Nude with Boots
(Ipecac)
When you’re in a band for 26 years, etiquette demands you either
evolve or die. Melvins, thankfully, are ever changing, and
incorporating Big Business into their rhythm section in 2006 has acted
as a particularly powerful catalyst. That lineup’s first record, (A)
Senile Animal, was clearly an amalgamation of two distinct creative
voices, with moments that could have fit comfortably in either of the
bands’ separate catalogs.
Nude with Boots sees the team jelling more tightly and moving
in entirely new directions. There are no distinct Big Business
moments—this record is all Melvins, but it is a Melvins reborn,
reenergized. Record starter “The Kicking Machine” comes in with a
guitar riff that would sound more at home on an old Aerosmith record
than anywhere in Melvins’ expansive catalog. The drums are lively,
there are tambourines—it’s like Buzzo rediscovered breathing
fresh air after 20 years of living in a swamp.
What Nude lacks is any sort of cohesion. The title track and
“The Stupid Creep” are pure party jams, while “Dog Island” is a
seven-and-a-half-minute slow burner. The instrumental “Dies Iraea”
sounds like a score for a kung fu movie set in medieval times.
Production value takes a purposeful dive for “The Savage Hippy,” an
almost weird homage to their own lo-fi grunge roots. Considered
individually, there is nothing wrong with any of the songs on Nude
with Boots, but it feels like less like an album than a sprawling
compilation of genres and sounds. Still, there’s no indication that
Melvins intended the record to be anything more than just that. For
anyone who’s been in the game as long as King Buzzo and Dale Crover
have, releasing an album with this much inspired energy is a feat unto
itself, even if it is a jumble.
Melvins play Sat July 26, Showbox at the Market, 8 pm, $20
adv/$22 DOS, 21+. With Big Business.
Listen to Melvins’ “Lovely Cost”: