Honestly, this was one of the coolest experiences of my life. I can't thank Conan enough for asking me, out of all the other awesome bassists he knows, to be a part of this and flying me out to California to record it. Totally surreal moment standing in the live room with Conan and fucking Dale Crover, one of my favorite drummers since the first time I heard him on Paper Cuts from Bleach when I was 13, learning the songs we're about to record. Just standing there, like 'uhhhhhh....how does this one go?,' learning it in 10 minutes and laying it down. Crazy. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I'd do it again tomorrow.I have a bunch of good photos from the session that I'll post later.

Holy shitballs! This is excellent.Well done lads.

Holy shitballs! This is excellent.Well done lads.

kerble wrote:that cover is incredible.It makes me smile every time I see it. As mentioned, it is the very unique style of Mr. David Yow and his getfaced. The subjects are, to the left... a 90's be-mopped Conan Neutron from High School, 15 I would guess. And to the right my best friend of ten years Clay Wofford. This was actually a promo photo taken by our friend from high school of a band that was a band in name only, we rarely got around to actually playing. At the time, the Young Ones had just become popular on TV and I felt that the two finger salute was elegantly vulgar and completely badass. Corndogs.Clay passed away in August of last year right before we recorded this. He most certainly set me on my path to music, something that I would alternately thank or curse him on, depending on the day. I was reading comic books and he just shows up at my house one day brandishing a bass guitar. I bought a bass, you should buy a guitar so we can be in a band.To him that was all that was necessary, and ultimately, why not?We lived in a crappy suburban town an hour and a half from the major city, but a world apart. Listening to bands (like the Melvins) was one of the things that kept us sane.Clay didn't really stick with music, we drifted apart and he took a dark path later in life... leaving the world too soon, but for me I choose to remember him as the wild eyed maniac with the bass in hand and the proclamation. Defiant and raucous, the enemy of everyone.benadrian wrote:Also, Conan mentioned it, but I will repeat, Tony Ash is on bass. Dude can bass.YES! Man, I do not mean to short sell Mr. Ash's contributions at all, just hard to fit in a subject line. Dude brought it and brought it hard... I had the advantage of having written the dumb songs, Dale had the advantage of... well, being Dale Crover. But Tony conducted himself like a champion with his professionalism and playing. Thank you again Bunny, for the lodging as well as for the loan of the RepliBass for most of the record. That is the Krist Novoselic RD bass on the Bargain Is Sealed, Child of Man if I remember right. KN RD, NBD.I guess it's the sig model and when he was done playing it in the Melvins studio he just left it for them.now *THAT* is fuck you money.seanurban wrote:I had it in my mind that your next project would be solo. Shows?If you see somebody with the name Neutron bringing a stool and sporting a goatee doing the coffee house circuit with sweet and sensitive songs, bring a gun and shoot that fucker dead. seanurban wrote:IShows?Yeah! There are tentative plans to do a week long+ tour in May, West coast. Wildly dependent on everybody's schedules. More on that as I get it together. Everybody is on board though, so why not?Thanks for all the nice words for this record, both private and public. It really was a labor of love and nothing but bare wire excitement and adventure in almost all stages except for the saving up money to master and press stage. That stage kind of sucked.

kerble wrote:that cover is incredible.It makes me smile every time I see it. As mentioned, it is the very unique style of Mr. David Yow and his getfaced. The subjects are, to the left... a 90's be-mopped Conan Neutron from High School, 15 I would guess. And to the right my best friend of ten years Clay Wofford. This was actually a promo photo taken by our friend from high school of a band that was a band in name only, we rarely got around to actually playing. At the time, the Young Ones had just become popular on TV and I felt that the two finger salute was elegantly vulgar and completely badass. Corndogs.Clay passed away in August of last year right before we recorded this. He most certainly set me on my path to music, something that I would alternately thank or curse him on, depending on the day. I was reading comic books and he just shows up at my house one day brandishing a bass guitar. I bought a bass, you should buy a guitar so we can be in a band.To him that was all that was necessary, and ultimately, why not?We lived in a crappy suburban town an hour and a half from the major city, but a world apart. Listening to bands (like the Melvins) was one of the things that kept us sane.Clay didn't really stick with music, we drifted apart and he took a dark path later in life... leaving the world too soon, but for me I choose to remember him as the wild eyed maniac with the bass in hand and the proclamation. Defiant and raucous, the enemy of everyone.benadrian wrote:Also, Conan mentioned it, but I will repeat, Tony Ash is on bass. Dude can bass.YES! Man, I do not mean to short sell Mr. Ash's contributions at all, just hard to fit in a subject line. Dude brought it and brought it hard... I had the advantage of having written the dumb songs, Dale had the advantage of... well, being Dale Crover. But Tony conducted himself like a champion with his professionalism and playing. Thank you again Bunny, for the lodging as well as for the loan of the RepliBass for most of the record. That is the Krist Novoselic RD bass on the Bargain Is Sealed, Child of Man if I remember right. KN RD, NBD.I guess it's the sig model and when he was done playing it in the Melvins studio he just left it for them.now *THAT* is fuck you money.seanurban wrote:I had it in my mind that your next project would be solo. Shows?If you see somebody with the name Neutron bringing a stool and sporting a goatee doing the coffee house circuit with sweet and sensitive songs, bring a gun and shoot that fucker dead. seanurban wrote:IShows?Yeah! There are tentative plans to do a week long+ tour in May, West coast. Wildly dependent on everybody's schedules. More on that as I get it together. Everybody is on board though, so why not?Thanks for all the nice words for this record, both private and public. It really was a labor of love and nothing but bare wire excitement and adventure in almost all stages except for the saving up money to master and press stage. That stage kind of sucked.

I love that you can see Tony's Amoeba bag in the picture behind Dale's kit. He got some good scores.Man, all the live pics look like last known photographs or something, but here goes:Yes, that is the Melvins guitar-senal in the background there. No, we were not allowed to touch Buzz's EGCs (everything else was fine though).And yeah, this is where the Melvins make all their records now, doesn't look like much, but man they get some great sounds out of that little room. Ladder and all.Also: it was hot as fuck.Middle of a heatwave actually. Only the control room had any kind of cooling, so there was even more impetus to not screw up.

garthplinko wrote:I just can't believe you kept a lid on this for so long. And you with your own radio show and all. Must have been driving you crazy!When i'm in radio show mode, i'm in radio show mode, flogging my wares is not top of the priority list.Also, I didn't want it revealed until it was all done though, and that involved a lot of nickel and dime saving to get it mastered. Otherwise this thread would have probably happened in November.Yes, it was driving me crazy though. Going to any show locally, especially after V and A decided to call it quits the natural question is to ask:So, what are you up to now?I found lots of fun ways to be evasive and change the topic. let's put it that way.garthplinko wrote:Cheers man, I am really happy for you and hope that the experience lived up to what your dreams were for it.Nice work sir!Yeah, I gotta say it was pretty special to be standing in a room with one of rock 'n rolls greatest drummers (IMO) talking about the Muscle Shoals documentary and then should we start?, looking over at Tony who nods back, looking at (OMG)Dale Crover(OMG) and just tearing right into it.Surreal and absolutely amazing. The fact that live shows are even in discussion is an extra round of fuck it-list bonus points.

Wow, sounds great. Salut.

Wow, sounds great. Salut.