BaronessMusic.com In this third and final part of our exclusive, hour-long interview with Baroness frontman John Baizley , we discussed his face-to-face encounter with the moment of death. Baizley shared his experience with what he perceived to be the absolute end, going into heart-wrenching detail about how his views of finality have been reshaped by the band’s bus crash. We also discussed Baroness’ masterful double album ‘Yellow & Green’ with Baizley, who concluded our conversation with his hopes of when the band will hit the road once again. How has that crash shaped your views on the moment of death or about any sort of afterlife? Well to be brutally frank, it’s just shown me what is there. It’s given me a glimpse of what exists once you take that step and in my experience, which I will preface in by saying it’s my experience. I’m not trying to be philosophical or to dictate to anyone else how to think about this, but I felt it, I looked at it. I did everything but take the one more critical step that I would have needed to take and there was nothing there, that was what impressed itself so deeply in me; the fact that it wasn’t horrifying, it wasn’t comforting, there wasn’t any emotion at all. It was just very calm, very quiet, very calculated. I keep saying scientific, but I mean, that’s only to say it was very sterile. Just another part of nature? Yeah, and I was sure at that moment, had that whole thing ended differently for me, you just wouldn’t know. It’s like “poof,” gone, and at this point I’m still feeling fairly close to the accident so I wouldn’t say I’ve come to terms with this yet. But it would seem to me the most sensible way to move onwards is just to ‘seize the day.’ If there’s nothing waiting for you tomorrow and even if there is, who cares? But if there’s nothing tomorrow, if that’s one potentiality, then I’m not wasting time. I’m not wasting any more time. I’ve effectively conquered any misgivings I had about pain. I think I felt it about as extremely as you can and it wasn’t impossible to deal with, it was fully possible to deal with, and I’ve dealt with a number of things over the past month which I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Things like being stuck in a non-native health care system that has no means or protocol in which to deal with you. I’m not even saying that the British health care system is bad, I’m just saying there was no provision for me. At some points, I felt like my paperwork had been lost and there were moments that I ran out of medications, and I’m not talking about things like pain killers, I’m talking about things like blood thinners and an anti-inflammatories and all these scary things I was on that I didn’t know if I could be off. I had to figure out a way out of the hospital because I got stuck there, and once I was out, I had to figure out a way how to get back in because there was just no protocol for me. I’ll make a very long story short; so my wife and I spent a lot of days wondering what state I was in. Am I healing? Am I fine? One day I’ve got basically a nurse alongside me taking my blood pressure, checking my vitals and making adjustments to me as necessary, and then I’ve got nothing. I hadn’t seen a doctor or a medical professional for three weeks because I couldn’t get scheduled. I got moved around to three different hospitals while I was there. The first week-and-a-half while I was there was unbelievably good. The care I received was awesome and then after that it was kind of a nightmare, because I never knew what was going on with myself. As incapacitated as I was, there was nothing I could do about it. So, being wheelchair-bound and not being able to prepare meals for yourself, clothe yourself, all the basic functions of being in a state where you can’t provide that for yourself, and there was no medical professionals to weigh in on your situation. It’s wasn’t really scary, but it was just very, very frustrating. Since then, things have been beginning to normalize and it’s been great. I’d like to just ask you some quick questions about ‘Yellow and Green.’ I truly love this album and it’s been out for a while now. Have you been able to gauge the reaction to the record from both fans and from yourself compared to your previous works? Yeah, I mean, it goes without saying that it was a new type of record for us. Honestly, I was actually saying the same thing right after the record came out. I was telling people, “Well this is a new kind of record for us and a step in a slightly different direction,” but I know that I like it. It’s absolutely bar none my favorite record that we’ve done. It came out on the tour that we had the accident on. We were playing a bunch of the new songs and the crowd reaction seemed great to it and everything like that. At the time we were touring it was still a really fresh record, so I actually don’t have a really good perspective on things. I hope everybody likes it. The press initially was good on it, but you and I both know that doesn’t mean fans and audiences are going to lap it up. Just based on the amount of support we’ve gotten since the accident; it seems great. I don’t know if we’re just a pity party now [Laughs] but I stand behind this work the same way I stand behind our past records, only I think with this record we’ve pulled the curtain back a little bit more. What we’re trying to do is we’re trying to write heartfelt music. We’re trying to find the core of what it is that makes our band special and unique and we’re trying to express who we are individually while at the same time trying to touch on the universal aspects of music that are so important to listeners. I think we’ve taken a step in the right direction. We’ve left so much unsaid at this point that I’m excited to see where it goes. I think a lot of people love the record. My favorite ‘Yellow & Green’ song at the moment is ‘March to the Sea.’ I really love the lyric, “ You tied yourself up and jumped in the sea ,” and the whole ‘March to the Sea’ concept of a downward spiral from drugs. Is there anything you could tell us about the meaning of that song? Yeah, not to get too specific, but the whole record lyrically speaking is based on parts of my life, people that I know, things that have occurred around me, experiences that I’ve gone through, and there’s some autobiographical content to that song. I think that the way that I’ve tried to raise it and frame that song is from older Baroness material in that it’s quite a bit more exposed in terms of its content. What I intend to do, basically what I think is the most moving and powerful aspect of music, is the fact that you can take one person’s individual idiosyncratic and unique pain and when it’s expressed in the right way, the whole world has the ability of connecting to it. With a song like ‘March to the Sea’ and almost nearly all of the songs on the record, I’m not talking about things that are unique, I am talking about things that have touched us all at some point. Whether it was substances, the loss of a loved one, pain, anxiety, all of these things that I gravitate towards when I’m writing songs; they are things that I think I have in common with people as opposed to things I think that separate me from other people. These are, while it’s played out in a way for me, there’s actually nothing unique about it. We all will deal with these things and I try not to pass too much judgement on it. Just with that song ‘March to the Sea,’ it’s more like a question than an answer in every way. There was a lot of time to reflect on the subject matter for that record. I wasn’t able to come up with any solid answers, it was just something where every time I wrote a song and I was thematically asking a question, it just gave me more questions, which gave me more songs, which in that way, has reflected something kind of big. It was 18 songs worth of material. It may seem like a million miles away right now, but do you guys have a goal or a date in mind for when you’d like to start touring again? We don’t have a specific date, but it goes without saying; the sooner we do it, the better. I think that every minute worth of space in between our crash and our next show makes things more difficult for me. I’m an eager person; you can ask the other guys in the band. I’m kind of antsy and jumpy. I just want to get back to it. It’s helpful for me. I’ll say that we’re better once we’re playing again. Put us in a rehearsal space and see what we can do. This accident will do nothing but challenge our notion to know who we are and what we do, and we just have to come out on the other side of this relatively as the same people with the same interests. The accident hasn’t deluded my passion for music one iota. Thanks again to John Baizley for the incredible interview and we’d like to send our unwavering support to Baroness and the other passengers involved in the bus crash. Here’s to a speedy and full recovery. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/baroness-john-baizley-bus-crash-isnt-going-to-stop-us/” title=”Part 1: A Bus Crash Isn’t the Sort of Thing That’s Gonna Stop Us” align=”center”]
Bryan Bedder / Astrid Stawiarz, Getty Images A great idea is a great idea, and former Pennywise singer Jim Lindberg continues to see positive returns from his ‘Punk Rock Dad’ book. Initially, the vocalist saw his book turned into a documentary helmed by director Andrea Nevins featuring several rock star fathers. Now, ComingSoon.net reports that ‘How I Met Your Mother’ actor Jason Segel has picked up the rights to adapt the premise into a traditional motion picture. The actor will both star in and produce the film, which is going by the name ‘The Other F Word.’ While the book focused solely on Lindberg’s tales, balancing fatherhood with his rock star lifestyle, the documentary expanded the story base to include Rise Against ‘s Tim McIlrath , Red Hot Chili Peppers ‘ Flea , NOFX’s Fat Mike, Blink-182′s Mark Hoppus, The Vandals’ Joe Escalante, and Bad Religion’s Brett Gurewitz among others. Fox won the rights to the film in a bidding war. Segel, who also wrote and starred in the films ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ and ‘The Muppets,’ will co-write ‘The Other F Word’ for Fox. Aside from Segel, no other cast members have been revealed. Lindberg split from Pennywise in 2009 after 21 years with the band. It didn’t take him long to move on, as his band, the Black Pacific, released an album in 2010. Lindberg was replaced in Pennywise by Ignite vocalist Zoli Teglas in 2010. Their first record with Teglas was 2012′s ‘All or Nothing.’ [button href=”http://loudwire.com/pennywise-singer-zoli-teglas-undergoes-emergency-surgery-after-collapsing-onstage/” title=”Next: Pennywise’s Zoli Teglas Collapses Onstage” align=”center”]
Toby Canham, Getty Images / Relapse “Who’s more evil than Larry King?” asks Pig Destroyer vocalist J.R. Hayes before the band’s ultra-violent set in Brooklyn last night (Oct. 18). We got to speak with the entirety of Pig Destroyer for a rare interview, when the subject of discussion took an unexpected turn towards iconic broadcaster Larry King. With Pig Destroyer about to release their punishing fifth studio album, ‘Book Burner,’ we went in depth about the record during our exclusive interview and hit on one of their new tracks, ‘The Bug.’ Widely known for their use of samples within their music, a demonically-manipulated voice begins to recite a quote as ‘The Bug’ leads off: “This is libel, slander, defamation of character. This is a prolonged insult, a gob of spit in the face of art, a kick in the pants to God, Man, Destiny, Time, Love, Beauty … what you will. I am going to sing for you, a little off key perhaps, but I will sing. I will sing while you croak, I will dance over your dirty corpse.” “That’s a pretty famous quote from Henry Miller’s ‘Tropic of Cancer,’” says Hayes. “It’s a book from the ’30s where he’s an ex-patriot in France. He’s very much talking about how art can be offensive but still artful at the same time. That quote always struck me as kind of resonant.” Pig Destroyer guitarist and producer Scott Hull interjected with a fascinating truth about the audio used for the quote. “It’s Larry King,” reveals Hull. “He read ‘Tropic of Cancer’ for a book on tape.” Funnily enough, Hayes was unaware that King possessed the disembodied voice within ‘The Bug,’ and acknowledged that his mind was official blown. ‘Book Burner’ won’t be available to purchase until next week, but to hear ‘The Bug’ along with the rest of the new album, NPR has got an exclusive stream of the record in full. Stay tuned for our full interview with the deathgrind innovators of Pig Destroyer. [button href=”http://www.npr.org/2012/10/14/162728112/first-listen-pig-destroyer-book-burner#playlist” title=”Listen to Pig Destroyer’s ‘Book Burner’ in Full” align=”center”]
Facebook: Finch Finch were one of the more promising bands of the early 2000s, but label and band issues eventually led to their split in 2010. However, the group members have been talking of late and decided to reunite to pay tribute to their stellar major label debut, ‘What It Is to Burn,’ which is celebrating its tenth anniversary. The disc spawned three singles, led by the outstanding title track and followed by ‘New Beginnings’ and ‘Letters to You.’ The ‘What It Is to Burn’ single recently placed at No. 47 on Loudwire’s Top 21st Century Hard Rock Songs list. However, the group had trouble maintaining that momentum after their breakout disc. In 2006 they went on hiatus so that the band members could pursue other projects, but a year later the discussion of a Finch DVD got the group talking again and they decided to reform. The band started showcasing new material and released a four-song EP with plans to follow with a full-length. Unfortunately, a period of inactivity followed and that third studio album never came to fruition. Recently, the band members have been more active in posting material on their Facebook page, leading to speculation that something was in the works. They confirmed their reunion in a posting that read: Finch will be reuniting to commemorate the 10th anniversary of ‘What It Is to Burn’ on Feb. 1, 2013 at the Glasshouse in Pomona, Calif. We are excited to play ‘What It Is to Burn’ from front to back in its entirety. Ticket information will be released soon. We’ll see you at the show! Love Finch, Nate Barcalow, Randy Strohmeyer, Alex Linares, Daniel Wonacott and Alex Pappas It is not known whether or not Finch will continue beyond the one date.
Nuclear Blast The time is almost upon us for Cradle of Filth to unveil their tenth studio album, ‘The Manticore and Other Horrors.’ The band has already given fans a peak into the disc with the tracks ‘Manticore’ and ‘For Your Vulgar Delectation,’ but now the goth metal act has released a video for ‘Frost on Her Pillow.’ The visuals are quintessential Cradle of Filth. ‘Frost on Her Pillow’ brings the feeling of an 1800s masquerade ball with a much darker focus. As the video switches between shots of the band performing in a dark attic and the story, a voodoo witch doctor and a demonic figure that lurks in the darkness stalk the video’s heroine. There’s no sign of a manticore (a mythical creature with a human head, lion’s body and a dragon or scorpion’s tail) just yet, but perhaps we’ll see one from the band soon. Cradle of Filth vocalist Dani Filth recently described the band’s upcoming record in a press release. “This is our tenth commandment in metal,” begins Filth. “We have diversified and kept alive the spirit of this band and breathed it into something that I can proudly say, slays like an absolute motherf—er. The Manticore is coming … Long live the filth!” Check out Cradle of Filth’s captivatingly dark music video for ‘Frost on Her Pillow’ in the player below. Watch Cradle of Filth’s ‘Frost on Her Pillow’ Video
Mary Ouellette, SheWillShootYou.com Motorhead are filling the time between albums with their latest live document, ‘ The World Is Ours Vol. 2 – Anyplace Crazy as Anywhere Else ,’ but the thought process has begun for their next record and frontman Lemmy Kilmister says there is the possibility that it could be a covers disc. The musician tells Classic Rock Revisited , “We did discuss it, but we haven’t come to a concrete decision on it. It would be fun to do. The three of us are very different when it comes to music, so it would be a very diverse album. We’d make them all into Motorhead songs, anyway. We’ve done covers before.” While the wheels are starting to churn concerning their next project, Kilmister confesses, “[We don’t have any new music] yet. We will just go into the studio a month before we do the next album and just write.” He recently stated that Motorhead were eyeing a January studio return . If that seems like a short creative timeline, it’s really not as the Motorhead mastermind says it doesn’t take long to turn a track into one of the band’s songs. He explains, “I only play one way, so if we have an idea that is outside of that, then, by the time we are finished with it, it sounds like us. We’ve done off the wall stuff, like ’1916,’ and we did ‘I Ain’t No Nice Guy’ and we did some tracks that were absolutely not normal for us, but they sounded good.” As for why Germany’s Wacken Festival is special to them and was chosen as the featured show for their latest live release, the frontman says, “We played there early on when it was only one day and now it is four or five days. There were only a few thousand people in the old days and now it’s 85,000. I’ve got a plaque from them for Motorhead being the band that has played Wacken the most times.” [button href=”http://loudwire.com/motorhead-brand-own-line-headphones-earphones/” title=”Next: Motorhead Brand Earphone-Headphone Line” align=”center”]
Rick Diamond, Getty Images Pearl Jam are working on a new album, but still really don’t have a timeline on when fans can expect it. Bassist Jeff Ament tells Guerilla Candy that even though the band has made some headway , there’s still a long way to go before it’s complete and there’s no rush to finish it. The bassist says, “There really are no plans right now [for 2013]. We have a few shows in South America on the calendar and that’s about it. I think that’s by design. I think the idea is that everybody takes the holidays off and then at some point somebody will pick up the phone, maybe late January or early February, and that will kind of start the [recording] process over again.” Ament says he’s constantly asked about the next Pearl Jam record, but admits that it’s hard to discuss as it hasn’t taken its full form as of yet. He adds, “We still don’t know exactly when we will finish it, so it’s hard to talk about it. It really could be anything at this point. Even though we have seven or eight songs recorded, it’s still sort of a blank slate and that’s exciting.” However, the bassist says that fans shouldn’t worry about the band’s future. He adds, “I don’t think there’s any doubt we’re going to make a record, but when that’s going to be, and when everybody is ready to do it, well that’s another story. And there’s no pressure. So if at any point the guys called up and said, ‘Hey, we’re ready to do this,’ I’d have no problem dropping everything because that’s my first love. I’m going to do whatever works for everyone else.” Ament is well aware of the potential problems of taking too much time, and says he doesn’t envision a Guns N’ Roses situation where ‘Chinese Democracy’ ended up taking a decade-plus to finalize. He adds, “Every day you’re going to improve as a writer and your take on things might be different. At some point you just have to let go and move on to the next thing. That’s always the tricky part of being in a band. When is it good enough? When is there too much paint on the canvas and when isn’t there too much paint on the canvas? That’s always a tricky balance.” [button href=”http://loudwire.com/best-grunge-bands/” title=”Next: Top 10 Grunge Bands” align=”center”]