Grunge veterans back on the road

Grunge veterans the Melvins would rather be topping the billare among rock's under-achievers, but MIKE HOULAHAN finds they are doing okay.

"New Zealand?" asks Buzz Osborne, lead singer of the Melvins, but he has heard of the place.

"We are definitely going to be down there. I just had the consulate here give me my visa.

"Your Government has given me permission to come to New Zealand. I was impressed. It's nice to be wanted. We all passed the background check so we must not be too much of a threat."

Chart-topping band Tool asked long-time pals the Melvins along for the trip Downunder.

It's an invitation Osborne is in two minds about. He's happy to be touring with his friends from Tool, and there are no complaints about playing to crowds of around 5000 a night, rather than the 500 the Melvins might draw on their own.

But when you've been around as long as the Melvins - 18 years - and are a band worthy of a significant footnote in music history, being a support band does feel somewhat demeaning.

"The idea of going out and doing a support slot for anybody is somewhat of a bummer for me," Osborne says.

"For us to do this at this point, they [Tool] must be pretty special. There's not too many bands I could do this with because it's not the kind of situation you want to find yourself in.

"Being a support band is a real pain in the ass. People treat you badly. I just can't be bothered with it. Fortunately these guys are real nice, so it's kind of fun."

The Melvins might not be among the world's biggest bands, but they have influenced some of rock's elite.

Their music, once described as "one massive, oozing pile of dark slime", fired the youthful imaginations of Kurt Cobain and Chris Novoselic.

They and Dave Grohl went on to form Nirvana, and later helped the Melvins - also from Seattle, now based in Los Angeles - to land a short-lived major label deal.

After being dropped in a post-grunge clean out, the Melvins happily went back down the independent path, where they have been astonishingly prolific - three albums in the past year, and that doesn't include Osborne's records with Fantomas, a side-project band with former Faith No More frontman Mike Patton.

"We do an awful lot of touring every year, and that's what keeps the band alive," Osborne says.

"We continue to put out new records fairly quickly - Hostile Ambient Takeover is our seventh in three years, I think. It is hard for a band like the Melvins, and I think that helps us.

"We don't get any radio support, we're not on MTV or anything like that, so we have to get out and do the work for ourselves.

"It works, we do okay."

- NZPA

* The Melvins perform at the North Shore Events Centre tomorrow night, supporting Tool.