The Dope Show

Monster Magnet 'Dopes To Infinity' a sort of live review.

I tend to look with scorn on free music samplers these days, I know I shouldn't but it probably says more about my opinion of the state of music at the moment.
Given the rise of the internet it is easier to read a review, download the album for free and then decide whether to bin or buy than it is to sit through an hours worth of music that will no doubt contain bollocks like Black Veil Brides, Ammon Amarth or even the latest exclusive track from MegaDave and Co.

But 'back in the day' when there were these clunky things that contained an album on a bizarre reel type device that usually required a pencil to help wind forward and backward to preserve batteries and they would be viciously sellotaped to the front of the magazine of your choice ensuring the cover would look like it had been mauled by a rhino, or later when they invented that horrible glue, it would invariably be missing.

Still as a precursor to new music these tapes held the key to hearing new tracks by your favourite bands and a mish mash of other before the album came out.
It was one such sample tape, probably containing a Slayer exclusive, that caught my attention back in 1995. Amongst the thrash, Brit Rock, Grunge and Industrial was an odd, psychedelic light weight track called 'Dead Christmas' by a band I had never heard of before, Monster Magnet.
Not only is a name like that cool to a sixteen year old boy, but the music was almost like something I didn't listen to at the time and was almost a nod to the likes of The Doors that I had recently become a fan of.
Plus it said 'fuck' in it, which is always a bonus.

Anyway... I liked this little spacey number, the guitar tone, the tippy tappy drums and the slightly crazy jilted lover lyrics clicked with me - I can't recall specifically if I had been recently jilted or whether the thought of having loved and lost was better than never having done anything at all... who knows, but from the moment those opening chords rang out I was in love with Monster Magnet.
As such I ran out and bought the album 'Dopes To Infinity'.
It remains to this day a bona fide stoner classic.

Having built a fairly solid, if not spectacular career since 1989 Dave Wyndorf and friends had been knocking around the edge of various scenes releasing a couple of EPs like Murder/Tractor before signing to Caroline Records in 1991 and releasing the Stoner Rock classic Spine Of God and being voted into Number 28 on Heavy Planet's top 50 records of all time.
Caught up in the early nineties alt. rock explosion the Magnet released one more record for Caroline, the crazy long Tab 25 Ep which is actually longer than Slayers Reign In Blood album before getting all major label with A&M Records to release Superjudge in 1993, which, despite the hype of their previous record, fared poorly in the sales stakes.

Still this was a time when record companies actually supported their artists (at least a little) and A&M held their nerve for Monster Magnet to release the 1995 follow up 'Dopes To Infinity'. In no small way hurt by a lead single as catchy as a guy with large hands and a tub of glue, nor the burgeoning MTV picking up it's accompanying video helped thrust Dave and his ever rotating line up up towards the limelight, although falling short of what the band had hoped for.


With most great bands you could probably pin point the album before they become a break through artist as their most prolific (although a whole raft of examples to prove the rule have sprung to mind... moving on!), 'Dope's...' saw a consolidation of their previous works - the psychedelic influence was writ large but paired down with accessible and powerful tracks like 'King Of Mars' and the title track as well as the more far out like 'The Theme To Masterburner' and 'Blow Em Off'.

Of course the next album Powertrip saw Monster Magnet become fully fledged Rock Gods and straddle the globe in leather clad strides before Dave decided he was actually too quirky to play the game and the band retired into the obscure with the frankly difficult 'God Says No'.
Since then they have stumbled in and out of the spotlight as Wyndorf battled addiction and the musical apathy that has frequently over come the metal/rock scene releasing the solid Monolithic Baby, the under-rated 4 Way Diablo and 'come back' album Mastermind.
Sadly the years have taken their toll on the man - once he resembled an acid fried Vietnam Veteran who had just been beamed back from Mars still thinking it is the 1970's and now he looks like a jowly fat dude in an ill fitting leather jacket.
However musically the Magnet are as good if not better than they were 'back in the day' and in the setting of one of the nicest venues I have been to (The Koko in London) the band played all of Dopes this year.


Rather than slavishly following the track listing they mixed it up creating a whole new soundscape and backed it all with a seventies inspired psychedelic light show.
In truth, being the designated driver, I thought this was either going to be great or fucking awful unless you were mashed off your tits. Fortunately I can attest that it was great - the band were on great form, the songs as vibrant as they were 16 years ago and even the light show which looked a bit cheesy to start captured the whole experience in a collascope of colour and trippy images and accompanied the show perfectly.
With an encore of Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Mastermind, Powertrip and Space Lord this crowd was theirs to lose and by the end you were left just wanting them to play all night.

Come back soon Dave, the Gods and Punks will be here waiting.