If you've ever listened to any Monster Magnet record, you'd notice two main themes running throughout – drugs and loads of sex. In an interview with the Appetite for Distortion podcast, Monster Magnet frontman Dave Wyndorf addressed a lack of the latter when touring with Metallica in the late '90s.
Wyndorf said he's very grateful to Metallica for giving them the chance to play in front of larger audiences throughout Europe, but the lack of women in attendance was a problem for the band. Which is such a Wyndorf thing to say, but really – what else would you expect? Dude has a brand.
"We had been through Europe many, many times headlining before, so we'd do, like, maybe five hundred people [a night]. So we had done really, really well in Europe, going around. Our records were selling increasingly better and better. We had, like, two records on a major [label] at that point. And we were looking for some sort of break; you look for that break that you want.
"Metallica, really, they gave us a chance to [play in front of much bigger crowds]. And it was really cool. The only thing that wasn't cool about it was that there were so many dudes [in the audience]. We went through all of Eastern Europe [with them], and we were, like, 'Where are the girls?' Because it was Metallica. And we were used to having a bunch of girls at the show. So that was the only hard part. It was just, like, what do you do after the show?"
Monster Magnet is revisiting their early psychedelic material with the brand new Test Patterns: Vol. 1 compilation later this year. Test Patterns: Vol. 1 features a 2021 remix of the classic EP Tab and the 1988 demo of the title track originally released on the Forget About Life, I'm High On Dope demo. Test Patterns: Vol. 1 is out November 11.