Melvins “Stag” 1996/2016 reissue on Third Man Records. Spinning this today for two reasons: 1. As I was digging though my old review clipping yesterday to search for documentation on The Vibrators show I couldn’t remember seeing, I found a review I wrote about the Melvins from their show at the Rave in Milwaukee on April 16th, 2001. Strangely even though I was obviously there and commented on their eclectic two-set performance, I have essentially no recollection of that show either.

2. After finding this clip I headed down to Acme Records to catch the Third Man Rolling Record Store and picked up Stag, which Third Man reissued in 2016 because, along with Houdini and Stoner, it has been “out of print on vinyl for over two decades and original copies can command into the three figures in back alley craps games. Third Man Records is proud to reintroduce these titles to the hungry vinyl-buying public, all remastered from original analog tapes, pressed on 180-gram vinyl and given the deluxe, gatefold jacket treatment.”

Allmusic describes the Melvins’ music as “oppressively slow and heavy, only without any of the silly mystical lyrics or the indulgent guitar solos; it’s just one massive, oozing pile of dark slime, rising from the swamp to bludgeon your eardrums.” Stag is this and more: experimental and sonically varied, from the rather delicate yet ominous Indian inspired intro to “The Bit” which then explodes into a sludge metal assault, to the sparsely sweet “Black Bock” (granted the lyrics start “I cut the throat of the billy goat and let it bleed/His frozen eyes were far more than I/It’s kind of nice to know the things that make me happy”) to the supremely weird “Skin Horse” that veers from grunge metal to Alvin Chipmunk worthy vocals and nursery rhyme tinkles. The Melvins are a lot of things but definitely not simple nor dull.