If It's Too Loud...

Photo by Sarah Linton Dale Crover, the drummer for The Melvins and Redd Kross, has released a cover of Neil Young's "Harvest Moon" and The Melvins' "The Bit." It may seem like an unusual choice, but Crover did play a young Neil Young in the video for "Harvest Moon," and co-wrote "The Bit" with Buzz Osborne. The "Harvest Moon" part of the track is shockingly faithful for someone from The Melvins. It's a note for note cover of the acoustic 1992 classic, lacking even the tiniest shred of his other bands' noise or volume. As the track transitions into "The Bit," the noise increases while still being a stripped down and acoustic track. It reminds me of King Buzzo's acoustic tours where he would include Melvins classics. This is a fun pairing of songs from a noise rock icon. Dale Crover says of his new single: "Years ago I played Young Neil Young in the video for Harvest Moon. It was quite a surreal experien...

Photo via Facebook Anything related to The Melvins is going to be fairly weird, and when it's a side project from the band's drummer... well, you expect it to be a little extra weird. Dale Crover's latest single is going to be a lot less weird than you'd expect. We're not talking about Foo Fighters or U2 levels of mainstream here, but "I Can't Help You There" is about as mainstream as Crover is going to get. It's a relatively straight up rock song through a Melvins smeared lens. You can watch the video for "I Can't Help You There" below. Rat-a-Tat-Tat! , the upcoming solo album from Dale Crover, will be out January 15 on Joyful Noise Recordings. You can pre-order a copy here . For more on Dale Crover, check out the artist on Facebook .

Black Flag seem to be the band of the moment to cover. For some reason, they're just one of those bands that has never truly clicked for me, but when The Melvins and Mudhoney team up to cover them? That I can't resist. Calling the project "Mudvins," the two legendary Washington state bands released a cover of 1984's "My War." It's a mostly straightforward cover. It might be a step slower than Black Flag's original, but The Melvins and Mudhoney amp up the sludge and grunge and somehow make it heavier. Plus, anytime we can hear Mark Arm unleash a truly epic howl, we're on board. Every time. You can listen to The Melvins and Mudhoney's take on "My War" below. The song is available on a collaborative four track EP called White Lazy Boy on Amphetamine Reptile Records. As of this writing, the CDs are sold out, but you can check to see if it's been restocked here . For more on The Melvins, check out their website . For more on ...

Photo by Emily Ulmer that dog. Title and release date TBD I've been a die hard That Dog. fan for over 20 years, to the point that I went to see them open up for the Foo Fighters way back in 1996. The band broke up in 1997, and reunited for a handful of reunion shows in 2011. Now, thanks to a Kickstarter that raised double what they were looking for, that dog. is set to release their first album in 19 years. Reunion albums, particularly ones where the band has taken almost two decades off, can be pretty iffy, but I'm staying hopeful on this one. Ryan Adams Prisoner , February 17 A new Ryan Adams album is always something we get excited for, but this one has a little more buzz for than usual. If you've ever been through a divorce, you start getting obsessed with other peoples' divorce stories. Prisoner  is Ryan Adams' divorce album, recorded written as least partly during Adams' very high profile divorce from Mandy Moore. With song titles like "D...

Photo via Facebook It's December 1st, so I guess it's ok to start posting about Christmas music, right? Amazon is dusting off their "Indie for the Holidays" playlist again this year, and this edition features a version of "Carol of the Bells" by noise rock legends The Melvins. As with most covers by The Melvins, "Carol of the Bells" is equal parts novelty and actual homage. Knowing The Melvins, this cover could have been a LOT heavier and thrashy, but they keep their pounding at a minimum to still be The Melvins but your aunt still might be able to tolerate it. You can listen to The Melvins' version of "Carol of the Bells" below. To check out the entire playlist for "Indie for the Holidays" (the 2016 version will be available on 12/2), head on over to Amazon . To find out what The Melvins are up to, check out their website .

I love Halloween. It's by far my favorite holiday, but musically it always gets the shaft. Sure, you're going to hear "Monster Mash" roughly 1000 times this weekend, but not much else. Last year, I snagged Rodney Anonymous of The Dead Milkmen's Halloween playlist , but this year I decided we needed our own. While metal is always an obvious choice, I tried to keep it to a minimum (Danzig), while focusing on our alternative classics (Jane's Addiction, The Magnetic Fields, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion), classic rock (Alice Cooper, Screamin' Jay Hawkins), and some of our newer favorites (Brown Bird, Speedy Ortiz, Walter Sickert & The Army of Broken Toys). Running at just around two hours, it's perfect to put on in the background for parties this weekend or while you're handing out candy on Monday. Enjoy!

Photo via Facebook The Melvins are always an interesting band. They tend to release anywhere from 1-3 albums per year, with varying results. Some are absolute classics, while others are... interesting. But their live shows are always a must see. I had missed them earlier this year on the Savage Imperial Death March Tour with Napalm Death and Melt Banana. Luckily for me, they swung through New England again and hit Providence. A Melvins show can be quite the challenge for a casual fan. The band open up with an instrumental intro with very minimal bass, drums, and occasional guitar that seemed to last roughly three hours. (Ok, it was probably ten minutes, but that's still a pretty long time.) The crowd was rewarded heavily with a fan favorite set that brushed the majority of the band's career. Despite having just released a new (and pretty great) album, Basses Loaded , The Melvins only played two songs off of it, "Hideous Woman" and "Take Me Out to the Ballga...

The Melvins have to be the most consistently prolific bands in music today. According to the story behind this latest release, back in 1999 the band added Mike Kunka of godheadSilo to the band as a second bassist. That lineup recorded together, but an album was never finished. The group decided to reconvene recently, and 17 years later are going to release Three Men and a Baby.  "Limited Teeth" is a fast, bludgeoning song. It's about as mainstream and coherent as The Melvins are going to get, especially with adding a second bassist. It feels like the best 90s grungy metal could ever have to offer, with killer fuzzy riffs and drums that could destroy a room live. Three Men and a Baby  is due out April 1 on Sub Pop. You can listen to "Limited Teeth" below. No word on if this line up will be included at all on The Melvins' upcoming tour with Napalm Death and Melt Banana, but head on over to their website for dates.

Photo via Facebook I don't think words can even express how fucking badass this cover is. First of all, it's a Bikini Girl cover, which is great to begin with. Then you add the sludgy ferocity of The Melvins with Teri Gender Bender of their summer tour mates Le Butcherettes and you get one of the best things you'll hear all year. The Melvins make "Rebel Girl" that much heavier. I think the only thing lacking is the unhinged on the edge of disaster quality of the original. The track was recorded live for Joyful Noise as part of their "Almost Live From Joyful Noise" series, and we all need copies of this to be made available ASAP. Unfortunately, all 100 copies of the 7" are sold out, so we only have the video for now. For more information on The Melvins, head over to their website . For Le Butcherettes (including their just released last week album), you can find them here . Coincidentally, Bikini Kill just reissued their debut album, Revolution...

Photo via Imaad Wasif's Facebook Get ready for an indie rock supergroup that may never do anything besides these two songs. Lou Barlow (Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr) has re-teamed with Imaad Wasif, his ex-New Folk Implosion bandmate (who was also in Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and Melvins' drummer to form Tres Padres. Lou Barlow posted two unreleased songs on YouTube and wrote on his Facebook:  i recorded a couple of songs with Imaad Wasif and  Dale Crover  about two years ago at 606 studios ( home of the Foo FIghters ) ..it was meant to be for a benefit 7" which has yet to be released.. in the meantime i've made quick vids for both of the tracks so's you can hear what we did before it possibly vanishes in the haze..  the session was simultaneously documented for a possible pilot for a possible Foo Fighters related documentary series.. haven't heard much about that either The songs sound like a Sebadoh/Melvins mash-up, which is pure heaven to me. You get Lou Barlow's m...

Back in 2012 when the Melvins went for the world record for playing all 50 states in the shortest time, they played the Brickhouse in Dover, NH. Surprisingly, King Buzzo brought his solo tour to the Brickhouse on 7/9/14. It wasn't anywhere near as well attended as the full band show, but it was still memorable. The big question of the night was answered right away with King Buzzo opening with the Melvins' classic "Boris." In fact, of the 13 songs played that night, 6 were Melvins songs, and 1 cover (Alice Cooper's " Ballad of Dwight Fry "). The rest of the set was made up of songs from Buzz's surprisingly great debut acoustic album, This Machine Kills Artists . The Melvins songs got the best reaction as these were the die hard fans. King Buzzo was much chattier than at a Melvins show, telling multiple stories and interacting with the crowd quite a bit. He told fantastic stories of accidentally insulting Mike Patton and watching Iggy Pop react t...