Monster Magnet

I can leonardo my rips of the tapes. I know mcbain remastered the EA stuff a couple years ago with an eye towards getting somebody to release them but that never happened. if you guys know any psych labels with some loose change in their pockets please send 'em his way.

leo

acid reich did a great version of "set the controls for the heart of the sun" with made-up lyrics like "bathe in the light of the unholy one / fry like a pig in the heart of the sun"

We then recorded the second demo and decided, along the way, that Ozium didn't quite fit.

Did you shop that tape around to the labels (including Primo Scree/Caroline)?

No. It was made strictly for the band. I don't recall how The Ugly American got involved. As I see it, it's far superior to anything we ever did. I love how raw and grating it is.

mcbain otm

I still kick myself for losing my copy of this, and for not bidding on one that showed up on ebay a few years ago

i lived at the shore at the time and always assumed the red bank weirdo tape scene, of which i'm pretty sure i still have some cassette mementos in a box somewhere, was basically three or four guys in a basement somewhere making it up as they went. which i guess, skimming through that mcbain interview, isn't that far off the mark. i can't imagine the audience for most of that stuff exceeded a dozen people. the brighton bar was a fantastic shithole of a club. i loved that place. big nurse, who mcbain mentions as having headlined the brighton bill that was monster mag's first gig, were fantastic for awhile. they released a single on heat blast records, which was THE local label, which was pretty good in a husker du-ish way, not sure if they ever released anything else. they weren't a red bank band; they were from somewhere else on the shore, i forget exactly where. nudeswirl, from new brunswick, was another good one, them and their silly-yet-quite-catchy drum-machine-and-guitar offshoot they might be vaginas. nudeswirl signed to polygram records, back when the grunge dollars were starting to flow, and promptly vanished. monster magnet were really something else when they started playing at the brighton bar. they just kinda walked in as rock stars from the start. and, yeah, i loved them with tim cronin on vocals too. tim was also an all-time-great record store clerk.

ha, I was one of those guys in the basement

there were more than three or four of us, but me + 3 other guys probably generated 50% of it so

it depended on the release but those cool beans tapes did decent business through jack's and blowyourselfup. I'm sure some of the bands with local followings like laughing soup dish did pretty well.

otm re: tim as all-time-great record store clerk. "if you don't like this, I'll buy it back from you." the guy was hugely influential on my musical education. he's actually in chasing amy, stocking the shelves in the record store scene.

Monster Magnet is one of my Top 10 All-Time Bands so huge bong-tokin' grin at Mastermind. I still wear my Dopes To Infinity tour shirt weekly but almost didn't care anymore after the last few. currently Diggin' That Hole \m/

there was another clerk who worked with tim when i first started going to jack's, whose tastes were a lot more poppy, and they used to fight over how i should spent my money. "you need this sex clark five album." "no, no, what you really need is this scratch acid record." i needed that balance in my life. i learned a lot from the two of them.

that would be gary

he and tim started cool beans

yes, gary, that's it. thank you!

Interview w/Dave Wyndorf (part 1 of 2; the rest, including Wyndorf talking about Hawkwind, will be posted on Thursday)

I'm sure some of the bands with local followings like laughing soup dish did pretty well.

Ha, I got a request for these dudes on my show once. Couldn't find their records though.

dave's wrong, he's a great drummer

xp

Tim's still at Jack's and also currently in an excellent band called The Ribeye Bros along with some Magnet alums. Excellent, straight up garage rock with really good and funny lyrics.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs444.ash2/71727_1615896193108_1107423051_31715939_2434131_n.jpg

Having finally heard that early demo cassette Edward rightly praises above, it's pretty great to hear that legendary Freddie Hubbard rant used as a sample.

I've had 'Space Lord' (& all of Powertrip, really, but especially that) on constant rotation lately & I'd been thinking "how in the hell, at a time when White Zombie could fill stadiums, was this not a gigantic single?" And so I looked it up & it turns out it actually kinda was, in its own modest way:

The song peaked at number three on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart..The music video is notable for being the first video ever aired on MTV's Total Request Live on September 14, 1998.

I guess I just wasn't paying any sort of attention at the time! At any rate, it is a JAM

this band totally rules btw

Scharpling interviews Dave for ninety minutes. Absolutely a must listen... http://www.lowtimespodcast.com/lt_episodes/009/

Aw man, his story about playing Norman Mailer's place is hilarious!

I heard "Teenage Negasonic Warhead" for the first time in ages and was struck that it was a major cop of "Tales of Brave Ulysses" by Cream. Or am I insane?

I'M SO FUCKING STOOOOONED

if satan lived in heaven he'd be me

Scharpling interview was so great. Totally like listening to any old Jersey dude except he saw good bands and had an interesting life.

watching this right now and it's kinda blowing my mind! :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CpmTYVqe1Ig

I mean, wow, right? that vid is crazy stupid rock dumbshit in a bottle, absolutely amazing!

wow, that starts out like a good cover/version of "spine of god", but by the end, holy shit

19 years before hanging with marilyn manson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ipU93aDQiw

awesome, thanks EIII

lead singer in that clip is Daniel Rey, who produced and co-wrote much of the best late-period Ramones stuff.

You mean guitarist?

Sorry, yeah. That's exactly what I meant.

that scharpling interview is awesome. even if you couldn't give two shits about monster magnet, there's great stuff on the 60s/70s music scene, early NYC punk, the similarities between hawkwind and the ramones, etc. I'm 30 minutes in and they haven't even started talking about monster magnet yet.

kinda weird listening to this thing cuz I grew up around the corner from dave, and I spent a lot of evenings in that exact kitchen having the same convos with him. and y'know I still haven't heard most of these chestnuts, he's a bottomless pit of wry observation and batshit rocklife stories.

john mcbain has been throwing up some MM rarities on his soundcloud

http://soundcloud.com/john-mcbain/mm-murder-court-tavern-1991

including the greatness that is CHIGGER

http://soundcloud.com/john-mcbain/chigger-chigger-alive-live-at

speaking of throw up

Nice!

high school me can be heard on them donuts are talkin' to me... I'll never tell where tho

wow, thanks for the heads up, EIII!

np

so, is everything my mm as fucking brilliant as 'monolithic' ?

i cant get enough of this track ..

Pretty much, yeah.

dave wyndorf was on the best show last week. him talking about going to see suicide is pretty special.

new video directed by... tom scharpling?

http://vimeo.com/76112773

He's a big fan!

Yeah that interview he did with Wyndorf was fucking great, too.

yeah I know scharpling loves MM, I just missed his whole second career as a video director

last patrol might be the best one since god says no -- even the bonus tracks are killer

great bunch of record picks here:
http://thequietus.com/articles/14851-dave-wyndorf-monster-magnet-favourite-albums?page=1

great article ..

i have had that blue cheer album on my watch out list for ages ..

(not to mention MM themselves as i clearly need more MM in my life)