Track Listing

1. Bit
2. Hide
3. Bar X The Rocking M
4. Bloat
5. Black Bock
6. Tipping The Lion
7. Cotton Mouth
8. Bertha
9. Captain Pungent
10. Skin Horse
11. Lacrimosa
12. Sterilized
13. Buck Owens
14. Soup
15. Goggles
16. Yacob's Lab

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26320 in Music
• Released on: 2002-04-15
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Customer Reviews

Stag: Method in the Madness
Here is an album for those who like an artist to produce something with diversity, integrity and downright intensity!
Melvins are a band that have always done things a little differently, this album is no exception, in fact this album could provide the listener with all forms of their style and madness equally as well as a "Best of" ever could. It has their sound and style from previous releases; its all there. King Buzzo's seemingly bizarre sounding lyrics and his famous pounding guitar work is as good as his best and Dale Crover provides as much to enjoy from the drums.
Most interesting about "Stag" though is what we dont expect, ideas such as a trombone solo(used to true Melvins effect)in the fantastic "Bar-X-The Rocking M" transforms the Melvins sound into a song which really the sets bar for the rest of an experimental album. The album continues to perform to a high standard and then takes a more drastic change to the eccentric sounding "Black Bock" a neat song with soft guitars and vocals and a great quirky bass-line.
"Stag" really goes out with a bang the penultimate two tracks are storming and include "Captain Pungent" which has an almost creepy feel to it from the vocals and the guitar work is awesome and somehow as vivid.
This might not be their most popular or best album, 1993's Kurt Cobain produced "Houdini" is possibly a more likely classic with better stand-out tracks like "Lizzy" and "Honey Bucket" but "Stag" has to be admired for its consistency and ideas displayed whilst retaining the awesome sound of a truly individual band.

Not the best Melvins album, it's just really experimental.
As I said, this is a REALLY experimental album. Tracks like The Bit and Bar-X-The Rocking M are heavy and they've got the riffs, but thay are supported by the weirdest instruments. The Bit being a sitar and Bar-X being a trombone.
The rest of the album is just as strange, but without the riff really or highly experimental 'noise' tracks. For example; Soup is like distortion and keyboards with gloopy 'soup' noises over ther top.
There are a few surprises (like you'll find a Melvins album without surprises anyway!); Black Bock is a straight forward pop song, literally, and I'll let you find out about Skin Horse; twisted!
This is very experimental and weird, but if you approach it with an open mind you'll (probably) enjoy it. Its probably the Melvins album where the turning point between really obscure experimentalism and metal became truly apparent.
Buy it, don't expect a straightforward heavy album though. It's really enjoyable though if you approach it with the right frame of mind.
The Bit is awesome!
Good luck!

A few good songs padded with needless weirdness
I should probably start by saying I'm not one of these people that loves the melvins and holds everything they do in high regard. I have a few albums; Stoner Witch, Houdini, Bullhead, Ozma, Gluey Porch Treatments and this. I think all the other albums are good in their own right... this... I cannot get into.

Don't get me wrong, there are some great songs here. "The Bit" is one of my favourite Melvins songs and stuff like Bar X and Tipping the Lion is good too. My complaint is that there is random weirdness here... now obviously, the Melvins are just a weird band. But the problem is that they start to experiment with something, say in "soup" which is just a kinda soundscape, but then they just cut it off after a few minutes and the next song comes on.

It doesn't seem well structured. Say in the first 2 Mars Volta albums where there is weirdness in-between the songs... it is kinda done well, and it is seen through properly rather than just dabbled with and then cut off as a sort of token gesture which is what it feels like the Melvins have done here. It's just too inconsistent to have like; short catchy song, 2 minutes of aimless noise meandering with no relation to the song before or after it, short catchy song. This formula does not work.

The Melvins have some great albums, but this is not one of them. I certainly wouldn't recommend this to someone who is unfamiliar with the band either; I would be more inclined to suggest Bullhead or Stoner Witch.

Good band; not a very good album.

Peace,
Dom x