David Yow and Steve Albini on the set of ‘Duelin’ Firemen’ (via Bogart9)

The video game Duelin’ Firemen would have blown minds if it had been released in 1995. Think the Jodorowsky Dune of games. Much of the cast is straight out of the pages of Mondo 2000 or Fiz: Rudy Ray Moore, Rev. Ivan Stang, Mark Mothersbaugh, Timothy Leary, David Yow, Steve Albini, the Boredoms, Terence McKenna, Buzz Osborne, and Tony Hawk all had parts to play.

But unlike other worthy computer games that were actually produced in order to suck away vital months of my adolescence, such as DEVO’s Adventures of the Smart Patrol and the Residents’ Bad Day at the Midway, Duelin’ Firemen never passed from becoming into being. All that remains is a seven-minute trailer and a seven-inch record with David Yow on one side and the Boredoms on the other, both embedded below. From 23 years ago, here’s Rev. Ivan Stang’s account of the shoot:

12.21.1994- Run-n-Gun! filming
by Reverend Ivan Stang

I’ve been in Chicago for the last week, and although I took the modem with me, I never had time to plug it in. I was being an actor in a CD-ROM interactive video game called DUELIN’ FIREMEN being produced for the 3D0 system by a group of SubGenius filmakers and computer animator/vr programmers called Runandgun. It’s a combination of multiple-choice filmed scenarios and v.r. game situations, all taking place in Chicago while the entire city burns to the ground. I have played two roles in it so far—first an evil Man-In-Black and second, Cagliostro the evil 1,000-year old Mason whose spells started the fire. What sets this game apart from anything else I’ve ever seen is the TOTAL MIND-RAPE HILLBILLY SPAZZ-OUT STYLE of it. It makes Sam Raimi look like D.W. Griffith by comparison… makes Tim Burton look like Ernie Bushmiller. It is sick, twisted, weird and ‘Frop-besoaked like nothing on earth. It stars Rudy Ray Moore aka DOLEMITE as the main fireman with cameos by Tim Leary, Mark Mothersbaugh, Terrence McKenna, David Yow of Jesus Lizard and all manner of local Chicago freaks and jokers. (YES! I spent the week WORKING with DOLEMITE. We DO BATTLE in a scene and you get to “PLAY” us in the game section. Now is that cool or what. Of course, you’re probably too SOPHISTICATED to even KNOW who Rudy Ray Moore IS!!! (None of the crew did, although the winos outside the set recognized his VOICE.)) The real stars are the animation, fx and sets. It’s like a LIVING-SURREAL CARTOON from the mind of a CRAZY MAN (in this case, director Grady Sein). The Runandgun crew are like this commune of crazed hillbilly technoids. I had the time of my life. The game won’t be finished till July ‘95, though.

Stang

 

 
The trailer’s quality reminds me of the way videos looked on the screen of my Macintosh Performa during the late Nineties, except that back then they were about the size of a matchbox. What I’m trying to say is: prepare your mind and body for ugly fat-pixel video…

Watch after the jump…

 
In 1980, Paul McCartney released his first solo album since 1970’s eponymous McCartney. Cleverly titled McCartney II, it’s a so-so album at best, as a fair few Sir Paul’s albums are, and it remains noteworthy mostly because he recorded it entirely by himself while Wings was in stasis pending their breakup a year later, and because it contains “Temporary Secretary,” a wonderfully bonkers experiment in synth based electro-pop that’s held up well enough to have earned some overdue respect in recent years.

The lead-off single from that album was the kinda crappy but virulently catchy “Coming Up.” It boasted a chipmunk vocal effect that struck a lot of people as so weird that Columbia records promoted the single’s B-Side, a 1979 live version of the song performed by Wings in Scotland, as the US single, which actually worked, and the live version became the one that ended up on best-of comps. There’s a great story about John Lennon hearing the song for the first time, related by Tom Doyle in Man on the Run:

Lennon was being driven by [personal assistant] Fred Seaman through Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, when he first heard “Coming Up” on the radio. “Fuck a pig, it’s Paul,” he exclaimed, before turning up the volume and nodding along. “Not bad,” he decided at the song’s conclusion. He asked Seaman to buy him a copy of McCartney II and set up a new stereo system in his bedroom specifically so he could listen to it. The next day, “Coming Up” was still rattling around John’s head. “It’s driving me crackers,” he told Seaman, before venturing the opinion that even if its parent album was patchy, at least Paul was back trying to do something eclectic and experimental.

“Fuck a pig, it’s Paul”: The immortal words of one of popular music’s most politically aware and sensitive bards.

That McCartney album is credited by some sources as one of the factors that motivated Lennon to get off his ass and record the music that would find its way onto Double Fantasy, his last album of new music released in his lifetime. But lest anyone think all was hunky-dory between Lennon and McCartney, Lennon also had some sharp words about the cringeworthily goofy “Coming Up” promotional clip—in which a video-composited McCartney played every instrument (except Linda McCartney’s backing vocals) in a band called “The Plastic Macs,” a dig at Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band—saying that it must have been a dream come true for McCartney, who always wanted to be the only member of the band.
 

 
Trainspotters will note that in addition to portraying his own younger self in that video, McCartney also pays homage to Ron Mael of Sparks, Hank Marvin of The Shadows (easily mistaken for Buddy Holly), and Andy Mackay of Roxy Music, among others. In 1980, that was a difficult technical feat which won that video a lot of attention. Now, of course, such compositing techniques are far more effortless, and director Adam Harding has used them to pay ridiculous homage to (or make fun of?) that classic McCartney video with Melvins drummer Dale Crover, in a hilariously stripped-down way. “Bad Move” is Crover’s first solo video, from his first full length solo album The Fickle Finger of Fate on Joyful Noise. (Yes, he did a solo E.P. in 1992 as part of a KISS parody the Melvins did. And then there was last year’s six minute $100 record/art object Skins…) In Crover’s video, he plays three members of his band, sharing his stage with Acid King bassist Dan Southwick in costume as The Birthday Party’s Tracy Pew (!!!), and producer Toshi Kasai as keyboardist—well, I honestly can’t say who that’s supposed to be.
 
Take a look for yourself, after the jump…

 
“Skinner” is the mononym of a self-taught and quite gifted Oakland muralist/illustrator who works in lysergically vivid and intricately detailed style that at once evokes underground comix father figure S. Clay Wilson, punk skull purveyor Brian Pushead, and the violent imaginings of Mike Diana, rendered in the eyebleedy colors of the psychedelic poster era. Metal fans will know his work from his INSANE covers for Mastodon’s Once More ‘Round the Sun and Alexisonfire’s Dog’s Blood, apparel designs for High on Fire, Mastodon, and Skeletonwitch, and an awesome poster for the Melvins documentary Colossus of Destiny. His work was collected in the book Every Man is My Enemy.

Skinner has recently begun an art video series for the entertainment company Super Deluxe titled, fittingly, “Drawing with Skinner.” The first episode, released last month, featured Skinner drawing and chatting with the trippy and eccentric hip-hop producer The Gaslamp Killer. The new episode, released yesterday, features as Skinner’s guest Melvins singer/guitarist Roger “King Buzzo” Osborne. The episode begins with Buzzo protesting that he’s never painted, but paint he does—an abstraction emblazoned with the slogan “KILL FOR DRUGS.” While the two are painting, they talk about creative processes, dish dirt on who sucks to work with, and generally just have a fine time yakking, and the eavesdropping is worthy. Skinner, however, was nervous about working with a hero, confessing on his Facebook page:

The thing about the show that I have learned, is that every one is totally aligned with the vibes of the guest. You will see that it’s sort of the beauty of the thing. I also am totally learning as I go. I’m letting the show organically unfold and rolling with it. I also was kinda nervous because I’ve been a super fan of Buzz and the Melvins forever. I also know that his particular brand of contrary type punk antagonism that I love so much could possibly be something I’d come to face one day!

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
King Buzzo goes mansion shopping
The Melvins’ King Buzzo talks about his rescue dogs

An early shot of Washington State fuzz kings, Melvins.

Sound FX was a short-lived show on the FX Network back in the mid-90s. Its greatest claim to fame was when it had the honor of hosting the Melvins’ very first national television appearance in 1995.

This clip features the band absolutely slaying “Revolve” from their eighth album Stoner Witch in front of an audience that clearly has NO idea what was happening on stage or how to handle it. It’s an awesomely awkward experience from beginning to end as during the performance the show rolled a bunch of Melvins’ factoids on the screen to hip their viewers to the band. Such as the fact that none of them drink or do drugs—and even featured an artist sketching the band while they played.

But things get really uncomfortable when the band and King Buzzo sit down with one of Sound FX‘s hosts—and future host of the reality series Survivor—Jeff Probst who was tasked with interviewing the band. The trio had just released Stoner Witch which Probst carelessly describes as more “user-friendly” than other records their catalog. Yeesh. The entire affair is highly amusing to watch as the Melvins quite literally roll all over Probst and his silly questions and then thankfully take the small stage again and murder out a version of “Goose Freight Train.” Nice. The fifteen minutes of footage is ready for you to watch below.
 

The Melvins’ first national television appearance on the FX Network show ‘Sound FX’ in 1995.

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
This Melvins rehearsal tape from 1985 features drummer Dale Crover’s pissed-off mom
That time it cost Bill Maher $1,700 to insult the Melvins

 
Bill Maher is sometimes a trenchant, cranky, and astutely funny gadfly telling brave truths to power, and that guy can be a joy to watch. However, sometimes he’s merely a smug and cringeworthy backpfeifengesicht poster child nursing a nauseating schoolgirl crush on his own opinions. Maher’s unabashedly opinionated nature is an asset, but his arrogant posturing often blemished (I won’t say “marred” because that’d be cheap) his otherwise great feature length documentary-as-takedown Religulous. I’m a dyed-in-the-wool atheist who largely agrees with him on matters of faith, but his pomposity in that film sometimes felt just as gross to me as the most self-satisfied hubris of right wing Christian exceptionalists. But when he’s on, he can be magnificent, and the remarks that land him in the hottest water often happen to be the ones where he’s most dead-on correct.

And once in awhile he’s just an ass with shit for taste in music.

Just a couple of years ago, Maher tweeted that the game show Jeopardy was a game show for smart people and that Wheel of Fortune was for idiots. He’s not really wrong, but he might be a wee bit biased, as he himself appeared on Jeopardy twice. In November of 1995, he played Celebrity Jeopardy against actors Swoosie Kurtz and Charles Kimbrough. (His charity of choice: PETA. Have fun with that.) He returned two years later for a “Power Players” match against NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell and I shit you not disgraced Lieutenant Colonel and serial non-recaller Oliver North. In that episode, Maher pulled an Audio Daily Double in the category “It Came From Seattle,” wagered $1,700, and was treated to a clip of the excellent Melvins’ song “Copache,” a fan favorite from their 1993 album Houdini that’s liable to turn up in the band’s live sets to this day. The clip accompanied a question about the grunge movement, which of course rather famously emerged from Seattle (though Melvins themselves did not). Maher chose to opine about the song instead of answering the question, betraying his pedestrian tastes by lamely joking “well that song sucked, that’s for sure.” His pleas that he intended to answer the question fell on the tinnitus-deaf ears of righteous sludge metal rager Alex Trebek, and Maher forfeited his $1,700.

Serves his ass right. He’s probably a fuckin’ Eagles fan, anyway.
 

 
There is more, after the jump…

 
It’s good to have cool friends, and I can think of few bands who get that like Qui does. In their decade-and-a-half of existence, the duo has morphed from a clamorous noise rock duo to a daring and melodic band making some of the most compelling and enjoyable experimental rock being made today. So it’s both a happy and unfortunate happenstance that many people know them mostly as “that band David Yow was in for awhile.” Unfortunate because they’re so much more than that, but happy because hell, at least more people know who they are.

Qui was formed in L.A. in 2000 by drummer Paul Christensen and guitarist Matt Cronk, and they announced their existence to the world with the album Baby Kisses. It’s a bit throwbacky, developing ideas that largely tap an acutely ‘90s Skin Graft/Touch and Go vein, but they attracted former Scratch Acid/Jesus Lizard singer David Yow, who served as a guest vocalist before becoming a full-blown member of the band in 2007, appearing first on the “Today, Gestation” 7” and then the Love’s Miracle album. (Recommended. I saw the band on that tour and GOD DAMN.) Yow would appear on another single in 2009, but as of a 2013 split 7” with Mike Watt, Qui were a duo again.
 

 
That split 7” reveals what could be an entirely different band. Though the drumming is Shellac-ishly sparse, the noisy guitar is all but gone—in place of the distorted guitar textures, the song is mainly characterized by sunny two-part vocal harmonies. Which they pulled off really well. The openness in their arrangements and those harmonies bouyed their excellent 2014 album Life, Water, Living…, co-produced by Melvins’ drummer Dale Crover and engineer/sometime Big Business guitarist Toshi Kasai. Dale and Toshi kept the gig, producing Qui’s forthcoming new E.P. How to Get Ideas, and guitarist/singer Matt Cronk took the time to answer some questions about it all via an email exchange:

Dangerous Minds: So—you had David Yow in your band for a spell, and now you have Dale Crover guesting on your new E.P. Is it possible that your duo is in fact a frustrated trio? Do you have a strong preference for either configuration? Would you add another full-time member again?

Matt Cronk: We’re certainly not frustrated. Quite the contrary, in fact. There are huge advantages to being small, both artistically and practically. With only two people we are generally sympatico on what we want to do musically. Over the years we’ve gotten really good at collaborating, allowing one another room to try out ideas, etc. That’s not to say it was hard to collaborate with David, not at all. Getting to work with him was a dream come true for us and writing music together was an enormous pleasure. We jelled right away but I doubt that would be the case with just anyone. On the practical end, with only two people, there are fewer schedules to accomodate, fewer people needing hotel rooms and food, fewer girlfriends, and so on. We can tour in a smaller vehicle than we could with more members so our fuel costs are cut nearly in half. All those things add up quickly. I guess to answer your question about a preference, if I had to pick one I would pick the duo. Paul and I have been friends since high school and have been joined at the hip ever since. We get along and can obviously work and travel together for long stretches. I can’t stress enough, however, how much we loved playing with David Yow. He has remained very close to us and I feel incredibly lucky to have gotten to both be his friend and bandmate. Dude’s one of a kind.

We are and have always been open to playing with other people. In fact, we just finished tracking a record with Trevor Dunn. We are talking about doing some dates with him next year, it’s a matter of working it out logistically.

As for taking on another full-time member, it’s not out of the question, depending on who it might be. As of now, we are really digging being able to have these collaborations, yet not be totally beholden to them. We have a couple other things in the works with other people.

I know that before this E.P., Crover co-produced Life, Water, Living…. Did he perform on any tracks on that album?

MC: Yes, in much the same capacity. When we were tracking vocals for Life, Water, Living… Dale had suggested adding a third harmony part to one song. We were both a little hesitant for whatever reason, and he said, in his soft-spoken cadence, “come on, guys, I’m trying to sing on your record!” We, of course, were only too happy to oblige. He ended singing on a few things on that one. Working with him and Toshi Kasai has been yet another incredible blessing. It is not lost on us how lucky we are to get to work with our heroes. We are truly honored.

Is it “key” or “kwee,” and does the name have a specific meaning or was it selected because it doesn’t?

MC: Kwee. We chose it specifically because it doesn’t mean anything. We wanted a name that was oblique and didn’t conjure any kind of image like, say, Goat Master or The Black Things or whatever. We have always tried to be unique in our aesthetic and presentation.

More after the jump…

 
Not so terribly long ago, we at DM noted that over their 30+ year career, sludge-metal and grunge forefathers Melvins had experienced a perpetual revolving-door phenomenon with regard to their bass players, and I compiled what I thought was an exhaustive list of the musicians who’d filled that slot. But at the time, I had no idea this had happened: in 1999, during Kevin Rutmanis’ (ex-Cows) tenure as bassist, a two-bass Melvins lineup briefly existed, the second bassist being Mike Kunka of the equally bludgeoning Northwestern bass/drum duo godheadSilo. That band made itself underground-famous in the ‘90s with a literal wall-of-sound approach—Kunka would line the back walls of the small venues they played with enough amplification for a massive arena show, while drummer Dan Haugh battered a set of compensatorily humongous drums. As their gear utterly dwarfed them, the effect was as amusing as it was deafening. Under the moniker “Mike & the Melvins,” they recorded the album Three Men and a Baby, an album which for unclear reasons went unfinished for over 15 years.

But last year, for equally unclear but entirely welcome reasons, Melvins core duo Buzz Osborne and Dale Crover reconvened with Rutmanis and Kunka to finish the album and deliver it to Sub-Pop records over a decade and a half behind schedule. If you’re in for this sort of thing (and since you’re still reading, I think it’s fair to assume that skillet-meets-face sludge rock is more or less your zone), the album was worth the wait. The release date is April 1, but the track “Chicken ‘n’ Dump” is available for download now, and it’s DM’s pleasure today to premiere the song “Limited Teeth.”
 

 
Keep reading after the jump…

 
Like time itself, the procession of Melvins bass players marches ever onward. That sludgy parade has included luminaries like ur-Melvin and eventual Mudhoney founder Matt Lukin; Lori Black, the daughter of the ridiculously famous 1930s child actress Shirley Temple; Cows’ Kevin Rutmanis; Joe Preston of doom pioneers Earth, who went on post-Melvins to form the wonderful ambient/drone project Thrones; erstwhile Alchemy Records honcho Mark Deutrom; Mr. Bungle’s Trevor Dunn; Karp/Big Business bassist Jared Warren; and, most recently, Butthole Surfer Jeff Pinkus.

My pals and I have long had a running joke—and we surely can’t be the only ones—that this tendency will reach its apotheosis once Minute/hose bass legend Mike Watt becomes a Melvin, but in a way, something close enough has actually happened. It was announced last month that the latest Melvin will be Steve McDonald of Redd Kross, the early L.A. hardcore band featured in Desperate Teenage Lovedolls and Lovedolls Superstar when they themselves were still actual teenagers, making themselves notorious with a gleeful take on hardcore that pushed towards manic power-pop, and a penchant for hilariously nailing near-heretical cover songs. In the mid-‘80s, they made a dramatic turn towards full-blown psychedelia, releasing the unspeakably brilliant Neurotica, an album that would leave a large stain on the grunge movement that was soon to come. McDonald resurfaced in the 21st Century as a member of the hardcore alter-kaker supergroup OFF! with members of Circle Jerks and Hot Snakes, and with Redd Kross again, on the 2012 LP Researching the Blues. He’s reportedly already recorded a Melvins EP called War Pussy, and will perform on this year’s sure-to-be-completely-sick tour with Japanese spazzcore gods Melt Banana and Napalm. Fucking. Death.
 


 
To celebrate this unholy union, Melvins have released a Neurotica mash-up T-shirt, designed by illustrator and onetime Polvo drummer Brian Walsby, who in 2014 gifted the world with a wonderful Melvins/Forever Changes shirt. Preorders are currently ongoing, and quantities are limited to 500 standard Ts and 500 raglan sleeve baseball shirts.

Continues after the jump…

 
A wonderful artifact just popped up on YouTube this week—a 1985 Melvins rehearsal tape, of pretty high quality for a boombox recording, bookended by the complaints of band member Dale Crover’s mom that the band is drowning out the TV!

Melvins, as constituted in 1985, were already on their second lineup. Founders Buzz Osborne and future Mudhoney member Matt Lukin (the first in Melvins’ Spinal Tap drummer-like procession of bassists) had recruited drummer Crover the year before to replace original member Mike Dillard. Osborne was 21 at the time, and Crover only 18, and the band practiced in Crover’s mother’s Aberdeen, Washington home. But despite their youth, the soon-to-be-influential band were already burgeoning road warriors. After the rehearsal tape, I’ve included footage from a concert that same year, in Calgary, Alberta.
 

 
Here’s part one of that concert in Canada. Part 2 is here, and 3 is here.
 

 
An amusing side-effect of the ‘90s post-Nirvana OMFG SIGN EVERY BAND WITH WEIRD CLOTHES RIGHT NOW moment was the attention given to quality strivers who would likely have escaped the mainstream radar altogether had the corporate music sector not taken to throwing entire scenes at the wall to see what would stick. And while yes, we had to suffer the temporary ubiquity of 4 Non Blondes and Crash Test Dummies, moments like this almost made up for it: sometime in the mid-‘90s, MTV took Melvins singer/guitarist King Buzzo mansion shopping in Beverly Hills.

I’m having trouble pinning down the actual date of this, but judging from Buzzo’s hair, my best guess would be between 1994-1996ish, give or take. (And I love the idea of Buzzo’s hair functioning as rock ‘n’ roll carbon-dating. Surely someday it’ll serve as an oracle.) This was squarely within the short period during which Melvins were on Atlantic records, but though they’d influenced very very successful bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden, the Melvins themselves weren’t really filling stadia in accordance with their accolades. Which, along with Buzzo’s natural charm and warped sense of humor (that ridiculous fake evil laugh gets me every time), is exactly what makes this video hilarious—America’s love affair with quality notwithstanding, he’s not a guy who’s ever going to be buying a Beverly Hills mansion.
 

Hanging with Kim Thayil? Cool, no doubt, but no mansion. Maybe a nice bungalow?
 

Hanging out with Kurt Cobain? STILL no mansion. Sorry, Mr. Influential.

And he hammers that point home at the end, attempting to pay for the place with indie-cred, in the form of magazine articles full of accolades for how influential he was. But of course, all that influence didn’t really make Melvins any real cash. The real estate agent, who took this shameless waste of her time in admirable stride, then proceeds to state the incontrovertible fact artists of all stripes have been trying to tell cheapshit clients for ages: praise and exposure for your work don’t support you if you don’t get MONEY for it. And really, in that era of overwrought and myopic Fugazi-purity, that it took a goofy prank on a real estate agent to point out something so screamingly obvious is actually kind of unsurprising.

By the way, Melvins are on tour, and Butthole Surfer Jeff Pinkus is serving as their bassist (he and BHS guitarist Paul Leary played on the last Melvins album Hold It In). If there’s a show coming your way, do try to make it out to see them. After over 30 years, they still bring it HARD.
 

 
Thanks, Rob Galo, for letting me know this exists.

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
King Buzzo of The Melvins gets a dream-come-true invitation from Dave Grohl (and totally blows it)
The Melvins’ King Buzzo talks about his rescue dogs
From Brainiac to Buck Owens: King Buzzo guest DJs with Henry Rollins on KCRW

 
There’s all kindsa Melvins news to report: they’re soon to be the subject of the documentary with the best name ever, The Colossus of Destiny - A Melvins Tale, which you can help Kickstart here, and they’ve announced a summer tour to support their LP Hold It in, with the Butthole Surfers’ Jeff Pinkus on bass (YAY!). But I’d way rather tell you about the band’s singer/guitarist Buzz “King Buzzo” Osborne’s recent interview on Dogster. It seems that the godfather of sludge-metal and his wife have quite a few rescue dogs, and frankly, I respond to dogs the way the Internet writ large responds to cat pictures. I have a rescue, myself, a terrier mutt, most likely part miniature schnauzer, part Boston, possibly part Scottie, named “Lulu” after Emily Flake’s alt-comic, and she happens to be the single most adorable goddamn thing on Planet Earth. (I’ll spare you the treacly “who rescued who” shit, as I hate that kind of naked mawkishness with the power of a million squirrels.) If I lived on a huge property instead of in a rented duplex, I’d probably have a commensurately large number of rescue dogs. Dogs kinda rule.

Osborne talked to Dogster’s Kezia Willingham about life with his two Jack Russells and his Staffordshire, Buster, Coco, and Gigi (cool that he’s a terrier guy, too…), and how he and his wife came to be serial rescuers:

The first dog my wife and I had was a rescue Pit Bull-Whippet-Lab mix named Itchy. He lived to be 17, and we had to finally put him down a little over a year ago. That was tough. He was pretty much the best dog ever.

When we got him, he had been severely abused and had never been indoors, never slept on a dog bed, and never eaten or drank out of a bowl. He was malnourished and extremely skittish. The people who had him before us used to let their children throw baseballs and other assorted garbage at him while he ran around terrified and helpless in their backyard. People who behave like that should be in jail. They ended up abandoning him to a neighbor of theirs, who told us the whole story.

He didn’t trust us at first, but once we started treating him right he warmed up and became a wonderful companion for the better part of two decades. I can’t imagine a better dog. The first time he ever tasted steak, I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head.

Rest in peace, Itchy. G’boy.
 

 

 
More after the jump…

 
Last spring, we told you all about Kids Interview Bands, a web series featuring two young ladies from Central Ohio talking to members of Mastodon, Slayer, the Pixies, and even ICP. Well, perhaps predictably, the boys are on the case too: a young fellow named Elliott conducts musician interviews for littlepunkpeople.net, and he’s doing a fine job. (He’s the son of the site’s masterminds, Daniela and Justin Fullam—the site is basically a family art project. Cool family, I must doff my cap to them!)

Here he is getting Keith Morris of Black Flag, Circle Jerks, and OFF! talking about the go-for-it ethos of early So-Cal hardcore, what he’d do if he were President, and other critical subjects like “the government or Dracula?” And Morris is plenty awesome here.
 

 
Much more after the jump…

 
Artist/musician Brian Walsby has been active for a solid 30 years, making art for Maximum Rock ‘N Roll and Flipside, and drumming for bands as varied as SoCal hardcore shit-stirrers Scared Straight and math-rock gurus Polvo. His latest opus is a hilarious Melvins shirt that parodies the famous cover art of Forever Changes, the classic third LP by Love.
 

 
The shirt features six members of the Melvins’ forever-changing (GET IT? GET IT?) lineup, including Jeff Pinkus (Butthole Surfers), Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle, Tomahawk), Jared Warren (Big Business, Karp), Coady Willis (Big Business, Murder City Devils) and, obviously, ur-Melvins Buzz Osborne and Dale Crover. These will be limited in quantity to 500, and per the Melvins’ Facebook page, they’re already running low, so pre-ordering soon would seem wise if you’re just dying for one of these.

The Melvins’ new LP, Hold It in, features Jeff Pinkus and Paul Leary of the Butthole Surfers, and is due out in October. While you wait, enjoy the Osborne / Crover / Willis / Warren lineup’s live performance at L.A.‘s Amoeba Records in 2008.
 

 
One of the least likely candidates this side of Whitehouse for an acoustic phase was surely The Melvins’ King Buzzo, whose name is pretty much onomatopoetic for his IMMENSE electric guitar sound. But the progenitor of both grunge and sludge-metal did just that this year, doing a brief solo u-word tour and releasing a super-limited 10” acoustic EP called This Machine Kills Artists.. The tiny number of copies of that EP that were released online were gone in no-time (I got extremely lucky and nabbed one, just by the sheer happenstance that I took a look at AmRep’s Facebook page right when they announced it was up for sale), and the rest were sold only on tour dates.

But if you got shut out of that release, never fear. All but two of the EP’s six songs are coming out on Buzzo’s full acoustic LP, also called This Machine Kills Artists, which will surely confuse no one. As the EP was accompanied by a short tour, the LP will herald a long one. The dates are listed here.
 

 
The album will be released physically and digitally by Ipecac Records on June 3, and will feature 17 songs. Individual tracks have made their way to the public via The Quietus and ScionAV, but Dangerous Minds is proud to be the first to bring you the entire album stream.
 

 
So blah blah blah Nevermind, huh? It was an epochal album that experienced world-altering success, but in the early ‘90s underground, it was more like a harbinger of doom.

Once Nevermind hit radio, heavy indie-rock concert audiences began filling up with the types of hateful “normals” whom fans of weirdo music had spent their lives trying to avoid, so the more dedicated and tribal noise-ists, whose embrace of post-hardcore was less flannel-and-MTV-oriented, dove deeper. And when Sub-Pop band after Sub-Pop band kept shooting for the big time, “deeper” meant Amphetamine Reptile.

AmRep was in many ways like a ‘90s SST, a natural home for fearless disreputata to make the twisted and powerful music they needed to make. Tar’s Roundhouse, Helmet’s Strap It On, Cows’ Cunning Stunts, Surgery’s Nationwide, and Hammerhead’s masterpiece Into the Vortex were all crucial documents of this new noise from the Midwest and NYC, and all of them were on AmRep. The label stopped releasing new artists at the end of the ‘90s, but it never deactivated entirely, and it still occasionally releases material by its older acts—King Buzzo’s painfully limited 10” acoustic E.P. from earlier this year was an AmRep release.

The label was started in the ‘80s by the colorfully cranky Tom Hazelmyer, a USMC vet, printmaker, firearms enthusiast, and the leader of the vociferous Minneapolis trio Halo of Flies, whose collection Music for Insect Minds is a must-have if you go in for this kind of stuff. Hazelmyer is the subject of the forthcoming documentary The Color of Noise. Financed by a Kickstarter two years ago and directed by Eric Robel, the doc is set to debut at the end of this month in Nashville, in conjunction with an exhibit of Hazelmyer’s linocuts. It features archival concert footage and interviews with most of the above-mentioned, plus The Melvins, Today is The Day, Unsane, Helios Creed, and several noteworthy poster artists. Clips, outtakes and the official trailer made their way online this week. Here’s a snippet that looks at the label’s amazing R&D series of gorgeous 7” picture discs.
 

 
And here’s the trailer. If you’re going to be in Nashville around the end of the month, the debut screening is scheduled to be held at Third Man Records on May 30th. If you’re just dying to know more but can’t wait, an official blog has been documenting the process of making the film, and this Hazelmyer interview is top-notch.
 

 
Some Halo of Flies footage that didn’t make the final cut, after the jump…