DB HOF NO. 20

The making of Monster Magnet’s “Dopes to Infinity”

released: March 21, 1995

label: A&M

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After Nirvana’s Nevermind tore the “alternative rock market” a seven-figure asshole, every major label with easy access to a couple of guitar-wielding longhairs was vying to shove its swollen corporate phallus into the proverbial money-ring of brown fire. The A&M roster—buoyed by the likes of Soundgarden, Paw (remember them?), and four dudes from Red Bank, NJ, who called themselves Monster Magnet—was cocked, locked, and ready to move some serious units. When 1993’s Superjudge saw some light Headbangers Ball action with the Sabbath-inspired video for “Twin Earth,” the label dumped even more cash on vocalist/guitarist Dave Wyndorf, bassist Joe Calandra, drummer Jon Kleiman, and guitarist Ed Mundell for their 1995 follow-up. Recorded at the Magic Shop in Manhattan, Dopes to Infinity thrust Monster Magnet headfirst into the preliminary bright lights and big titties of international rock stardom via the soaring flanged riffery and psychedelic double-talk of “Negasonic Teenage Warhead.” Too bad they kinda hated each other by the time they got there. With the status of the band still unknown as of press time (Kleiman and Calandra split after 2001’s God Says No; Wyndorf is still recuperating from a February 2006 drug overdose), Decibel tracked down all four members—and lighting guru/atomic propagandist/original member Tim Cronin—to find out why Dopes will last forever, even if Monster Magnet doesn’t.

—J. Bennett

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