#daniel rey

The Ramones 14th and final studio album was released on 18 July 1995.

44-year-old Joey Ramone had been diagnosed with lymphoma earlier in the year (he kept his diagnosis from the public until March 2001, a month before he died), and relationships in the group were strained - Joey and Johnny hadn't spoken to each other in about a decade, but a rift had also developed between C.J. (who had joined the band in 1989) and Marky (who had rejoined in 1987), but producer Daniel Rey (who had known the band since the early 1980s and had produced 1987's Halfway to Sanity and 1989's Brain Drain) reportedly keep things productive and calm in the studio.

And while Dee Dee had left the band in 1989, Adios Amigos contains 6 of his songs - 5 co-written with Rey), as well as a guest vocal on "Born to Die in Berlin" (recorded over the phone).

Monster Magnet: Monster Magnet EP (1990)

Mention stoner rock icons Monster Magnet to Average Joe Rocker and he’ll probably remember their lone hit single, “Space Lord,” maybe an earlier album like Dopes to Infinity or Superjudge, but few know of the band’s debut EP, released 30 years ago by Germany’s Glitterhouse Records.

Heck, I didn’t know of it myself, until the band’s unofficial sixth member, Tim Cronin (also of The Ribeye Brothers), slipped me a copy on CD during the 1998 Powertrip tour, having recognized a true fan who just happened to work for their label, A&M Records.

As he would later tell me in an interview for Diffuser.fm, “When we started Monster Magnet, we just wanted to do music that we wanted to listen to [and] we all loved old garage rock, the Stooges and old psych music.”

“Dave [Wyndorf, vocals, guitar] was well versed on ‘70s space rock/hard rock; John [McBain, guitar] was also solid on old hard rock [and] ‘60s/‘70s British rock; and I was a fan of stuff that was coming out at the time: the Screaming Trees’ Invisible Lantern was a big record for us, and Mudhoney too.”

“When ‘Touch Me I’m Sick’ came out it felt like we had kindred spirits on the West Coast. There was also a lot of U.K. stuff that was kicking our ass: Spacemen 3, Loop, the Walking Seeds, the Telescopes and the real early Skullflower stuff, especially their Birthdeath EP.”

Most all of these influences came together on this primal EP, which marked Cronin’s transition from drums to bass guitar (replaced by Tom Diello), then into stage management (a.k.a. Dope/Lights/Center of the Universe), and found Magnet germinating in corrosive, fuzz-and-feedback-laden extremes.

This is made all the more evident by three songs that would surface again, in “tamer” forms, on ensuing LPs, namely the swampy “Snake Dance,” opioid/nitrous oxide trip “Nod Scene” (both recut for the following year’s Spine of God), and the propulsive “Tractor” (finally revisited on the aforementioned Powertrip). 

Not so the tracks on side two, which included the excellent “Freak Shop U.S.A.” (very Mudhoney, but very excellent), the B-Movie slasher “Lizard Johnny,” featuring vocals from Cronin, and, exclusive to the CD pressing, the less distinctive “Murder.”

All in all, this material was deceptively primitive, sonically-speaking, but beyond sophisticated in its fusion of countless inspirational sources, just as Cronin told me; so it’s hardly surprising, in retrospect, that Dave Wyndorf wound up guiding Monster Magnet down so many musical paths over the next few decades.

“All freaks go to hell!”

This is what it sounds like when I sing The Ramones.

Shrapnel: Shrapnel (1984)

Your eyes do not deceive you, stoner rock fans: that’s indeed a baby-faced Dave Wyndorf, of Monster Magnet fame, you see front and center on Shrapnel’s self-titled EP from 1984.

And if you check the rear sleeve credits, you’ll learn that Wyndorf’s later-day Magnet bandmate Phil Caivano is also pictured here, bottom right, along with, in the top right corner, future Ramones/Misfits producer Daniel Rey!

Red Bank, NJ natives Wyndorf and Rey originally formed Shrapnel during the late ‘70s punk rock craze, adopting a military theme (army helmets, fatigues, plastic machine guns, etc.) to try and stand out in a crowded scene -- you can watch them strut their stuff in this video for 1979 single, “Combat Love,” where Dave sports a Ramones-endorsed bowl cut.

Another single, called “Go Cruisin’,” emerged two years later, but Shrapnel was obviously not winning many battles, because they’d have to wait and wait and wait, until my old friend Michael Alago signed them to Elektra Records, just prior to bringing a young Metallica into the label!

So, what I was expecting from this EP were punk rock riffs like the ones on “Master of My Destiny”; but what I got was the moody new wave of “Nations,” “Hope for Us All” and “It’s a Crime,” but, worst of all, the hand-clapping, foot-stomping ‘70s glam rock sing-along of “Didn't Know I Loved You (Till I Saw You Rock ‘n’ Roll).”

WTF!

Clearly, there was something rotten in the state of New Jersey ... or, maybe the universe, if this is what was deemed commercially viable, at the time.

And the irony, of course, is that it wasn’t even that, because Shrapnel’s brief brush with major label life soon went up in smoke, though at least that freed its principals to go pursue -- and fulfill -- their intended destinies elsewhere. 

L7: Bricks Are Heavy (1992)

I’ve never been a massive L7 fan, but I do love this LP, and the band put on one hell of a show for me and several thousand more at the 1993 Hollywood Rock Festival, also starring Alice in Chains, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nirvana.

I almost died of dehydration, but it was totally worth it!

Anyway, Bricks Are Heavy is turning 25 years old today and I mused about its place in ‘90s music for Diffuser.fm, but allow me to butcher and reassemble some thoughts from my All-Music Guide review here, instead: 

As most of us know, though they hailed from L.A., L7 became the poster girls for grunge and the Riot Grrrl movement with the meteoric success of this, their third LP.

While previous efforts had been a little sloppy and uneven, Nevermind producer Butch Vig helped L7 obtain a tight, compact sound (driven by Dee Plakas’ metronomic percussion) on Bricks, while also pushing them to put more focus on their songwriting. 

After all, great albums need great songs, and that’s exactly what you get from Jennifer Finch’s feminist mosh-pit anthem “Everglade,” Janet Gardner’s suitably grungy “Monster,” and Donita Sparks’ Gen-X anthem, “Pretend We’re Dead.” 

Perhaps inevitably, a few songs get a little too close to Nirvana for comfort (e.g. “Slide”), but the sardonic “Diet Pill” tackles female compulsions with clever irony, and despite the near-metallic riffing that backs bitter screeds like “Wargasm,” “Mr. Integrity” and “Shitlist,” L7 still fill their lyrics with both humor and substance. 

All this helped drive Bricks Are Heavy to No. 1 on the grunge-packed Heatseekers Chart, but L7’s greatest career accomplishment is undoubtedly their influence on young women rockers, for whom they set such a positive, empowering example during this brief brush with mainstream stardom.

PIST.ON Then (Circa 1996) (By Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker, Lead Journalist/Writer, RiffRelevant.com) Brooklyn, New York’s Pist.On were a metal band that, despite their possessing immense promise and potential, would be relegated to a rather short existence. The band would be plagued by constant issues connected to labels for the duration of their original stint of activity. However, the styling of…