What's up, posters? Welcome to punk, are you? Let me open up a cannon. Oh, man, it's flattered everywhere. Oh, I'm so sorry. Stone Cold Steve Austin apologizing for his beer going everywhere. Oh, oh my, oh my god. I am. I'm so, so, so, so sorry. Here, let me get a towel. Oh my god. Oh my god. I cannot believe who shook this up. I got it everywhere and I have no napkins in here. If you think Stone Cold Steve Austin should sip on this can of sugar-free sparkling water. Give me a hell, yeah. Well, shit. I got nothing to clean it up. Oh, man, I'll be back. I know what our cold open is for this week. Stone Cold Steve also says you should always keep wet naps, wet wipes around. I know it really makes us mad. It's wasting money on CDs with only one or two good songs. Yeah. Tell me about punk. What's up, posters? Welcome to punk lotto pod. I'm your co-host Justin Hensley. I'm your other co-host, Dylan Hensley. And this is the show where we choose one year at random, select one punk, hardcore emo or punk adjacent album from that year to discuss. Except today we are doing a Patreon sponsored episode. This week's episode is brought to us by Steve Long, host to the podcast Rebel Rock Radio, as well as Radio Unfriendly. I know I include links to that in the show notes, but we're always thankful for these Patreon sponsored episodes. And Steve's a good friend of the show. We've had him on previously played in the band Get Fired. I want to say they called it quits. I think they did. Yeah. But yeah. Yeah. Thank you Steve for sponsoring this episode. And if you too want to become a sponsor for a future episode, go to patreon.com/punklottopod. Sign up for the $10 tier. It's a one time $10 donation. And you can choose the album we devote an entire episode to. And if that's a little too rich for your blood, then you could also drop down to the $1 tier where you get access to all of our weekly bonus audio. Or last week we did an I'm listening, where we talked about the albums we listened to over the last month. Yeah. Before we get into it, I like I like doing show recaps when one of us has gone to a show and we do a little bit of a kind of recap of it on the show. So it was my turn to go to a show. So I last week went and saw five iron frenzy, as well as spoken in tongues in Atlanta, Georgia, which is about four hours from my home. It's about three and a half hours from my work. So I worked all day and then drove to Atlanta. Very fun drive. South Carolina, the worst roads. So it's a meme. If you live in North Carolina, it's a meme to make fun of South Carolina's roads. But it's true. Those roads are horrible. Yeah, it's laughable how bad the roads are. You just go the whole way. It's like, how do you let it get this bad? And it's immediate too. The second you cross the state line, it's horrendous. The route I took was just 85. It's just 85 the whole way. Like you get off the exit and there's your stop. But it's just funny. You get to the gaffney peach and then it's like the roads just are destroyed. But got there, got there right before. No, I got there right as the opener was playing loser. L-O-U-S-E-R. It's a one man nerd scab and guitar player singer playing to backing tracks of horns and drums and all that kind of stuff. He has like a screen up showing video the whole time. And he interacts with a voiceover between tracks. It's bad. It's bad. It's very bad. Very bad set. But it was at center stage Atlanta, which is, I can't remember if we'd been there before. And I think we saw five iron play there before. But it was definitely on a different stage. Cuz center stage has multiple different levels. I know like historically, lots of professional wrestling has happened in center stage too. Like I want to say like some WCW even have in there too. But big, big kind of like multi stage menu, which like the masquerade was like that too, right? It was like multiple stages, multiple levels wherever we went to sign on Rockfest. I think that was the masquerade. But yeah, this room is, it was a small intimate room, which is cool. It was a nice little maybe like two foot stage. And then even though the room was like a concrete room, it sounded pretty good. They had sound installation all over the ceiling, like the entire ceiling was just covered in insulation. So it kept it from being a really uncomfortable room to listen to music in. But spoken in tongues played and that is Billy Power from Blenderhead's new project. And they were really good. They played a lot of newer songs. They had a new EP out called Awkward Future, played a lot from that. And they played some songs off a couple of the LPs. Really, I really enjoyed all Billy's fans. I was very excited when he got announced as the opener for the show. Cuz it was on the fence. I was like, hmm, I'd like to see them again. But four hours away, you know, that kind of thing. And then they announced spoken in tongues were playing. I was like, okay, I think I'm gonna go. So, cuz I don't know when I would get another chance to see them, unless I like went to Nashville to see them. So I was yeah, super pumped to see Billy. Never seen Billy's any of his bands live before. They were good. This lineup is the one that he formed on the last LP, I believe. So it's not the, because the first record was just Billy and like one other guy. And they just did like the first two records. And then he put together a band in Nashville after he moved from New York. And they were fun. They were good. They had some good tunes. There was, I really like the albums that they put out. I feel like live, it could have used a little more crunch to the sound. It didn't feel as full sounding as some of the albums do, but they don't play a lot live. So, you know, kind of they're still dialing that into, but Billy's voice sounds awesome. So despite taking like a lot of time off as a singer between Blenderhead and spoken tongues, he's gotten a lot better as a singer of the years. But, and then they played a, they ended their set with a Blenderhead song. And during their set, he said that Billy was like, so if some of you are wondering why we're here and why we're playing this and don't know who we are, he said, well, he said it was like nine years ago this week, they played in Denver, 500 friends, these second show ever with Blenderhead and MXPX. And so it was a fun little kind of like, you know, memory lane type thing, which is wild. The 500 second show was those two bands, but it's funny. And then they played a Blenderhead song. They played transatlantic solo flight, which is off of a figureheads of pop, one of my favorite records ever, or figureheads on the forefront of pop culture. It's actually what that's called, but it was wild to see a Blenderhead song live. I never thought I would ever see one of those songs perform live. I know they covered tow truck on like a single last year, and the spoken tongues did, but yeah, just, it was cool. Really cool seeing that song live. And then a five iron came up and I don't know, have you looked at the sets of these shows yet? Bill? No, I haven't. So these are the first three album only shows that they're doing. They did win a Nashville, did the one of Atlanta, and then they're doing like two shows in California, and then they're playing Furnace Fest 2 and my guess is that's what they'll play there too. But it is it is the first three albums, and they kick the show off with Old West, and it just is the very first track on the very first album upbeat, some beatdowns. And it just immediately just like set the room off. And then playing I was just like, they're so good. They're so good live. I'd forgotten how good of a live band they were. And it used to be a thing. They have two live albums. They do. They have two live albums, and there's a couple bootlegs too out there of live sets. But it used to be a thing too, where like everybody who was in like the tooth and nail, Christian music scene, they would all say five iron is like one of the best live bands, like just one of the best live bands ever. They used to do a lot more stuff with like costumes and stuff. They did one where they're all dressed up like Star Trek characters, and they did another tour where they were like rockers with like mohawks and patchy jackets and all that stuff. Like they were a costume band for a long time by, in the sense, reunited. They just, you know, wear their normal stuff. But they came out to the X-Men animated series theme song as their walk on music. I think it's the new one, the new series theme. It sounded just a little different from the original. But the crowd was very, very much in the, the audience looks like the band thing theory that you've got going on. They definitely, everybody there looked a lot like middle-aged churchgoers, I guess, on the weekend. And they were just so good. They played 22 songs and it just, it was great. Just like from front to back. These are the songs that I kind of, you know, wanted to see. Because when I did see, when we did see them last time, it was right after they'd reunited. But before the record had come out, the first comeback album. And so it was all from the whole discography. And it was a good batch of songs from the whole discography. But like seeing these songs in particular, I was just so thrilled to see a lot of the stuff. They pulled out some really fun deep cuts. Interestingly, the crowd was really into the, the silly stuff. The crowd really wanted, you know, was down for, you know, blue comb and like superpowers and O Canada. Yeah, because they were youth group kids who played those dumb songs all the time. Meanwhile, I'm over here and I'm like, they played milestone. They played beautiful America. Like those were some of the ones I was like, what? That's wild. They played third world think tank, which is not a great song. But I was still just like, wow, that's a choice. So those are the ones I was pumped for. Like I pulled out my phone and recorded like handbook for the sellout and where zero meets 15 because it was like two of my favorite songs by them. And like that was when the crowd was at its most dead. So if you see those videos I posted on my Instagram, like the crowd was three times more excited for other songs in their set. It was very funny. I was just like, we're not the same kind of fan. So those people were like pumped for sucker bunch, you know, there's just a lot, a lot of fun though. They do they do cover of close to me, the cure, which I never realized they did that because they did it on one of their live records, but it's the intro to close to close to me. It's not the full song. There was at one point, the banter was fun. It was a good little banter, not a ton super like stand out memorable stuff. But there was a one point in the show where I don't remember the setup for it, but he just turned it turned into Reece giving everybody high fives in the front row and saying you're dead to me. You're dead to me. You're dead to me. High five. There's like a little kid. He's like, how are you? Four? Five? You're dead to me. And just like kept doing it to everyone. And Dennis, the trombone player and Reece lead singer, they did most of the banter. Jeff does a lot of Jeff the girl. Lanor, she does a lot of banter as well. Micah says some stuff a little bit too. There was one point where somebody said, there you are, Micah, because there's a song in five iron second album called Where's Micah? It's a song about losing him, their guitar player. And Reece was like, yeah, we almost lost him. And Micah was like, yeah, I went back to the hotel to take a nap. And he almost didn't wake up in time to get back. And Scott and Sonny said nothing at one point. Right before they played combat, Chuck Reece was like, Scott, who's been strangely quiet tonight. This is his favorite song. And if you know anything about the five iron friends, the discography, it's one of their least favorite songs is a band. They hated that song. Because it's hard. It's a really hard, fast song. Yeah. But also like the reason why they've been playing it is the real combat truck passed away last year. So I think it's now just like, oh, they're just going to play it now because you know, as a tribute to him. So yeah. There's at one point where Reece is looking at the set list and he says, where's Arnold and Willis on this set? And they were like, because we're not playing it. And he's like, oh, and then they played it. And according to setlist.fm, it's not on the set list. So because when they came out, the trumpet player, Brad, he came out and just gave a set list to the audience. I don't know if maybe they printed off too many, but just gave it to the audience. And then some people were like passing it around so they could see the setlist and advanced. I didn't want to see the set list. I don't want to know what it was before. I know it's the first three albums. So I want to see what they're going to play. So I don't need to see, you know, but apparently it really was not on the set list. And they just pulled it out and played it. And the Leonors sang two songs. She sang when I go out and receive him. So those are fun. And then they ended with they did play two songs off of the two most recent albums they did so far and in through the outdoor. Both really fun songs made me want to kind of revisit those records because I haven't in a minute and then closed on every new day. It's funny. The whole set is like funny, silly songs. And then they closed that with like every new day, which was their show closer, which at the end of the song, like Reese is crying at the end. It's like you've been playing this song since like 1997 and like it still gets him to those days though. It was a great set. They were just they were so good live, so much fun. I was really happy that I went to this and because I was like, man, it's going to be rough coming home. And I was good until about 30 minutes out. And that's when like the tiredness really started to hit me. I was just like, just, just make it home. I had to stop for gas. So that kind of woke me back up. But long drive to do by yourself. But I had a good time. Really good show. I'm really glad I went. Let us get into the rest of the show. So as we said, today's episode is a Patreon sponsored episode. And I've done a lot of the talking up to this point. And before we get into the record, let's talk about the albums of 1994. So Dylan, I want you to take over from here. 1994. What are we talking? What is going on in 1994? That's worth mentioning as far as not our album. We're talking about Dookie. By Green Day. Smash by Offspring. There's 94 is a big one. I've talked about this before on the show. And it's like 24 hour events there. If you buy a job record comes out, same month as Dookie. There's job box for your own special sweetheart came out the same month came out February as well. There's like one more like big like really influential important record. There's what the first, is that the first? No, that's the second granted record in June, in June. Robin the Hood by Sublime comes out in February. Also, that's another big one. Yeah. I want to say there's like, there's one more record, but I'm maybe that's it. Yeah, I think those were the ones that did it. I mean, Weezer's blue album, blue album comes out in 1994 as well. I mean, I don't know that I would call it a punk record, but it's on here. Yeah, yeah. This is just great. Your music.com, but all right. Diary by Sunny Day Real Estate. That's right there. That was a 94 record as well. Yeah, 94 is a big, big year, very important year, especially for the shape of punk to come. That didn't come out in 94. That came out later. But maybe it's the reason why that record even exists. You never know. There is a refused record in 94. It's like the first thing they did. Yeah. Yeah, 1994, a pretty big year. We have actually covered it a couple times. If you go back to episode 275, we did magnified by failure. And then episode 215, we did Parts and Accessories by Spark Marker. That was a Patreon sponsored episode by Jason of Songs About Chocolate and Girls. We also did Barry Home Invasion by Jellabaffra and Mojo Nixon. That was a also Patreon sponsored episode by One Band Five Songs host Dave Brown. And we did Set It Off by Madball and Hedgehog by Milk Banana. We did that with Steve Doesn't on the show. And we did Bowel by Focus, along with Believe In by Shot Maker. That was our EP in that episode 35, so a while while back there. So 94 is a Patreon sponsored heavy year, apparently, funnily, that we've covered a few times. It's funny. Danzig 4 came out in 94, which is a good record, despite its lack of reputation. It's funny we're recording this today. We're recording this on July 3rd. I wanted to mention which is a double-pong holiday. It is the date in which Return of the Night of the Living Dead takes place. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's like the established shooting shot like, you know, July 3rd at whatever PM. It is also the date. I just saw this on Twitter. It's really funny. It is the date in 2004. So we are on the 20th anniversary of the infamous tuba city community center and Navajo Nation incident where Danzig performed and was punched backstage. Oh, the Northside Kings are undefeated punch. That is today's date, 20 years ago. Wow. Well, what does he yell at him? He calls him a motherfucker, that's for sure. He shoves the guy. Danzig shoves the lead singer. The dude is towering over him too. He's got a good 100 pounds on Danzig because it was like, Northside Kings were late for the show, like, really late for the show, and Danzig was like, fuck it, and just went on. And then they were like, you could play after, but knowing that no one would be there. So the Northside Kings were all mad, but also maybe don't be late for the show. Yeah, you know, was he supposed to wait for you? Yeah, right. The opener. You're supposed to be there to load in. Yeah, he like shoves him. Dude's big. He's not like buff looking, but he's a big guy. Like he's tall and he's big. And like, Danzig shoves him. And Danzig, I think, probably has not been in nearly as many fights as you think he would have been. And he wasn't a lot. I think he does. Yeah, because he just like somehow doesn't see it coming. I don't know. It's like shoved him first. And then the dude just gets a clean shot at his face. Yeah, like decks him knocks him out, but it is a weird setup, though, because why were they filming that? What were they filming that? Like they just had a camera, a pretty decent camera just filming the backstage. That was a little odd. They filmed, they filmed the confrontation. I think that they were trying to get into a fight. Yeah, like we're gonna go yell at him, start filming. Yeah. And then like, of course, Danzig takes the bait and shoves him. I mean, if someone was gonna, it'd be Danzig. Yeah. Yeah, that is hilarious. So just today's record is not really a punk record at all. They come from punk roots, I guess, inspired by punk stuff. I did want to look at what their actual contemporaries were in 1994. So if we look at Stoner Metal from 1994, we have Kias' Welcome to Sky Valley record. There's acid bath when the kite string pops. We got a corrosion of conformity record deliverance, the obsessed, the church within, and then it pretty much falls off right away as far as other bands. Let's try another term. There's a nativity in black attribute to black Sabbath compilation, which includes Megadeth, white zombie, biohazard, Sepaltura, Aussie, corrosion of conformity, Bruce Dickinson with Godspeed, Ugly Kid Joe, Faith No More. Let's see. There's like Bill Rob Halford, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward, Brian Tils, and Wino on a track together. Type O negative. Okay, this does a better job of, I think, of kind of comparing what's going on with this record. So I looked up Sludge. In that same year, we have a cherub's record, No hair in my heroin man. There's a Godflesh record. We have grief, come to grief. We've got Harvey Milk. My love is higher than your assessment of what my love could be. We have total destruction, my unsaying. We've got a buzz oven record, a killdozer record. A man is the bastard split with capitalist casualties. We've got Crawl. We've got Groundwork, which they were a metal core band, but they had some sludgier moments. There's a Soylent Green record. There's a carp record. Mustache is wild. Yeah, Sludge is probably the more accurate genre. There's a Fumenshew record as well. There is a Black Sabbath record. Cross-purposes, which is with Tony Martin on vocals. There's a Pentagram record. There's a Paramecium record. That's more of a Deathdoom. That's a different world in itself. There's definitely a lot of Deathdoom records that came out that year as well. Yeah, it's an interesting point for this style of music. It's definitely a thing. It's been pretty well established at this point, but I also feel like it's a genre whose heyday is a little bit later, more than the 2000s. I feel like it gets a lot more attention. At least those records get a lot more attention in general. Yeah, a lot of different stuff for sure, though, for 94. But yeah, let's get into the actual record we're going to talk about today. So, Steve has signed us the album Stoner Witch by The Melvins. [Music] There's some stats on the band. It formed in 1983 originally from Montesano, Washington, later relocated to San Francisco and then again to the San Fernando Valley. This album was released October 18, 1994 on Atlantic Records, and this is the band's seventh album. The personal on this record is Mark Dutram on bass, guitar, and backing vocals. Dale Crover on drums, guitar, and backing vocals. And King Buzzo, aka Buzz Osborne, on guitar, bass, and vocals. And the album was produced by the band as well as Goo Goo Goo Garth, who previously had produced the self-titled Rage Against the Machines album, as well as Houdini by Melvins. And the same year in action 94, he produced albums by L7, Surgery, and Testament. So, not quite where he would get to, the level that he would get to in a few years, but some solid names to start off early part of your career. So, right, so Melvins, where do we start with this band? So, what is your experience with the Melvins, connection, thoughts, feelings, anything prior to this record listening to it for the show? Melvins are, that's one of those bands that is a huge gap in knowledge and listening for me. Like, definitely one of the more important bands that I've listened to no full albums by previously. Because, yeah, I don't remember ever having anything by them. I would have become aware of them as a teenager, for sure. I would have heard them talked about as we got into like, do metal, and lots more of like the extreme metal stuff. And I remember hearing songs, and I knew in becoming aware of them as like a really important doom stoner or whatever kind of metal band, sludge, whatever. I feel like they fall into, it kind of depends on the record where they fall in terms of subcategory. Broadly categorized, I would just say that they're like a stoner sludge band. But, would have definitely come across them being talked about as a influence on like Nirvana and Grunge. Certainly a band that many people have claimed as an influence for a really long time. And I heard stuff from sporadic, I don't know, just like random places in their discography. Like, I would have heard stuff that was getting put out in the mid 2000s by them, as well as maybe heard some stuff from their classic records. They were a band that our neighbor, who was really into metal, and like, weird experimental metal bands, and industrial, and stuff like that, like real early industrial stuff. I never got the sense that he loved them. I always felt like he had a really pretty passive interest in them. So, he didn't play them a lot. So, I didn't really have much of a reason to explore them. And what I heard, I don't know, I guess what I heard didn't really compel me to dig deeper. It would have been the right, you know, it would have been the right time period, as far as like what we were listening to, to have explored their stuff, but just nothing put me over the edge to pull the trigger and like download any of their important records and listen to them. So, they fell into a category of, I know of them. I know they're important. Ostensibly, I respect them, but I don't even really entirely know why, other than just like, people cite them as an influence. And they were, they were definitely like, they were definitely super early to be doing the stuff that they were doing. Yeah. So, yeah, I have like no Melvins experience, really, short of like a handful of songs I've heard, especially getting into, yeah, like you said, the more doom and stoner type stuff. They're a weird ban in the sense that like, they do a lot of different things, but none of them were ever anything that like completely hooked me, like anything I ever heard. I remember seeing some like early videos they did where they were like, some like 80s videos where they were definitely that influence on grunge specific, they always say like, yeah, they're an influence on ground. Just like, I think they're just influence on Kirk O'Bane more than anything because like, he was friends with them and they're from the same part of the country too. They were like an influence on stuff like Green River and that kind of stuff like the early grunge, I guess that proto grunge stuff that was going on. They were, they were one of the bands though that definitely cited my war as an influence. And the early stuff, I definitely can hear it. I can hear it on some of the stuff on this record too, honestly, but like, that's one that I could see being like, oh, yeah, they actually did do them. They did do the my war thing. And so by extension, I guess then the Melvids are carrying on that influence to the next generation. But yeah, my real, to me like calling them one kind of sound was, is never really that accurate. Like, I, I wouldn't call them a doom ban, even though they certainly have like, doom songs and drone songs as well. Like they are credited as like inventing like the drone doom thing. And was their song, their song Boris, right? Inspired the band Boris from Japan. And really when I look at the Melvids' discography and look at the Boris' discography, I'm like, oh, you were heavily inspired by the Melvids, not just in like that drone thing, but in that you do a lot of different stuff. Yeah. And put out way too many records too. But like, I guess sludge is pretty accurate for a lot of their sound. They're weird. They're really weird band to talk about because they just do a lot of different stuff and they're still around. But then they did stuff like they did the records with Jell-O by offer, like the two records with him. And those were like more punky type records, more in line with what Jell-O was doing musically. Yeah, just a very wide ranging band, influential, important band that I've certainly listened to music that was heavily inspired by them, but not much of their own, like at all. Yeah. And they have records that I've heard of from all over their discography, you know, like Bullhead, Houdini, this the record that we're talking about, the one immediately after Stag, you know, seeing those album covers, I've heard those names a bunch, a senile animal in mid-2000s, you know, they have, right, the Jell-O by offer records, that's probably the most I've actually heard. Yeah, I feel like I've probably heard more, more songs from those records than anything else they ever did. I mean, I remember when Nude with Boots came out, like in stores, I remember seeing it, you know. Yeah, so it's funny, like what I've heard, I've probably heard more things that one time Melvin's member Joe Preston has done than Melvin's records. Like I've heard, he wasn't in Harvey Milk, you know, originally, but I've heard some of the stuff he's played on. I've heard other, you know, like the first Harvey Milk record in one of our other 90s records and I've heard a lot of different records from them and I've heard Earth, you know, he played with Earth for a while and he played with High on Fire for a while and he played with, he did that Project Thrones, which that record came out and I don't know what the deal with that record is. It's like a compilation, it came out in the 2000s, that band was real, they have like one actual album, but yeah, I don't know, just skipped, that skipped Melvin's despite how important they are. Maybe there was something, I don't know, I don't know what it was, it just didn't hear the right things, maybe. Yeah, yeah, I never heard anything that I was like super compelled to listen to, like I probably heard Boris the song just to see, you know, just to get an idea of what it was that influenced them as a band, but I liked how, well, also, Melvin didn't do that as their only thing, whereas Boris did that for the first couple records, it's just drone and so I definitely was like listening to drone. Why were we listening to so much drone? So many wasted hours listening to drone. I think Boris did drone the best, them and like Conate, because I think drone is better with vocals, because then it forces you to actually kind of like write something a little bit, and Boris would do drone with vocals and Sun does drone with vocals, but they're by bad people. Yeah, but like I honestly don't think Sun is all that interesting. I feel like Earth was better, Boris was better. Yeah, but yeah, I don't know, it's a weird period, whereas like listen to that. I think it's more of a like listen to how weird my taste in music is actually like enjoying. Yeah, just I just feel like yeah, I never heard the right thing to really turn me into a fan. As a measure of so, whatever you're learning, you and me, we got the same air going, breathing here. You got sent to talk, what are you with? Like someone left to talk, how previous? Maybe me and the queen can take another over, walk in a way, yeah. Oh, a little wish in a way, oh, like a time to wish a way, oh, a little wish in a way. Let's get into a little bit of the backstory for this record and the band. So consistently, the band has been Buzzo and Dale Krover with a rotating cast of bass players. The band did originally form in 1983 and Dale joined in 1994 and then stayed with the band going forward. They wanted to play slower and heavier than anyone else in their scene in Washington, mission accomplished. Well, you know what though? That's where a lot of those drone bands came from, too. Yeah, Washington, yeah, which I guess is also an influence with the Melvins. They were doing it before everybody else. Interestingly, Dale Krover did play drums for Nirvana in 1988 for a 10-song promo and then he then Buzz introduced Kurt and Chris Devicelli to Dave Grohl. So the Melvins are very influential in the Nirvana story and grunge in general, I guess. So Buzz and Dale then moved to San Francisco and their original bassist Matt Lucan stayed in Washington and he later goes on to form Mudhoney. So, very important maneuver there. If they don't move, does Mudhoney form or at least, you know, does Matt Lucan join Mudhoney? So the bass stone's record, it is Mark Dutram. He was the replacement for Lori Black, aka Lorax. So once she was credited as sometimes, who is the daughter of Shirley Temple? I've probably heard that before. Yeah, yeah, that's so funny and she's in the band and then she leaves the band and then Joe Preston comes in for like a year and then Joe leaves and then she comes back and joins the band and that's when Mark replaced her. Yeah, isn't it like the story that Joe Preston was too fucked up for the Melvins? I mean, I could see that. We're just like, "This, guys." I don't know what it was like, maybe he's just like doing a bunch of crank and they're like, "This is too much." Yeah. Though he's in the period of the band where they decided to do solo, like the three solo records, the Kiss records. So he's in the band a year and he gets his own whole album, which is funny. He gets his face on one of the records, you know? Yeah. Therefore, kind of like cementing himself as one of the more iconic bass players in the band. So interestingly though, Mark had previously worked with the band and recorded their album Osma in 1989. He engineered that record or produced it, either one. And then they're just like, "You want to be in the band?" later. So very interconnected scene, just all these people just like working with each other a lot. The name of their band comes from a co-worker of King Buzzo when he worked at a grocery store. He's a clerk in a grocery store and there's a manager there named Melvin that everyone hated. And then they were just like, "That's a good name for a band." And certainly in the band, the Melvins. And so this record comes out on Atlantic Records. And that is wholly thanks to Nirvana and their connection to Nirvana. So never mind comes out, becomes a massive hit. And the Melvins wind up signing with Atlantic because Atlantic President at the time was also the Nirvana's band manager, which is very weird. The president of Atlantic was Nirvana's manager, odd. But because he was so close with them, he was like, "All right, I'm gonna sign the Melvins then." So good connections there, they get a deal. So they released the album Houdini in 1993 on Atlantic Records. And the same year as Stoner Witch, the Melvins released an album called Prick on amphetamine reptile records under the name Snivelim. They just wrote Melvins into a mirror and wrote it down and looked at it in a mirror and that's how they did it because the letters are backwards too. And that record is like sound collage and experimental noise type stuff. And part of the reason why they had to go by that name too is because they were already signed to Atlantic, so they couldn't put out a Melvins record on another label under the name Melvins. So that's why it's Snivelim. And Atlantic was probably like, "We don't care about this." They could very easily have been like, "No, you can't do that. You can't put it out on another label." But because of what kind of record it is, they were probably like, "It's fine. Nobody else is going to want this." It's not well-liked either. It's not a well-regarded Melvins album. So they probably were not threatened by that. So that record was originally going to be called Kurt Cobain as well, but then Kurt dies. And they were like, "I think people are going to think this is a tribute album to him." And they're like, "It's not." And so they were like, they called, they changed it to Prick because he was a prick for dying, which was the joke that they had going into it. So we get to this record and they record most of it in one take. Like all the songs are done in one take, which... So I saw, I just saw that they fired Joe Preston for lack of work, I think it was the claim. Oh, well, Melvins do have a good work ethic. They do. According to one thing I saw, they released 27 albums at this point. They had won this year. Yeah. I didn't pull off recording this record in one take, in single takes. I mean, I'm assuming by one take, they started it however many times they needed to, but the finished recording is a single take recording. Not, they played it once and that's what they used. Yeah, because it does say that they spent, let's see, I think it says how long they spent in the studio, like 19 days in the studio or something like that. Yeah, 19 days in A&M studios in Hollywood. So yeah, I could see them being like, all right, yeah, I see what you mean. These are like one take, they're single take, they're not overdubbed, they're not comped, you know, they're fully playing it live together. Yeah, in one full take. But, and then they tracked it and mastered it in a single continuous session. I don't know why they did that, but they did. The album title comes from what Dale Krover and his friends called the Stoner Girls at his high school. They called them Stoner Witches, which is funny. The album sold 50,000 copies initially. They made music videos for the songs Revolve and Queen. And, yeah, that's where we'll stop for now. But very weird to me, this band is on Atlantic Records on a major label, part of a three album deal, just because like, I guess it's just good to have connections, you know, being friends with Nirvana and the Nirvana tour manager is also the Atlantic president means you get opportunities that you probably would not have gotten from major labels. Is also part of that. There's a good chance that that, like, I liked it too. I don't see, you know, and just maybe it was hoping that that name recognition would help with sales and carry them on. But yeah, very interesting. So, well, what'd you think of this record? I thought it was good. You know, I wasn't totally sure going into it, how I was going to feel about the record. I was thinking like, you know, there's, I guess one of the questions I had was like, is this going to tell me why I've never really listened to a Melvin's record front to back? Like, is this going to be like, oh, I see why? And I don't think it really, there are things that there are things that I don't like about the record. But overall, I enjoyed it. It was, it was not nearly as like challenging and taxing of a listen as I maybe thought it might be. Because I was just like, I feel like Melvin's, I guess it just was thinking like, Melvin's have a reputation of being experimental in a way that I won't enjoy. And I was maybe under the impression that that was going to be something that is more consistent throughout their records. But I think it, at least in the case of this record, it only comes up in a few moments where I'm like, all right, I'm not feeling this. But so the general takeaway was like, yeah, it's actually, that's not a bad record. It's not, it's a good record, you know, like it's not for me necessarily. It's not something I, it really is a sound and a genre that I reach for so very rarely now that, that not at all. Listening to it, I wasn't like, oh yeah, where's this been all my life? You know, like, it wasn't like it was scratching an itch that I didn't know I had. It was just like, yeah, all right, that sounds, that sounds like what they influenced. And I'm like, okay, so people really did take pretty literally from the Melvin's. So I guess that's kind of cool to see that confirmed, I guess. And I'm like, oh yeah, had I maybe given this more of a chance when I was 15, I would have, I would have probably had like a Melvin's phase at least. And I would have not, you know, I would know their important records. There are moments, there are songs and some moments that I really enjoyed. I would say that the overall, it was pretty just like, not obtrusive and not really drawing me in. And a few moments that I was a little bit annoyed with. But yeah, an interesting listen, I think, and enough different things going on too. [Music] Freedom, unlocked and per walk away. You gotta hold your time, you gotta hit it right away. Maybe a black two-five more in a lap won't see. Either way it's safe, either way it's gotta be. Red system might be choking, but I need about that kind. And so me was the rhythm of my body that would fall down two times. Hey, big boy, hey, he sends you down, but you're born tonight. Hey, my shoulder, big boat belongs, big boat tonight. Yeah, going into it, I was a little, I was a little hesitant. Like, I was like, what is this record going to be? Because I know Melvins are lots of different things at different times. And the album is called Stoner Witch. So I'm like, okay, maybe this will be more of like a Stoner record, like a, or like a sludge, or not just sludge, but like a do-me-er record. Interestingly, Black Sabbath is not an influence on the Melvins at all. They said that they were more influenced by my ward than Black Sabbath. Which honestly kind of shows if you listen to this, because it's one of those rare records of like in the genre of doom, I guess, that you're like, I hear no Sabbath in this. And so many doom bands and albums are like very Sabbath influenced. So yeah, that's interesting to hear. So yeah, I was like, all right, I don't, I don't know what I'm getting into at all. Just, and then I saw I was on a major and I was like, okay, this could be like one of those weirdly accessible records too. And listening to it, there's not like one thing that the album does. The album does a lot of different things, which is the band's modus operandi that you have constantly just do different styles of things on the records. And it, I like half of it. Like, I think half of this record is really good, really good. The other half of the record, I think is not very good. But how you described it, it's like not a trusive, except for one. There's one song we'll get to that I'm mad at. And then like halfway through, I'm like, what? But I think the, the first half of the record, I think is really good. I think this is a case of a A side B side record. I assume the Scott of vinyl release. And I bet if you look at the B side, it is where you think the B side happens on this record. Let's see. But it is like the mid 90s. So maybe not an or not a vinyl might not have been the thing in 94. But regardless, there's a cassette running for. Okay. With the A side ending on at the stake and the B side starting on magic pig detective, that's probably where I would guess the side splits would be final might have to be differently different because that mistake is really long. Yeah. So I could see that getting there is the LP 94 as well. Let's see what they know this splits it. It's the A side ends on at the stake. So that makes sense because it's seven. It's like an eight minute track. And if you put that on the B side, I don't think it would fit on the B side. Well, in the A side has a lot of short stuff. Yeah, a lot of short tracks. Squeedess, sweet, willy roll bar. Yeah, being under two minutes each. And you know, it's mostly like four to three minute, three to four minute songs, three to five minute songs. Yeah. So not exactly where I would draw the line as far as sides, but you probably have to just for time constraints. So yeah, it's a yeah. First half, I think is really, really good. Second half, I don't particularly like all that much. And I could see that being how I feel about the entire Melva's photography, I could see them being like a this part's good, this part's not good. You know, like just because they have so many records and they try so many different things, your success rate on all these different things will vary. And it's not that I think they do any of the stuff on the back half poorly. It's just not what I want to listen to, I think. I think that's purely just a I am over this kind of music in general. I do listen to Boris records when they come out, but they don't get a lot of repeat listens mainly because I'm like, what's this one going to be? It's more to check that out. And they have the same thing going on where I just don't, I don't like everything they did. You know, I don't want to hear everything they do in the same of all the styles. So this was one way I was just like, starts good, not, it doesn't end in a way that I'm like super happy. But like, I'm not there's one, there's only one thing I really just like do not like on the record and the rest, I'm like, eh, fine. This, this is one of those rare records where I feel like maybe doing track by track might actually kind of work, or at least, you know, somewhat work. So yeah, the album starts off with Squeetis. It's like a minute 12 song. It's not much of a song. It's just kind of a thing, you know? Yeah, it's real short. It's very am-reppy, noisrocky. Mm-hmm. Feels very much in line with like, uh, unsaying and, and, uh, oh, completely blanking on their name now. Jesus lizard. Oh, right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I don't mind this. It's just a little fun little, short little thing. But we get to queen, and I think queen is really good. Like I think queen is good. Queen is like a really great song. I really like that song a lot. Big riff, kind of doing like a talk-seeing sort of thing, uh, fun little, he does like, he does it a few times. His vocal style, it's very like, on the first track, I said, he has a little bit of Rob Zombie in his voice there, but definitely a Gene Simmons kind of thing going on too, vocally. God of thunder. Yeah. Yeah. I hear a little bit of Rollins too. Yeah, I could see that from that my war. Yeah. Queen's great. I get why it was chosen as a single. Though really, how is anything on this record a single, you know, but for headbangers ball. Yeah, I guess maybe 120 minutes. Yeah, you might. Yeah, I could see it being on there, but, uh, then we have sweet willy roll bar. I thought that was another really fun one. Just lots of cool little like riffs and grooves. I like that harmonic, but riff. Yeah. Yeah. They do a kind of a classic rock groove and on a couple tracks here, and I'm just like, yeah, yeah, that's right. You are one of those bands who's like influenced by 70s rock too. Yeah. I really like, I like sweet, really sweet, willy roll bar is one of my favorite songs on the record because it's probably one of the fastest songs too. I like the fast stuff they do on here, like a lot. That's definitely my favorite stuff because they're good riffs and like the speed really helps the riff to like, you know, stick the landing. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Like the faster stuff is the stuff I definitely prefer out of everything on the record. And the riffs are cool. They have good riffs. Like lots of really fun riffs. Uh, we have revolve. This is our second single on the record. I really like revolve too. It's another really fun one. This one really leans into that Gene Simmons got a thunder vocal style and Kiss is clearly an influence on this band. You know, they did the solo records and they all did like the, the Melvin's name and the Kiss solo record font and like they have the glow around their heads too. Like they're very obviously influenced by Kiss. And I remember being in a record store in Asheville, static age records in Asheville. And one of the guys was talking to me about like Harvey Milk. And like, he was like, well, it depends. There's two different types of Harvey Milk. There's the, the drone, doom kind of stuff. And then there's like the Kiss got a thunder style Harvey Milk. And I was like, is Harvey Milk just a Melvin's rip off? Because I feel like they do the same thing. Like there's a very much a classic rock Kiss influence on the Melvin sound too. And that's the stuff I like the best. Like I would love more of that from them. I wonder if they have any albums where they kind of lean into that sound for a whole record. Uh, we have Goose Freight train. This is slow, like kind of like warbly acoustic guitar thing going on. And then it gets like, it fills in with the rest of the band and then gets a little more like bluesy, kind of a bluesy rock song to that one. I thought it was okay. It's not, it's not my favorite. It's also kind of a sign of like the rest of the record to come. Yeah, I think they're using like brushes on the drums. They're doing that like, great, great, great, stick thing. Yeah, it feels that and some of this a lot more of the stuff on the B side feels more like they're drawing on like coil and like einsterzunde that more of the experimental industrial stuff that they're influenced by. Yeah, that I don't like very much. Uh, we have Road Bull. I think it's another, I like Road Bull. It's got a nice bluesy riff to it too. Really good groove, huge drums. So I feel like a whistling going on in it too with like a marching drum beat in there too. It's just like a weird like, like the, what is, what's the military? Um, what's the song? You whistle it going into war song. Anyway, I don't know, Dixie. Montezuma's, not Montezuma's revenge. No, you know what I'm talking about there, right? Ooh, I'm the halls of da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. Oh, from the halls of Montezuma to the bull, bull, bull, I don't think it's the halls of Montezuma. I don't think it's Montezuma at all. The glory, my eyes, the tea and the glory of the whatever something, you know, that's on him of the Republic. There it is. Yeah. Jesus. I was, I was like, what fucking a shokin' farewell? What is the lyric in there that I'm thinking of that I keep thinking of Montezuma? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. It's not even a white. Yeah. There's nothing there. You know. This is a broken brain moment here. And so this is where I draw the line though. This is where I'm like, I like everything from Rodewell to the top, like to the top of the record. I like everything there. Everything after this, there's only one thing I like. At the stake, do not like. It picks up in the back half, but it's such a long song, but it just doesn't worth it for me. Magic pick detective, I hate the first half of the song. This is the song where I'm just like, I hate this so much. It's just noise, just noise, experimental noise stuff. Yeah. I hate it. I hate it so much. And I'm like, it doesn't have to be this long. And then it just turns into like a big riff at the end and kind of like the more, you know, traditional, well, more what the first half of the record is giving you just sides like halfway through. We're gonna do that now. No, not a fan. Yeah. It's annoying. I wish that they had made the drone part of it a separate track because, yeah, I feel like the actual like song part of it is good. But it's like, I never want to hear it on its own. Yeah. Now, because the first three and a half minutes are like, oh, just like oscillating noise. Yeah. And it hurts, especially to like, I think it was, it's a moment that would be more tolerable in the record for me if it didn't follow at the stake, which is eight minutes long, just kind of slow meandering that kind, that side of sludge and stoner metal that I'm, I have the least interest in now. I thought shovel is just kind of boring. It's like, it starts kind of ambient. It's just slow. I don't know. Some people are online really seem to like shovel, but I do not like this one either. I just think it's just kind of boring. It's instrumental. It's like six and a half minutes long. It's kind of a post industrial, you know, sort of ambient-ish. Yeah, it just doesn't, it doesn't really do anything for me. Yeah. June bug, I do like June bug. It kind of comes out of nowhere. It's like big and heavy and fuzzy and not very long. It's very short, very much in line with like the front of the record, the side of the record, very much in that style. It was like cool driving baseline. Yeah. And then like, it's all really kicks in and yeah. Yeah, I like June bug a lot. I think that's a really fun one. And then it closes on lividity, which very long. I don't really, I'm not mad at this one. It is the album closer, nine minutes long. It's basically just a drone though. Yeah, it's a drone. Yeah. I'm not mad at it, but I think it, I think it does, I guess at the stake is probably the better of like these type of songs, but I guess if we're, I do probably like lividity more than shovel and magic pig detective. So it's fine. Like I just, yeah, don't get into that one, but not too mad about it. Yeah, there's, yeah. There's stuff on here that definitely reminds me of like revolve and road bowl, especially they have real doesn't really kick ass riffs on them. And they're, they have like a little guitar lead part or guitar parts that I'm like, oh, that's kind of like we're mastered on got that. Like revolve even almost sounds like, I was thinking like revolve sounds like a, especially with the vocals on that song. I was like, this feels like what Metallica was doing at the time. Like, you know, the, the stuff that people hate to sell out Metallica stuff, you know, the black album load kind of stuff. And I was like, yeah, it's kind of that kind of riff. But you know, yeah, like I said, I like the fast stuff on here a lot. Yeah. Like it's definitely the standout material for me. I think I, I probably dislike the B side less than you do or yeah, I probably like the, let me see that in a not double negative way. I probably like the B side more than you do. That would be the, the right way to say it. That makes sense. I, I think a lot of the stuff that like shovel and Levinity as much as they don't do anything for me. I found them not really obtrusive that it wasn't hard to like kind of zone out and just vibe to them. But they didn't great. Yeah. No, they really grabbed me in any way. I don't think I realized how long either of those songs were like shovel. Like I don't think I clocked that it was a six and a half minute song or non song just drone as much as it is anything. And even Levinity, like I think I towards the very end of Levinity probably started to realize I'm like, this has been going for a while, hasn't it? Yeah. And then like realize it was, it was the last song. I found them easy to just kind of zone out on. And I guess it's not like a ringing endorsement. I think that is a, that's a kind of music that I don't think either of us reaches for. No. Well, I think it's a sensibility in music that we are not inclined towards that is more popular than you would think. I saw multiple people call it that say that the melvins troll the listeners, that's like a thing that they do. And that that's why the B side is the way that it is because my complaint is like, why is this album structured this way to put like all of that stuff on the back half of the album and but like start so strong. And I don't know. I don't know if there's people just reading too much into it and assuming that they did it this way just to be like, Oh, and it's just really fun record. And then all of a sudden it stops being fun. I don't know. I don't know if that's their intent, or if they were just like, let's put all this stuff together. It makes it easy to stop listening to the record after you go to a point where you're just like, and I don't need those three drone tracks at the end of the album. I'd be curious to know if many other melvins records follow this structure. I could very easily see that being them just drawing from my war. I could definitely make that comparison to my war of like, stronger A side than B side B sides where it gets all experimental and weird and and stonary and drawn out and meandering. Like, I can I can see them being heavily influenced by my war and kind of having that as a touchstone for a lot of their like record pacing to where they're they're they're into that idea of like fast hooking stuff at the front and then the B side being the weird stuff. Yeah, I don't know. I have a list of their other records. I don't know if they followed that similar structure. Is this normal, you know, for the melvins to do this record this way? And they just they got imprinted by my war and they just never broke that format going forward. I don't know. It's possible. I didn't do my album sandwich that I normally do for this one, just because we're recording earlier in the week than I because I would have normally done it today. Like, and I just didn't have time to listen to this album three times and get an album sandwich in there too. I did want to do the two Atlantic records. Like, I wasn't going to do prick because there's no way I was going to enjoy that. I wanted to do the three Atlantic, so Houdini and Stag on the other side of the record. So Houdini's the more popular record of these. Yeah, I mean, it has that classic album cover. The, oh, what's that artist's name? Frank Cozick. Frank Cozick. Yeah, yeah. I've seen a bunch of his stuff in person too. Yeah. He just died last year. Oh, well. Yeah. Classic artist, tons of album covers and posters and some really cool stuff. All, you know, all in that very much in that style, that real cartoony, saturated colors. And he did the Americana album cover. That's right. The offspring. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Just looking at the track listings, they don't structure any of their other albums like this one. Houdini and Stag are not structured like Stoner Witch, as far as like, track links. There's a lot more songs on Stag, and there's like, the longest song is only like six and a half. So this, this is designed to be that specific. I mean, it's called Stoner Witch, so my guess is they were specifically going for that kind of thing on this, especially on the back half of the album. Yeah. Bullhead is the other like really famous record, and that's the one with, that's the one with Boris on it. A Boris starts that record. Wild, wild. And it's the only long song like that. So yeah, I don't, this didn't answer anything about the Melvins for me as far as like, what they sound like on other records. Yeah, I, I enjoyed, I enjoyed enough of it that I'd be curious to hear some of the other classic records for sure. Yeah. Like there, I haven't hit, I skipped over those records when they came up on my calendar. So we'll see. Stag came out in '96. So that's on my calendar actually for this month, July of '96. So let me throw that on later this month and see how I feel about that record. I'm interested enough to at least hear the classic records in a way that I never were, I never was before, despite this being, like I said, music that I'm not reaching for ever anymore. So I would say there's, there's more to it than I like than I dislike, ultimately. Yeah, I would say that it is a good record. I, it's just like the back half has things that, just the kind of stuff I don't want to listen to and generally more. And I don't, that's not a value judgment. That's just, that's just me not wanting to hear that kind of thing. Like I don't think they do it badly. I think they do those things well enough. I just don't reach for that kind of thing. I preferred, yeah, everything leading up to that back half way more. Like I got a lot of enjoyment out of it and would like to hear more. Like, if there's whole records to sound like that, I'm in. Tell me point Melbourne's fans point me in the direction of records that sound like all the fast songs because if those exist, I'm super into it and want to hear it. Maybe stag is that there's not that many long songs on a stag and maybe it's worth checking out. That one's got like psychedelic rock listed as an influence on there or a style on there. So maybe that's more in the Boris like vein because Boris does that Boris will have records where it's just like pure straightforward, psychedelic rock, donor rock and not even do drone or ambient or anything like on that. So maybe Melbourne's do that too. And I just haven't found the ones. Lysol has a drone tag on it. So my guess is Lysol is not one for me. But even it's shorter. It's like 31 minutes. So who knows? Yeah, I don't know. I really, I need like a guide through the Melbourne's discography to kind of like point me in directions to go is like, well, if you like this, you might like that, you know. So fifth highest rated album on rate your music, it's got a 3.60. Very critically regarded record. It's talked about a lot as like just a really good album featured prominently in lots of like music press, heavy music press. I did see, okay, I found this review on rate your music that I thought was very funny. It's a one star review. And it was titled Tiring Sloppy Disgusting. And goes, what in the blue hill were they thinking? Probably the oddest album I've ever listened to and solidifies this band as one that should be left and forgotten in decades past. The complete juxtaposition and tone from the recording to the album art is laughable. Vocals are weak and unlistenable, and their riffs are completely forgettable. Avoid this like the noid or whatever Gen Xers say. And I was just like, I was really curious what this person, what else they've rated. They've not written any reviews for anything else. This is the only review they've written. They gave, they really hated it. They gave it half star. The they've only rated two other things. Same day as this Melbourne's review, they gave I Hate God Take As Needed For Pain, a half star as well. Why are you listening to Sledge then? You clearly do not like this. The other review, five stars, The Smashing Pumpkins, Mayonnaise 2023. Yeah, the 30th anniversary, like, seven inch sing or single of Mayonnaise, they gave five stars. That is all they have rated. Yeah, that's a weird rate your music user. The trend, the ratings trend on this record is is going down on rate your music. I guess people coming to this in recent years are are disappointed. I see a lot of rate your music reviews that are like bad, bad, this is so bad. I'm like, I think it's that bad. I think it's like, which someone even pointed out the Black album in a few moments. And I'm like, you spell the word the with two E's. Shut up. Melbourne's sounding like Black album Metallica is much more appealing to me than Melbourne's doing drone. But yeah, this one seems to be on a downward slope of appraisal. Are you just looking at the star ratings down there on the bottom? There's the rating. There's the rating trend chart. Where's that? It's under the rating distribution chart next to the star ratings that are listed at the bottom. You might only be able to see it on the browser. Let's see. Hold on. So it's like, right where you give the star rating? No, no, it should be. I'm not sure where it is on a phone. I'm looking at the web browser on a computer. Sometimes I can't find it on my phone, but sometimes I can. We don't know. The page doesn't load right. I don't know. I think there's enough that I really like about the record and enough that I don't mind about the record to give it like, to give it a solid three three point two five kind of rating. There is enough about it that I don't like or am just like not engaged that it's not something I want to reach for for a real listen, but it's very easy to say that I'm not mad about having listened to it. Like I am glad that someone made me listen to a Melbourne's record because I don't think that I would on my own. Yeah, that's true. I definitely would not just like pick a Melbourne's record and listen to it. Like I, I can't think of that's like me just picking a Sonic Youth record and listening to it. Though I have done that before and never actually done it with the Melvins, but like, I guess I would. Maybe that was more of trying to figure out what it is that people like about Sonic Youth versus I know what people like about Melvins. I just don't necessarily want to hear that at the moment. So kind of being forced to listen to a record by them. It gives me a reason to listen to it. And now I'm more curious than ever about the rest of this choreography. Like, like I said, if there's more of the fast stuff, let me know because I really do want to hear this, hear that. If it's just a lot more doom and drone and stuff like that, like I've listened to enough of that kind of stuff throughout my life that I'm, I'm good. You know, yeah, the, you know, the, the drone stuff that we've lost, we lost interest in it. And like, it's thinking about it as like, that, like I said, that sensibility of music, I think it's them. I just want something I can ignore sensibility of music that I, I don't have at all anymore. Like, I don't want to listen. But, but that's an, that's a big category of music. Like, that is chill beats to study too. I'm like, I don't need focus music. Yeah, it's true. Like, I don't, it is true that there probably are a lot more like, this is really good background music as a thing. And I'm like, I just put on music as background music. Like, I don't have like a specific style I go for for background music. Maybe I'm like, dinner music might be something that I pull up some stylistic stuff, but even then, I don't, I don't know. I don't need to be listening to music while I'm eating. I don't listen to music while I'm eating it there. I was thinking that too. I was like, what, what scenario would I be doing? Like a party setting music? I don't know what I would put on. I don't have to do a party party. Yeah, forever. Yeah, it depends on the kind of party. Is this a drinking and people doing drugs party? Yeah. And it's kind of need to be energetic. Is this, I had some friends over for dinner, kind of music, then it's like, yeah, like, Steely Dan. I don't know. It's just, it's like, agreeable soft rock. Yeah. Honestly, hanging out with any of my friends, there's very little music ever, ever at all. It's funny. Yeah. But I guess, like, yeah, if people need stuff to focus on, like, a lot of people can't listen to music with lyrics and like work or do stuff like that. And I generally can't. But I, I don't like putting on music, background music, when I need, when I need to focus where, where someone's singing, where lyrics are going to be. If I'm in a situation where lyrics are going to be distracting to me, then I just would rather just have silence. Yeah. Like, I can't read, maybe if I just stop there, I can't read. I can't read it. Yeah. And listen to music with lyrics. Despite me not being a lyrics person and never paying attention to lyrics, I think it's because there's like, just words being thrown at me while I'm trying to read words. I'm like, someone, I'm counting while you're counting. While you're saying numbers while you're counting. Yeah. So I can't listen to music with lyrics. I don't, so I don't typically. Any time I ever have, I do tend to reach for like, instrumental type stuff. And then it's still like, usually it's like, movie scores or something like that, if I ever do that. But not really, I don't even really do that. In not since college. Like, I, you know, I did some, when I went back to school, I did some work with like, scores and stuff like that playing in the background. Because like, I wanted to hear something because I knew I was going to be there for a long time working on something. Geology, homework or whatever. Yeah. But nothing with lyrics because I was just like, now I don't know if this is a, what kind of sediment this is, you know? Like when I've been, would have had jobs where I could listen to music while I was working, then I just listened to whatever I wanted to listen to. Yeah. Because I was, it was always the kind of work where I didn't, I didn't need to focus on what I was doing. I could do it. I could listen to podcasts while I was doing that stuff. You know, but yeah, I don't, I don't know. I just don't, I listened to plenty of instrumental music that people would think of as background music. Like I listened to plenty of jazz, like fully engaged. I'm like, I want to actively pay attention to this. Like, I don't know, I don't, I don't find the need to have a background sound for any situations that you like on any music that I happen to want to listen to wouldn't be suitable for. Like cleaning is about the only thing that I pick something that I don't want to think about too closely. Like that's, that's when I, and that's when I tend to go for like metal core, like dumb stuff. Like when I'm cleaning, I'm like, listen to some haste the day right now, you know, like that kind of thing. But even then I'm still kind of paying attention to it. That's more of a, I need energy. I need like driving, you know. Yeah. So yeah, it is like a thing I don't reach for very often because you're right that when I listen to music, I want to be more engaged. And like I find like so much like drone and doom, like, especially the slower stuff, hard to maintain that engagement. And so that's why I get bored with it. And then like want to go to something else. So, but this like, yeah, it's a great, I think it's a great first half and a fine second half of stuff I don't listen to, don't want to listen to in general. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, good pick Steve. Very interested to know more about the Melvin's isography. Funnily enough, when he was when he picked it, I think, I think it's funny, him and Dave both signed up for the Patreon $10 tier the same day. And it was after the Black Flag, my war episode. And I think that was why he picked the Melvin's because it was they were, you know, such an influence on that album was such an influence on their sound. And he originally was like, I want my favorite record is their like singles collection. It was like their Amrep singles collection. He's like, but that's not streaming anywhere. So then he picked this record for us to listen to. But so yeah, it's cool. I want to know more about Melvin's, I want to check out some more stuff. So yeah, open the recommendations, of course. And if you want to send us a recommendation, hit us up on any form of social media at punk lotto pod, punkalottopod@gmail.com, our voicemail line 202 688 punk. And yeah, give us a rating. We got, I like this, somebody gave us a star rating on Apple podcast, and actually got us off of a 3.9 average to a 4.0 average. So whoever that was, thank you. Because I got so annoyed looking at that 3.9 for so long. But from people who did the vision, didn't get it. But yes, thank you all so much. And we were talking to order punk. Call the number on your screen. Rush delivery is available. 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