Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email


2016 May 27 • Friday

In 2012 The Melvins played all 50 states of the US and Washington DC in 51 days, which is apparently a world record. This version of the band had Trevor Dunn on upright bass, which enhanced the music substantially but must have made the logistics of that much traveling in that much time much more difficult.

This was The Melvins Lite and they had released a great CD called "Freak Puke". I saw their New York show and it was excellent.

If you missed it, you missed it. But you can get a sense of what it might have been like for them by watching this DVD of their insane road trip.

The footage was shot entirely with the band members' and crew's phones. It says something about this moment in time that the movie looks as good as it does.

Each stop on the tour is dutifully noted, with accompanying snippet from the show. In between are fragments of the sights, sounds and people the band encountered, occasionally juiced by some visual effects.

It's short, less than an hour, and zips too quickly from one thing to another even to be called episodic. It's pretty entertaining, though, if you're in the right mood and you love this band.