Jello Biafra amp the Melvins - Sieg Howdy (10 tracks) +Album Reviews

Blissful

Melkor | San Diego, CA USA | 10/03/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There is something really odd about Jello Biafra playing with the Melvins. I've heard the Melvins play with Mike Patton, and Fantomas, and Tool, and even Leif Garret. I have the CDs of Jello playing with NoMeansNo, D.O.A., Lard, Mojo Nixon, and of course The Dead Kennedys. After all that, you'd think I'd be ready for Jello and the Melvins.

On their first album, "Never Breathe What You Can't See", I really enjoyed it, but something seemed strange. Maybe it was hearing the Melvins play fast. Maybe it was trying to hear Jello wrap his voice and lyrics around Buzz and Dale's insane jazz-like sludge metal. Needless to say, the album is still growing on me.

"Seig Howdy", on the other hand, had me from the first note. It opens with an incredible cover of Alice Cooper's "Halo of Flies". Then it melts into some new tracks that just seem to work better, both musically and lyrically, than the previous release. One of my favorite tracks is the hilarious "Those Dumb Punk Kids (Will Buy Anything)", which is a rant on old bands cashing in on kids by having reunion tours with only one or two original members left.

There's also an updated version of the Dead Kennedy's classic "Kalifornia Über Alles" with the lyrics changed to reflect the governator. The album is topped off with some great remixes of songs from the first album performed by people such as Al Jorgenson (Ministry, Lard)and Dalek. Adam Jones (from TOOL) backs up Buzz on guitar for over half the tracks. Finally, to top off my pleasure, the sleeve and inserts were all done by one of my absolutely favorite artists, Camille Rose Garcia.

If you like the first album, get this. If you didn't quite like the first album, you should still get this. I hasn't left my CD player since I bought it!

"

Melvins & Jello - a perfect match. even better than "Never

Self Induced | Drexel Hill, PA | 10/28/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"being a huge fan of both Jello Biafra and the Melvins makes this release a no-brainer. there's a cover of Alice Cooper's "Halo Of Flies" of which they do a great job, and there's a live updated version of the DK classic California Uber Ales with new lyrics that puts Schwartzanegger in his place. Jello even has a song that he wrote attacking the whole greedy punk rock re-union trend going on right now with certain bands that insist on excluding the most important member (hmmm, I wonder where this came from?). with this album it seems like Jello is really trying to get past the whole painful split with his former DK bandmates resulting in the loss of all legal control over any DK recordings and rights over the DK name. I admire him for trying to get on with his life. with the whole Jello vs. DK's war, I have to honestly say that I just can't pick a side. I love them both. this album is definitely one of the best post-DK albums he's ever been involved with. and with the Melvins as your back-up band, you really can't go wrong with that. hopefully, they will keep this collaboration going for a while."

I'm at a loss for words

Mr Luck | 12/18/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I love absolutely everything about this album. The only depressing thing is knowing that we won't see Kevin on any future albums.

If you are a Melvins or Jello Biafra fan do yourself a favor and get this album as soon as possible. It will be one of the best things you hear all year."

Jello + Melvins=Fun Sludge-Punk Satire

Zachary A. Hanson | Tallahassee, FL United States | 07/04/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Oh, and don't forget Adam Jones from Tool as he adds some great atmospheric guitar to about half the tracks here. It may not be the DK of old with Jello manically leaping out of your speakers, but he is not the wiry creep he was in those days, just a 40-something punk celebrity. With the help of the Melvins, he is doing just about as well as Joe Strummer was doing in his 40's with albums like _Streetcore_, which is definitely saying something.

If you come here expecting straight-up Melvins or DK, you may as well go to their old releases, as this is something of a different beast. Think DK playing "stoner rock" or the faster Melvins with social commentary in their lyrics. Really, the Melvins seem to benefit when they have someone extra performing with them in the last ten-odd years, like the release with Lustmord they put out a couple of years ago. Maybe their dada sludge just dried up on them some, as I don't remember a Melvins-by-themselves release I loved since _Houdini_. So the relationship is beneficial to both sides.

It's a blast to hear the band go out into space (which creates some heroically long songs) after Biafra's tirades, some of which are hilarious, like usual. We get to laugh at punk's further commodification in "Those Dumb Punk Kids (Will Buy Anything)" with some ludicrous images: "if our scam works/ What a bandwagon it will be/ Malcolm in the Middle in the Misfits [. . .]/ Gary Coleman in Black Flag" and more. We also get some illuminating soul-baring and autobiography: "Felt I had to confess/ In Ginsberg's apartment/ My literary background's mostly songs and cartoons/ He said 'Oh, that's just fine'/ I sort of felt relieved/ But when I hurl my word bombs/ How much should be believed." No, it's definitely not the infinite provocation of the older days, but rather an older, wiser Jello, which all in all can only be a good thing if he's sharing his insights with us in a sincere fashion, which he chooses to do at several points here.

The best thing here, and what rescues this from being some kind of feel-good "punk supergroup," the kind Biafra condemns, is that neither Biafra nor the Melvins seem to be revisiting some elusive old glory days nor scrambling for some equally elusive relevance in the modern context. Both parts of this equation just do what they do best in the spirit of the new millennium: the Melvins rock in an exploratory fashion, Jello rants while never resting on his laurels. From this we have a release that, while not quite blowing a listener away like the best of the releases from both of these agents, is thoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking from start to finish, while often even managing to challenge a listener. If this collaboration continues, it's easy to see that much better things could be yet to come . . . giving at least this reviewer the fleeting hope (for the millionth time) that punk is, indeed, not dead."

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