Monster Magnet, Milking the Stars: A Re-Imagining of Last Patrol (Napalm Records)
I can count all the Monster Magnet fans I know on one finger, and the band’s 2013 album Last Patrol sold a whopping 2,800 copies, which propelled it safely into the Billboard 200. All of this is to say that they’re pretty famous in this day and age, which isn’t to say that they’re normal people; they probably should have titled this album something like Last Patrol Redux or something descriptive like that, as it’s comprised of remixes, four new songs and some live stuff, all in time for that dude I know to buy it for himself for Christmas. If the existence of Monster Magnet is news to you, they’re a stoner-metal band that takes its genre a lot more seriously than Queens of the Stone Age and whatnot; it’s kind of like Soundgarden when it really tries, which isn’t the case here with all the re-rubs and Beatle-boot 1960s-fetishizing. For example, this album’s remake of “Mindless Ones” just seemed to take the original song and throw it in a blender with various Iron Butterfly organ and fuzz sounds — I almost expected a flute to pop in, which would have, of course, horrified me. See, the idea was that Last Patrol “wasn’t ‘60s-sounding enough.” Well, now it is, thus mankind is saved. B- — Eric W. Saeger