52 Albums That Shaped My Life - #7

Prong - Cleansing

(Epic, 1993)

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I use the term “party metal”, and nobody ever seems to know what I mean.  I refer to music that has all the hallmarks of heavy metal, meaning it would never be able to infiltrate the mainstream, but has the energy, danceability, and sense of fun that might result in a party getting started, even if only by one lonely guy in his front room.  I’m most often referring to bands like Every Time I Die, their no-holds-barred lyrics, and their don’t-give-a-shit charm, but the term started before that band even came around.  For one shining album, Prong made party metal that could have sweaty maniacs moshing hell-for-leather one moment, and grooving all sexy-like, looking for a hook-up the next.  It feels like music for people who would wear leather trousers out even though it’s 35 degrees in the club, but simultaneously it’s for those who subscribe to the Andrew W.K. party uniform.  So even if you’re in your jeans and white T-shirt, grab your leathered friend, get Cleansing blasting through your speakers, and let the party commence.

Produced by 90s metal producer extraordinaire, Terry Date, you’ll hear Pantera guitar tone influences on this record, and at times that groove metal feel might make you think Prong are little more than Pantera impersonators.  However, Prong and Tommy Victor (guitar, vocals) are far less interested in macho posturing and way more into industrial and dance music influences.  In fact, Prong are closer to White Zombie in their sense of musical fun, and, while the explosion of DJs in metal bands wouldn’t occur until later, you can feel the push towards scratching being incorporated into metal with some of the guitar techniques and sampling employed here.  “Broken Peace” begins with a Tom Morello-inspired background riff and a pummelling bass line.  Those Rage Against the Machine-like guitar squeaks hint at the developments mainstream metal would see in the 90s, but more importantly provide a lighter, more danceable backdrop to the industrial riffing that kicks in.  While Prong want you to dance to their tunes and keep everyone happy with their rounded rhythm section sounds, they are a heavy band and the riffs are crushing in their weight and sharpness.  Tommy Victor’s vocals are not the usual frothing, angry metal frontman style, but rather have a slow, deliberate burning intensity to them, exemplified by his delivery of the lines:

Now it's all exploding

Pick up the broken peace

Nothing left to break.

“One Outnumbered” maintains this vaguely politicised burning intensity but balances it with coddling passages of dream-like guitar clouds and soothing bass.  It’s indicative of a band mindful of dynamics and the value of a gentle sway to break up the neck-snapping headbanging.  That’s all well and good, but it ain’t metal if it doesn’t punch you in the face at some point, and the riff here is a series of jaw-cracking jabs, the vocal a left hook to make your head spin.  It’s one of those riffs that makes you wish you could bang your head backwards as well, as if standard headbanging doesn’t fully express your approval of the pacing, rhythm and crunch of that guitar sound.  Tommy Victor displays an exceptional innate sense of rhythm and groove on this record, both on guitar and in his vocals, and at points the album feels like a tribute to the riff, every song designed to put its perfectly formed guitar parts directly into your brain.

Even when things get a little swampy on the later tracks, there is an undeniable guitar hook in each song.  The squeezed riff of “No Question” inspires thoughts of Zakk Wylde’s over-exposed production on Sonic Brew; “Home Rule” hits with the intensity of Rollins Band and its great riff is perfectly complemented by peppery drumming; the staccato phrasing of “Sublime” is a prime example of what Prong do even if it wanders too much.  But the true heart of this album is in its opening third.  First track, “Another Worldly Device”, does not delay its riff attack, shredding your tympanic membrane with a delightfully abrasive guitar sound played at speeds that keep your feet moving double time.  The raspy vocals match that riff, before the solo injects a little left-field lunacy with wailing squeaks that continue to lie below the surface of the closing chorus.  “Cut-Rate” has a lunacy of a thrashier nature, with top speed being reached within tenths of a second of the song’s beginning.  The solo somehow seems to crank that speed up until the song can barely contain itself and it dissolves into some vague industrial noises and a plodding, heavy outro.  While both of these songs are great, Prong’s strength is not necessarily in playing at speed.  The album’s iconic high point is the party metal duo of “Whose Fist Is This Anyway?” and “Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck”, both more focused on intense groove, stop-and-start rhythms, and banging of the head.

“Whose First Is This Anyway?”, a song title applicable to so many life situations, is built on an incessant rhythm that allows the guitar parts to chop, stop, roll and generally keep the listener grooving and moving.  The influence of and on White Zombie can be heard most clearly here and is a clear sign of Terry Date’s work across the bands he worked with in the 90s.  “Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck” is a bona fide heavy metal classic.  The lyrics of working class hardship seem to carry a self-reflexive heavy metal importance that has made the track a club classic since its release.  The rolling bass intro lines up another cutting Prong guitar sound, but it’s happy to let Victor’s voice stand on its own before lurching back in with a galloping pre-chorus riff.  The picked sections, open string strumming, pinched harmonics, and vicious main riff provide an incredibly varied foundation for the iconic line to grab hold of its listeners, “snap your fingers, snap your neck”.  It’s a song for singing along, swinging your hair, and banging your head with your friends whether they prefer leather or denim.  Christ, even if they prefer corduroy or twill cotton.  Cleansing is an album that exists right at modern metal’s heart.  Welcoming fans from both ends of the metal spectrum to celebrate guitar riffs and party hard.  While Prong have never quite rediscovered this perfect balance, Cleansing stands as a classic metal album with an identity all its own.      

52 Albums That Shaped My Life - #9

The Presidents of the United States of America – The Presidents of the United States of America

(Pop Llama/Columbia, 1995)

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Opinion: The Presidents of the United States of America officially disbanded in November 2016 shortly after the presidential election because they could no longer associate themselves with the person who would share their title.

In their tumultuous existence, stretching over more than 20 years, The Presidents tried to spread the opposite of whatever the sitting U.S. President is made of: joy.  Infused in every song was abstract silliness, love, and a sense of fun that found expression in the hookiest hooks, chilled California sounds, fuzzy Seattle sounds, off-key screams, bouncing riffs, and inspirationally nonsensical lyrics.  Most widely known for this album’s hits (and my favourite karaoke songs) “Peaches” and “Lump”, The Presidents… is more interesting and touching than either of these songs suggest.  While they are all rock songs with simple rock song structures and simple rock song sounds, each is given a sense of personal experience and tender care that creates a connection with the listener rare among such outwardly silly bands.  No other band can make me sing along with complete and earnest dedication to seemingly meaningless lyrics:

Ten million monkeys all pick up guitars,

Nobody taught them how

Five thousand fishies rockin' really, really, really hard

Nobody taught them how

Check-out chicken drivin' Vinny's little blue car

Nobody taught them how!

And while it all seems like pointless fun, The Presidents… are also connected to reality.  For one, they have consciously taken part in the world’s largest ongoing jam by covering “Kick out the Jams” by MC5, and have written songs about their lack of talent/hope and the lure of fame in the California sunshine.  “We Are Not Going to Make It” is the most direct rocker of a song on the album.  A big hooky bass line leads us straight into a ripping chorus sung on the edge of their screeching capability, and with lyrics like, “… there's a million better bands / with a million better songs” you have to admire the honesty of the band’s debut.  The false start at the beginning of the song coupled with its unproduced garage rock sound makes it nearly impossible not to love them.  “Naked and Famous” is a much more considered track overall, and its patience and humour make it a soul-cuddling conclusion to the record.  Its picked verse sections are endearing while the plodding pre-chorus and chorus are a wonderful set-up for a fuzzed-out, solo-filled, “woo hoo”-tinged bridge section where The Presidents… let loose again.  The quiet contemplation of nude fame becomes an outright celebration of the human desire to be naked and famous at all. 

While “Stranger”, with its wistful verses and bombastic chorus, brilliantly touches on the clumsiness of instant human attraction, especially in awkward circumstances, the band otherwise seem preoccupied with animals and what our relationships with them might tell us about ourselves.  The album cover imagines what The Presidents might look like as little brass animals, and songs like “Kitty”, “Boll Weevil”, and “Body” are dedicated to the peculiarity and appeal of different animals.  “Body” appears to be the childhood memories of amphibians and lizards that have died in various ways, the images of their dead bodies having left indelible images in the child’s mind.  Its seductive verse sounds create an alluring atmosphere that becomes brilliantly weird the first time you realise what they’re singing about.  The pounding closing to the song, with the refrain “I can’t get your body out of my mind”, is an album highlight.  “Boll Weevil” seems to be about a lazy friend with physical characteristics of a boll weevil, mostly his bug butt, and is an ode to the glory of being outside in the sunshine.  While they may not convince Boll Weevil to move, the infectious energy of the track has me wishing hard that I had some sunshine to go out chasing right now.  Album opener “Kitty” uses cat sounds, cat behaviour, and the simultaneous appeal and nuisance of cats to introduce the listener to the animal-themed madness coming their way.  It’s a welcoming, infectious, and funny start to an album that will leave you feeling like you love everyone and everything.

And that’s why this album is on this list.  As the rest of the albums that I’ve written about might give away, I don’t find myself drawn to much “happy” music, but this album taught me to dance, shriek, and even sway with closed eyes to all these fun sounds and ideas.  The wonder of an unstoppably infectious track like ”Feather Plukn” is what this music is all about.  It’s silly, cute, and nonsensical but it’s sung with complete and forthright joy.  Even though the song marvels at the talents of animals, I feel like the band are cheering me on, celebrating all the amazing little things I can do – even though some of the animals seem more talented than me.  This spirit of celebratory joy is what made “Lump” and “Peaches” such big hits for the band.  And while I take those songs for granted somewhat, they brought thousands of people together in celebration of being alive, animals or not.  The best way I can describe the impact of this band is to recount seeing them live in London years ago.  The Presidents… were playing the entirety of this album start to finish, and though I’m not a naturally social animal, within seconds of the set starting I was wrapped around the stranger next to me, jumping in unison, singing or screaming every word together, and having the most fun imaginable.  In between every song we smiled at each other, and at the end of the gig we wished each other the happiest lives.  If you were to tell me that story I might boke, but in all honesty, it is one of the purest, happiest, and most enjoyable nights of my life.  

52 Albums That Shaped My Life - #11

Monster Magnet – Dopes to Infinity

(A&M, 1995)

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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.