… Which as job descriptions go is pretty damn cool. Such were Tim Cronin’s credits on Monster Magnet Spine Of God back in ’91.
Fifteen miles to cop on a stingray Boys we're gonna ride tonight Goofballs and 70's nipples Gotta get our heads just right (Nod Scene)
Dear readers once again we find ourselves on a church outing in the land of piety, sobriety and temperance, courtesy of my favourite bunch of New Jerseyites. There is something bracing and rather old-fashioned about the way Monster Magnet refused to succumb to the perils and pitfalls of the rock and roll lifestyle. Not for them the mindless pursuit of recreational sex and empty highs that mar the work of so many artists in the field of popular music; no siree!
Baby let me drink deep from your globes of reality Writhe your naked ass to the mindless groove (Ozium)
Recorded after Tab, but released before it Spine Of God slunk out into the world in late ’91, took a look around itself and basically decided to hole up in a back alley crack den mainlining expired cleaning products, prey to satanic mold spores and chemically-induced delusions of omnipotence, until the rest of us were debauched enough to understand.
Spine Of God is pretty uncompromising and old-school heavy, wonderfully so. One reason I’m pretty drawn to such early MM is that they sounded so raw and unformed back then, they hadn’t refined their playing to the point where they could hit that stoner rock groove yet. Take ‘Medicine’ as a case in point, it may have aired on the metal channels but this was an Iggyfied drooling mind-fucked whiteout of a track.
All of which is only a dress rehearsal for Spine Of God‘s finest moment, the titanic ‘Nod Scene’. This is the real deal, enabling clean living office dwellers like myself to undergo the full late-70’s freak experience vicariously. ‘Nod Scene’ deals with, amongst other things, the need to replace copies of Fragile and Zoso because you’ve skinned-up on them too many times*, falling over, wetting your pants doing whip hits^, buying a scratch-n-sniff issue of Playboy** and many other lows of getting high.
‘Nod Scene’ is a wonderful track packed full of great MM dynamics and some ace guitar from John McBain. Dave Wyndorf scores 1537 bonus points for just saying ‘Smoke’ at one point, apropos of nothing much at all.
Spine Of God then gets its head down, sets guitar pedals to stun and rocks us hard through both ‘Black Mastermind’ and swearily through ‘Zodiac Lung’. The band really hitting their groove on both tracks which lack their later polish and are all the better for it, the rhythm section of Joe Calandra and Jon Kleiman earning their corn.
Obviously MM then feel the need to ramp up the drug rock quotient on the title track of Spine Of God; opening line ‘I just had to get niiiice last night’. I have happy memories of the band laying down an epic version of this live. It sounds just like Apocalypse Now sound-tracked by Iggy Sabbath, with bonus swearing and mumbling, totally fucking great.
‘Snake Dance’ is a much needed oasis of abstinence in this sea of amoral … oh sod it, I can’t keep doing the same joke can I? look, the chorus goes ‘Go go go Yeah baby smoke them bones/Go go go I’m so fucking stoned’. That’s pretty much all you need to know apart from the frenzied guitar.
There’s an absolutely great cover of Grand Funk Railroad’s ‘Sin’s A Good Man’s Brother’, I don’t know the original^^ but this swings like a drunken heavy weight boxer. Much as I like the title^* closing track ‘Ozium’ is a bit of a slow trip for my tastes.
Spine Of God is a great Monster Magnet LP, a little more ragged and distraught around the edges than their later output and all the better for it. For those of us who like to swing our hair around to the sounds from the seamier end of the street this is a titanically good stoner LP, just be careful you don’t do too many whip hits. It’s also furnished me with a new motto to go with my family coat of arms:
Baby, the faster you gyrate the faster we'll be there (Ozium)
My copy of Spine Of God is a 2006 reissue on Steamhammer Records and it sounds bloody good too, if maybe a touch quiet. There’s some wry context from, I assume, Dave Wyndorf and a demo version of ‘Ozium’ which is even more trippy.
1154 Down.
*apparently the seeds can mess up the spine of the LP. My knowledge of this is entirely theoretical.
^inhaling the propellant from cans of squirty cream.
**I’ve not looked to see if this was ever a real thing. I fear the answer. ‘Pussy scratch and sniff in a Playboy / Christ I’m a good looking man!’
^^or any GFR really. Are they any good?
^*is it the element that Ozzy Osbourne is made from?
Great write-up, man. I’m awfy fond of a few Monster Magnet albums. This is them at their best, for sure… they got a bit lost for a while after Powertrip (trying to recreate the appeal of that one), but I think their last be couple of albums have been really pretty good. Particularly the reimagined Mastermind and Lost Patrol.
I’m not massively keen on much after Powertrip, although Monolithic Baby has its moments – albeit it is a very non-ironically misogynistic LP, that one.
This one is a beast though.
More of MM that you exposed to me in an earlier life. Good stuff
Yeah, man. I was fully into the the full late-70’s freak experience. For a while I was deeply in thrall to Dan Fogelberg, so much so that my parents had me booked in to see the local exorcist. Then I discovered whipped cream.
Love the coat of arms.
Man, I hear you. We almost lost a family friend when he got badly into Acker Bilk back in the day. So pleased you were able to turn your life around Bruce. Much love.
Different, I like it.
Cool. I just love Monster Magnet and that whole stoner rock scene, great heavy music which never takes itself too seriously.