Guitarist for heavy music mavericks the Melvins brings duo tour to the Chapel
Melvins co-founder and guitarist Buzz Osborne (aka "King Buzzo") brings his current duo tour with bassist Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle, Fantomas) to the Chapel in San Francisco Tuesday night.
Over the course of a 35+ year career playing by their own rules, Osborne and monster drummer Dale Crover have co-piloted their seminal underground rock band the Melvins through a wildly diverse exploration of heavy music. Inspired by the slow tempos and down-tuned guitar sludge of Black Sabbath as well as the dissonance of punk iconoclasts Flipper and My War-era Black Flag, the Melvins became legends in Washington State during their formative years in the early-to-mid 1980s after being founded in the small town of Montesano.
The band's combination of crushing riffs and lumbering grooves would end up influencing the entire Northwest music scene. Aberdeen natives and early fans Kurt Cobain (who at one point auditioned for the band) and Krist Novoselic were inspired to form Nirvana, while fellow grunge heavyweights like Alice In Chains and Soundgarden similarly updated the Sabbath template. The Melvins have been credited as a cornerstone inspiration for a number of heavy rock subgenres, providing the template for stoner-rock bands and experimental drone terrorists alike.
With a revolving cast of bassists, the Melvins have produced a veritable landslide of experimentally minded releases that have consistently pushed the envelope of alternative rock. Whether recording for major label Atlantic during the early '90s or issuing discs on numerous independent imprints, the group has forged a singular, instantly recognizable sound without ever being afraid to make major experimental detours. The band has received piles of critical accolades since the start of its collaboration with with equally heavy duo Big Business featuring bassist Jared Warren and drummer Coady Willis a decade ago with the celebrated effort (A) Senile Animal in 2006.
Powered by a massive two-drummer onslaught (the two players used a huge overlapping kit that shared some drums), that album and follow-up recordings Nude with Boots and The Bride Screamed Murder showcased Osborne's twisted, tuneful riffs and some of the band's catchiest output yet. The group would also branch out with other collaborators, partnering with noted avant-rock bassist Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle, John Zorn and a bandmate of Osborne's in Fantomas) on the "Melvins Lite" album Freak Puke in 2012 with an accompanying record-breaking tour that had the trio playing 50 states and Washington, D.C. in 51 days with Dunn sticking exclusively to acoustic bass. They also reunited with original drummer Mike Dillard (with Crover switching to bass), issued a guest-packed collection of cover songs (Everybody Loves Sausages in 2013) and recorded with Butthole Surfers members Paul Leary and bassist J.D. Pinkus (who had already served as a frequent touring member of the band).
In 2016, the group managed to further ramp up its already prolific output. In addition to Sub Pop issuing a set of long-shelved recordings with godheadSilo bassist Mike Kunka that were recorded back in the late '90s (credited to Mike and the Melvins and entitled Three Men and a Baby), the band toured extensively with latest bass-playing recruit Steven McDonald of Redd Kross and OFF! fame to promote their another more recent release. The Ipecac Records effort Basses Loaded featured newer material recorded with McDonald as well as songs featuring a variety of recent bassists and a guest spot from Novoselic himself.
In addition playing some shows in conjunction with screenings of the documentary The Colossus of Destiny: A Melvins Tale by co-directors Bob Hannam and Ryan Sutherby, the band members also found the time to collaborate with with singer Terri Genderbender (Le Butcherettes) and Omar Rodríguez-López (The Mars Volta, At the Drive-In) in the new group Crystal Fairy for an eponymous effort on Ipecac as well as recording their first double album, A Walk With Love and Death.
The 2017 collection matched an album's worth of more traditional Melvins material with a second set of experimental recordings that serve as the score to an avant-garde short film entitled Love made by band friend and director Jesse Nieminen. Crover has also released his solo debut The Fickle Finger of Fate via Joyful Noise Recordings. While he had already made a number of albums as the leader of his side project band Altamont, the effort gave Crover a chance to stretch out on everything from drum experiments to fractured pop tunes.
Having already brought the band's explosive two-drummer line-up to fans, the Melvins presented another mutant version of the band with its 2018 album Pinkus Abortion Technician that features both Pinkus and McDonald playing bass. A rare exception to Melvins releases that are usually dominated by songs written by Osborne, the new effort includes a couple of reworked Butthole Surfers songs (including a twisted mash-up of the R&B/rock standard "Stop" with the Surfers song "Moving to Florida"), a warped cover of the Beatles' standard "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and a mix of originals penned by Crover, Pinkus and McDonald.
The Melvins faced the downtime without touring during the pandemic by ramping up their work in the studio that came out in 2021. In addition to releasing a new effort Working With God that featured the 1983 version of the group reuniting again, the trio also issued Five-Legged Dog, a sprawling double disc acoustic collection with new recordings of songs from throughout the band's career as well as some new and reimagined covers of tunes by the Rolling Stones, Harry Nilsson, the Turtles and Alice Cooper.
While the December surge of COVID forced the band to cancel a pair of San Francisco shows that would have included a New Year's Eve concert, the Melvins returned to the road in 2022, joining Ministry and openers Corrosion of Conformity on a tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of the landmark The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste album. The band also issued the first of the new recordings it made during the shutdown, releasing the limited Lord of the Flies EP with two new songs and a pair of covers (a version of Soundgarden's "Spoonman" featuring Matt Cameron on drums and a mash-up of Led Zeppelin's "Misty Mountain Hop" and Devo's "Uncontrollable Urge") ahead of Bad Mood Rising, the effort released last fall featuring all new original music spotlighting more of Osborne's idiosyncratic songwriting and monolithic riffs.
Another tour that was derailed by the pandemic was a planned jaunt by Osborne and Dunn to promote their collaborative effort, 2020's Gift of Sacrifice, a sequel of sorts to the guitarist's 2014 solo acoustic album This Machine Kills Artists. With McDonald and Crover currently busy touring with Redd Kross to promote the band's stellar self-titled double album released earlier this year, the guitarist and bassist have finally embarked on the long-deferred acoustic duo tour focusing on the songs from Gift of Sacrifice along some dramatically recast Melvins nuggets. Joining the pair on the road will be onetime Melvins bassist J.D. Pinkus. While much of his career has focused on playing experimental rock of the loud and weird variety -- whether with the Butthole Surfers, the Melvins or his other bands Daddy Longhead and Honky, as well as his latest album Grow a Pear -- more recently, Pinkus has been recording and touring solo accompanying himself on the banjo. The stripped-down, alt-rock heavyweight tour comes to the Chapel Tuesday night before moving on to Harlow's in Sacramento Wednesday.
Buzz Osborne and Trevor Dunn with J.D. Pinkus
Tuesday, Aug. 6, 7 p.m. $29.50-$34.50
The Chapel