January 15, 2005
Melvins' Book
The Melvins’ massive tome-to-self Neither Here Nor There is a qualified disappointment. But only if one is expecting to find a treasure trove of candid photos from tours, backstage shenanigans, etc., and any other intimate or otherwise insights from the only major book on one of the most awesome, heaviest bands ever. Sure, there is a smattering of these kinds of images and quotes. Only one has to work through an incredible mire of hyper-stylized over-design to find even the smallest micro-fragment of something sincere, like pictures of Dale Crover and his first drum set, or the following decontextualized quote from King Buzzo: “I have NO IDEA what you are talking about. If you mean what sort of hairstyle did I have before now, I was a Nazi skinhead. I was a Nazi skinhead until I found out that kicking the shit out of ‘niggers’ and ‘kikes’ was part of the job. I thought it was just about being gay.” If, on the other hand, you’re really into Mackie O.'s thing, the book is really all about her esthetic. It is a tour de force repository of the kind of design that really began to emerge in Melvins’ album art especially after Stoner Witch. In fact, the coffe table book is, more than anything else, a send-up to contemporary design style and Juxtapoz-school-of-art second generation Robert Williams. For those of you who basically only really want to see large format reprints of Mackie's album art, whoever you are, you will be amply rewarded.