Artist: The Melvins
Title: Pinkus Abortion Technician
Label: Ipecac Recordings / Liberator Music

From Press release:
The Melvins return with the new album Pinkus Abortion Technician (out on Friday April 20, Ipecac Recordings / Liberator Music), featuring both ongoing Melvins’ bass player Steven McDonald (Redd Kross, OFF!) and Butthole Surfers’, and occasional Melvins’, bottom ender Jeff Pinkus on bass.

“With our upcoming release, we double your bass player with Steven McDonald AND Jeff Pinkus holding down the bottom,” explains Dale Crover. “It’s an experiment in the low end of the aural spectrum where we asked ourselves, ‘would it work?’ ‘could it work??’ ‘should it work???’ The answers were yes, yes and YES!”

“We’ve never had two bass players. We’ve had two drummers and two guitar players, so it makes total sense to now have two bass players”, adds Buzz Osborne. “We’ll be taking this two-prong bass attack on the road as well which should prove to be interesting. Pinkus Abortion Technician is a radically great record and was a stone groove to record. We drank a lot of coffee and enjoyed each other’s company. I like Steven and Jeff a great deal. I admire their bass playing and singing and both of them can grill a mean steak.”

I sat down to listen to the album. I’ve never heard The Melvins, been aware of them but never heard them. In all honesty, it’s not something I would normally listen to, but I found it fun. You can tell they are a band who want their sense of humour to shine through the songs, be it if they are serious or not.

“Stop Moving to Florida” and its great opening riff and fuzzy 70s sounds has the best placement as opener. Its great grungy garage rock with a big solo, that draws inspiration from some cool classic bands. You will know it once you listen to it, then straight into the words “Yeah Dumbass” which starts off “Embrace the Rub”, super quick punk that reminds me of Fear

“Don’t forget to Breathe”, clocks in at almost 8 minutes is a moody almost instrumental with almost spoken word in parts and along with “Flamboyant Duck” and its nice contrasts between acoustic and crunch represents some of the slower songs on the album.

“Break Bread” and its fuzzy, crunchy guitars, and very psychedelic 60s/70s vibe, transfers over into the next track “I Want To Hold Your Hand”, a massive cover of The Beatles. Forget the squeaky-clean song you knew. It doesn’t exist anymore

Ending out the album are “Prenup Butter” (clever name by the way), and “Grave Yard”, both showing some really great playing that might take the listener a few spins to get used to it all, as there are so many elements in the songs they can be easily overlooked.

If you have never heard The Melvins, give them a chance. Don’t just listen once. Listen a few times, you will appreciate it a lot more. If you are a fan of The Melvins, chances are you already know what you are getting yourself into, so you will do just fine.

PINKUS ABORTION TECHNICIAN IS RELEASED APRIL 20, 2018 THROUGH IPECAC – PRE-ORDER HERE
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