New Baroness Album Stream

Naked ladies, swans about to get it, death and decay. Nothing to see here, move along now.

Fucking hell. The hairs on my neck are standing on end. I am listening to the opening bars of Baroness Yellow & Green on NPR. I can’t believe it, Christmas has come early!

Check out the full album stream here or better yet here.

Right can’t stop, have a double-album of pure awesome to listen to for the first time!

Update: I love Baroness but two thirds through the Yellow side I am not being immediately blown away. I liked the advance singles but I’m a bit dubious. Will persevere.

Update #2: Green seems the stronger of the two sides (I’m a third in) but I’m still on the fence about whether I like this. I hope we get plenty of old stuff at Thursday’s gig!

Update #3: I really miss the roar and riff. Stop singing man and bellow! After a full (single) listen, I have very mixed feelings. Let’s hope it’s a grower.

Witch Mountain – Cauldron of the Wild

Oh baby, what’s your doom?

The whole lady doom craze had left me baffled. Royal Thunder? Yawn. Christian Mistress? Pfft. Witch Mountain? Pah!

Yet when my esteemed fellow explorer of the heavy Sawtooth Wave cracked open a banana beer and waxed lyrical about Witch Mountain’s latest, I vowed to give Cauldron of the Wild a fair crack of the whip.

So I set aside my d-beat and got my doom on and I tell you… its feels GOOODDDD!

Cauldron of the Wild hardly tears up the blueprint laid out by last year’s breakout South of Salem, which left me cold, so it’s hard to put my finger on what makes this record such a killer.

This post would be a bit pointless if I didn’t try though wouldn’t it?

On My Turntable: Witch Mountain, The Smashing Pumpkins, El-P and Decoder Ring…

Spot the hilarious joke….

Don’t be fooled, while there’s not much metal on this list, I’m not going soft. I’ve been hammering MDG favourites Book of Black Earth and Balaclava this past week.

*Masculinity assured, he stops swinging it around and slips back where it belongs*

Yet there’s been plenty of time for non d-beat at MDG Towers. I know. Shit’s craycray, huh?

I have also created a Spotify playlist so you bastards can have a listen. Not that you’ll bother, you James Blunts (that’s cockney rhyming slang my beloved American readers… you work it out).

AXES – Self-titled EP

Some feathers with eyes and some hardcore German dudes, ya dig?

Are AXES the best hardcore-and-more band you’ve never heard of?

These three everyday dudes from Rosswein, Germany (a tiny town so mind-meltingly boring it merits no more than a single line in Wikipedia and an official website so bereft of content that an article about a senior citizens cafe is a highlight), have crafted a real delight with their debut self-titled EP.

Kvelertak and Baroness Live in London 2012

Will bits of me get caught in JBD’s beard? One hopes not…

Long time readers of Monkey Defies Gravity will know how much of a collective man-crush I have on Baroness. I have long thought that I might explode with excitement should I ever get to see them.

Well, I shall be able to test my hypothesis on July 12 at tiny London club, Barfly – that’s just five days before the UK release of Yellow & Green. Let’s hope the staff don’t have to scrape me off the walls and ceiling. It could be messy.

I can’t believe a band of this stature is playing a 200-capacity venue in the UK capital in 2012. I also can’t believe I managed to snag a ticket. Thank you Songkick.