Monster Magnet Sings Divine Rejection
April 9 -- At first glance, Monster Magnet frontman Dave Wyndorf looks like a rock star. He's got all the classic trappings the job demands, not to mention a few excesses to spare: leather pants, devilish good looks, a lifetime of reckless antics, and a howling voice to yell all about it. He delivers the songs on God Says No, his band's new CD, with a swagger that manages to be as sinister as it is sexy. But does he feel like a rock star?
"When I'm singing my songs, yes, definitely," Wyndorf answers.
Having come off a tour of Europe where God is already climbing the charts, Wyndorf received plenty of press crowning him the new dark prince of rock. Others might take this kind of fawning to mean they've arrived, but Wyndorf is the last person to believe his own press.
"Yeah, well, the Brits love all that sex-drugs-rock-and-roll-prince-of-darkness thing. Whatever," he dismisses.
More often than not, he says, he wrestles with insecurities that are actually generated by the media. Hence the title of Monster Magnet's new CD.
"It's really in reference to me having an inferiority complex about watching too much television," Wyndorf explains of the CD's name. "The only real gods in America now are Hollywood and advertising culture, and that's what everybody really worships. A lot of stuff I would love to impart to people they wouldn't pay attention to anyway. I'd be better off getting on the stair machine making sure my ass looks good than writing good music."
Wyndorf continues. "It's horrible but true! It's like, 'That's a really good song but you got a big fat ass, man, so you ain't getting on TV!' And that's what God Says No is about," he says between drags on a cigarette. "I try and try every single way, and every time you think you're OK, 'God' comes in, being media culture, and says, 'No! You're not cool enough.'"
The self-deprecation aside, Wyndorf will admit that he and Monster Magnet are teetering on the brink of "divine acceptance."
"We did 50 percent better [in Europe] in the first two weeks than we did on the entire run of the last album," he explains of the CD's reception. "So things are definitely looking up."
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