QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE - Songs For The Deaf

Dave Grohl is back behind the kit in no uncertain terms - and that's a good sign for any age - not just the stone age. Crud has that god almighty album sampler folks have been talking about...

08/08/2002

So you release THE rock record of the year 2000. You lay waste to the globe and take festivals for your own. You have the feel good hit of the summer with ‘Feel Good Hit Of The Summer’ and stir up a spatter of controversy along the way. What do you do next? Well releasing THE rock record of 2002 might be a logical option, yeah. But Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri have only gone one better and got THE rock drummer of his generation (and in the top ten of all time, anyone?) and pinned him down to their rotating drum-stool for the entire record.

So you’ll already know that Dave Grohl is back behind the kit, which is quite frankly the only place he belongs. Seeing them at Glastonbury this year, as part of their ‘yeah, just look at us’ jaunt through Europe’s festivals, there was simply no denying that his arms are a force of nature in themselves. If they were firing their ammunition from some kind of desert grenade launcher last time round with ‘Rated R’ then this time it’s some kind of souped-up nuclear mutha of a metal ore cannon that NASA would probably be advised to direct skyward to ward off that fucking huge daddy of a meteorite that’s apparently locked on a vague collision course with us.

The first mammoth pounds of the bass drum as they took to the stage with ‘Feel Good Hit…’ flicked the shudder button at the base of our spines and left us mesmerized throughout. The new record then, ‘Songs For The Deaf’, continues with their angular take on sprawling desert rock, only more so. We can’t remember too many songs specifically – it was Glastonbury and for our expected state of mind we should be excused – but we can remember the ambition contained within each and every new song we heard. And of course the gravel-pit-in-Hades vocals of Mark Lanegan hardly went unnoticed either. Kyuss? But a memory.

You don’t need to wait till it’s release on August 26 to find out if we speak the truth. Crud has exclusive access to a ‘Songs For The Deaf’ sampler which will keep refreshing with different tracks off the record up till its release, along with some live footage of the band’s unveiling at the Troubadour Club in LA earlier this year. So don’t forget to keep checking back for changes.

Sampler below:

Relevant sites:
www.qotsa.com

James Berry for Crud Magazine© 2002

04/02 1 Giant Leap - My Culture 04/02 Elfpower Interview - Andrew Rieger - Creatures 04/02 Frou Frou Interview - Guy Sigsworth/Imogen Heap 04/02 Gomez Interview - Ian Ball 04/02 Idlewild - Live - London Astoria 04/02 K's Choice Interview 04/02 Leaves - Live - Camden Dingwall 04/02 Longwave Interview - Exit 04/02 Lucy Mongrel Interview 04/02 Oasis - The Hindu Times 04/02 Phantom Planet - Interview 04/02 Unwritten Law - Interview 04/02 VUE - Coordinates Interview 05/02 BRMC - LIve - Kentish Town, London 05/02 Breeders - Title K 05/02 FC Kahuna - Machine Says Yes 05/02 Moco - Live - London Monarch 05/02 Need New Body - Interview 05/02 The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Live - Soundhause, Northampton 05/02 The Bellrays - Meet The Bellrays 06/02 Fleadh Festival - Finsbury Park 06/02 Frou Frou Coordinates Interview 06/02 Incubus - Interview - Mark Einziger 06/02 North Mississippi Allstars - Interview 06/02 Papa Roach - She Loves Me Not 06/02 Proud Mary - Live - Northampton, Soundhaus 06/02 Pulp - Live - Sherwood Pines, Edwinstowe 06/02 Reindeer section - You Are My Joy 06/02 Silverchair - Diorama 06/02 Something Corporate - Leaving Through The Window 06/02 Soinc Youth - Interview 06/02 The Burn - The Smiling Face 06/02 The Coral - Live - Roadmender, Northampton 06/02 The LIbertines - Live - The Social, Nottingham 06/02 The Vines, Sheffield Leadmill 06/02 Trik Turner - Interview 06/02 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Live, Soundhaus, Northampton 07/02 12 Stones Interview 07/02 Arolo -Interview 07/02 Buy To Let Doncaster - Anti Social Behaviour 07/02 Cassius - Interview 07/02 Farrah - Interview 07/02 Glassjaw - Interview 07/02 Neil Michael Haggerty - Interview 07/02 Hoobastank - Running Away 07/02 Leaves - Interview 07/02 LL Cool Jay Interview 07/02 Oasis - Live - Finsbury Park, London 07/02 Polyphonic Spree - Live - Camden Monarch 07/02 Queens of the Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf 07/02 Super Furry Animals - Interview 07/02 The Beatings - Live - Metro Club London 07/02 The Bellrays + The D4 - Virgin Megastore, Oxford Street London January 2001 July - August 2001 September - October 2001 November - December 2001 January - March 2002 April - July 2002 August - December 2002