The Melvins — Basses Loaded
Billed as the band’s 24th full-length studio album, “Basses Loaded” offers Melvins fans a kaleidoscopic array of sounds touching on all facets of the band’s sonic interests: from slow-dirging sludge metal to psychedelic guitar and drum stadium rock excess to pop-tinged free jazz noodling to techno-spotted dirty jokes. Employing six different bassists who’ve worked with King Buzzo and Dale Crover over the band’s many incarnations (current touring bassist Steven McDonald, Big Business’ Jared Warren, Jeff Pinkus of the Butthole Surfers, jazz/improvisatory wunderkind Trevor Dunn, Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic, and Dale Crover himself) “Basses Loaded” functions best as a sort of primer to the strange and adventurous world of the Melvins, a tour through their long musical history as well as an extremely current document of their most recent sonic interests.
Fans’ ultimate reaction to the record will most likely hinge on whichever modus operandi of the Melvins they prefer. Since “Basses Loaded” is a collection of recordings culled from various one-off sessions and severely limited 10” records put out by Amphetamine Reptile, it really doesn’t work as cohesive full-length per se; its ultimate value as part of the gargantuan Melvins discography is better defined by the service it does in giving fans access to some of this very difficult to find material. Case in point: I was able to purchase the “War Pussy” 10” (whose four tracks all appear here) at the most recent Melvins show in Minneapolis simply because Amphetamine Reptile is based here, and label owner Tom Hazelmeyer held some of the 400 copies back specifically for the Minneapolis date; anyone else looking to snag the record would have to hit Discogs and pay the absolutely absurd price of $400 (I paid $40 for it at the show, which is absurd enough in and of itself). The same is true of 2015’s “Beer Hippy” 10”, also released in an extremely limited edition by Amphetamine Reptile; being able to finally hear these tracks without having to hemorrhage insane amounts of cash more than justifies the existence of “Basses Loaded.”
And of course there’s the music. The best material here is easily the four tracks pulled from “War Pussy”: they essentially serve as a microcosm of “Basses Loaded” as a whole, in that the four tracks cover an impressive amount of sonic terrain. “The Decay of Lying” is a crushing, slow-moving anthem ala live favorite “At The Stake”; “I Want To Tell You” is a perfectly delivered poppy cover of the Beatles; “Hideous Woman” features King Buzzo’s crazy, untouchable math-tinged riffing and Crover’s severely tight and impossibly heavy drumming; and “War Pussy” explodes out of the speakers like some forgotten outtake from Judas Priest’s “British Steel” record, replete with harmonized guitar lines and multiple guitar solos. The material culled from the “Beer Hippy” 10” is almost as good, with each song delving into some seriously psychedelic and deeply fuzzed out guitar explorations; it’s probably some of the densest Melvins material I’ve heard in terms of layered guitars and assorted sonic detritus, and it’s beautifully slow and heavy.
The remaining tracks achieve various levels of success and failure. “Choco Plumbing,” the lone track with Big Business’s Jared Warren, has a chorus poppy enough to sit alongside Cheap Trick’s most anthemic stadium bangers, but becomes somewhat boring and overly long – and it’s only four minutes. “Captain Comedown,” featuring Jeff Pinkus, represents the more aggressively metallicized side of the Melvins, combining discordant and atonal chord voicings with more of Buzzo’s complex, hyper-involved riffing; when the guitar solo gives way to some crazy, tight, fast and totally synchronized guitar/bass/drum interplay, the result is nothing short of jaw-dropping. Trevor Dunn’s appearance on “Planet Destructo” is one of the more interesting facets of “Basses Loaded”; the song traffics in some vaguely psychedelic pop songcraft reminiscent of “Tommy Goes Berserk” off of 2012’s Melvins Lite record “Freak Puke” for its first half, but devolves into a fairly tedious attempt at free jazz that does little other than show off Dunn’s considerable bass chops. It’s a little pointless. “Maybe I’m Amused,” featuring Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, is simply a throwaway with little to recommend it, and its accordion lines come off as hopelessly twee; it feels as much a joke as “Shaving Cream,” with its run of repeated expletives and somewhat silly and childlike melodies. The album ends with a “cover” of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” which coasts by on some very precocious (and frankly annoying) synth work, closing the album on a particularly low note.
Those missteps aside, “Basses Loaded” is a perfectly acceptable (and enjoyable) Melvins record. For me it’s a far cry from the epic metal majesty of “The Maggot” or the noisy belligerent destructionism of “Colossus of Destiny,” but Melvins fans will want to grab it simply because it collects so much difficult to find material in a very convenient package; it’s also a nice hint at what may come if current bassist Steven McDonald appears on the next full length (having just seen him live with the band, it’s obvious the three enjoy a great musical and personal chemistry together). Knowing the Melvins, though, any guess at what might possibly come next is almost certain to be wrong.