Since the release of Baked’s debut album in 2014, a lot has changed for the band. For one, its lineup has expanded, including members of Stove and Bueno, and its leader, R.J. Gordon, is a newly minted member of New York’s premier concept-rockers, Titus Andronicus. But all this has only worked to Baked’s benefit, and on February 24, Exploding In Sound Records will release Farnham, the band’s second album of blown-out classic rock. Today, The A.V. Club is streaming “Midnight Junkie,” which plays like a stoner-metal band taking on a classic Neil Young cut. Of the song, Gordon had this to say:
I wrote “Midnight Junkie” back in 2010 for our band at the time, Jefferson High. It was originally recorded as a re-amped mandolin and vocal track. It felt good to give a proper full band arrangement to the song years later under the guise of Reich’s relaxed yet decisive producing and the band just really digging into what to all of us was a “new song.” The song is a tribute to a close friend and band mate from my late teens, early twenties. He had gotten to a point in his life where he needed to separate himself from everything and everyone he knew just to get back to a point of personal homeostasis. I think at the time we both longed for the ‘good ol days’ and feeling naturally at peace with the way things are.
Farnham is out February 24 on Exploding In Sound and is available for pre-order now.