Magnatone’s self-titled debut CD recently hit the shelves with only one complaint from the band — its format.

“I would have liked to put it out on vinyl,” vocalist Tom Rosenthal said. “But our label doesn’t do vinyl. I’m kind of disappointed about that. There is something great about vinyl. It was the original method of conveying music and it will always be the best.”

Now Magnatone is gearing up to support the disc on a long concert stretch which will include 17 consecutive dates (Ames is the second stop), a one-week break and another 20 shows in late September.

“If I had my way, I’d go on the road every other month,” Rosenthal said. “I’d rather play music than do anything else. Ideally, I’d like it to be my only job.”

On only its second trip to Iowa, Magnatone will be opening for friends House Of Large Sizes this Saturday. “We’ve known them personally for a long time,” Rosenthal said about HOLS. “We met them through mutual friends of ours. I’m looking forward to playing with them.”

Rosenthal, bassist Jacques Wait and drummer Johnny O’Halloran named their band after Rosenthal’s 1959 Magnatone custom 280 amplifier. It was featured prominently on the band’s debut but has since been reserved a spot in the attic.

“Magnatone,” the CD, has been anything but stored away. In fact, the disc, which Rosenthal called “one of the most direct, sincere rock albums of the past year” has been the only thing on his mind.

“A lot of [“Magnatone”] is relationship oriented because I went through a pretty big break-up fairly recently,” Rosenthal said. “So, some of the songs are happy. Some aren’t. But it’s still a lot of fun.”

Rosenthal said it was a nice change to be direct and straight forward. “If you listen to what we play, it’s pretty simple,” he said. “We make rock ‘n’ roll and pop that is fairly guitar driven.”

But labeling Magnatone with a one or two word definition is not exactly Rosenthal’s favorite thing to do. “Everyone wants to confine music into a certain niche or category,” he said. “I don’t want to limit myself into any category.”

His track record certainly proves this to be true. Rosenthal has belonged to a punk rock-a-billy band, a hard-core group and a pop-punk ensemble.

“I don’t have a favorite kind of music to play,” Rosenthal said. “I just like playing music, period. When I was younger, the style of music was very important to me. I wanted to look cool and happening. Now that I’m a little older — I just play what feels good.”

Rosenthal described music as fluid which all eventually runs together. “The possibilities are endless,” he said.

There are a lot of things that draw Rosenthal towards playing music. “I enjoy it more than anything else,” he said. “You start with nothing and create something. The whole process satisfies a part of your ego.”

Rosenthal also gave credit to artists that are “unabashedly themselves. That is part of the challenge of making music — you have to put your personality and heart into it,” he said. “Otherwise it isn’t true music.”

The singer pinned David Bowie and Prince as examples. “You know it’s him as soon as you hear his voice and rhythm,” he said about Bowie. “It’s absolutely unmistakable.”

With idols such as Bowie and Prince, Rosenthal describes Magnatone shows as energetic and unpredictable.

“This may sound pretty corny, but the concerts are always passionate,” Rosenthal said. “We don’t get bored when we go on stage. We try to enjoy it as much as we can.”

Corny or not, Magnatone will be playing at the M-Shop on Saturday night along with the Cedar Falls trio House Of Large Sizes.

Shows are scheduled for 8 and 10:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 for students and are available at all TicketMaster outlets.