It's been recently reported that Monster Magnet's vocalist Dave Wyndorf, had Monolithic Baby! sitting in the pipeline for over a year waiting for the musical climate to change for the better. Being afforded the luxury of working this free agent strategy by virtue of having previously severed the band's ties to their old label, A&M, might seem a bit presumptious to most people but Wyndorf speaks of the 9/11 events being one of the mitigating factors in putting on the brakes for a spell.
Recently, the latter part of 2003 found the band landing on the respected European label, SPV/Steamhammer who is proving that their resource will spare no expense in delivering the bands sixth full length release to the public. Monolithic Baby! is available in two packages; the first package being the standard CD jewel case format and the other one includes not only the standard CD but a 30-minute plus DVD full of interviews, clips from some Fall 2003 showcase events, and the first two video's shot in support of the album. One thing I'll also give SPV credit for is the fact that all of this is delivered in a gatefold CD jacket reminiscent of the days when similarly expanded LP jackets signified A-list band treatment. Nice touch.
With an eye towards the music, Wyndorf sacked drummer Jon Kleiman and bassist Joe Calandra -- two original members of the band dating back to 1989 -- citing their lack of commitment to the process. My first reaction to the news was one of disbelief largely for the reason that in the band's 3 ½ year recording hiatus, there was very little news coming out of the Monster Magnet camp, music or otherwise.
Enter bassist Jim Baglino, also a member of the New Jersey
stoner rock outfit, Lord Sterling, and what I guess was a session
drummer in Mick Wildwood to help Wyndorf and crew record
Monolithic Baby! Wildwood has now been replaced by Bob
Pantella, another New Jerseyan (formerly of Raging Slab) on a full
time basis. I guess the timing of all of this explains why there is
not a drummer pictured on the album cover. Details. I
know…..
Watching the circumstances above unfold, I'll admit that I hadn't anticipated any band's release with the same fervor as Monolithic Baby! in some time.
I'll also say that I immediately took to the melancholy lo-fi delivery of the first track on the album, "Slut Machine." Delivered with the same bombast that the Monster Magnet album Powertrip gave us, "Slut Machine" has a decidedly increased stoner rock vibe with guitarists Ed Mundell and Phil Caivano masterfully teaming their riffs against the output of the Baglino/Wildwood rhythm section.
There are plenty of other healthy rock cuts on the release delivered with standard Wyndorf lyrical flavor. "Unbroken (Hotel Baby)" is the first single -- with the wisdom that Wyndorf values his hedonistic agenda in much greater fashion than any groupie could claim for themselves. "Radiation Day" and the title track are the heavyweight songs on the album with some more melancholy riffing setting the table for "Radiation Day" and a plummeting beat driving the Wyndorf wisdom on the latter with claims that "you're from the suck generation" with "nothin' in your head." The songs on Monolithic Baby! are naturally chock full of omniscient anecdotes such as these that Wyndorf has commonly associated himself with over the years.
The album downshifts gear in tempo's several times. I can't say that I'm overly enamored with the track "Too Bad." It has one of the most annoying clichés in music worked into the chorus, "Don't go away mad, just go away." "CNN War Theme" would be an interesting opportunity for social commentary if there was anything decipherable emanating from the effort. It's more of an acoustic trance piece that fits in well buried as the last track on the album.
I can't close this review without giving one last kudo to the band for choosing to cover a gem of a song that no one in their right mind has ever heard and turning it into one of the signature tracks on the album. "The Right Stuff" is a Captain Lockheed & the Starfighters space-rock piece authored by Robert Calvert. The song is a wind-in-the-face journey through time and is refreshing because the obscurity of the song allows you to walk away with an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion unencumbered with any notion of how the Monster Magnet version actually stacks up to the original. Additionally, the song provides enough of a jam that it makes me want to know more about the originating band. In my opinion, that's a good reason for a band to do a cover.
I can say right now that Dave Wyndorf's prophecy with regards to what went into the recording and production of Monolithic Baby! will pay dividends as the album takes on legs of its own. Just short of a masterpiece in my opinion and a great return to Monster Magnet form after a merely average God Says No effort.