History Music / Melvins

* SurrealMusicVideo: Pretty much every video they've released to some extent. But "The Talking Horse" stands out for having a MindScrew plot that spoofs multiple ConspiracyTheories, as well as for being an [[TheInvisibleBand invisible band]] video where inanimate objects lip sync.

* SpokenWordInMusic: "Divorced", a collaboration with Music/{{Tool}}, features a phone conversation between Danny Carey and Maynard James Keenan, which is apparently regarding a mutual friend going out with a woman who Maynard describes as having "a voice like a fuckin' modem, dude!".

** ''Hold It In'' has Paul Leary and Jeff Pinkus sing lead on three songs each: Pinkus on "Bride Of Crankenstein", "Nine Yards", and "Piss Pistofferson" and Leary on "You Can Make Me Wait", "Eyes On You", and "I Get Along (Hollow Moon)". This is difficult to discern on "Bride Of Crankenstein" because Pinkus manages to imitate Buzz Osborne almost perfectly.

* ShoutOut: "GGIIBBYY" is named after Music/ButtholeSurfers vocalist Gibby Haynes.
** "The Brain Center At Whipple's" is named for an episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone''.

** "Buck Owens" is named after the country musician, though it's a NonAppearingTitle and the song otherwise has nothing to do with him.

* ''Lysol'', 1992

* SelfTitledAlbum: Sort of. Lysol was originally going to just be called Lysol, but as it turns out, the name was a registered trademark, so the album was recalled and black ink or electric tape covered the offending word, and the album was made a self-titled album. Originally, fans could peel off the tape or rub off the ink, however doing this now would only damage the record. A 2014 vinyl reissue re-titled the album as ''Lice-All'', which is of course pronounced exactly the same as the original title.

* EpicRocking: The average length of a Melvins song is roughly two to five minutes (depending on the album), however there are some that exceed this. ''Bullhead'' contains the eight minute Boris, ''Hostile Ambient Takeover'' has the sixteen minute Anti-Vermin Seed, ''Lysol'' brings forth a ten minute song called Hung Bunny (or on some editions of the album, the entire thirty minute album as one track), and the live album ''Colossus of Destiny'' is an hour long jam on the song Eye Flys from their first album (which is itself a six and a half minute track).

* IndecipherableLyrics: Several songs, Roman Bird Dog being the most notable with at least three different versions of the lyrics floating around out there.

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* AGoodNameForARockBand: The name came from Osborne's days as a clerk at a Montesano-area Thriftway, where "Melvin" was a particularly hated supervisor who was apparently arrested at some point for stealing Christmas trees. Everyone thought that it was an appropriately ridiculous name for the music they were making, and so it stuck.
* AscendedFanboy: Subverted. Kurt Cobain (yes, [[Music/{{Nirvana}} THAT]] Kurt Cobain) idolized the Melvins growing up, and auditioned for them a couple of times. Although he wasn't an official member, he did manage to land a few gigs being a roadie for them and producing/playing on the ''Houdini'' album. According to Buzz, however, he was apparently pretty bad as a producer, so he was quickly canned, much to their mutual dismay.

* GreatestHitsAlbum: ''Melvinmania: Best of the Atlantic Years 1993–1996'', a UK-only compilation that featured a handful of songs each from the albums ''Houdini'', ''Stoner Witch'', and ''Stag'', and was released without the band's involvement. A more extensive, band-selected "Best Of" was included as a companion piece to the art-book ''Neither Here Nor There''.

* InNameOnly: The cover of "Venus in Furs" by Velvet Underground. It plays part of the first line, and then suddenly turns into 3 and a half minutes of incoherent cacophony.

* IdiosyncraticCoverArt: ''The Maggot'', ''The Bootlicker'', and ''The Crybaby'' all have very similar cover designs, which again relates to the band considering them a "trilogy:": They all have close-ups of different kinds of flowers as a cover image, the band name and title are rendered in the same fonts and appear in the same place, and above the "v" in "Melvins" is a grey circle with a number (1-3) inside it. And then there's the {{Music/Kiss}}-homaging artwork of their 1992 solo EP's.

The Melvins began in 1983 in Montesano, Washington by Buzz Osborne, Matt Lukin, and Mike Dillard, who all attended the same high school. The band started out by playing a cross of Music/JimiHendrix and Music/{{Cream}} covers along with a few hardcore punk songs. Eventually, Mike Dillard left the group, and the band recruited Dale Crover (who would later play drums on a couple of songs on Music/{{Nirvana}}'s first album ''Music/{{Bleach}}'') to be on drums. Shortly after that, the group relocated to Dale's parents' house in Aberdeen, and their sound changed considerably with the decision to slow down their music. In 1986, the band released their first EP, ''Six Songs'', followed by their debut a year later. The band released a series of albums, splits, and EP's over the next few years that wound up being extremely influential to multiple artists and genres of music; bands like Music/{{Nirvana}}, Music/{{Tool}} (who are personal friends with the band), Music/{{Eyehategod}}, Music/{{Neurosis}}, Music/{{Mastodon}}, and Music/{{Boris}} (who took their name from a Melvins song) cite them as influences.

** SpeakingSimlish: Sometimes goes far enough to be considered this, most prominently in ''Hooch.'' It wasn't left unnoticed: the music video of the said song was featured in [[WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead that very cartoon with two dumb guys]], where Butthead tried to figure out the lyrics for Beavis.

* DistinctDoubleAlbum: ''A Walk With Love And Death'': The ''Death'' disc is meant to be a relatively standard Melvins-style rock album. The ''Death'' disc is the soundtrack to a short film (also titled ''A Walk With Love And Death'') and is a mix of sound collage and pure noise.

* DevelopmentHell: ''Three Men And A Baby'', a collaboration with godheadSilo bassist/vocalist Mike Kunka, was mostly recorded in 1999, but it wasn't until 2015 that production was finally finished and the album itself was released in 2016. None of the involved parties seem entirely certain about why it was shelved for so long.

* ''Pigs of the Roman Empire'', 2004

The Melvins began in 1983 in Montesano, Washington by Buzz Osbourne, Matt Lukin, and Mike Dillard, who all attended the same high school. The band started out by playing a cross of Music/JimiHendrix and Music/{{Cream}} covers along with a few hardcore punk songs. Eventually, Mike Dillard left the group, and the band recruited Dale Crover (who would later play drums on a couple of songs on Music/{{Nirvana}}'s first album ''Music/{{Bleach}}'') to be on drums. Shortly after that, the group relocated to Dale's parents' house in Aberdeen, and their sound changed considerably with the decision to slow down their music. In 1986, the band released their first EP, ''Six Songs'', followed by their debut a year later. The band released a series of albums, splits, and EP's over the next few years that wound up being extremely influential to multiple artists and genres of music; bands like Music/{{Nirvana}}, Music/{{Tool}} (who are personal friends with the band), Music/{{Eyehategod}}, Music/{{Neurosis}}, Music/{{Mastodon}}, and Music/{{Boris}} (who took their name from a Melvins song) cite them as influences.

** In 1992, the then-current members of the band (Buzz Osbourne, Dale Crover, and Joe Preston) put out one solo [=EP=] each, largely as an elaborate reference to Music/{{KISS}} having done the same thing in 1978, but with full albums. Like those [=Kiss=] albums, each EP was released under the band's name, with the member whose solo effort it was serving as the title. The artwork to each EP also featured an airbrushed portrait of a Melvins member, done in the same style of the [=Kiss=] releases, and the band's logo was changed to one that parodied that of [=Kiss=].

* WildHair: The signature look of Buzz Osbourne - he's the one in the top right of the page image. A common joke among the fanbase (especially on YouTube) is that he [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons "looks like Sideshow Bob and laughs like Krusty the Clown"]].

* CoverVersion: Aside from the aforementioned ''Everybody Loves Sausages'' and half of ''Electroretard'', they've covered Music/HankWilliams, Music/{{KISS}}, Music/ButtholeSurfers, Music/TheGerms, Green River...among others. The Melvins themselves have been covered by Music/{{Mastodon}}, Music/TheDillingerEscapePlan, Music/StrappingYoungLad, and Music/PigDestroyer...among others, yet again.

The Melvins began in 1983 in Montesano, Washington by Buzz Osbourne, Matt Lukin, and Mike Dillard, who all attended the same high school. The band started out by playing a cross of JimiHendrix and Cream covers along with a few hardcore punk songs. Eventually, Mike Dillard left the group, and the band recruited Dale Crover (who would later play drums on a couple of songs on Music/{{Nirvana}}'s first album ''Music/{{Bleach}}'') to be on drums. Shortly after that, the group relocated to Dale's parents' house in Aberdeen, and their sound changed considerably with the decision to slow down their music. In 1986, the band released their first EP, ''Six Songs'', followed by their debut a year later. The band released a series of albums, splits, and EP's over the next few years that wound up being extremely influential to multiple artists and genres of music; bands like Music/{{Nirvana}}, Music/{{Tool}} (who are personal friends with the band), Music/{{Eyehategod}}, Music/{{Neurosis}}, Music/{{Mastodon}}, and Music/{{Boris}} (who took their name from a Melvins song) cite them as influences.

* CoverVersion: Aside from the aforementioned ''Everybody Loves Sausages'' and half of ''Electroretard'', they've covered Music/HankWilliams, Music/{{KISS}}, Music/ButtholeSurfers, Music/TheGerms, Green River...among others. The Melvins themselves have been covered by Music/{{Mastodon}}, Music/TheDillingerEscapePlan, Music/StrappingYoungLad, and Pig Destroyer...among others, yet again.

** Let's just say the Melvins have a lot of these.

** SpeakingSimlish: Sometimes goes far enough to be considered this, most prominently in ''Hooch''. It wasn't left unnoticed: the music video of the said song was featured in [[WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead that very cartoon with two dumb guys]], where Butthead tried to figure out the lyrics for Beavis.

* TheTheTitleConfusion: "Melvins" vs. "The Melvins". The band usually uses the former, but haven't always been consistent about it... And their two albums where they collaborated with [[Music/DeadKennedys Jello Biafra]] are officially by Jello Biafra & ''The'' Melvins, probably because it sounds better. The confusion is referenced in the cover art to ''A Senile Animal'', which renders the band name as "(the) Melvins" and the album as "(a) Senile Animal"... And the cover of ''Tres Cabrones'' bills them as "Los Melvins" to go with the GratuitousSpanish title.

* AscendedFanboy: Subverted. Kurt Cobain (yes, [[{{Nirvana}} THAT]] Kurt Cobain) idolized the Melvins growing up, and auditioned for them a couple of times. Although he wasn't an official member, he did manage to land a few gigs being a roadie for them and producing/playing on the ''Houdini'' album. According to Buzz, however, he was apparently pretty bad as a producer, so he was quickly canned, much to their mutual dismay.

* CoverVersion: Aside from the aforementioned ''Everybody Loves Sausages'' and half of ''Electroretard'', they've covered HankWilliams, Music/{{KISS}}, Music/ButtholeSurfers, Music/TheGerms, Green River...among others. The Melvins themselves have been covered by Music/{{Mastodon}}, Music/TheDillingerEscapePlan, StrappingYoungLad, and Pig Destroyer...among others, yet again.

* InNameOnly: Melvins cover of "Venus in Furs" by Velvet Underground. It plays part of the first line, and then suddenly turns into 3 and a half minutes of incoherent cacophony.

* SelfTitledAlbum: Sort of. Lysol was originally going to just be called Lysol, but as it turns out, the name was a registered trademark, so the album was recalled and black ink or electric tape covered the offending word, and the album was made a self-titled album. Originally, fans could peel off the tape or rub off the ink, however doing this now would only damage the record. A 2014 vinyl reissue re-titled the album as '' Lice-All'', which is of course pronounced exactly the same as the original title.

* ShoutOut: "GGIIBBYY" is named after ButtholeSurfers vocalist Gibby Haynes.

** The song title "Snake Appeal" is most likely a pun on TheStooges' "Shake Appeal".

* SurprisinglyGentleSong: They've done relatively sedate covers of [[HankWilliams "Ramblin' Man"]], [[MerleHaggard "Okie from Muskogee"]], [[{{Music/Queen}} "You're My Best Friend"]], and the traditional Canadian folk song "Peggy Gordon". For originals, there's "Black Bock", a lightly psychedelic folk-rock song [[LyricalDissonance about mutilating a goat]], and "You Can Make Me Wait", a surprising experiment in JanglePop with the vocals heavily processed through a vocoder.

* TheTheTitleConfusion: "Melvins" vs. "The Melvins". The band usually uses the former, but haven't always been consistent about it... And their two albums where they collaborated with [[DeadKennedys Jello Biafra]] are officially by Jello Biafra & ''The'' Melvins, probably because it sounds better. The confusion is referenced in the cover art to ''A Senile Animal'', which renders the band name as "(the) Melvins" and the album as "(a) Senile Animal"... And the cover of ''Tres Cabrones'' bills them as "Los Melvins" to go with the GratuitousSpanish title.

* SpokenWordInMusic: "Divorced", a collaboration with Music/{{Tool}}, features a phone conversation between Danny Carey and Maynard James Keenan, which is apparently regarding a mutual friend going out with a woman who Maynard describes as having "a voice like a fuckin' modem, dude!".

* SelfTitledAlbum: Sort of. Lysol was originally going to just be called Lysol, but as it turns out, the name was a registered trademark, so the album was recalled and black ink or electric tape covered the offending word, and the album was made a self-titled album. Originally, fans could peel off the tape or rub off the ink, however doing this now would only damage the record.

* IdiosyncraticCoverArt: ''The Maggot'', ''The Bootlicker'', and ''The Crybaby'' all have very similar cover designs: They all have close-ups of different kinds of flowers as a cover image, the band name and title are rendered in the same fonts and appear in the same place, and above the "v" in "Melvins" is a grey circle with a number (1-3) inside it. And then there's the {{Music/Kiss}}-homaging artwork of their 1992 solo EP's.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Varies wildly. Mostly around a 6-7, with a few songs bordering on 8, but can go as low as a 1 [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGnijAnlW0c&feature=kp (their cover of the Ballad of Dwight Frye)]] or as high as a 10 [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah-1DBIQmQo (Goggles)]].