Dale Crover - Drumb 7"

I know some dude requested this here about a year ago...pretty much no one has a rip of this, so this is my christmas present to him and all of you.

This is Dale Crover's only legit solo release. It was released back in '96 with somewhere around 200-500 copies I'm pretty sure. Side A is Drums and Noise (Four Words), while Side B is Side A backwards (Sdraw Kcab). I ripped the record at both 45RPM and 33RPM, as I wasn't sure which was the right speed...but it sounds a hell of a lot more evil at 33. Included with the download are complete scans of the front, back, and inlay of the sleeve, as well as a scan of Dale's short-lived minizine "Drumb" (props to themelvins.net).

Dale Crover - Drumb 7"

Excerpt from Dale's Drumbzine:

Q: What has three legs and an a**h%!$ on top?
A: A drum throne.

Q: How do you know when a drummer is at the door?
A: The knock speeds up.
A: When you say come in, he comes in late.
A: By the domino's uniform.

Q: A drummer who can keep time, A drummer who can't keep time, and Santa Claus are walking down the street. A $50 bill blows by. Who gets it?
A: The drummer who can't keep time. The other 2 do not exist.

Enjoy and have a good christmas/break/whatever the fuck

--fred

BONUS:
Here are a few of Dale's efforts from the past twenty something years, including his Solo EP, released with the Melvins:

Melvins - Dale Crover EP
Melvins - Night Goat 7"
Porn (The Men Of) - Wine, Women and Song
NIRVANA - Live 8/20/1990 w/ Dale on drums
Shrinebuilder (w/Wino, Scott Kelly, and Al Cisneros)

Melvins - Three Albums You Already Have

Here we are again, on the pre-ignition of another monday, and there's none more of an appropriate time for us to appreciate the Melvins. (MELVINS MONDAY!) That and I have more schoolwork I'm avoiding.

Prior to 93, the Melvins were anything but typical compared to their contemporaries from the region (see: grunge); they were sludge, they were metal, they were punk. When that whole dumb thing in the north-west corner happened...something changed. Bullhead wasn't too far removed from the formula we heard on Ozma--if anything it represented a transitional period. But in 1993, they veered off-course for better or worse.

The Melvins made a straight-ahead "rock" album, not unlike what everyone else was doing at the time. Were they cashing in? Were they taking the piss out of everyone else? It's not like they completely abandoned what they were doing before and turned to some contrived sound without reason; vestiges of their old style still soaked through in a few tracks (Hag Me, Copache, Set Me Straight, At the Stake, yadda yadda). What gets me about the whole change is that it's not like what they were doing on Ozma, Bullhead, and Eggnog was worn out or unoriginal...they fucking INVENTED sludge and played it for not even 5 years--then said fuck it--and moved on. Something so innovative, so new and fresh, although not all that accessible compared to other music, was at the very least THEIRS...and they just fucking threw it aside for other bands to pick up and march on with.

Really though, if they hadn't grown into a different genre of music, chances are their records would've ended up as stale, boring and unexciting as a Slayer or Cannibal Corpse release...the type of shit that only someone like Angry Pantera Kid would cum all over himself about. Or they could've suffered a slow painful death like TAD did from the mid to late nineties.

...nonetheless: whatever they were doing--they did it WELL, and that's what counts. Here's to 3 years of Mark D, solos, and KISS covers:

1993 - Houdini
1994 - Stoner Witch
1996 - Stag

--fred

The Melvins - Pick Your Battles

Here's a 15-Track CD that was released along with Brian Walsby's Manchild 4--not unlike the first Manchild Walsby released that included the Melvins' 'Making Love Demos'. This disc features 8 tracks from their performance at 'Gilman St. Project in Berkeley, CA back in 1989, while the remaining 7 tracks are from their performance at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston, MA last year. Something to bide your time with 'til someone circulates their 25th anniversary show recording...

Melvins - Pick Your Battles

--fred

PORN (The Men of) & Merzbow

If you aren't familiar with the Men of Porn yet, check out this earlier post.

This record is a "collaboration" between PORN and Japanese Lord of cacophony, Merzbow. There's not a whole lot I can honestly say about this album...if you're a fan of PORN, it's a new album release (hooray)! If you're a fan of Merzbow, you'll dig it without a doubt.

Sincere Moment:
Don't download this expecting to reap some fresh PORN material. My take on the record is that Merzbow borrowed the masters for "Wine, Women, and Song" and did his own thing with it...but it's still an interesting listen, don't let me dissuade you. Check it out:

Porn & Merzbow - ...And the Devil Makes Three
Part One
Part Two

Radio Shit -- WMUC -- WMBC

Soooo, more boring blah blah radio announcements. Our show, MINDGRINDER, is airing tomorrow from 10pm to 12am (eastern time) at wmucradio.com, streaming real-time on that interwebbernetsthingermajigger. Expect more noise rock.

Also, important to note, beware those who frequent the blog daily (I know there are some of you! Like two of you or something.): I'm going to shittily embed a windows media player stream of our show a little before we go live on the air and take it down once the shows over. This will be in place 'til I put effort into figuring out how to embed a quicktime stream. I know this will be annoying to most of you...because I know when I'm stealing other people's music, I'm probably listening to other shit I've stolen really really loud. But SHIT--deal with it for 2 hours every week, indulge us.

Other news: Our buddy Apoctosis over from Death By Hanger got a radio show (titled Into the Void) at UMBC's station, and he's been kind enough to rip the internet streams by his own ingenuity. Look at how much he's done for you! You owe him, BIG. And paying him in garglejobs isn't cutting it anymore. (On the Air Live Thursdays from 2-4pm (eastern time))

Into the Void is handi-capable radio. We will have to have a crossover episode sometime, like in X-Men.

--fred

Shut the fuck up: Melvins - Ozma

Joe Preston!!

Long time no see?

I was going to do this really big Joe Preston appreciation post and up 6 or so albums that he played on, but I just don't have the time to write something that large right now (plus I'm really really lazy).

INSTEAD--I will shut up and present you with these A+ Preston-affiliated efforts:

Melvins - Lysol EP
Melvins - Joe Preston EP
High on Fire - Blessed Black Wings
Thrones - Alraune

MINDGRINDER! Tomorrow at 10pm! (eastern) -- wmucradio.com

I'll make an honest effort to post a little more regularly in the next few weeks

--fred

Melvins 7" Extravaganza

Who remembers when the Melvins were still about the kids? I certainly don't.

Included in this are the 7"s:
Leopard Geck-o w/
Oven/Revulsion-We Reach

Slap a Ham w/
Your Blessened/Pronoun-Piece Me

and Babaraal w/
Two Untitled Tracks

Go Forth!

--fred

CORRECTION: The second track on the Barbaraal 7" is "June Bug". I'm pretty sure.

NIRVANA (now with more Dale Crover!)

(The picture above is actually from the 8/19 show)
This is a gig from their brief late-summer tour in 1990, when they were in between drummers. This was also an in between period in terms of material; this was in between the releases and production of "Bleach" and "Nevermind", so there's a good half and half mix of the two albums in the set. This is an audience recording with decent quality, in other words--it's good enough that it's listenable and you can enjoy it.

NIRVANA - 8.20.90 (w/Dale Crover)


An interesting sidenote; Dale had one condition they had to meet for him to agree to play: Don't fuck with his drumset.

--fred

Have you ever searched for a band and found nothing but gay porn?

I have explored the deadly crevasses of the internets to bring you this awesome side project "PORN (The Men Of)" founded by Dale Crover and Tim Moss. If you saw the Melvins live in early 2007, 2004 or anywhere in between there, chances are, you saw PORN...and were probably really fucking confused; some random dude moseys on stage wearing an Elvis get-up, giant black pompadour included, and jumps behind the drums, while another hairier (and angrier) looking gentleman stands in front of a stack with a wooden univox guitar dishing out feedback before ripping head first into their set. Dale plays along behind his kit, struggling to keep his giant black wig on and keep pace at the same time, while the crowd goes apeshit. Probably one of the best shows I've ever been to. But ANYWAY--like I was saying, I managed to get my mitts on three of their albums....


Think Old Grandad mixed with EyeHateGod:
Experiments in Feedback
Porn--American Style
Wine, Women and Song

Watch yer step

--fred