Heavy music mavericks the Melvins team with Japanese iconoclasts Boris for Bay Area dates
A groundbreaking heavy rock band that has shaped the sound of punk and metal for over 35 years, the Melvins return to the Bay Area for several shows on their current tour with fellow mavericks Boris.
Over the course of a 35+ year career playing by their own rules, guitarist Buzz Osborne and monster drummer Dale Crover have co-piloted 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 spotlit 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) on an album and a record-breaking tour that had the trio playing 50 states and Washington, D.C. in 51 days with Dunn sticking exclusively to acoustic bass, reuniting with original drummer Mike Dillard (with Crover switching to bass), issuing a guest-packed collection of cover songs (Everybody Loves Sausages in 2013) and recording 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.
While the prolific band uncharacteristically did not release a new album in 2019, the Melvins performed at an all-star tribute to the late Soundgarden singer Christ Cornell at the Forum in Los Angeles in January before an extensive tour with the two-bassist line-up. They also issued a new four-song collaborative EP recorded with avowed inspiration Flipper that included the Melvins covering a pair of Flipper songs along with two tunes with the two groups' members playing together. The Melvins also put out a second collaborative EP with Swedish artist Sh-tKid (the stage name for punk songwriter Åsa Söderqvist).
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.
To celebrate the band's 40th anniversary this year, the Melvins continue with their onslaught of new and unusual recordings, reissuing their original 1986 EP paired with a brand new re-recording of the songs with the current line-up and releasing a pair of collaborative projects: a highly experimental (even for the Melvins) tribute to pioneering industrial band Throbbing Gristle with Atlanta-based electronic group Void Manes entitled Throbbing Jazz Gristle Funk Hits and a five-song EP with regular touring partners Helms Alee that includes a cover of the Hüsker Dü song "Data Control."
For the current "Twins of Evil Tour," the Melvins are joined by avowed acolytes, the experimental Japanese trio Boris. Formed in 1992 when guitarist Wata, bassist/guitarist Takeshi Ohtani, original drummer Nagata and singer Atsuo Mizono came together while attending art school in Tokyo -- Atsuo would begin playing drums when Nagata left in 1996 -- Boris has traveled a wildly varied path from their roots as drone/doom merchants. Early efforts Absolute Ego and Amplifier Worship showed a deep debt to Bullhead-era Melvins (they took their name from one of the songs on that album). Their 2000 album Flood took the sound to a new level, exploring feedback, distortion and volume over the course of an epic 70-minute song.
Boris has ventured further afield since those efforts. The band's 2005 breakout effort Pink introduced elements of shoegaze and dream pop into the stoner sludge template, while the following year's Rainbow explored more pastoral psych with guest guitarist Michio Kurihara, who had come to fame as a member of the acclaimed Japanese band Ghost. The band's profile would rise higher after touring with Nine Inch Nails in 2008 and appearing on the soundtrack to the Jim Jarmusch movie The Limits of Control. The band would also produce collaborative albums working with Japanese noise act Merzbow, fellow experimental drone band Sunn O))) and lead singer of the Cult Ian Astbury
The ever-prolific Boris ramped up it's productivity to new heights in 2011, releasing three separate discs -- New Album, Heavy Rocks and Attention Please -- that veered from J-pop to electronic dance music to glam rock. While the trio would scale back its releases, Boris has continued to tour regularly, in some cases playing it's classic recordings Flood and Pink in their entirety.
In 2017, the band released its 24th album Dear (so titled as a thank you to longtime fans) which found the trio edging back into the tuneful, monolithic riffs that marked Pink. The band would embark on an extensive 25th anniversary tour that year, playing in San Francisco twice while appearing at the 2017 edition of the annual metal/doom/psych fest Psycho Las Vegas. While the band was considering retiring while recording the songs for Dear, a burst of creativity produced far more new tunes than could be contained on the album, encouraging Boris to continue making music.
Two years later, the trio released the conceptual double LP LφVE & EVφL that mixed the band's drone metal and ambient dreampop sides on Jack White's Third Man Records, which also reissued the classic early 2000s Boris albums Feedbacker and Akuma No Uta. The group went into isolation when it was forced off the road by the COVID-19 pandemic, but continued its relentlessly prolific ways. Boris put out arguably its most hardcore punk effort ever with NO, followed by several split and collaborative recordings (including 2R0I2P0 with Merzbow on Sacred Bones), a host of digital-only archival live and studio albums and W, the atmospheric companion piece to NO in 2022. The band issued its second of three albums last year with Heavy Rocks 2022 for Relapse Records. Boris' third recording with that title delivers another blistering salvo of punk-informed mayhem tempered with their trademark experimentalism.
While the group issued the collaborative album Bright New Disease with NYC industrialists Uniform earlier in 2023, the "Twins of Evil Tour" will find both the Melvins and Boris revisiting one of their seminal early albums with the Melvins playing Bullhead in its entirety and Boris looking back on their original Heavy Rocks album from 2002 that is being reissued for the first time in 20 years (and for the first time on vinyl ever) by Third Man Records. On Wednesday morning just days before the tour's first date, the Melvins announced that Crover would not be able to participate due to a recently diagnosed spinal condition requiring emergency surgery. The band said though the drummer's good health is the group's primary concern, they felt the best way to support him would be to continue the tour as scheduled and is dedicating the "Twins of Evil Tour" to Crover.
Former second drummer Coady Willis (who is also playing drums for onetime Bay Area-based metal juggernaut High On Fire in addition to his own duo Big Business) will be filling in for the tour. Chicago noise-rock duo Mr. Phylzzz opens these two shows at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco starting Sunday as well as a Tuesday night show at Petaluma's Mystic Theatre.
Melvins and Boris
Sunday-Monday, Aug. 27-28, 8 p.m. $35
Great American Music Hall
Tuesday, Aug. 29, 8 p.m. $35-$40
Mystic Theatre
