Monster Magnet
– Dopes to Infinity
(A&M, 1995)
Buy the album
here
There
are albums that always feel like you’re coming home when you listen to
them. You’ve been away a long time, and
the welcoming familiarity of those sounds brings back relaxing and reassuring
memories. But it’s not just the
nostalgic comfort it brings, it’s the quality of the sounds, and that sense the
music, like your home, exists within you the whole
time. Dopes to Infinity is one such album. Monster Magnet accomplished this simply by
not trying. They weren’t trying to be anything, they only wrote
and performed the music they were destined to make, with no pretensions, no
posturing. While the band lost that
natural feel over the next four albums – Powertrip
was an attempt to become hard rock icons (and did this brilliantly); God Says No came off as a self-aware
diversification of their sound; Monolithic
Baby! was a disjointed mish-mash of the previous two albums; and 4-Way Diablo felt like they were lacking
direction or inspiration – they would regain it spectacularly with the release
of Mastermind. It’s the spaced-out, laidback, drug-fuzz of Mastermind and Dopes to Infinity that is the best of Monster Magnet. On these albums the notes, echoed vocals,
organic solos drift from one astral plane to another, combining corporeal
pleasures, metaphysical meanderings, dream-like imaginings, and modern cultural
references to form a space rock cornucopia.
Title
track “Dopes to Infinity” is a clear example of this, effortlessly sliding from
dense stoner riffs to floating on heavenly clouds through the gentle hum of the
backing vocal and the perfectly mixed guitar lead. That’s without mentioning how utterly righteous
Dave Wyndorf’s voice is, and its ability to imbue words like, “We are all here
my friends/Alive and spaced but all so beautiful”, with both cool and
gravitas. I haven’t always understood
what Wyndorf is singing about, but I’ve always felt like it means
something. The seamless transition into second
track, “Negasonic Teenage Warhead”, takes us to Monster Magnet’s first notice to
the world that they could write incredible rock anthems. Essentially conveying Wyndorf’s
disappointment at Kurt Cobain’s elevation to rock star and the accompanying saddening
of rock ‘n’ roll, Monster Magnet wanted to remind the mid-90s that it was ok to
rock out JUST FOR FUN. Big bass, killer
riff, cyclonic theremin sounds (?), rock screams, and a giant pogo-ing chorus
all combine to create the foundations for giant rock hits on next album Powertrip. In 2001, Scottish comics geniuses Grant
Morrison and Frank Quitely used the track title to name their new teenage X-Men
trainee character, who was subsequently brilliantly re-imagined as a disaffected
teen with explosive powers in the 2016 film Deadpool. These things seem to exist in meta-textual
harmony as Monster Magnet used a Jack Kirby Marvel character to name the fifth track
here, “Ego, the Living Planet”, most recently seen depicted by Kurt Russell in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. I have it on good authority that Kurt
Russell is a huge Monster Magnet fan. It’s
all connected…
“Ego,
the Living Planet” is built on a cosmically repetitive, driving stoner riff
with monk-like chanting and frantic lead woodling lying just below the
surface. The only vocals are the briefly
repeated line, “I talk to planets baby”, and the screams of presumably planet-devoured
souls. Wyndorf’s love for and fascination
with the epic sci-fi and philosophical work of comic writer and artist Jack
Kirby inspired him to create a song about one of his most innovative
characters, a living planet. The size of
the riff and the cosmic feel to the whole song perfectly capture the feeling of
awe such a character can inspire. But
Monster Magnet being Monster Magnet, they pivot in the following track, lulling
us back to comfort with gentle strumming and loving vocal melodies in “Blow ‘Em
Off”. Monster Magnet are in such a
perfect groove on this record that you never notice the changes of tone, the
shifts from quiet to loud, or the difference between hallucinatory visions and very
real observations from the world of 1995.
It
is difficult to pull out favourite tracks from Dopes… because each song has at least moments that near perfection,
but Monster Magnet reach levels of undeniable stoner excellence in “King of
Mars” and “All Friends and Kingdom Come”.
In the former, Wyndorf shines the light on another comics influence,
Edgar Rich Burroughs, by referencing two of his most iconic creations with the
single line, “And I can crown me Tarzan, King of Mars”, while taking us on a
journey through soundscapes of heavy, reverberating, open string strumming, gentle
leads, booming bass, and perfectly unnoticeable drums. “All Friends and Kingdom Come” seems to describe
the megalomaniacal actions of another comic character from Evil Ernie, who, having
been given Armageddon-like superpowers, holds the future of humanity in his psychotic
hands. Where “King…” displayed the brilliance
of Ed Mundell, Joe Calandra, and Jon Kleiman on their instruments, “All Friends…”
presents the subtle melodies of Dave Wyndorf’s voice as the focal point.
“King…”
keeps us hooked with detailed soundscapes, “All Friends…” with simplicity and
immediacy, but both display how completely interwoven the band’s various
sounds, tones, and ideas are on this record.
The experience of listening to this record is one of seamlessly flowing sounds,
images, tastes, smells, and touch. It is
the gentlest of trips because, even though it rocks incredibly hard at times,
it never forces things, never pushes things where they don’t want to go as musicians,
and where you as listener rather they wouldn’t.
It is undoubtedly healthy for artists to push themselves into unfamiliar
territory in the pursuit of new forms of art, but sometimes it is more
enjoyable to witness artists working at the peak of their ability within their
limits, simply riffing on what they already know and bringing us along for the
ride. As with the brilliance of White
Zombie, there is little point trying to discuss all the detail that goes into a
record like this, all I can suggest is finding a copy of Dopes to Infinity and letting your mind be blown to kingdom come.
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