You're the Inspiration - The One Album at the Heart of My Vinyl Collection

Was there an album that you just HAD TO HAVE on vinyl?  That album that in spired you to build a vinyl collection in the first place?  For me there most certinly was, and that album was Monster Magnet's 1998 monster of an album - Powertrip.

Powertrip sold more than 500,000 copies in the United States alone on its way to gold status and was the top selling rock and and roll album in '98.  In addition to top five hit single Space Lord it spawned several other radio friendly tunes, including See You in Hell, Temple of Your Dreams, the title track and there were those adventurous DJs who played some deep cuts who would ocassionly throw on Crop Circles or even Tractor.

I thrilled to that album, end to end, not a bad track on it.  I've identified with many different bands through my life, ranging from The Power Station, Anthrax, Nirvana, Pantera, Foo Fighters, but there has been one constant since my youth, and that was Motorhead.  The other constant since 1995 has been Monster Magnet, and I regret not getting in five years earlier on the ground floor when thier self-titled EP was making some noise in Germany on the Glitterhouse label.

When Powertrip broke I researched this band; I had already discovered they had been on A&M for a while, and had already released two albums on the label, 1993's Superjudge and 1995's Dopes to Infinity. Superjudge I found pretty quickly on CD, but I already had a copy of Dopes.  As it turned out, those in the know, read the stoners in the area, had already snatched up all the copies of Dopes to Infinity in the region a couple years earlier and record stores had never bothered to restock.  I just happened to have liked the cover and the title and bought a copy myself.

Anyhow, I eventually picked up Spine of God, and Tab, and then followed Monster Magnet's career through its ups and downs right up until this very day and the band's current trippy release, Cobras and Fire a Re-imagining of Mastermind -- a brilliant fucking album end to end if I do say so.

Anyhow, what has all this got to do with me and my vinyl collection? Well, I didn't rush out and start a vinyl collection in 1998 when Powertrip came out, but I should have.  No, I waited until another band that is sometimes cast into the same stoner genre as Monster Magnet produced a new album in late 2012 on its own Weathermaker label before I made my first vinyl purchase since I was a teenager - I pre-ordered a copy of Clutch's Earth Rocker.  I didn't even own a record player at the time.

I was supposed to get a Crosley that had belonged to my mother-in-law, but thankfully, my brother-in-law tore that thing up and I never inherited it and discovered what a piece of shit it was before I ever had to deal with it.  Anyhow, time went by and I again pre-ordered a record I wanted in January of 2016, this time thrash kings Anthrax' new release For All Kings on translucent blue vinyl.

Okay, it came in February  I was unimpressed.  The blue came out in huge blobs.  In places it was this beautiful translucent light blue and in others you had this massive cells of opaque blue mess.  I don't know if this is what Anthrax wanted or not.  But, I wasn't discouraged.  I saw the potential of what colored vinyl had to offer and I knew I wanted my favorite band(s) in the format.  I began researching players and in mid-March I placed the first in what became a series of entirely TOO MANY VINYL ONLINE ORDERS!

Powertrip was among those albums ordered in the first wave.  My initial copy was supposed to be on orange vinyl.  I had to send that pressing back to the seller when he sent standard black by mistake.  I first focused on collecting Monster Magnet records, getting the black and white splatter vinyl of Cobras and Fire, the Cosmic Bronze version of Last Patrol, the purple marbled version of Superjudge, and the yellow and red-orange splatter vinyl of Mastermind.  From there, though I decided to move on to bands that I liked that influenced Monster Magnet - early Black Sabbath, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Amon Duul II, Pink Floyd (notably my favorite period, the first four albums) early Skullflower, Hawkwind, Branticket, Pink Fairies, etc.

The collection then expanded to feature my other two favorite bands, Motorhead and Clutch, Record Store Day 2016 rolled around and I picked up four releases - the Clutch etched 12" single, the gorgeous Iron Maiden Empire of the Clouds 12" picture disc, the Anthrax 7" red vinyl honoring those lost in the Paris attacks and the vulgar Rob Zombie, Well, Everybody's Fucking in a U.F.O.

Now I moved on to other psychedelic bands I liked such as The Doors, more stoner rock like The Atomic Bitchwax, and well, that brings me full circle, because I just laid my hands on another Monster Magnet album that nearly completes my collection of that band's vinyl production to date.  I lack just a few RARE official releases, plus, Monolithic Baby!, and a couple of bootlegs I'm trying to pin down that I'd like to have. (That's the subject of a whole other column for certain.)

In the meantime, my turntable and set up should arrive tomorrow and Thursday so hopefully by Friday I'll actually be spinning some vinyl.

Double Clutch

Today I have a double dose of those Earth Rockers, the road dogs that they are, Clutch.  The discs featured are copies of Clutch's latest effort, 2015's brilliant Psychic Warfare, one in standard black and the other a Newbury Comics exclusive, limited to just 500 pressed copies done in  a gorgeous translucent red.  Now, I actively sought out the red copy of this disc, and after two months of searching and passing over opened copies, high priced copies and reasonably priced copies offered simultaneously with that one other disc that I JUST HAD TO HAVE RIGHT THAT MOMENT OR I MIGHT HAVE DIED, I finally found a copy under $30 still sealed and not so far away from me that I was going to have to donate a kidney to cover shipping, so I FINALLY scored a red Newbury edition for my collection before they were all snatched up and got it at a respectable price for such an awesome piece of wax.

Now, the story behind the black version is just as boring, but a little bit more odd.  I was unaware that Clutch had partnered up with the Susan Komen group and 15 other bands, to assemble a number of special albums to promote awareness of breast cancer some time after 2012 while also raising money to help support breast cancer research.  The product of that partnership was the pink vinyl album promoting eight of Clutch's tracks featuring strong female characters - La Curandera, with album art by a strong female no less, Becky Cloonan, who's claim to fame at DC Comics was that she was the first woman to draw The Bat - yes the vigilante himself, Batman.

Now, I won an auction on eBay for a sealed copy of La Curandera, and ONLY, that singular sealed copy of La Curandera.  I made certain after the fact, going back and reading all of the fine print, etc., to see if I missed something and make certain I had not screwed up and underpaid the seller or something.  Anyhow, a week after the auction my regular mail carrier dutifully pulls to my back door and I meet her at my back porch steps and accept this package containing La Curandera that I have been tracking for a few days.  I open it open and greedily grab up my pink vinyl album, tear through the plastic and prepare to unsheath the vinyl for the first time when my 11-year-old daughter calls my attention to the discarded box, "Dad is there supposed to be another record in there?"  Me, "No, dear, why?"

Her, "Well, you better come look..."

I have messaged this seller three different ways on at least seven different occasions since I obtained the package and I have yet to receive a response from him.  At this point I'm calling the album "officially MINE!"