The live album is a tough sell. Consumers have become weary of no-frills repackaging of a band's standard songs. Rifle through the used record bin of any local record store and you're liable to encounter a couple crates full of these demons. Unless they're stamped with tried and true names like Neil Young, Flipper, or Grateful Dead, they probably ain't worth a second glance. The contractually obligated live album is an industry trend that must be squashed.
The Melvins never succumbed to industry trends, though. When what would become known as the "Seattle scene" was in its infantile stage, the band moved to San Francisco. While their peers were busy collecting obscure punk rock musical reference points, one listen to Ozma or Gluey Porch Treatments proves The Melvins boys were studying the stadium thrash metal of Metallica and Megadeth. When every other band in the Pacific Northwest seemed to speed their sound up to The Stooges-inspired pre-punk tempos, the band came out with Bullhead, a collection of slow-as-molasses sludge metal that explored exciting avenues of raw sound with a creeping killer's intensity. During the peak of the grunge era, the Melvins came out with their "pop album," Houdini, an album that introduced jaded flannel flyers to the slow, fast, avant-garde, metal, and in-between moods that had thus far marked the Melvins' career. Although the album was distributed by Warner Brothers and produced by Kurt Cobain, it failed to make a dent anywhere save for the pages of your favorite rock magazine.
In 2005, The Melvins were selected to take part in All Tomorrows Parties' "Don't Look Back" series in England. The curators of the series hand-picked bands to perform their "classic albums." One may never know why the curators chose The Melvins' Houdini as the representative "classic" album from the band, but the results of the performance are brave and, dare I say, better than the original album.
The simultaneous hi-hat strike/guitar skronk that opens "Pearl Bomb" feels like someone has lit the ignition and detonated the band into high gear. Buzz Osbourne's barks maintain their break-neck punk rock intensity, and Dale Crover's drumming never slips from the middle ground between thrash metal and avant-garde jazz. The boys add atonal noise ventures and drum solos throughout the set and rearrange the track order, making the live interpretation seem more interconnected and thematic than the studio work.
The succinctness with which they perform is undeniable. There is a tight intensity that meanders throughout every song, and at no time in the set does the band seem like they need a break. Highlights include a surprisingly faithful rendition of "Sky Pup," a song with bizarre effect-laced vocals and a repetitive angular guitar riff that goes from zero to thrash without showing any strings. The turtle-paced metallic drone "Hag Me," which seemed ahead of its time in 1993, is newly grounded in the age of Sunn 0))) and Sleep. A venomous, expanded version of the ending death march "Spread Eagle Beagle" is filled with exciting percussion interplay and spurts of distorted fuzz and space alien effects.
Still, I can't help but lower the rating of the album as a warning to the consumer. If one already owns Houdini, there is really no point in buying this. Who wants to shell out $15 for slightly tweaked live versions of 13-year-old, previously-released Melvins tunes? Then again, if one does not own Houdini, Houdini Live 2005 is a boon on par with Melvins classics like Bullhead and Lysol.
The succinctness with which they perform is undeniable. There is a tight intensity that meanders throughout every song, and at no time in the set does the band seem like they need a break. Highlights include a surprisingly faithful rendition of "Sky Pup," a song with bizarre effect-laced vocals and a repetitive angular guitar riff that goes from zero to thrash without showing any strings. The turtle-paced metallic drone "Hag Me," which seemed ahead of its time in 1993, is newly grounded in the age of Sunn 0))) and Sleep. A venomous, expanded version of the ending death march "Spread Eagle Beagle" is filled with exciting percussion interplay and spurts of distorted fuzz and space alien effects.
Still, I can't help but lower the rating of the album as a warning to the consumer. If one already owns Houdini, there is really no point in buying this. Who wants to shell out $15 for slightly tweaked live versions of 13-year-old, previously-released Melvins tunes? Then again, if one does not own Houdini, Houdini Live 2005 is a boon on par with Melvins classics like Bullhead and Lysol.
1. Pearl Bomb
2. Hooch
3. Night Goat
4. Lizzie
5. Going Blind
6. Copache
7. Set Me Straight
8. Sky Pup
9. Teet
10. Joan Of Arc
11. Honey Bucket
12. Hag Me
13. Spread Eagle Beagle
More about: The Melvins
