Dec 14

Josh Homme

JOSH HOMME
 
 
Josh Homme  (born May 17, 1973) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and actor.  He is the founder and only continuous member of the rock band Queens of the Stone Age.  He also serves as the band’s primary songwriter.  Homme was formerly a guitarist and founder of the influential stoner rock band Kyuss.  He co-founded and performs with Eagles of Death Metal, and produces a musical improv series with other musicians known as The Desert Sessions.  In 2009, he formed a new project called Them Crooked Vultures with Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones, who released their debut album that same year.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
I told the story of seeing Queens of the Stone Age with my wife Peggy in my last post; but their third album in 2002, Songs for the Deaf is probably when I realized that something was really going on out there in the larger world:  rock music with a modern sound but with garage-rock roots.  The Queens had a rotating line-up of like-minded musicians and grew out an earlier band with similar sensibilities called Kyuss; while they didn’t sell a lot of albums, they were a pioneer of the stoner-rock scene of the 1990’s.  As the Allmusic article (by Eduardo Rivadavia) describes the band:  “[T]he signature sound [of] Kyuss [combined] the doom heaviness of Black Sabbath, the feedback fuzz of Blue Cheer, and the space rock of Hawkwind, infused with psychedelic flashes, massive grooves, and a surprising sensibility for punk rock, metal, and thrash.”  The connective tissue between the two bands is multi-instrumentalist Josh Homme, who also founded the popular Eagles of Death Metal. 
 
(January 2013)
 
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With Queens of the Stone Age stalwart Josh Homme providing lead vocals, Eleven recorded the song “Stone Cold Crazy” for the album, Killer Queen: A Tribute To Queen (2005). 

 

(April 2015/1)

 

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In the same time period, Alain Johannes and Natasha Shneider contributed to another of my favorite albums of the early 2000’s, Songs for the Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age; Johannes co-wrote one of the songs on the album, “Hangin’ Tree” with Josh Homme.  Alain Johannes played guitar and bass on the band’s next album, Lullabies to Paralyze (2005); he and Natasha Shneider were also in the touring band that supported the album.  Alain Johannes apparently became an official bandmember in QOTSA for the Lullabies album; as best I can figure it, he basically replaced bass guitarist Nick Oliveri (who had also been in Kyuss with Josh Homme).   

 

Additionally, Natasha Shneider played piano on the “Josh Homme and Alain Johannes Backwards Remix” of a song by Unkle called “Eye for an Eye” that appears on their album Never, Never, Land (2003). 

For another Josh Homme project, Eagles of Death Metal, Alain Johannes plays piano and Natasha Shneider provides vocals (both uncredited) for the song “Who’ll Kiss the Devil” on their debut album, Peace, Love & Death Metal (2004). 

 
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The formation of Queens of the Stone Age grew out of a series of pick-up concerts between 1997 and 2003 that were documented in a series of 10 albums called Desert Sessions.  Josh Homme organized the concerts at a ranch near Joshua Tree, California after the breakup of his band Kyuss, and the rotating line-up of musicians who were in Queens of the Stone Age mimicked the large number who were involved in the Desert Sessions.

 

Josh Homme is quoted in Wikipedia as having said of the Desert Sessions:  “At Desert Sessions, you play for the sake of music.  That’s why it’s good for musicians.  If someday that’s not enough anymore, or that’s not the reason behind you doing it — that’s not your raison d’être — then a quick reminder like Desert Sessions can do so much for you, it’s amazing.  It’s easy to forget that this all starts from playing in your garage and loving it.”  

 

Natasha Shneider provided vocals on “Up in Hell” on Desert Sessions, Volume 7: Gypsy Marches.  Natasha Shneider and Josh Homme co-wrote the song “Nenada” that appears on Desert Sessions, Volume 8: Can You See Under My Thumb? . . . There You Are.  According to the liner notes, Shneider provided “Foreign Vocals, Bass Keys, Rhoades, Stuff” for the recording of “Nenada”, where she is credited as “Natasha the Great”. 

 

(April 2015/2)

 

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Against the odds, Iggy Pop turns 70 next month, and his music is as vital as ever.  His most recent album, Post Pop Depression (2016), ranks 4 stars from Allmusic; Mark Deming writes:  “When it was announced that Iggy Pop would be collaborating with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, the music press buzzed with anticipation about the project.  What would the proto-punk icon and the snarky hard rock smart guy come up with?  The surprise answer is 2016’s Post Pop Depression, in many respects an unwitting but loving tribute to Pop’s friend and collaborator David Bowie.  Post Pop Depression arrived two months after Bowie’s death, and was completed before his health problems became common knowledge.  More than anything, though, this music evokes the sound and feel of Pop’s first two solo albums.  1977’s The Idiot and Lust for Life were cut with Bowie in Germany as Pop struggled to make sense of his life and career after the Stooges collapsed.  With the reunited Stooges gone following the deaths of Ron [Asheton] and Scott Asheton, Post Pop Depression finds Pop returning to the work he made in 1977, in ways that count the most.  Post Pop Depression is smart and thoughtful, intelligent without being pretentious, and full of bold but introspective thinking.” 
 
(March 2017)
 
Last edited: April 7, 2021