit for it.

• SD: Because you started him down that dark path?
• BO: Yes. My fault. He met us, and it led to his eventual downfall.

• SD: That’s a long string of dominoes, but I guess somebody had to make the initial tap.
• BO: Why not? It’s a big world; there are all sorts of stuff I can take credit for. His death can be one of them.

• SD: One thing that makes The Melvins unique is that you incorporate a lot of different styles, from metal and punk to experimental. Was that part of a master plan, or something you just stumbled into?
• BO: Well, we think it’s good, so that’s part of the plan. I didn’t want to stick to doing one kind of thing. We just try to make interesting records.

• SD: Did it ever bother you that some of your audience might not “get” certain aspects of the band?
• BO: I’m not concerned about that at all. The fans can’t handle anything — I know that already! You just do what you do, and as long as you put out this air of knowing something nobody else does, you’ll be all right.

• SD: It’s the double-edged sword of fandom: The same thing that makes them obsessively buy every record drives them to dismiss you if you do something they don’t like.
• BO: Most of them will dismiss you by the time they turn 35, anyway.

• SD: Not me. Well, I’m only 32.
• BO: You’ll turn on us yet. I guarantee it.