Friends of Baroness have launched a relief fund to help the band with medical expsenses incurred from their very serious bus accident last summer, as Exclaim! reports.

A Facebook page and Twitter account has been set up for a soon-to-launch benefit auction, which will include instruments, signed LPs, posters, artwork and more from the likes of Mastodon, Neurosis, Kylesa, Napalm Death, Municipal Waste, Earthless, Victims, Meshuggah, Red Fang, and more. Mastodon donated the snare drum used by Brann Dailor on their 2004 album Leviathan. Check out a selection of items and more details here.

The auction has been organized by Baroness' sound engineer Loopy Fiasco, Relapse Records' Rennie Jaffe, and Baroness' "web dude", who wrote:

All proceeds from this auction will be given directly to the band and crew affected in as transparent way as possible. No one involved with organizing this will or wants to make any money from this event.

Earlier this month, BBC News reported that the driver of the bus from the accident, Norman Markus, now faces criminal charges and is set to appear in court April 5.

Revisit guitarist/vocalist John Baizley's letter to fans from October here, and watch the band's first performance since the accident, an acoustic rendition of the Yellow & Green track "Stretchmarker", below. (The band is scheduled to make their first full return to the stage at Bonnaroo in June.)

Watch a "Pitchfork Weekly" segment with Baroness from before the accident: