Hey, it’s another interview! This time Oswald focuses his question laser on Alicia Dara, of Seattle’s The Volcano Diary, and turns it up to 11, asking some typically hard-hitting questions about what her new album is like, how she made it, and whether there are still grunge bands wandering around in the Pacific Northwest. You don’t want to miss this fabulous installment of America’s Favorite Podcast, Audio Assault!

For more info on The Volcano Diary, go here or here.

Here’s the thing, folks: I don’t even know how to describe The Melvins’ individual albums. Their work is all pretty much sludgy, dark, and weird, but individual albums each are their own entities. And I don’t mean that to be dismissive. I like their brand of sludgy, dark, and weird, but each of their albums is sometimes only different in subtle ways. This is all a roundabout way of saying they are their own band. Whenever the subject of where to start with the Melvins comes up, invariably a few hardcore fans crop up to tell you to go through all their albums, as though this superhumanly prolific band can be digested (let alone appreciated!) all at once.

So I can tell you The Bride Screamed Murder is as good an opening as exists. They’ve gotten a bit more accessible compared to their early days. Or maybe time has gotten softer to their heavy, slow brand of metal thanks to their progeny. I don’t know. The vocals on “I’ll Finish You” are more haunting than anything found on records from their “prime” like Houdini or Stoner Witch. There’s some great fret work on “Electric Flower” as the guitars duel with each other on a cat-and-mouse riff and Buzz Osborne’s multi-tracked vocals shout over them. They’re not ones for pop hooks, thank God, so mileage varies by how much gravitas and power one enjoys in their metal.

I’d say that their riffs are a little less Black Sabbath (the album) and a little more Paranoid nowadays, but that sounds like progress. And this band doesn’t necessarily progress; they just do different spins on their sound that are different but equally awesome. It’s why seemingly every corner of the band’s formidable discography has proponents. Yet, on this album, they do a cover of “My Generation” that’s unlike anything The Who or Sabbath could have ever done, all slow and moody – almost a parody, but somehow not quite getting to that level of sarcasm. It’s a bit overlong, but it’s at least different.

Then there are the odd detours that make the band so endearing. Like the chant and response on the opening track, “The Water Glass,” or the weird not-quite-jazz noodling at the end of “Hospital Up.” Then again, they speed up considerably, to an almost punkish degree, on “Inhumanity and Death” before switching over to a slower, high-tension tempo. Yet at the same time, it’s not as convincing as past forays into that sound (such as those on A Senile Animal).

Maybe I’ve done too much praising. The Melvins are not a band of grand statements, which is probably why they’ve stayed more or less a cult phenomenon. Their greatness lies in the fact that album-to-album, they’re remarkably consistent. Song-by-song, though, each album has some dry spots or dirges that don’t quite work out. Yet they hit so many right moments out of the park every single time that it’s hard not to recommend everything they do. I guess what I’m saying is: have you heard of this great band called The Melvins? If so, you’ll probably like this. You haven’t? Where’s the best place to start? Here or wherever, man.

When Fleet Foxes came onto the scene back in 2008, they bore more than a passing resemblance to another soft rock band fronted by a grungy-looking beard: Band of Horses. There was enough room for both bands, though, and they’ve both done pretty well for themselves. Now bearded, flannel-clad bands from the Pacific Northwest making pretty, laid back music are a dime a dozen and it takes a little extra something to make one stand out from the rest. It’s like a defanged version of the grunge rock era. Band of Horses have changed their style a bit over their last few albums, but they haven’t necessarily evolved. Whether or not that’s a good thing depends on how enamored you are with the drowsy, uncomplicated soft rock that they champion.

The grunge rock comparison doesn’t end with the flannel and beards. Band of Horses have been touring with Pearl Jam—frontman Ben Bridwell even did a pretty good cover of Temple of the Dog classic “Hunger Strike” as a stand-in for Chris Cornell, who was probably busy thinking up new ways to embarrass himself—and they have a lesson to learn from one of the preeminent bands of the grunge era. You see, Pearl Jam haven’t really changed since the ‘90s. They’ve just made a series of mostly interchangeable records and decided, bafflingly, to shill for Target after years of anti-establishment posturing. That’s not to say that they’ve been releasing bad music. They are nothing if not competent. But really, who cares anymore?

Infinite Arms is a competently-done album, and it has its high points. Album opener “Factory” is a sweeping, string-laden ballad and one of Band of Horse’s strongest songs to date. “Laredo” turns up the fuzz on the guitars and rocks surprisingly hard. It sounds almost like a lost Neil Young song. Most of the rest of the album falls flat, though, due to over-production and schmaltzy lyrics (“If there’s a God up in the air / Someone looking over everyone / At least you’ve got something to fall back on”). At their worst, some of the songs sound like something you’d hear on the radio at the dentist’s office while getting your teeth cleaned.

Band of Horses are talented, and they have some good songs in them underneath all that flannel and facial hair. They need to bring something different to the table, though, if they’re not going to fade into the crowd of bands out there that are using the same sensitive Pacific Northwesterner shtick. Over-produced soft rock ballads aren’t going to do it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcbYU38bwFc

Band Of Horses:

• Official Site
• MySpace
• Last.fm

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