Monster Magnet

Even after a decade and a half of wide-screen riff rock, Monster Magnet frontman Dave Wyndorf still approaches his craft with the same wide-eyed wonder of a kid raiding his father's Playboy collection. He sings of humping volcanoes and exploding heads, over guitars that shoot sparks like a Roman candle.

On Monster Magnet's latest, Monolithic Baby!, Wyndorf sweats out more heavy-breathing mustache metal with a sci-fi bent, coming with a sound somewhere between Hawkwind and 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's unabashedly loud, sexy, and leather-clad -- a flight of fancy with no layovers. Even when Wyndorf sings of saving the world, he really just wants to get you back to his hotel room. Live, he often ends shows by setting his guitar on fire. It matches the flames on his pants.