The Walls Are Closing In Again, Oh Well

Good Evening, my pretties.  Sunday night.  Stoner Rock.  Close to Halloween.  Must be Queens of the Stone Age.  But stoner rock is such a cop-out.  What Josh Homme has been able to do with the Queens is indulge his base desires (in comparison, Them Crooked Vultures allows him to indulge his Led Zeppelin hero worship and re-write the blues) and meld rock, blues, punk, and multiple types of metal.  Homme has a true knack for writing catchy, heavy melodies and is smart enough to surround himself with some really talented musicians.  Who else but Josh Homme could get Dave Grohl to take a hiatus from being the Foo Fighter's front man and go back behind the drum kit for the first time since Nirvana?  Listen to Grohl's drumming in "Song for the Dead" or "Avon" - the only word that can describe his sound is FURIOUS.  His propulsive sound pushes the rest of the band forward at such a clip that the entire thing threatens to bust at the seams.  When Homme wrote songs that required a sort of "lived-in" voice, he went out and snagged the most grizzled of rock veterans - Mark Lanegan.
Here's a taste of the Queens - with Dave Grohl in full effect behind the kit, and Nick Oliveri holding down the low end on bass - Live at the Glastonbury Festival in 2002 playing "Regular John" :




And here are some further QOTSA tunes for your listening pleasure, live in the 2002-2005 era with Grohl on drums:
"Monsters in the Parasol"
"Song for the Dead"
"I Think I Lost My Headache"
"Avon"
"No One Knows"
"Tension Head"
"Regular John"
"The Lost Art of Keeping A Secret"
"You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire"

Until next time, prepare for All Hallow's Eve with some Queens of the Stone Age... and listen...