Melvins

April 1st Melvins announce new all-bass lineup/record.

30 albums deep into a career of bottom-heavy surrealistic sludge, the Melvins are leaning into their lower frequency proclivities with the announcement of their new album “THUD!,” set to drop this weekend as an ultra-limited vinyl edition on Amphetamine Reptile Records with artwork by HAZE XXL.

The full length release bears the first fruit of a newly-minted all-bassist lineup, something that Buzz Osborne says was inevitable: “Over the years Dale and I have played so many ear-splitting live shows, it’s sheared the higher frequencies out of our hearing range. I’ve been writing songs for 5 years now that I can’t even hear. It’s mostly just by feeling the vibrations these days. Writing exclusively for basses gives us a chance to actually listen to what we’ve done

”Dale Crover says that he wanted to retain his percussive identity for the record, and studied slap-bass techniques for weeks on end: “Thank Christ for Flea.

”In addition to the core lineup, the record features recent bass-mongers Steven McDonald, Trevor Dunn and Jeff Pinkus, with a special noise bass solo emailed in from former bassist Kevin Rutmanis.

Osborne says that the biggest challenge was writing songs where listeners could differentiate the parts from each other: “By the time we were ready for Toshi to hit the record button, my strings were so loose that they were literally falling off of my bass if I strummed too hard. This is the most brown-note-laden album ever recorded.”