This Machine Kills Artists

Melvins front man Buzz Osborne releases solo, acoustic album. What started as a trio of kids making their own weird noise grew into the Melvins, a sludge-rock outfit that helped usher in the grunge era and influenced countless bands to come, including Mudhoney and Nirvana.

For more than three decades, Buzz Osborne and bassist-drummer Dale Crover have been the only consistent members, experimenting with their music as well as their bandmates along the way: two drummers here, a standup bassist there, the return of a founding member who's been gone for 29 years.

King Buzzo: "My main goal was to not fall prey to what happens to most rock people who do this," he said from his home in Los Angeles. "They often end up sounding like a half-assed version of Woody Guthrie or a half-assed version of James Taylor. That's not what I wanted."

"You gotta understand, I wrote a lot of this stuff on acoustic guitar anyway," he said. "I've certainly written a lot of songs [acoustically] that were then translated into the full band.