Dälek share a brand new video for ‘Echoes Of…’, the opening track from their upcoming new album, Endangered Philosophies (1st September, Ipecac Recordings). The video was directed, animated, and produced by Chris White (EAM – Electric Action Messages).
Watch below, and check out their recently announced European tour dates further down.
ENDANGERED PHILOSOPHIES TOUR DATES:
Thu. 2-Nov-2017 FR Grenoble – La Bobine w/ Labrats Bugband Sat. 4-Nov-2017 FR Lyon – Bizarre! w/ Dead Obies Sun 5-Nov-2017 CH Martigny – Les Caves Du Manoir Mon 6-Nov-2017 DE Esslingen – Komma Tue 7-Nov-2017 DE Nuremburg – Musik Verein Wed 8-Nov-2017 DE Berlin – Urban Spree w/ debmaster Fri 10-Nov-2017 DK Copenhagen – Stengade Sun 12-Nov-2017 BE Kortrijk – Sonic City Festival, curated by Thurston Moore, with Moor Mother… Tue 14-Nov-2017 UK Colchester – Colchester Arts Centre Wed 15-Nov-2017 NO Oslo – Bla with Moor Mother Thu 16-Nov-2017 UK London – Underworld Camden Fri 17-Nov-2017 FR Paris – Batobar Sat. 18-Nov-2017 FR Brest – Festival Invisible at La Carene with Action Beat and Camera
SUMMER TOUR DATES:
Fri. 18-Aug-2017 Club Cafe – Pittsburgh, PA Sat. 19-Aug-2017 Double Happiness – Columbus, OH Sun. 20-Aug-2017 Mac’s – Lansing, MI Mon. 21-Aug-2017 Reggies – Chicago, IL (w/ Cult Of Luna) Tue. 22-Aug-2017 Mod Club Theatre – Toronto, Canada (w/ Cult Of Luna) Wed. 23-Aug-2017 Corona Theatre – Montreal, Canada (w/ Cult Of Luna) Thu. 24-Aug-2017 Worcester Palladium – Worcester, MA (w/ Cult Of Luna)
Fri. 25-Aug-2017 Gramercy Theatre – New York, NY (w/ Cult Of Luna)
Sat. 28-Oct Baltimore, MD Rams Head (Days of Darkness Festival)
Melvins’ 415th album since their formation in the Mezozoic era is a double: their first. As if the founding sludgelords, the masters of the megalithic, needed to take it to another level of epic indulgence. A Walk With Love and Death isn’t exactly a concept album, as much as an album of two halves. So says the press release. If anything, it’s actually two distinct albums released together: Death, a proper Melvins’ release and Love, the score to the Jesse Nieminen directed, self-produced short also titled A Walk With Love and Death.
But of course, it’s a Melvins album. Which means that, fundamentally, it sounds like a Melvins album. That’s no criticism: I want a Melvins album to sound like a Melvins album but then, would it ever sound like anything else?
They really make full use of the double-album format for this outing. Itbegins with a slow-building, expansive six and a half-minuter that has echoes of ‘Mine is No Disgrace’ from The Crybaby, but instead of erupting into a blistering wall of noise, keeps the focus tight on a proggy trip with a vaguely psychedelic hue.
‘Sober-delic’ follows, a mid-tempo trudge which also stretches beyond the six-minute mark and ‘Euthanasia’ is vintage Melvins, a hefty sludge trudge with heavily treated vocals. ‘What’s Wrong With You?’ is a warped psychedelic stoner rock tune with a twisted pop edge, propelled by a thumping bassline and wild guitars. The nine songs which make up the Death album don’t exactly offer up any surprises (which is arguably a surprise in itself given the band’s wildly varied output over the last 30 years), but do deliver a Melvins album that’s as solid as anything they’ve done. It brings the grind. It hammers with the riffs. It’s sludgy, grungy, yet packs some great pop moments. And what at times it lacks in terms of attack, it compensates in scale, with the prog leanings of ‘Flaming Creature’ partially submerged by the low-end churn that they’ve made their own.
Commencing with a vaguely experimental intro track, in which mellifluous piano notes drift through the sound of chatter, the Love set is a very different proposition. The fourteen tracks are shorter and stranger, leaning toward noisy ambience, and find Melvins revisiting the kind of territory explored on Prick and the playfully perverse ‘Cowboy’ single from the mid ‘90s.
When they do actually play tunes, it’s whacked out, trippy psychedelic pop or fucked -up jazz: ‘Give it to Me’ is a zany, mess of doodling Hammond organs and theramins duelling with thumping percussion that’s pure 60s garage. But mostly it’s weird shit like ‘Chicken Butt’ and ‘Halfway to Bakersfield’, and it’s all very much ‘what the fuck’?
It’s Melvins’ eternal capacity to confound which is an integral aspect of their enduring appeal. It would be so easy, and no doubt more career-savvy to work to their tried and tested formula and to put out an album of straight ahead sludge rock every two to three years, instead of going off on infinite tangents and releasing two albums a year. But the fact is, they’re actually very good at producing weird, far-out experimental shit, and the results of some of their collaborations have been as strong as unexpected. It’s their drive to create, and to endlessly push in so many different directions which keeps Melvins fresh, and above all, relevant.
Another ‘supergroup’ eh? But seriously, check this for a lineup…. Dead Cross, consist of Dave Lombardo (ex-Slayer/Suicidal Tendencies), Justin Pearson (Retox/The Locust), Mike Patton (Faith No More/Tomahawk) and Michael Crain (Retox, Festival of Dead Deer). And ahead of the release of their debit album, they’ve unveiled the video for the track ‘Seizure and Desist’.
Some project ae just so wild and so awesome that they can’t fail. Crystal Fairy is one. The fact that it’s out on Ipecac should be a big clue. Essentially another Melvins offshoot, this project features King Buzzo and Dale Crover (Melvins and myriad mental offshoots), with Teri Gender Bender (Le Butcherettes), Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (Mars Volta, At the Drive In). If you haven’t already encountered Le Butcherettes, our life is sadly lacking and you need to do something about it, immediately.
Le Butcherettes are one of the most ferociously angular, choppy, abrasive and truly awesome contemporary exemplars of the no-wave ethos, and Terri Gender Bender is a fearsome and fantastic front woman: the perfect foil to the sludge with a grin craziness of The Melvins. Omar Rodrguez-Lopez (Mars Volta, At the Drive In) is hardly a weak link here.
As the press release recounts, ‘The whole idea for Crystal Fairy began when The Melvins and Le Butcherettes toured together and The Melvins started doing the song “Rebel Girl” with Teri at the end of their set.’
The album erupts with a whack! Think! Chug-a-chug thundrball punk-tinged rock racket of Chiseler’. It crackles. It fizzes. But what’s perhaps unexpected is just how accessible it is, courtesy of its strong, melody-led chorus. It also has that early 80s vibe and the poke of a small-town pub gig or a demo tape recorded by an ultra-proficient provincial band who deserve a wide audience. That’s not a criticism of Crystal Fairy, but of the industry, at least as it was.
Rock cliché is never far away on this album: ‘Necklace of Divorce’ wheels in AC/CDisms and Led Zeppelinisms galore, but there’s a savviness to the delivery that hints at a certain knowingness, a play on the clichés being stirred in and churned around in the mix. The result is alchemy, and an album brimming with choppy tunes that explode with full-throttle drive, and build the dynamics with passages of tension-building stealth. Grunge classic? Yeah, and so much more
‘Moth Tongue’ simply sounds like Terri Gender Bender fronting The Melvins playing one of their poppier tracks. As such, it’s ace, and ‘Bent Teeth’ is simply scorching. As is the album as a whole: raucous rambunctious, it combined churning, gritty riffs with wild-eyed histrionic vocals. As much as I’m a sucker for a meaty guitar, I’m even more one to be pulled in by a vocal delivery that borders on the psychotic, and Terri’s go that absolutely nailed. But then, as the title track attests, the foursome can also nail a full-throttle post-punk pop tune: think Blondie, think PJ Harvey, delivered with energy and guts and raw sex. Belting as the backing is, Terri makes it: she sounds dangerous, intense, precarious. While the basslines tear through your guts, she tears through your very soul.
Crystal Fairy is the supergroup every supergroup should aspire to: the embodiment of rock ‘n’ roll awesome, they’ve got the full works going on here.
The Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, 13th November 2016
Christopher Nosnibor
As I’m not a resident of Leeds, my time in the city largely consists of pegging it to and from pubs and music venues on an evening. It’s a cold, damp November Sunday afternoon, but the city streets are bustling with shoppers. The Christmas Market is teeming. I watch some people enjoying a fake snow fight in a giant snow globe. Passing through the university campus there are virtually tumbleweeds. Where are the students? In bed or shopping at 3.30pm, I suspect. Or working to earn a crust towards their immense tuition fees. The Brudenell is the perfect oasis, something of a home from home for me. I’m early so settle with a pint of Kirkstall Back Band Porter (5.5% ABV), a packet of salted peanuts and an Ed McBain novel.
Ahead of its global DVD release in the spring of 2017, producer Bob Hannam is taking his film – many, many years in the making, and finally realised with the assistance of Ryan Sutherby and a well-supported Kickstarter campaign, which saw some 982 people chip in to enable the film to be edited and ultimately released – around a select number of venues. After a handful of US dates and a London screening, and ahead of a return stateside, it feels like an immense privilege to be able to sit and enjoy the fruits of his labours in the Brudenell Games Room.
The roll-call of interviewees all pitching in with reminiscences or simply expressing love for the band is remarkable, and is credit to Hannam’s networking skils, and testament to The Melvins and just how well-liked and respected they are. Krist Novoselic. Jello Biafra. Josh Homme. Mark Arm. Lou Barlow. Keith Morris. Donita Sparks. JG Thirlwell. Mike Patton. David Yow. Greg Anderson. Frank Kozik. Lustmord. The list goes on: many of the talking heads are collaborators, Gene Simmons! Even J Mascis manages more than three words, and seems uncharacteristically animated. And then there are of course the band members: Buzzo and Dale contribute lots of recollections, and many former players are also featured, which is quite something, especially considering just how many former players there are.
The Colossus of Destiny is an achievement simply by virtue of its existence. I mean, where do you start with The Melvins? They’ve been going forever and have released more tracks than Metallica or The Rolling Stones. And what the film achieves over the curse of its two hours and ten running time (including the seemingly endless credits) is to give a fair chronology of their history, while at the same time giving a real sense of what the band are about.
The one thing that every last one of those talking about the band attest to is The Melvins’ singularity, and this also shines through in the interviews with Buzzo and Dale. Often whacky, sometimes deeply serious and occasionally grumpy, their genuineness and honesty – and above all, their commitment to making music, and making the music they want, in the way they want – shines out throughout. Eternally heavy, but also a lot of fun, there really is no other band like The Melvins.
There are heaps of archive photos and reams of cover art and gig posters, and masses of grainy footage of early gigs, as well as some great footage of their more recent, utterly pulverizing, double-drummer lineup, which really make The Colossus of Destiny a must for any fan. But equally, watching Buzzo running off CD covers and posters and .giving an insight into the workings of a band who – apart from a brief stint with Atlantic, which they knew was destined to fail before they even signed the contract – have existed as a largely DIY concern since 1983, is essential viewing for anyone with an interest in making it in (or perhaps, more accurately, outside), the music industry.
Some of the audio during the interviews is a shade wobbly, and during the informative and entertaining Q&A (being a local las by birth, Bob Hannam is familiar with a large portion of the audience, making for some good-natured banter, with his dad is sitting behind me and Danny Mass of Salvation a row or two ahead), Hannan admits it’s a source of irritation. But this is a first-time work, and the product of passion and dedication, and as a ‘warts and all’ rockumentary, it’s entirely in keeping with the band’s ethos.
It may be lengthy, but moves at a decent pace, and is entertaining and informative throughout. Whatever your position on The Melvins, there’s something to be taken from Colossus of Destiny.
Le Butcherettes, who are in the midst of a European tour, have unveiled the Omar Rodriguez-Lopez directed video for “My Mallely”, which appeared on their 2015 album, A Raw Youth (Ipecac Recordings).
The video was filmed in the contrasting locations of New York City and the ruins of Juárez Mexico, in a neighbourhood and cinema that was a casualty of the 2008-2013 war. Teri Gender Bender offers context to the video: "The juxtaposition of the video’s setting, place and time is a roller coaster of emotional history. Juárez. A lost city re-emerging. New York City. Feeling lost in a city that has been emerging. The duality is a constant in every feeling and way. No matter where you are, one absorbs their surroundings and grows within the chaotic element. That to me is the beauty of survivalism."
Watch the video here. Full list of tour dates below.
LE BUTCHERETTES TOUR DATES: October 7 Zurich, Switzerland Dynamo October 8 Milan, Italy Tunnel October 10 Valencia, Spain Loco Club October 11 Madrid, Spain El Sol October 12 Barcelona, Spain Sidecare October 14 London, UK The Black Heart (appearance at Rough Trade East @ 1pm) October 15 Coventry, UK Kasbah October 16 Birmingham, UK Hare & Hounds October 17 Cardiff, UK CLWB ifor Bach October 19 Dublin, Ireland The Workman’s Club October 20 Belfast, UK Black Box October 21 Glasgow, UK King Tut’s October 22 Manchester, UK Night & Day
Aural Aggravation 