MELVINS‘ King Buzzo sat down with The Phoenix to answer some cool questions.
A career in rock is basically like any other trade, in the sense that some people get lucky and can live off of the riches of a few seasons in the sun, and most eke by due a combination of hard work and persistence (and talent doesn’t hurt). When I caught up last year with Roger “King Buzzo” osbourne, guitarist and lead mouthpiece for MELVINS, he schooled me on the way that changes in the music industry are making all bands work harder for limited rewards; or, as he eloquently put it then, “We’re fucked!”
However, if you are a fan of the Melvins and their three-decade-long quest for the ultimate amalgamation of punk, metal, hard rock and avant-garde weirdness, the fucked-ness of the biz has meant– well, seeing a lot more of them, as the band has become road hogs par excellence. Which hasn’t impeded their recorded output at all either– going on two decades since their mid-90s drop from Atlantic, they are releasing records at an insane clip, with three releases by the band this year alone, each with a different lineup and on a different label (The Bulls and The Bees, a promotional release through Scion A/V, has the two-drum lineup that has recorded the band’s last three long-players; 1983 [Amphetamine Reptile] is new music recorded by the band’s 1983 pre-Dale Crover lineup; and their most recent Freak Puke [Ipecac] sees the band scaled down to a trio, with Trevor Dunn (x-Mr. Bungle) on acoustic standup bass).
The band’s newest workhorse challenge has been to tour all 50 of America’s states in 50 consecutive days (well, actually 51 “states” in 51 days, because they are counting the District of Columbia as a state) — and tonight’s show at the Paradise is stop number 27. They are ostensibly attempting to get in the Guinness Book of World Records with this stunt, but honestly I can’t imagine that the quest to get in the book really means much to the band. If anything, it smacks of just an excuse to log miles on the road– because Melvins love to play, despite/because of the fact that, as Buzzo put it, “it’s just music.” It’s just music! Perfect. I caught up with Buzz a few weeks ago, between stop eight and nine, and got the scoop on what it’s like to work like a fiend thirty years in.
GO here to read the interview.
