The Melvins – “Zodiac” MP3/download
[Before you read, scroll to the bottom and play the YouTube song, one of my Honky favorites -- it'll melt your mind while you read this.]
I’ve been so closely associated with The Melvins for so long I tend not to blog about them too much — it would be dull and obvious.
In the case of Neither Here Nor There, however, it’s a situation where I’m wondering why the bloody-H I haven’t given it the in-depth treatment already. This is the DEFINITION of the “Album As Art” theme, featuring as it does a 200-plus-pages book, with THICK-ASS pages, that renders the great-in-its-own-right CD accompanying it a bit of an afterthought.
When this came out I remember being shocked at how complex the thinking behind the book is — this is a tour diary of sorts, mixed with rememberances, notes, flyers, quotable-notables and, best of all, vivid art that blasts the eye from the page like a piece of grape Hubba Bubba for the senses (as you’ll see above; I’ve spared no expense, so dive in). I would have bought the book by itself, no doubt; that’s how much fuck-CD.
But WAIT just a tick — this isn’t one of those boring compilations that starts from the beginning and barrels forward. Neither Here Nor There‘s CD portion jumps around The Melvins’ discography like a flea-tick-leech hybrid, sucking up the best songs and shatting them out in random order.
Whomever compiled this puppy immediately caught my ear by including “Bar X rht Rocking M” at slot no. 1. That’s a gutsy pick, proof that the curators have been paying attention to this band’s many taffy twists and tonal turns. “Mombius Hibachi,” off Honky, also is given space to stretch out; it’s not the cut I would have chosen but I suppose it’s the most Melvins-ish selection from that album, and it’s certainly no couch-slouch (in fact I’ve written about “Mombus” on the Grove before).
There ARE a few obvious choices made (“Boris,” “Hooch,” “Night Goat”); I suppose I also have to let that go because bands like Melvins deserve to be obvious after years of stretching out the sludge-metal genre like Cheech and Chong pulling a pair of testicles around a boxing ring. It’s easy to take the trio for granted because … they’ve always been here, and probably always will.
Big mistake. The Melvins are one of those bands where, if you hate a record of theirs at first, it will end up being your favorite; they have that kind of power, constantly taking little jabs at the listener and seeing what lands. They don’t always hit the mark, and that’s half the fun. Besides, percentages are on their side, even when records like Prick (from which the title track is included) are factored in.
Check this, too: I bought Neither Here Nor There for $29.99 and it is now sold for a hundo-fifty or so on the eBays. Just like I’ve always said: The Melvins are a good investment; just ask Boris, Pelican, Kurt Cobain (oops), Big Business, Torche, Mike Patton, Sleep, High On Fire, Om, Black Cobra, Tool and Harvey Milk (the band of course) — they’ll tell you too.
