Something 4 The Weekend # 197

Yuck: Yuck: "Suck" [mp3]

The '90s were a pretty good decade, I guess. Flannel was popular for awhile...Coffee was hot.

Outside of Mudhoney and maybe the Ultramega OK album, I'm not sure what Grunge was...N0t anymore...The Melvins continue to rule them all...

After that, after Grunge, everything in music just went haywire...Rap metal. Industrial Goth. Arena Grunge. Britpop. A swing revival. Twee indie pop. Techno. Jam bands. Boy Bands. Festival seating! Lilith Fairs! We were all post-grunge losers, babycakes, why don't you beer me? Make sure it's an Icehouse.

LOL...Pepsi Clear and ice beer. Disinfecting bellybutton piercings and listening to Bjork...Aaaah, the '90s...

Anyways, plenty of critics and plebs are saying Yuck sounds like the 1990s (the decade, not the band), and I'll say it too. Whatever...

Music's been haywire ever since. The internet, blahblahblah...Bands are starting up each and every day, and they're all a click or three away, all the time, the endless links and yr second harddrive's quickly filling up...Yr media player on RANDOM and how many songs really LEAP OUT? How many songs make you stop what yr doing and check WHO THE HELL IS THIS?

And doesn't it seem it's always only one or four artists that make you look?

Is Yuck one of those bands? Yeah, they could be. They sound like the '90s, but they've got really good songs, some good sounds, and certainly strong melodies...And they've got some range, obviously, if they sound like chunks of an entire decade.

Yuck could be super, I suppose, two or three albums from now...What I mean is, if they can string together a couple more albums like this, they could be soundchecked themselves in 2027...

But the culture is all haywire, and Yuck could just as easily get lost and break up and get kinda forgotten...Like The Libertines.

Yuck doesn't suck right now. I suppose that's just enough these days.

Hotcha! Hank

Maneuver The Melvins Sideways To Pancake Mountain

Oh my! Melvins visit Pancake Mountain, and all hell breaks loose - karaoke challenges are made and met, with kids, puppets and three rather large and scary men all singing "I Wanna Be Sedated". Then the band lays down a little of their own brand of Punk with "The Kicking Machine".

Glorious!

Hotcha! Hank

Something 4 The Weekend # 174

Melvins: A Senile Animal: "A History Of Drunks" [mp3]

I've got a shit-ton of Melvins in my jukebox, and I could randomly pick just about any given song from any given album of theirs, and the chances are like 87% that it's gonna be an absolute ass-kicker. Sludge. Doom. Punk. Grunge. Hostile Ambient. Fucking Metal. Buzz and Co. (but especially Buzz) got so many tricks up their sleeves, it's hard to choose. Melvins have been cranking for 25+ years now, and dammit if they haven't crept up quite high on my list of favorite bands over the years. And dammit if their last few albums haven't been as good and strong and heavy and fun as any other album in their pocket.

A Senile Animal dates from 2006, and finds King Buzzo and Dale Crover combining forces with the two dudes from Seattle sludge beasts Big Business for a stronger and more versatile version of the band. Melvins are usually a trio (Buzz and Dale and a bassist to be named later) but as a quartet, the heaviness seems limitless. On "A History Of Drunks" they're remarkably light on their feet, so to speak, delivering a trim and complicated boogie of sorts, but still flexing the big beef. Anyways...Tell me these lyrics aren't brilliant and somehow touching in their own way...Go ahead and sing along!

"she helped remove the bullet from my leg
she took the blade, dug them out while I lay screaming
she showed me bloody things and held them in her hand
and said that these were her's and put them in her pocket
I begged her to shoot me in the head
she took my gun and shot my leg instead
the way she held my gun and looked at me with rage
told me that everything was okay and I survived
and now she stays with me, it's crazy but she's mine
she tells me I'm insane because she doesn't lie
she was a-killing me, she left me here to die
and all the ways that worries all right"

Melvins have always been killer, and they're currently killing it, and I see no reason why they won't continue to slay. In their own way, their quietly becoming legendary, an institution, an undeniable force in rock history. A band that looks (sounds) better and better in the rearview.

A band for the ages. In my world, anyways.

Hotcha! Hank

Buzz Doesn't Need Your Money

The Melvins crack the Billboard Top 200 albums chart with their latest release, The Bride Screamed Murder! For true!

Hotcha! Hank