Wed, Oct 24, 2012, Las Vegas Weekly, Entertainment

Will you prepare for a 12-show residency any differently than you prepare for a tour? Probably a little bit, because I think we’re going to have to alternate sets and do different things. Whereas when we tour we kind of tweak the set as we go and then kind of get in a mode of it being a certain way, with a few audible changes as we go along. I think with the Vegas sets, we’re going to try and make some different things happen to kind of keep each show a little bit different.

Like, keep a basic set and mix in a few songs? Or will you have multiple setlists? I think we’re really going to have to think about that. And as you just say that … (pauses) … an idea came into my mind … to really, drastically change the set. I can’t share it with you, but I think would be really good. I think there’s a couple different ways we could go about all this, and I think we should.

Is there you’ll be able to do, production-wise, to make these shows special since you won’t have to tear it all down every night? I’ve got a couple of ideas, and I think everyone is going to have to use their noggin to try to figure it out. I know Axl [Rose] is going to try and make every show different from one to the next. I think that would be the way he thinks.

Sounds like there’s still a lot up in the air. Do you think it will mostly happen spontaneously? Ya know, I don’t know. I think that we’re probably going to have to talk about how different we want to make the shows, then once we do that and we all get on the same page it’ll be easy to say, “Hey, how ’bout tonight we do it this way?” That way, people aren’t gonna go, “Wow, I saw them last week, and I saw that set.” It would be good to have them see a different set each time. To make people go, “Wow, that was totally different.” It might be totally acoustic for half the set tonight. Or maybe we’ll do half the set on f*cking kazoos! (laughs)

The residency is called Appetite for Democracy. Does that mean it will mostly draw from Appetite for Destruction and Chinese Democracy? I just think somebody came up with a cute term (laughs). I don’t really know where that came from, but it is definitely going to be more than just Appetite and Chinese Democracy. It’s going to be a lot of things—as much as we can throw out there.

You’ve been in Guns N’ Roses almost 15 years, right? Yeah, ’98! F*ckin A!

I know you played on Chinese Democracy, but were you involved in the writing process or was the album already written by the time you joined the band? I came in sort of … in the middle of the record, but there was a lot to write and a lot to put together still. So I was pretty much involved in helping put all that stuff that you hear on Chinese Democracy together in one aspect or another.

When you took over GNR bass duties, did you try to play like Duff McKagan? Or did you try to make it your own? I think, other than him being more riff oriented than I am, we’re not all that different players. We both kind of came from a punk-rock background, and it wasn’t all that much of a stretch. I did, however, tweak my sound a little bit so that it would fit sonically with what was going on. I didn’t really try to sound like Duff necessarily, but to make it sound as powerful as I could while still fitting in to what’s going on.

Did you switch amps or basses? I tried all sorts of stuff, but eventually I went back to what I know. And that’s Ampegs and P and J basses.

I read that you and Paul Westerberg are working on new Replacements material. Yeah, we recorded some songs live in the studio a couple weekends ago to benefit Slim Dunlap, the guitar player that took my brother’s place. He had a massive series of strokes this last spring, and he’s pretty laid up, so we’re trying to raise some money for his recovery. We did, like, four songs. [Ex-Replacements drummer] Chris Mars did a song to throw on there, and we’re going to release a Replacements EP at some point. The proceeds will all go to Slim.

That will surely feed Replacements reunion tour rumor mill … You never know. We certainly had a f*cking ball doing it, and it was fun to get in the f*cking mud and just kind of sling around until it kind of warps into something and you’re just like, “Wow, we can actually still f*cking do that.” I think some time, maybe end of December or early January, we might try to just record some songs together, not for any purpose for The Replacements necessarily but just do some recording just to have that vibe, whether it’s for his record, my record, whatever. That’s just something we talked about. It could fall apart at any point. We both had enough fun with it that it seemed like it would be a good thing to try and do.

During the ’80s, The Replacements exemplified anti-mainstream music. Now, you play in Guns N’ Roses, one of the most popular bands from that period. Was that a strange transition, mentally? Ya know, they’re totally different things, but they’re both totally the same in a lot of ways, in that its rock ’n’ roll. It’s what I’ve always done. Axl is about as anti-corporate-rock as anyone I know, Paul [Westerberg] included. It just so happens that their model of anti-corporate-rock got through and people liked it. People bought it. I can’t speak for the whole band, but I can speak for me getting down with Axl, and he comes from the same place as all of us.

Web Link: http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2012/oct/24/appetite-residency/

Wed, Oct 17, 2012, Las Vegas Weekly, Entertainment

Why are you playing 51 shows—all 50 states plus Washington, D.C.—in 51 days? Dale: We wanted to do something big and dumb (laughs). We had heard George Thorogood attempted [50 shows in 50 states] but never completed it, so we thought it sounded like a cool idea. I guess George’s people got wind that we were attempting it and said “Oh, no, we finished it.”

Do certain shows stand out, or is it all just a blur at this point? Dale: Well, we’re getting to play all these places that we’ve never been before, like Casper, Wyoming. We played like a VFW there, which was a little odd but it turned out to be a great show. Last night we played in this old theater in Charlottesville, Virginia, and obviously we love playing theaters because the sound is so good. Overall, it’s been a really positive experience. When we get to Vegas, it’ll be Vegas, LA, Hawaii and then we’re done. Oh, and the Vegas show is on my birthday, so that should be fun—a Vegas birthday. The show has been moved, like, three times, because for some reason we started selling tickets. Vegas is usually a bust for us, so that’s great news.

Has the way you guys write changed through the years? Buzz: Nothing stays the same, thankfully. I try to remain as open-minded as possible in all areas and not concern myself how it will be perceived by the general public. I make things that I like, and I don’t particularly care what our fans think. I think they should like it. That doesn’t mean they will like it, but I can’t concern myself with those kind of details.

Buzz, you’ve described the Melvins’ sound as “Captain Beefheart, playing heavy metal” stemming from a punk background. What do you think makes music punk? Buzz: Attitude. That’s it. There’s a lot of bands that consider themselves punk rock that I don’t think are at all. But that’s me. I’m a different kind of person. I see things differently. Honestly, I have no idea what motivates people or why they do what they’re doing. I usually don’t trust their motivations, whatever they may be. I can’t fully explain it. I know it when I see it, but we are definitely [punk] more than anything else. In the grand tradition of it, like the Sex Pistols or whoever.

Dale: Punk is doing something completely outrageous and against the grain. It’s as simple as that.

Web Link: http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2012/oct/17/chatting-melvins-mainstays-buzz-osborne-and-dale-c/

Wed, Sep 26, 2012, Las Vegas Weekly, Entertainment

Your August release, Mondo Sex Head, remixes tracks from your catalog. Where did that concept come from? I just thought the music I made had enough of a groove that it worked for remixes. I’ve always liked that sort of music—electronic music—even though I don’t play it. And I liked having them take my songs and rip them apart and see what they come up with.

Did you oversee any of the remixes? No, I didn’t want to have anything to do with it, because it kind of defeats the purpose. We would farm out the songs to the mixers—I would just let them run wild—and I would pick the ones I liked.

You’ve got a new album coming out soon. Did Mondo help inspire the songs or styles for that? Strangely enough, no. I thought, “Maybe some of these mixers will get involved with this record,” but it just didn’t happen that way. It’s actually a very band-oriented, live-sounding raw record—a crazy record. So yeah, sort of the exact opposite of the remix record.

You recently directed a new film [The Lords of Salem]. Are there any similarities in the way you approaching making a record and making a movie? The actual work is obviously very different … but the creative process is the same. I mean, when you just boil it down, it’s just you and your brain trying to think of stuff, whether it’s lyrics or a script or just how to visualize anything. So there’s a basic element that’s exactly the same.

How did making a low-budget film like The Lords of Salem compare to making large-production films like Halloween? The funny thing is, when you see the movie, it doesn’t appear to be a low-budget movie. In fact, in a lot of ways it looks like we had more money than we did on Halloween. With each film, I become craftier on how to stretch a buck. Money equals time on a movie—less money means you have less time, and it’s harder because you have less leeway for mistakes. On a movie like Halloween, I think we shot it in 40 days, whereas Lords of Salem we shot in 23 days. And 23 days is pretty fast, especially for a movie of this scope. It’s almost as if every decision has to be right the first time, so there’s a lot pressure in that sense.

What keeps you switching up what you do as much as you do? You never just want to give the fans what they expect. You should always be challenging them, because that’s what makes it interesting. You’re supposed to be the one that takes them on a journey to somewhere else; you don’t want to just keep giving them the same thing, because they will get bored with that. So that’s why I like to mix it up. Sometimes it may upset them for a while, but eventually it always works out. You don’t want 10 albums that are exactly the same and 10 movies that are exactly the same; you’d lose interest. I’ve seen it with a million bands. You just come to expect the same thing all the time and people get bored with it.

Web Link: http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/2012/sep/26/ripping-it-rock-vegas-headliner-rob-zombie/