2008 Woodie Awards
It's Only Rock & Roll
The King of Queens: Singer Josh is "Homme" Alone on Latest Album
Xiomara Martinez-White
Issue date: 4/7/05 Section: Arts
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2003 - it was a very good year. It was a very good year, especially if you were Josh Homme. After being in music since his late teens with stoner-rock outfit Kyuss, Homme and his band Queens of the Stone Age struck it big early that year on the album "Songs for the Deaf" and two hit singles, the infectious "No One Knows" and "Go With the Flow" (with contributions from Nirvana/Foo Fighters Dave "I'll Make You Famous" Grohl).
This landed the band spots on the resurrected Lollapalooza tour and opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers ... and allowed Homme to meet yours truly outside a Distillers concert at CBGB's in New York that summer. But when the new year came around, things took a turn for the worse. In February, Homme forced out Queens bassist, long-time collaborator, and friend Nick Oliveri amidst rumors of Oliveri's substance abuse (a drug problem that actually existed?), while another of Homme's collaborator/friends, former Screaming Trees singer Mark Lanegan, left the band soon after to focus on his continuing solo career. In recent months, Homme has been in the news more for participating in bar fights with disrespectful males and the lead singer of the Dwarves. But he also regrouped by performing on drums with the less-than-royal Eagles of Death Metal, and working on the new Queens disc, "Lullabies to Paralyze."
Upon hearing of the departures and the news that Homme would continue the band, I imagined that their new album would sound much like their first, 1998's self-titled debut, but with shorter songs. The album's first single, "Little Sister," is proof that the band hasn't fallen off since "Songs." Behold the power of cowbell as the song kicks in, bass line first. Homme sings the verses in a monotone, inflecting only at the ends of the verses. And when the song hits the chorus ("Little sister, can't you find another way?/No more livin' life behind a shadow..."), Homme breaks down in tune the music - and there is of course the high-pitched guitar riff at chorus's end oh-so-complementary with the aforementioned cowbell. Having seen the Queens twice (and been recently shut out of seeing them a third time), I hear the song and imagine a muscle shirt-clad Homme enrapturing the audience with his usual hip swivel. This is the most appropriate first single and by far the most definite.
This landed the band spots on the resurrected Lollapalooza tour and opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers ... and allowed Homme to meet yours truly outside a Distillers concert at CBGB's in New York that summer. But when the new year came around, things took a turn for the worse. In February, Homme forced out Queens bassist, long-time collaborator, and friend Nick Oliveri amidst rumors of Oliveri's substance abuse (a drug problem that actually existed?), while another of Homme's collaborator/friends, former Screaming Trees singer Mark Lanegan, left the band soon after to focus on his continuing solo career. In recent months, Homme has been in the news more for participating in bar fights with disrespectful males and the lead singer of the Dwarves. But he also regrouped by performing on drums with the less-than-royal Eagles of Death Metal, and working on the new Queens disc, "Lullabies to Paralyze."
Upon hearing of the departures and the news that Homme would continue the band, I imagined that their new album would sound much like their first, 1998's self-titled debut, but with shorter songs. The album's first single, "Little Sister," is proof that the band hasn't fallen off since "Songs." Behold the power of cowbell as the song kicks in, bass line first. Homme sings the verses in a monotone, inflecting only at the ends of the verses. And when the song hits the chorus ("Little sister, can't you find another way?/No more livin' life behind a shadow..."), Homme breaks down in tune the music - and there is of course the high-pitched guitar riff at chorus's end oh-so-complementary with the aforementioned cowbell. Having seen the Queens twice (and been recently shut out of seeing them a third time), I hear the song and imagine a muscle shirt-clad Homme enrapturing the audience with his usual hip swivel. This is the most appropriate first single and by far the most definite.