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.