WATCH: Melvins Cover Malfunkshun’s “With Yo’ Heart, Not Yo’ Hands” and Green River’s “Leech” Live in Los Angeles

Photo Credit: Mauricio Alvarado

Over the weekend, grungy, sludgy metal trio Melvins performed with stoner metal legends Sleep, selling out a pair of performances at The Fonda in Hollywood, CA. The Washington-based trio performed a glorious, hour long set. The set list included several of the best songs from their sprawling discography, as well as several noteworthy covers. While their Alice Cooper and Beatles covers are certainly a treat, the band offered up two more covers of songs that are rarely heard live or on record.

In back-to-back fashion, Buzz Osbourne and company delivered a staggering cover of the Malfunkshun rarity “With Yo’ Heart, Not Yo’ Hands” before launching into their version of Green River’s “Leech.” Check out a great, fan-shot video of the performance below.

Malfunkshun may not be a household name to most music fans, but their limited output has proven to be massively influential on both the grunge genre as well as alternative rock as a whole. The group was formed by Andrew Wood in the early 80s, who would go on to front the tragically short-lived but also important Mother Love Bone. Wood died from a heroin overdose in 1990 at the age of 24, just a few years into the promising career of Mother Love Bone. “With Yo’ Heart, Not Yo’ Hands” is actually not found on Malfunkshun’s sole full-length LP, Return to Olympus; it can only be found on the rare compilation album Deep Six, which featured four songs by Melvins as well as appearances by Soundgarden and Green River.

Green River was also made up of members that would go on to form Mother Love Bone. Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament were part of the pioneering grunge band, and after the band broke up, formed Mother Love Bone with Wood in 1988. After that band dissolved following the unexpected death of Wood, the pair would go on to Pearl Jam, one of the most commercially-successful bands of the grunge era. Another member of the band was Mark Arm, who is now the lead singer of Mudhoney. “Leech” is another non-album track, as it cannot be found on Green River’s only album Rehab Doll. The song instead can be found on the band’s 1984 demos collection, which was released in 2016.

As an added bonus, check out Melvins covering the Beatles “I Want To Hold Your Hand” and Alice Cooper’s “Halo of Flies.”