QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE
Queens of the Stone Age is an American rock band from Palm Desert, California, United States, formed in 1996. Formed after the dissolution of founder Joss Homme’s previous band, Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age developed a style of riff-oriented, heavy rock music. Their sound has since evolved to incorporate a variety of different styles and influences, including working with ZZ Top member Billy Gibbons and steady contributor Mark Lanegan. (More from Wikipedia)
Of course, the other side of the complaint I mentioned above is that, sure enough, “they do still make ’em like they used to” from time to time. I heard an ad on VH1 the other day that used a killer track by the Black Keys as the background music. The success of this band – they’ve been going strong for more than a full decade now – proves that the Garage Rock Revival of the early 2000’s from bands like the White Stripes, the Hives, the Killers, Eagles of Death Metal, and Queens of the Stone Age still has some life in it.
(January 2012)
* * *
Finally, I have a recommendation to go with my confession earlier. If any of you are still signed up with Netflix, you should add the 1994 film Backbeat to your queue. It is the early history of the Beatles mostly when they were in Hamburg, Germany and primarily follows Stu Sutcliffe (played by Stephen Dorff), an old friend of John Lennon who was in an early incarnation of the band. Long before they were famous, Sutcliffe was drawn into photography and found a love; he died tragically young before his 22nd birthday. Along the way, you meet Paul McCartney (the two actors who play John and Paul are dead ringers), George Harrison, and even Ringo Starr, who was hanging around the group even though he wasn’t in the band yet. Actually the words “the Beatles” were only spoken once during the entire movie; John Lennon mostly just called them “the band”.
The idea is that, in those days, the Beatles were the world’s greatest punk rock group, so the band that they lined up to play the music was drawn from the top American alternative rock bands of the day, like the Afghan Whigs, Soul Asylum, R.E.M., and Sonic Youth. The drummer was Nirvana’s Dave Grohl, who later became the front man for Foo Fighters (sadly, I believe that I read that they have gone on a hiatus). However, he still hits the skins from time to time for bands like Queens of the Stone Age. Highly recommended.
(September 2012)
* * *
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.
I would view The Sound of San Francisco, a collection from 2003 of songs from brand new bands in the San Francisco Bay Area, as documenting one of the first wave of bands that were directly influenced by the Garage Rock Revival – it was released in the year after the White Stripes’ “Fell in Love with a Girl” single and the Queens of the Stone Age’s Songs for the Deaf album were released, as well as the mini-battle of the bands between the Hives and the Vines on the MTV Music Video Awards.
But it wasn’t just the little guys; rock started to be seen as cool again in the larger world of popular music. In 2004, the Black Eyed Peas scored their first big hit song with “Let’s Get it Started” that seemed to be about equal parts rock and hip hop, instead of the amalgamation leaning heavily to one side or another. Rock bands started appearing regularly at country music awards shows. With rock music pretty much cut out of hit-oriented radio stations, hard rock music became the soundtrack for numerous television ads. One of the first that I remember was when Royal Caribbean Cruises used as their signature song “Lust for Life” by Iggy Pop, right after Peggy and I had our honeymoon on one of their ships in late 2003. I have been hearing one of my favorite Queens of the Stone Age songs backing a TV ad currently (for T-Mobile?).
(January 2013)
* * *
Marc Diamond of Mötochrist was the lead guitarist for Dwarves for several years and was also in Texas Terri Bomb. Diamond was previously in Mondo Generator that was founded by Queens of the Stone Age bass guitarist Nick Oliveri in 1997.
(October 2014)
* * *
The Dead Weather is Jack White’s current band and was organized in 2009; other bandmembers include Jack Lawrence of the Greenhornes, Dean Fertita (previously in Queens of the Stone Age – he also contributed to the Raconteurs album Consolers of the Lonely), and Alison Mosshart (lead singer of the indie rock band the Kills).
(February 2015)
* * *
The two are better known for their work with Eleven, a hard rock trio that formed in 1990 when Jack Irons (drums) joined Alain Johannes (vocals, guitar, sitar, horns) and Natasha Shneider (vocals, keyboards, bass) of Walk the Moon; this band was also a partial reunion of What Is This?. Eleven have opened for major bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Queens of the Stone Age, and Candlebox.
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)
* * *
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)
* * *
Among the rock bands that have arisen since the Garage Rock Revival began in the early 2000’s, the Black Keys has attained a prominence in the American consciousness that Queens of the Stone Age, the Hives, the Strokes, and even the White Stripes never quite managed. As an example, I have noticed the band mentioned in our local paper twice in the past two or three months. Suzy Shaw of Bomp! Records told me that she was eating lunch in Los Angeles once and overheard several suit-clad businessmen talking about the Black Keys a few tables over.
(June 2017)
