Melvins

The Melvins are an American band that formed in 1983. They usually perform as a trio, but in recent years have performed as a four piece with two drummers. Since 1984, singer and guitarist Buzz Osborne (also known as King Buzzo) and drummer Dale Crover have been the band's ongoing members. The band was named after a supervisor at a Thriftway in Montesano, Washington, where Osborne also worked as a clerk. "Melvin" was despised by other employees, and the band's members felt it to be an appropriately ridiculous name.

History

Early days

The Melvins were formed in early 1983 by Buzz Osborne (guitar/vocals), Matt Lukin (bass) and Mike Dillard (drums) who all went to Montesano Jr./Sr. High School in Montesano, Washington. In the beginning they played Cream and Jimi Hendrix covers, and also began playing fast hardcore punk. When Dillard left the band, Dale Crover took his place, and the band's rehearsals moved to a back room of Crover's parents house in Aberdeen, Washington. Soon afterward, they started to play songs slower and "heavier" than nearly anyone else at the time.

Lysol (album)

Lysol (aka Melvins aka Untitled aka Lice-all) is the fourth album by the Melvins, released in 1992 on Boner Records.

The album cover is a painting based on a sculpture by Cyrus Edwin Dallin named "Appeal to the Great Spirit." The image also appears on The Beach Boys in Concert, on the logo for Brother Records, and on the cover of The Time Is Near by the Keef Hartley Band.

The album was recorded in less than a week, according to the band's official website.

Release

Boner Records was unaware that Lysol was a registered trademark until after the first batch of record jackets and CD booklets/back cards had already been printed. Lysol sent a staff member to go undercover as an interviewer for a magazine to find out information about the record, as they did not want their name on the album. Boner officially retitled the record Melvins and covered the word Lysol with black tape on the front of the jackets and booklets and with black ink on the spines. Early after the initial release, the tape and ink were easily removed, and many fans did so. Later, attempting to remove the tape would result in severe damage. Subsequent printings omitted the word Lysol entirely.

Melvins! (album)

Melvins is an album by Melvins, released in 1986 through C/Z Records. The album has been released as Six Songs (1986, vinyl), Eight Songs (1991, vinyl), 10 Songs (1991, CD) and 26 Songs (2003, CD). The songs are taken from two sessions in 1986.

Tracks 1-10 are taken from the 1991 eight/ten song, LP/CD version rerelease of this album. Tracks 11-16 are taken from the original six song vinyl release. Tracks 17-19 were taken from the 1986 Outtakes From First 7 inch vinyl single. Track 20-24 are garage demos. Track 20 is taken from the Northwest Hardcore compilation tape. Track 22 is taken from the Let's Kiss compilation tape from K Records. "Ever Since My Accident" is available on the Kill Rock Stars compilation (KRS-201) in superior quality. Track "26", "Hugh", is a field recording put as the b-side of the demo cassettes the band would give away to venues and labels to promote the band.

The track listing on the booklet of the CD lists 26 tracks but for unknown reasons the CD only has 25 tracks as "Ever Since My Accident" and "Hugh" are together on track 25 and not individual tracks as credited.

Surname

A surname or family name is a name added to a given name. In many cases, a surname is a family name and many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name". In the western hemisphere, it is commonly synonymous with last name because it is usually placed at the end of a person's given name.

In most Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking countries, two or more last names (or surnames) may be used. In China, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Madagascar, Taiwan, Vietnam, and parts of India, the family name is placed before a person's given name.

The style of having both a family name (surname) and a given name (forename) is far from universal. In many countries, it is common for ordinary people to have only one name or mononym.

The concept of a "surname" is a relatively recent historical development, evolving from a medieval naming practice called a "byname". Based on an individual's occupation or area of residence, a byname would be used in situations where more than one person had the same name.

Houdini (chess)

Houdini is a UCI chess engine developed by Belgian programmer Robert Houdart. It is influenced by open source engines IPPOLIT/RobboLito, Stockfish, and Crafty. Earlier versions are free for non-commercial use (up to version 1.5a), but later versions (2.0 and onwards) are commercial. As of October 2015, Houdini 4 is the third top-rated chess engines on major chess engine rating lists after Stockfish and Komodo.

Playing style

Chess commentator and video annotator CM Tryfon Gavriel compared Houdini's playing style to that of the Romantic Era of chess, where an attacking, sacrificial style was predominant.

Version history

The latest stable release of Houdini comes in two versions: Houdini 4 Standard and Houdini 4 Pro. Houdini 4 Pro supports up to 32 processor cores, 256 GB of RAM (hash) and is NUMA-aware, Houdini 4 Standard only supports up to six processor cores, 4GB of hash and is not NUMA-aware. As with many other UCI engines, Houdini comes with no GUI, so a chess GUI is needed for running the engine. Houdini 4 uses calibrated evaluations in which engine scores correlate directly with the win expectancy in the position.

Houdini (album)

Houdini is the fifth album by American sludge metal band Melvins, released in 1993 on Atlantic Records. The album was the band's major label debut after releasing their previous albums on the independent label Boner Records.

The album features a cover of the 1974 KISS song "Goin' Blind". The songs "Hooch" and "Honey Bucket" were released as singles with accompanying music videos. "Night Goat" is a partial re-recording of a song the band had released as a single in 1992. Kurt Cobain is given co-production credit alongside the Melvins on six tracks, for guitar on the song "Sky Pup", and percussion on the song "Spread Eagle Beagle". Speaking to Kerrang! in 2008, King Buzzo remembered:

In 2005, the album was performed live in its entirety as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties-curated Don't Look Back series and at San Miguel Primavera Sound in 2007. Another live performance of the album was released as A Live History of Gluttony and Lust in 2006.

Though the album's liner notes list Lorax as the band's bassist, she does not appear to have played on the album at all. Says Osborne: "This album is mostly just me and Dale Crover. Either I played bass or he did on almost all of it regardless of what the credits say…"