It’s been recently reported that Monster Magnet’s vocalist Dave
\nWyndorf, had
\nMonolithic Baby!<\/i> sitting in the pipeline for over a year
\nwaiting for the musical climate to change for the better. Being
\nafforded the luxury of working this free agent strategy by virtue
\nof having previously severed the band’s ties to their old label,
\nA&M, might seem a bit presumptious to most people but Wyndorf
\nspeaks of the 9\/11 events being one of the mitigating factors in
\nputting on the brakes for a spell.<\/p>\n
Recently, the latter part of 2003 found the band landing on the
\nrespected European label, SPV\/Steamhammer who is proving that their
\nresource will spare no expense in delivering the bands sixth full
\nlength release to the public.
\nMonolithic Baby!<\/i> is available in two packages; the first
\npackage being the standard CD jewel case format and the other one
\nincludes not only the standard CD but a 30-minute plus DVD full of
\ninterviews, clips from some Fall 2003 showcase events, and the
\nfirst two video’s shot in support of the album. One thing I’ll also
\ngive SPV credit for is the fact that all of this is delivered in a
\ngatefold CD jacket reminiscent of the days when similarly expanded
\nLP jackets signified A-list band treatment. Nice touch.<\/p>\n
With an eye towards the music, Wyndorf sacked drummer Jon
\nKleiman and bassist Joe Calandra — two original members of the
\nband dating back to 1989 — citing their lack of commitment to the
\nprocess. My first reaction to the news was one of disbelief largely
\nfor the reason that in the band’s 3 \u00bd year recording hiatus,
\nthere was very little news coming out of the Monster Magnet camp,
\nmusic or otherwise.<\/p>\n
Enter bassist Jim Baglino, also a member of the New Jersey
\nstoner rock outfit, Lord Sterling, and what I guess was a session
\ndrummer in Mick Wildwood to help Wyndorf and crew record
\nMonolithic Baby!<\/i> Wildwood has now been replaced by Bob
\nPantella, another New Jerseyan (formerly of Raging Slab) on a full
\ntime basis. I guess the timing of all of this explains why there is
\nnot a drummer pictured on the album cover. Details. I
\nknow\u2026..<\/p>\n
Watching the circumstances above unfold, I’ll admit that I
\nhadn’t anticipated any band’s release with the same fervor as
\nMonolithic Baby!<\/i> in some time.<\/p>\n
I’ll also say that I immediately took to the melancholy lo-fi
\ndelivery of the first track on the album, “Slut Machine.” Delivered
\nwith the same bombast that the Monster Magnet album
\nPowertrip<\/i> gave us, “Slut Machine” has a decidedly increased
\nstoner rock vibe with guitarists Ed Mundell and Phil Caivano
\nmasterfully teaming their riffs against the output of the
\nBaglino\/Wildwood rhythm section.<\/p>\n
There are plenty of other healthy rock cuts on the release
\ndelivered with standard Wyndorf lyrical flavor. “Unbroken (Hotel
\nBaby)” is the first single — with the wisdom that Wyndorf values
\nhis hedonistic agenda in much greater fashion than any groupie
\ncould claim for themselves. “Radiation Day” and the title track are
\nthe heavyweight songs on the album with some more melancholy
\nriffing setting the table for “Radiation Day” and a plummeting beat
\ndriving the Wyndorf wisdom on the latter with claims that “you’re
\nfrom the suck generation” with “nothin’ in your head.” The songs on<\/p>\n
Monolithic Baby!<\/i> are naturally chock full of omniscient
\nanecdotes such as these that Wyndorf has commonly associated
\nhimself with over the years.<\/p>\n
The album downshifts gear in tempo’s several times. I can’t say
\nthat I’m overly enamored with the track “Too Bad.” It has one of
\nthe most annoying clich\u00e9s in music worked into the chorus,
\n“Don’t go away mad, just go away.” “CNN War Theme” would be an
\ninteresting opportunity for social commentary if there was anything
\ndecipherable emanating from the effort. It’s more of an acoustic
\ntrance piece that fits in well buried as the last track on the
\nalbum.<\/p>\n
I can’t close this review without giving one last kudo to the
\nband for choosing to cover a gem of a song that no one in their
\nright mind has ever heard and turning it into one of the signature
\ntracks on the album. “The Right Stuff” is a Captain Lockheed &
\nthe Starfighters space-rock piece authored by Robert Calvert. The
\nsong is a wind-in-the-face journey through time and is refreshing
\nbecause the obscurity of the song allows you to walk away with an
\noverwhelming feeling of exhaustion unencumbered with any notion of
\nhow the Monster Magnet version actually stacks up to the original.
\nAdditionally, the song provides enough of a jam that it makes me
\nwant to know more about the originating band. In my opinion, that’s
\na good reason for a band to do a cover.<\/p>\n
I can say right now that Dave Wyndorf’s prophecy with regards to
\nwhat went into the recording and production of
\nMonolithic Baby!<\/i> will pay dividends as the album takes on
\nlegs of its own. Just short of a masterpiece in my opinion and a
\ngreat return to Monster Magnet form after a merely average
\nGod Says No<\/i> effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":26648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6886],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37897","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-monster-magnet","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37897"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}