Having a busier season than usual, with another album (Mike And The Melvins, recorded 16 years ago but out now) and a tour with fellow crusters Melt Banana and Napalm Death, Dale Crover and King Buzz Osborne rediscover the sludgiest end of their already sludgy art form with a handful of friendly (to Melvins) bassists sympathetic to their mawkish cause. Yes, Crover is usually a drummer, but that didn’t stop him from providing low end to the noisy “Beer Hippie,” the dippy “Phyllis Dillard” and the seriously dopey “Take Me Out To The Ballgame.”
Jeff Pinkus (Butthole Surfers, Honky), Trevor Dunn (Tomahawk, Mr. Bungle) and Jared Warren, too, have all done time within Osborne’s jarring rhythmic framework and against his rustling, scrawling guitar work. It is, however, the appearance of Nirvana’s Krist Noveselic that’s Basses Loaded’s biggest deal. Noveselic not only plods along to “Maybe I Am Amused” but pumps and hammers an accordion along with what I’m guessing is a semi-melodic McCartney piss take. It’s a bit mad, but what else would you expect from the Melvins, which in-and-of-itself is a shame. Just like most of SNL’s skits since 1980, we know the whole joke from its title alone.
—A.D. Amorosi
