was HW: Emperors, now Monster Magnet

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

On tis 9 feb 1999 "Keith Henderson" <henderson.120 at OSU.EDU> wrote:
> Carl spake thusly...
>>     Monster Magnet are fairly drenched in HW influence, swooshy
>>noises and all, and have top bloody 40 hits!  When I watched them
>>doing "Bummer" (which is a straight lift of the "Time We Left"
>>riff, after all) at the London Astoria and the crowd was going
>>nuts, I had to think "This *ought* to be Hawkwind!  Why am I not
>>seeing this and hearing this with Admiral Brock on stage?".
>
> Yeah, it really seems like it might be a missed opportunity if true space
> rock bands, not only HW, but all the other American, Scandinavian, etc.
> bands can't suck in some of the audience primed on MM, Fu Manchu, and the
> like.  Presonally, I think it's a better fit than the techno/electronic
set
> (which seems to be their current m.o.), and now perhaps holds as much
> potential.

     This is definitely my feeling.  Without wishing to invoke
the dreaded words "selling out", I think there's a bandwaggon
that space-rockers can latch onto here--and presumbably they *do*
want to sell records.  People dig bands like Monster Magnet and
Kyuss, and space-rock is not far from that vibe if it's effectively
different at all!

     I know the analogy works to a certain extent, cause there are
all kinds of students in the local rock society who are into MM,
Fu Manchu, Kyuss, all that.  They already _know_ about Sabbath
(who cunningly reformed to reap the rewards of their new trendiness),
but not about Hawkwind.  But when I said, "If you like that, then
you gotta hear _this_" and lo!  copies of HW albums were bought!
Most recently I ran into someone at the local rock club who was
very into Monster Magnet and had heard Hawkwind had been an influence
on MM, but didn't know any HW.  I immediately encouraged exploration!

     I've got a bunch of students keen to see Bedouin :)  And I
must evangelize the modern space-rock bands as well.  In Space
We Trust!

> Anyway, I think it would be interesting to see what would happen if
Hawkwind
> was part of one of these shed-style mega-rock tours of No. America (like
> Ozz-fest or whatever) at the invitation of Monster Magnet (as headliner or
> perhaps second billing).  Yeah, of course, it wouldn't get me so thrilled
to
> see them play a 40-minute set in daylight (hence no lights) in a
> Budweiser-sponsored Buffett Hut, but I'd just go to see what today's
> alterna-kids would say.  You know, like, 'Man, those old geezers ripped
off
> the Bummer riff!!'  :)

;)

> They [MM] should have hooked onto the Sabbath tour (though the
> rescheduling would have probably screwed things up for MM) instead of, who
> is it??  Pantera or something? Well, I'll find out in two weeks.

     Pantera, yes.  A name familiar to younger metal fans today,
though I'm not much into them.  I like side project Pantera's
singer (Phil Anselmo) has with Pepper Keenan and various other
doomsters called "Down" much better.  Their one (so far) album
_Nola_ is a marvelous slab of Sabbathy blues-rock crossed with
90s metal and a tinge of southern rock.  The "Bury Me in Smoke"
track has a truly epic riff much acclaimed in the modern
"heavy groove rock" scene.

     But, anyway, yes--I think spacerock will get more attention
as a spacey adjunct of "heavy groove rock" (a term I like better
than "stoner rock" or "doom metal") than as a rocky adjunct of
the ambient-techno-whatever scene.  I can't see dance music fans
getting excited about what space-rock dopes best (i.e. pounding
into oblivion :) but I can see "heavy groove rock" fans getting
into the psychedelic aspects of space-rock: well, shoot, I've
seen them do it!

     But I'm also biased because though I like spacey floaty
synths, I like "wall of hot butterscotch" guitars even better :)

Cheers,
Carl

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
Dept. of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, & Celtic
St. John's College, University of Cambridge
mailto:cea20 at cus.cam.ac.uk
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~carl/