Monster Magnet-best of by Krull

Regler: Max tre låtar per album.
Minst en låt per album.
Ordning=Väl vald, men som vanligt EJ rangordnad.
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0OsJe1L9PzibsxvYelBMdS?si=7bda102ebf484879

Kommentar: Jag tar bara med plattor som finns på Spotify. Givetvis hade låtar från Spine of God varit med annars. Mycket nöje! Nytt för denna gång är att det blir en massa bonuslåtar på slutet, mest för att jag ska se dem Sweden rock och vill ha något att lyssna på när jag sitter på flyget till Blekinge. Tagga!

1. Låt: Ultimate Everything
Skiva: Monolithic Baby
Årtal: 2004
Kommentar:
"Musically, I wanted to make this record a rock 'n' roll record; that was #1. Rock 'n' roll, meaning that the arrangements would be tighter, but that the playing would be slightly sloppier, and that I would use big – probably the biggest – stereotypes I would ever use, like, "This sounds like AC/DC!" I instructed the players, my band, our band, to play sloppy. You know, let's get trashy, let's everybody slide your guitars down, "wrreee! Wrooowww;" do that kind of shit." -Dave Wyndorf on Monolithic Baby

2. Låt: End of Time (B-3)
Skiva: Milking the Stars: A Re-Imagining of Last Patrol
Årtal: 2014
Kommentar:
The production and mix (and added/rerecorded parts) are generally so well thought out that it almost feels like Last Patrol is an early rough version by comparison. You wouldn't confuse this with any album from the 1960s, obviously, but the sound-world here is heavily influenced by heavy influences from 1968-1972. 

3. Låt: Gods, Punks and the Everlasting Twilight
Skiva: Cobras and Fire (The Mastermind Redux)
Årtal: 2015
Kommentar:
"I'm a little bit better at playing now and I'm really good at knowing what needs to be there and whether or not I can play it or not. I'm a musical director and a writer as well so I write and I specify in my mind how this part's going to be played, who is the best man for the job, what's the easiest way to get the message across whatever that message may be, will it be scary, spooky, or trippy or all of the above. I'll just note it in my head 'Ok, this is a job for this guy.' I can sketch out like a cartoonist would sketch out a comic strip. I would sketch it out and then have the guys come in and actually do the real work and put their stamp on it. I mean, my stamp is just bizarre and sounds like it's played by a four year old. The sounds are all there but I play it like really simple like a punk rock style. Then I'll play it to the guys and say 'you hear this? Put some old shit on it' and I speak in terms of players that we know or bands that we know." -Dave Wyndorf on writing songs.

4. Låt: Negasonic Teenage Warhead
Skiva: Dopes To Infinity
Årtal: 1995
Kommentar:
The band also drew influence from comics, with one of their hits "Negasonic Teenage Warhead" leading to an X-Men character of the same name in 2001. -riffpedia

5. Låt: Three Kingfishers
Skiva: Last Patrol
Årtal: 2013
Kommentar: Tillbaka på riktigt. Käre Jesus detta är bra! Första fem låtarna är kanon allihopa och plattan håller sig stark rakt igenom. 

6. Låt: Powertrip
Skiva: Powertrip
Årtal: 1998
Kommentar:
Powertrip måste vara med. Det är min "-Nu är det semester. Håll käften och ge mig en öl-låt".

7. Låt: Unbroken (Hotel Baby)
Skiva: Monolithic Baby
Årtal: 2004
Kommentar:
Jösses vilken platta! Supercruel, On The Verge, Radiation Day, Monolithic, The Right Stuff, There's No Way out of Here etc. WOW!

8. Låt: Black Balloon
Skiva: Superjudge
Årtal: 1993
Kommentar:
"Eventually I bought my first guitar. As soon as I plugged that thing in and started playing around with a fuzzbox, that was it. That was the sound I wanted. Tim Cronin [bass] worked at Jack's Music Shop, I worked at Fantasy Zone comic shop and John McBain [guitar] worked at a used record store. It was three nerdy retail guys, all lost in our own obsessions. Those two guys had been making tapes under the name Dog Of Mystery, doing weird, experimental, Butthole Surfers kind of stuff. I had my own little thing going, called Love Monster. They wanted to do a live Dog Of Mystery thing and they needed people to fill it out. I said I'd play guitar, we started to play some songs I'd written, and we eventually became Monster Magnet." -Dave Wyndorf om starten av Monster Magnet.

9. Låt: See You In Hell
Skiva: Powertrip
Årtal: 1998
Kommentar:
3rd Eye Landslide är Soundtrack Of Our Lives på steroider. See You In Hell är en modern 60-tals-psychklassiker. Tractor är låten alla vill skriva. Spacelord är hitarnas hit. Powertrip är semestrarnas Beatles. Atomic Clock är popifierad doom för stoner-huvuden som lätt skulle platsa på vilken rock-radiostation som helst.

10. Låt: Cyklops Revolution
Skiva: Superjudge
Årtal: 1993
Kommentar:
"You've got to hand it to Dave Wyndorf & company. Second full-length and already signed to a major, cool moniker and colorful bull-god-graced cover at the ready, coaxing odes to the cosmic bong with their distinctive mine's-bigger-than-yours braggadocio." -dwightfryed

"I'm gonna eat me a mountain, a mountain of pills" -Dave Wyndorf om att han kanske inte levt det bästa av liv. Säger kanske en del om hur det låter.  

11. Låt: Look To Your Orb For The Warning
Skiva: Dopes To Infinity
Årtal: 1995
Kommentar:
"I'll never forget it. It was like, 'Alright, I wanna do everything on Dopes… that I didn't do on Superjudge.' Superjudge was a really annoying- sounding record with a lot of mid-range stuff. On Dopes… I wanted to make a kind of smooth, ethereal kind of rock record. I wanted the whole thing to have that really consistent sound. I want to be able to put on this record and be instantly transported to the land of Dopes To Infinity and I'll never wanna leave that land! I didn't want it to sound like a random collection of songs. I really wanted to make something that was completely different from everything else out there.

12. Låt: Ejected
Skiva: Mindfucker
Årtal: 2018
Kommentar:
Dave Wyndorf avgudar Hawkwind. Han tycker inte Jack White är kattpiss heller.
"When a songwriter or guitarist like Jack White has to come up with these new ideas to sell stuff rather than a record company, things are definitely backwards...If everybody had Jack White's thing then music would be doing a lot better. He's fantastic, a real rocker. He's a true musician guy. No poser. Nothing. Just cool music and a good player with a lot of respect for guitars and history and not only that, he's got the coolest studio in the world. It's unbelievable down there. I hope it lasts forever because he's got quite a fight on his hands. He's smart though. He's got something and he's a super talented guy." " Dave Wyndorf om musikindustrin och Jack White.  

The record became a total mission for me. It didn't take that long but it seemed like it took forever because I was always making shit up as it went along. I'd go back to the hotel room and draw diagrams and crazy stuff. It was right at the dawn of digital sampling and all the samples sounded like shit and I wanted real instruments, so I was renting real Mellotrons, and they're a huge pain in the ass. They're huge instruments and they have to be tuned constantly. Everything was a tuning nightmare. I was tuning the drums with a guitar tuner! Ha ha ha ha! It was nuts. It was a real weird experience for the guys I was working with too. They'd never done anything like that before. We were working from four o'clock in the afternoon until eight in the morning and the poor engineers had just about had it, like, 'What do you want now, Dave?'" - Dave Wyndorf, Classic Rock Magazine 

13. Låt: Cry
Skiva: God Says No
Årtal: 2000
Kommentar:
Att följa upp Powertrip är såklart helt jäkla omöjligt. Det finns några riktigt fina bitar på God Says No dock, men det känns lite som en skiva mellan två kolosser (Powertrip och Monolithic Baby). Lyssna till God Says No, All Shook Out, My Little Friend, Queen Of You, Down In The Jungle och Silver Future. 

14. Låt: Be Forewarned (Pentagram)
Skiva: A Better Dystopia
Årtal: 2021
Kommentar:
"A friend of mine took acid for the first time the other day and I told her that when I first dropped acid in college almost twenty-five years ago, I listened to Monster Magnet and was like, "Wow, I think I finally understand what these guys are talking about!"" -doomedandstoned.com

15. Låt: I Live Behind the Clouds
Skiva: Last Patrol
Årtal: 2013
Kommentar:
"There are huge rockers, wacked-out ballads, more hilariously oddball lyrics than you can shake a bong at and slick, memorable song craft. That's something Mr. Wyndorf has over 95% of the stoner hordes: serious writing chops which he backs up with a winningly off-the-cuff, tongue-in-cheek charm...He (Wyndorf) is alternately a storyteller, sage, town drunk and village idiot and all these alter-egos have something interesting to say. -Angrymetalguy

16. Låt: When the Planes Fall From the Sky (Sitar and Psych Version)
Skiva: Cobras and Fire (The Mastermind Redux)
Årtal: 2015
Kommentar: 

17. Låt: Superjudge
Skiva: Superjudge
Årtal: 1993
Kommentar:
Hela plattan är suverän. Att bara välja tre låtar är i princip omöjligt, men några favoriter har smugit sig fram genom åren. Många favoriter får dock inte plats här. Exempelvis Twin Earth, Cage Around the Sun, Stadium, Face Down, Brainstorm, Black Balloon samt världens bästa cover "Evil (What's Going On) som även är inspelad av Clutch, Greta Van Fleet, Captain Beefheart m.fl. Förvisso är världens bästa cover framförd av Cactus (skriven av Howlin Wolf), men Monster Magnet gör den också riktigt bra. Supermegalåten Dinosaur Vacume(!!) lämnas också utanför best of-listan. Än svårare ska det bli längre fram. 

Wyndorf went through a series of different names in naming the group such as "Dog of Mystery", "Airport 75", "Triple Bad Acid", "Love Monster" and "King Fuzz" before finally settling on "Monster Magnet", taken from the name of a 1960s toy made by Wham-O, which Wyndorf liked when he was a child. -riffpedia

18. Låt: All Friends And Kingdom Come
Skiva: Dopes To Infinity
Årtal: 1995
Kommentar:
Fantastisk platta såklart. Hela plattan är grym. Låtar som Dopes To Infinity, Ego, The Living Planet, Blow 'Em Off, Third Alternative, King of Mars, Theme From "Masterburner" eller Dead Christmas tar sig inte med på denna lista.

Kommentar:
Musikalisk öron-orgasm plattan igenom. Jesus Krist vilket slap in the face-bra album detta är. Såklart totalt omöjligt att välja någon låtar härifrån. Spacelord är lika given som att min mamma är den bästa mamman i världen. Shout-out till Yvonne!

20. Låt: Melt
Skiva: God Says No
Årtal: 2000
Kommentar: 
"With his mane of inky hair, nail poish, sleeveless T-shirts and nail polish, he's every inch the model of the modern rock god. Certainly his music — a super-powered, colorfully animated cocktail of churning sci-fi metal and fuzzy stoner-rock..." -tinnitist.com om Monster Magnets frontman, en värdig rock-action-hero-figur.

21. Låt: Milking the Stars
Skiva: Milking the Stars: A Re-Imagining of Last Patrol
Årtal: 2014
Kommentar:
The title track itself has obviously been written with the band focused in this mindset. Understated and almost Velvet Underground like, as it flirts on the surreal and the whimsical side but still retains traces of darkness as it meanders before giving focus to a lazy, winding guitar solo that conjures the illusion of swaying. 

22. Låt: Slut Machine
Skiva: Monolithic Baby
Årtal: 2004
Kommentar: 
Dave Wyndorf, lead man in Monster Magnet, collects sci-fi/Horror collectibles, one is a model called "The Monster Magnet"

23. Låt: Time Machine
Skiva: Mastermind
Årtal: 2010
Kommentar:
Hör ni hyllningen till Blaze Baileys Iron Maiden i Time Machine?

24. Låt: Born To Go (Hawkwind)
Skiva: A Better Dystopia
Årtal: 2021
Kommentar:
På papperet är detta en drömplatta. Vad sägs om covers av obskyra heavy psych-band som Morgen, Jd Blackfoot, Pentagram, Jerusalem, Josefus, Dust, Poobah eller storheter som The Pretty Things och Hawkwind. Problemet är väl att det känns som att de kunde gjort dem lite mera Monster Magnet? 

25. Låt: Mindless Ones '68
Skiva: Milking the Stars: A Re-Imagining of Last Patrol
Årtal: 2014
Kommentar:
"Lars Ulrich in Some Kind Of Monster asked the question, "When is a song ever truly 'finished?" and certainly here Wyndorf explores that theme by taking the core of Last Patrol and asking "What if these songs were recorded in 1968?" "What would happen if I turned a pretty song into an angry one?" How would adding creepy organs and Mellotrons affect the emotional vibe of a song?" -thesleepingshaman.com

26. Låt: Cyclone
Skiva: 4-Way Diablo
Årtal: 2007
Kommentar: Dude-rock för massan.
"There's an audience for music but the mass audience doesn't seem to give a shit what they listen to, to tell you the truth." -Dave Wyndorf sågar massan.
"Excellent song work, Wyndorfs great voice and a couple of riffs which shoots my parrot out of his feathers!!" -Random fan boy på nätet.

"Rockmonstret Wyndorf är något på spåret. Med enkelt källarriffande läggs grunden till 4-way diablo, och stadiumhårdrocken från de senare sönderprogrammerade plattorna är långt bort. Han har släppt taget om hårdrocksdekadensen, och ju längre skivan går desto djupare vadar Wyndorf i mörk drypande psykedelia. Det här kan vara Monster Magnets bästa sedan Spine of God." -Nån recensent som har fel eller avdelningen "Jag håller inte med".

Kommentar: 
"Yeah, I got a new shirt. I'm gonna put this shirt over my black jeans. I got my new biker boots and my chain wallet. I got my new neck tats. I'm ready to go. Fuck." -Dave Wyndorf som influencer.

28. Låt: Watch Me Fade
Skiva: Cobras and Fire (The Mastermind Redux)
Årtal: 2015
Kommentar:
Precis som Milking the Stars: A Re-Imagining of Last Patrol är Cobras and Fire (The Mastermind Redux) ännu ett album där de gör om sina egna skivor i ett psykedeliskt format. Åh herregud med vilket avtryck de gör det. Plattan är alldeles underbar rakt igenom.

Kommentar: 
Tyngd! Riff! Melodier! Refränger! Wyndorf är fylld med energi igen. Det hörs från första sekund på Mastermind från 2010. Eller är det bara den deprimerande 4-Way Diablo som ställer till det för mig?
"That mule is biting at my nipple all day. I'm like the last boy in the acid bath". -Hallucination Bomb 
Mastermind, Bored with Sorcery, Dig That Hole, Time Machine, Ghost Story och Gods and Punks är bra låtar, men lite av samma som vi redan hört förr? Kan en uppfinna hjulet två gånger? Jo, det tror jag!

30. Låt: End Of Time
Skiva: Last Patrol
Årtal: 2013
Kommentar:
"Last Patrol is a return to our roots in terms of vibe and recording style. It's full-on psychedelic space-rock with a '60s garage feel, recorded almost exclusively with vintage guitars, amps and effects in our hometown of Red Bank, New Jersey. The songs are a kind of space-noir, tales of cosmic revenge, peaking libidos, alienation and epic strangeness. It's a weird trip through the back alleys of a dark, retro-future, which not by coincidence very much resembles my own life. [laughs] The lyrics aren't fantasy really, rather a recounting of my musings on, observations of and general emotional reaction to my life and environment during a 1 week writing period in February of 2013. But I tend to use the vernacular and imagery of science fiction and surrealism to express myself and that's where these lyrics get trippy. There's also our cover version of DONOVAN's "Three Kingfishers", which I thought fit the mood of the album.

Last Patrol was produced by Phil Caivano and myself with an effort to bring a homegrown feel to the whole affair. We had been doing smaller projects out of Phil's Studio 13 recording space and I really felt comfortable there so it was the natural choice on where to record the next full-scale MONSTER MAGNET album. Phil and I grew up together and have a shared love of some very particular vintage music and styles. And everybody in the band played their asses off on this one."  -Dave Wyndorf, Blabbermouth 

31. Låt: When the Hammer Comes Down
Skiva: Mindfucker
Årtal: 2018
Kommentar: 
Ett stort steg bakåt. När de rör sig tillbaka till rural, rootsy, garage rock som de gör på Mindfucker tappar jag snabbt intresset. De förvandlas från en psykedelisk stonerå¨ngvält till ett dussinband. Det finns några gobitar här, men detta är nog den nästsämsta skivan de gjort. Lyssna på Drowning, Hawkwind-covern "Ejection", I'm God och avslutande When the Hammer Comes Down.
"After so many years (almost thirty) of career, Dave Wyndorf returns to the primordial rock from which much of the "hard" music was born: that proto punk that like a Big Bang exploded in Detroit garages in the late 60s to generate a lineage of rebel unconventional musicians. Obviously Wyndorf reinterprets the raw and visceral energy of Stooges and MC5 with his typical taste for excess." -Anesthetized  
"Religious debate has been around for pretty much as long as humanity has existed on this planet, but Monster Magnet frontman Dave Wyndorf is about to put an end to it all. In the band's new song, Wyndorf claims that he is in fact God, and that he's riding a river of flame. So there you have it! Seriously though, Wyndorf says "Magnet arent' religious guys at all, really, but we like to bring the hell-fire when we can."" -metalinjection.net

32. Låt: Learning to Die (Dust)
Skiva: A Better Dystopia
Årtal: 2021
Kommentar: Marky Ramones band Dusts fantastiska Learning to Die avslutar skivan. 

33. Låt: Little Bag of Gloom
Skiva: 4-Way Diablo
Årtal: 2007
Kommentar: De första fyra låtarna är inget att hänga i julgranen. Sen kommer den fantastiska Cyclone och sen en trevlig version av 2000 Light Years From Home (Rolling Stones). Tyvärr är detta Monster Magnets sämsta skiva hittills. Im Calling You, Solid Gold, A Thousand Stars och Slap In The Face är habila låtar, men bandet och Wyndorf låter slitna. Dave hade precis återkommit efter en överdos som nästan tog livet av honom och det hörs väl tycker jag.