kurtcobainaddict:

the Melvins with Kurt

1. Buzz’ beret is ridiculous

2. Lorax looks seriously zonked out

3. Kurt is a total creeper

4. I SHOULD HAVE BEEN HERE (even though I was like four years old when this was taken, but whatever).

74 Notes   kurtcobainaddictSource   fuckyeahmelvinsReblogged   Comment

grungebook:

The Melvins on the road, circa 1986. From left: Buzz Osborne, Dale Crover and Matt Lukin. Photo © Matt Lukin

In the lead-up to next week’s release of the trade paperback edition of Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge (out March 13; order info here), I’ve been sharing…

I had no idea that the early days of Melvins was so full of…drama. Matt Lukin just sounds kind of whiny IMO, but I can understand the aggravation. Ultimately, Melvins is just the Buzz Osborne show, and whoever wants to tag along can as long as you do what he tells you to do. I think that Lori was a better bassist (listen to her work with Clown Alley - girlfriend could slap the shit out of that thing), and Montesano is a shitty town, but Buzz and Dale could have made the transition a little less painful for everyone involved.

17 Notes   grungebookSource   grungebookReblogged   Comment

Matt Lukin, Lori Black, Joe Preston, Mark Deutrom, Kevin Rutmanis, and Jared Warren. They have all been Melvins bassists at some point in time during the band’s history.

Who do you think was/is the best Melvins bassist?

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Is there a better version of this photo that exists?

23 Notes   songsaboutfuckingSource   songsaboutfuckingReblogged   Comment

TRAILBLAZERS: Lori “The Lorax” Black

Out of all the countless bands that use the “sludge” tag, each and every one can trace their sound, style, and overall vibe to one band: Melvins. Consequently, when asked about women who influenced them, many of the female musicians I interviewed cited Melvins’ second bassist, Lori “The Lorax” Black, as one of their biggest influences and inspirations. Who exactly is Lorax? Does anybody really know anything about her? First off, it’s true that Lori Black is the daughter of famous child star Shirley Temple. As a child, Lori appeared on a few children’s programs with her mother and even got to meet the Beatles at the height of their fame.

After spending some time in art college, Lori decided to take up music and began playing bass in several Bay-Area bands, most notably the trash metal/fusion act Clown Alley with future Melvins member Mark Deutrom. Around 1987, Buzz Osborne and Dale Crover re-located to San Francisco from Washington state. Buzz met Lori, they “fell in love” (or at least lust), and he recruited her to be their new bassist. Dubbed “The Lorax”, Lori played on some of Melvins’ most influential albums, including Ozma, Bullhead, and Houdini. Kurt Cobain was a fan of her work and many other young women on the Bay Area scene (like Lori S. and Chiyo Nukaga) were impressed by the sight of a “tiny little girl with this bass as big as she was, standing in front of this huge wall of amps”.

However, there was trouble in paradise. After temporarily being replaced by Joe Preston, Lorax returned to the band in 1993, only to be fired shortly after Houdini was recorded. No one is exactly sure why she was booted from the band, but it likely had to do with the fact that Buzz and Lori’s romantic relationship came to an end. Buzz admitted that he couldn’t stand to be around her anymore, so she was sent packing. There were also rumors that Lori was a serious junkie and her addiction was causing her to miss gigs and recording sessions.

In the years following her forced departure from Melvins, Lori gave up on music and has kept a low profile since. There were rumors that she overdosed on heroin in 1998, which were quickly dismissed. Today, she can occasionally be spotted in the crowds at local Bay Area shows, but it’s highly unlikely that she will ever return to the stage. It’s really quite a shame, because the name “Lorax” is still respected by metal historians. Since Melvins were the first real sludge metal band, that makes Lori Black sludge metal’s first lady. That’s one title that can never be stripped from her.

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LORI S OF ACID KING ON HOW MELVINS INFLUENCED HER…

“I love playing  low end, tuned down, heavy riffs. Why? Well I was on tour with my all girl band Bhang Revival which was more punk rock and pop with a touch of sub pop and we had a show at Gilman Street with this band I’d never heard of called The Melvins and holy shit I was blown away.  I remember watching them and the huge stack that Lorax had (Lori “Lorax” Black, daughter of Shirley Temple).  She needed a chair to shut the head off. The stack was too high for her,” adding that this was one of the biggest influences in why she started to play slower, louder and heavier.

I DEMAND THAT LORI BLACK AND LORI S ENTER A STUDIO AND JAM.

…and then tour with Melvins. SUPER AWKWARD.

Two Loris are better than one…LOL

15 Notes   sludgefactory.com.auSource   Comment

WOMEN IN SLUDGE METAL - AN ANALYSIS

*To view pictures and other content, please click to the MAIN PAGE of my blog*

NOTE: The terms “sludge”, “stoner”, and “doom” metal describe similar styles of music and are often interchangeable, so “sludge” will represent all three within this article.

As a somewhat serious writer, I like to discuss aspects of the music world that others haven’t really given much attention to. Most of my life has revolved around metal and its countless sub-genres with a select few becoming my favorites. Since around 2007, my interests have shifted almost entirely to sludge, a slow, droning, and some say mind-altering metal offshoot. Sludge and grunge came to form in the late ’80s as the result of years of metal and punk inbreeding. One of these underground sounds had catchy pop hooks and soon re-arranged the whole musical landscape, and the other…well the other was just too un-formulaic and abrasive to ever storm the Billboard Hot 100. However, it’s important to note that while grunge died a slow, painful death, sludge is still alive and kicking, and some predict that a few of the newer acts will eventually have a major commercial breakthrough.

During the time I’ve spent learning about and keeping up with the scene at large, I noticed something rather unusual about sludge - nearly all of the most influential or prominent bands currently feature (or once featured) women. A few weeks ago, I asked the followers of this blog to give me the names of some prominent female musicians within sludge, stoner, and doom metal, and to say that the response was huge would be a serious understatement. Suddenly I discovered a sizable number of bands that not only featured female musicians but actually served to showcase their various talents. Out of all the responses to my question, Brendan’s was the most insightful and raised a very good point:

“It’s funny that there seem to be so few ladies in most underground genres but sludge, which can often times be far more repugnant to listen to, seems to attract more female players than other types of heavy music”

Someone else could have found a response like this insulting, but I perfectly understood what Brendan was saying. The cold reality is that most women in hard rock belong to bands that fall into the “softer” sub-genres (think “Goth” or “Melodic”). If a woman isn’t the lead singer, she’s usually given a position within the band that makes her easy to replace - bassist, keyboardist, violnist, tambourine-shaker…you get the idea. Since sludge is so “heavy”, both musically and emotionally, it’s simultaneously refreshing and puzzling to see so much female participation. After spending a little time researching these women and the bands they’ve belonged to, I’ve formed a few theories as to why the gender ratio in sludge is so much higher than what is normally expected for metal sub-genres.

LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT THE ROLES WOMEN IN METAL PLAY THE MOST. 

Women in metal usually come in one of three varieties: divas, centerfolds, or the occasional diva-fold. Divas carry themselves as sort of gothed-up Disney princesses; wearing corsets or foofy dresses while belting out “epics” about Norse gods, warriors, destiny, mermaids, elven sorcerers, and other Jethro Tull-style silliness. Europe is full of these Diva-fronted “symphonic” metal bands, like Epica, Within Temptation, Leaves’ Eyes, and most famously Nightwish, which has launched the careers of both Tarja Turunen and Anette Olzon. Now in no way am I dissing any of these bands or their singers, because some of them, like Tarja and Epica’s Simone Simons, have some pretty serious pipes. However, it’s important to note that a Diva is too proper and classically trained to be a full-on headbanger. A Diva’s role is to stand in one place, look pretty, and sing over the bombastic power chords playing behind her. If you like show tunes with “Final Countdown” synths and ’80s guitar licks, these Diva bands will be right up your alley. Personally for me, with the exception of Tarja-era Nightwish, I think most of it is too cheesy to be of any real worth.

Centerfolds like to use sexuality in order to draw attention to their respective bands. Revolver editors absolutely can’t get enough of this niche, because mainstream metal publications unfortunately tend to focus more on a woman’s looks than the actual talent she might posses. Centerfolds don’t mind being objectified in this way and actually like to play into the stereotypes that men create for them. Good examples include Maria Brink of In This Moment, Lzzy Hale of Halestorm, and Marta of Bleeding Through. In Brink’s case, she roars like a wooly mammoth but looks and acts like a Rock of Love reject. As a matter of fact, in an interview with Revolver earlier this year, Brink groused that men in metal have it easier than women because “they don’t have to wear heels!” (Oh God, SERIOUSLY? “Have to”?!). Hale, who wants to be Pat Benatar so bad that it hurts, specializes in writing cock-tease anthems (“I’m in love with somebody…oh yeah…AND IT’S NOT YOU!”). Marta might be the most ideal centerfold of them all - she looks like Dita Von Teese and is largely mute. When she made the cover of Revolver’s “Hottest Chicks in Metal” issue two years ago, you can bet it wasn’t her skills as a keyboardist that readers were paying attention to.

On the whole, Divas are more appealing to women and Centerfolds are more appealing to men. Diva-folds, as rare as they may be, usually attract a crowd that’s evenly composed of both sexes. Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil could be called a Diva-fold, since she’s been equally praised for both her work with Lacuna Coil and ogled for her exotic beauty. Angela Gossow of Arch Enemy is also in a quite strange grey area - hardly a diva, she’s still revered for her vocal might and remains a popular supplier of wet dreams for death metal fanboys across the globe. Either way, all of the women previously mentioned in this section are part of the archetypal woman-in-metal structure. Each one is about two steps removed from being pop stars, whether their legions of fans really want to admit it or not. Take a look around at a few band photos featuring Divas and Centerfolds. Look at how far off in the distance and out-of-focus the men are, and look at how the (often) lone woman is front-and-center and endlessly photoshopped. Images sell.

OKAY, SO HOW EXACTLY ARE THE WOMEN OF SLUDGE, STONER, AND DOOM METAL SO MUCH BETTER OFF?

Before answering this question, it’s important to note that there have been quite a few women in metal who have deviated from the norm throughout the years. Morgan and Mercedes Lander founded Kittie when they were barely teenagers and inspired a plethora of Gen Y grrls to growl and shred like the boys. Otep Shamaya is the closest thing to a female Henry Rollins in existence, playing the role of metal vocalist, poet, activist, and icon of worship to her legions of fans. Back in the day, all-girl acts like Girlschool and Vixen somewhat succeeded in gaining the respect of male audiences, but these were the radical, uncommon exceptions. While the Courtney Loves and Kathleen Hannas of Riot Grrl were tearing punk a new one, metal was still a big, obnoxious sausage fest that showed “the fairer sex” little mercy. During the reign of misogynistic hair bands, a woman’s plea to be respected as anything more than a stripper or groupie made for a tiring uphill battle.

For women in sludge, an uphill battle was virtually non-existent. Sure, sludge might have been predominantly a boy’s game from the very start, but women were never turned away and had fairly easy entry into the game. The first woman to worm her way into the sludgeverse was Lori “The Lorax” Black, who oddly enough was the daughter of legendary child star Shirley Temple. After a stint in Bay-area thrashers Clown Alley during the mid-80s, she was chosen to be the new bassist for Melvins, who had recently re-located to California from Washington State. The Buzzo/Daledo/Lorax lineup produced some of Melvins’ most acclaimed material (“Boris” and “Honeybucket” both feature Lorax on bass). In spite of this, Lorax was fired from Melvins in 1993 after her and Buzzo’s romantic relationship came to an end. To this day, few people even remember her name, bar a handful of metal historians and die-hard Melvins or Temple fanatics.

Even if Lorax’s retirement from music was a disappointment, there were many other women in the ’90s who followed her lead and started to make noise. The Bay Area sludge scene was accepting of women right from the get-go, producing noteworthy personalities like Chiyo Nukaga, who drummed for Noothgrush and Graves at Sea; and Lori S., frontwoman for Acid King. Lori is a testament to how fair sludge truly is to its participants - while not exactly the type of woman who could win a beauty contest, she became a major player in the metal underworld by creating a megalithic wall of sound composed of fuzzed-out guitars and spacy, bewitching vocals. Of course, some could argue that Acid King gained more popularity because of Lori’s marriage to Melvins drummer Dale Crover (which later dissolved), but I choose to believe that this was not entirely the case.

At the same time the Bay Area scene was coming to fruition, Georgia duo Juicifer gave the world Amber Valentine, whose sugary sweet vocals stand in sharp contrast to the music’s harsh atmospherics. Brooklyn, NY birthed an almost all-girl outfit with 13, featuring Alicia Morgan and a very young Liz Buckingham, later of Sourvein and Electric Wizard. Then of course the Japanese decided to put their own spin on things with Boris, which featured Wata, a deadpan damsel with some wicked guitar chops. However, one large sludge scene was considerably lacking in female participation - NOLA failed to produce any of the strong-willed rebel girls that the Bay Area had. In fact Valentine and Damad’s Victoria Scilesi were the only women on the Southern front for years, but about a decade ago this lack of participation was about to change in a major way.

In 1999, the epicenter of southern sludge (or “swamp metal” as some have nick-named it) began to shift from NOLA to Georgia, specifically Atlanta and Savannah. One of the most prominent bands from this scene, Savannah’s Kylesa, was co-founded by Laura Pleasants, a woman whose power and significance cannot be adiquately measured. Some might consider my writing biased since my love for Kylesa is no secret to anyone, but the truth is that Laura is the Kim Deal of this generation, pushing boundaries and disavowing the so-called rules of what women in metal can and can’t do. Along with Mastodon, Kylesa have been one of the few sludge bands to ever get exposure within the mainstream media, from Adult Swim promos to MTV video rotations. Laura is in many ways a symbol of rebellion against the perfect-looking pretty girls that litter the music industry. While certainly a beautiful woman, Laura has never tried to sell her sexuality to further Kylesa’s prospects. Instead, she drew attention to Kylesa by simply being a damn good musician and songwriter. There are few women in heavy music today who could be a more prominent role-model.

Many of Laura’s contemporaries in the Southern Sludge explosion have seen benefits from Kylesa’s success, like Stevie Floyd of Dark Castle, Katherine Katz of Salome and the ever-mysterious B of Rwake (who prefers to keep a certain level of anonymity). Outside of the South, the Northeast has spawned some powerhouse figures in recent years. Rhode Island newbies Howl feature Andrea Black on lead guitar, and Yoshiko Ohara, an import from Japan, has a solid doom outfit with NYC’s Bloody Panda. Then there’s the only woman whose importance and influence could rival that of Laura Pleasants - Made out of Babies and Battle of Mice frontwoman Julie Christmas (yes, that’s her real name). A good way to describe Christmas’ vocal style would be a midpoint between Bjork and Neurosis patron Scott Kelly. She coos, croons, bellows, and shrieks her way through painfully loud songs as if her life depends on each and every word being spit out of her mouth. If the aforementioned Divas are gothed-up Disney princesses, then Christmas embodies the voices that would be ringing in Cinderella’s head if Prince Charming ever filed for divorce. She’s raw, unhinged, slightly insane and a tad bit frightening, but above all else, she’s a testament to the type of power and freedom that women are really given within the realm of sludge.

MY OWN PERSPECTIVE

In the three years since I first discovered sludge metal through bands like Mastodon and Neurosis, the main thing that has kept me in love with the music was how stripped-down and unpretentious it is. So much of music today is underwritten and overproduced, and even most popular “metal” bands don’t possess the same sort of meat and muscle that older bands did. Think about it - will Bullet for my Valentine and Avenged Sevenfold be looked at as legends tomorrow in the fashion that Metallica and Slayer are revered today? Probably not. Most sludge bands never set out to become “legends” or attempted to gain any type of popularity, they simply wanted to make the music that they loved. When a scene is based around the love of the music and not the worship of falsified aesthetics, an equal playing field is created for everyone.

Here’s why I believe that so many women have chosen to start or join sludge bands. One thing that makes sludge so appealing to women is that it’s one of the few metal genres where musicianship garners more respect and attention than physical appearance. Sludge is not a fashion show or a popularity contest; it’s a platform in which participants have an equal opportunity for displaying their commitment to raw, heavy, emotional music. There are no set rules for how to sing or which instrument should be played (if any at all), and there are certainly no rules for how to dress. This ensures that tough biker chicks like Lori S. and off-kilter girly girls like Amber Valentine can both gain respect for just being themselves. Most of these women could care less about getting noticed for their looks anyhow, and the idea of appearing in Revolver as sex kittens would seem like a sick absurdity (although, on a side note, Liz Buckingham, Julie Christmas, and Stevie Floyd have taken part in the “Hottest Chicks in Metal” feature, but each were fully clothed and kept their interviews squarely focused on the music).

Followers of this blog could consider this article a vanity project, since it’s an excuse for me to gloat and gush about my borderline-obsessive appreciation for women in heavy music. The truth is that an article celebrating these women needed to be written. In a fun house filled with scene girls, Beyonce clones, faux lesbians, and throw-rugs, it’s nice to see a few positive role models whose images aren’t freakishly distorted. Looking into each mirror, I see some women with warped heads, some with big breasts, and some with tiny waists. When I look into the very last mirror, the one that’s a little cracked and ignored by the carnival maintenance crew, I see the Lori, Laura, Amber, Stevie, and countless others who sacrificed every ounce of their being just to give the world something real to hold onto. In their image of perseverance and discipline, I finally see myself with more clarity. Clarity and self-assurance is the most a woman like me could ever want.

Thanks, girls. 

68 Notes   Comment

Alright, here’s the “improved” collage of women in Sludge/Stoner/Doom Metal!

Row 1: Lori “Lorax” Black (Melvins), Laura Pleasants (Kylesa), Alicia Morgan (13)

Row 2: Stevie Floyd (Dark Castle), B (Rwake), Chiyo Nukaga (Noothgrush/Graves at Sea)

Row 3: Wata (Boris), Lori S. (Acid King), Amber Valentine (Jucifer)

Row 4: Katherine Katz (Salome), Yoshiko Ohara (Bloody Panda), Liz Buckingham (Sourvein, Electric Wizard)

Enjoy/Reblog/Whatever :P

48 Notes   Comment