Homme is Where the Heart Is.

#15 Queens of the Stone Age: Self Titled

A weekend at home. After many weekends traveling to Baltimore and various other places outside the DC area its finally time to just stay at home. Its kinda nice to just enjoy being home, and tonight we'll also be enjoying Homme...Josh Homme that is. The Queens of the Stone age feature a revolving door of musicians with a common bond, they all want the opportunity to work with Josh Homme. At last count it was somewhere around 30 musicians who have contributed to Queen's music. The common bond amoung them all? They just want to play rock until it bores into your brain and never leaves. Well...let the hypnotizing begin!

Side one begins with a kick ass song...actually make that two...no...FOUR kick ass songs. "Regular John" starts with a droning guitar that Josh Homme has used in just about everything he does. He likes a signature sound and wants people to recognize Queens about three seconds into the song.  With this track, Queen's fans will recognize the style in about one second. When the drums kick in the framework for the solid groove has arrived. This groove is repeated, charging ahead at breakneck speed until the riff is beaten into your soul. The vocal style is not overpowering, no yelling necessary when you've got this much instrumentation behind a song. The chorus is a great breakdown of quarter note descending drums and heavy ride cymbal. The bridge of the song uses a quieter approach by the guitars, with volume swells almost mimicking the vocal style of the song. Next up is "Avon" another hard rocker that can be found being performed live on youtube, with Dave Grohl beating the hell out of the drums.  AVON CALLING! The riff is fairly simple, just pick apart the three root notes of a power chord and stick to it. While crashing the ride the drums keep the constant pace and wall of noise throughout the song. This song kinda feels like a runaway train, and you have to either enjoy the ride, or get off the tracks. The chorus uses some nice falsetto do do do vocals and the drums slowly riding down the toms. After this standard and awesome pattern the song breaks to a kick ass drum fill. Rock needs more drum fills like this, it just hypes up the song even better. The formula is as follows: heavy riff + drum fill + 2 seconds of silence + back to main heavy riff = profit. You can't argue with math. "If Only," is a little slower and somewhat less heavy (for Queens anyway). Instead of using the ride cymbal or hi-hat as is standard, the song uses a tambourine to keep its time. It definitely adds to the laid back flavor of the song. I can almost picture this song being played by musicians just kind of sitting around on bar stools or on some worn out studio couch. The chorus gets a nice start/stop drum sound which eventually leads to the guitar solo. The solo uses rapid fire notes followed by a nice long sustaining note...fading into oblivion. The last of the four opening tracks is "Walkin on the Sidewalks." This song uses a somewhat non-standard beat, at least as non-standard as 4/4 time can be. While other tracks use constant steady pounding on the drums to drive the message home, this song uses fewer but heavier sledge hammer shots on the drums. I'd say the best way to describe the song would be heavy chaos. The chaos finally comes together on the chorus which locks every instrument into sync. After a brief breakdown the chaos returns, but this time with some soloing! After riding this train for quite a while, with a few changes here and there, it finally and suddenly concludes. Hop up, flip it over and move on to the next side.

You Would Know kicks off side two and gives us an interesting start/stop riff with drums to match. The vocal delivery is very drone like, almost like the singer is hypnotized. The guitars in this track are numerous and all offer something different. The grounding overall riff, little lead fills, and extra little tweaks thrown in here and there. The chorus gets a couple bars of solid groove before returning right back to start/stop. The final chorus stays around a little longer and starts to step up the volume and intensity until, it releases into a full blown bridge with ride cymbal crashin' away before it all halts for one final riff.  "The Bronze" starts off innocent enough, a little light riff in standard Queens guitar tone. Suddenly the main riff breaks in very fast and intense. The chords actually are played somewhat slower but the drums are what creates the frantic and urgent sound. The solo is played with what sounds like a wah pedal generally sitting still at about halfway. Hendrix used this often on his solos to add a little extra bite, and the Queens use it well here. The chorus kicks in very heavy and this time the wah pedal goes all over the place with some slashing riffs. The song concludes with some fuzzed out bass and a few blasting hits on the drums. "How To Handle A Rope (A Lesson in the Lariat)" is a song with an interesting name, but well...nothing that new and exciting. Its still a great tune, it has a solid riff beaten into your head, some lead guitar fills, a great solo and booming drums. I swear, I'm not saying its bad...this is what Queens of the Stone Age does.

Side three begins with "Mexicola," which immediately starts with a heavy bass riff played on a nicely overdriven instrument that sounds very Lemmy.  That bass drives right into an equally heavy and very awesome guitar. This track has a groove that somehow just outdoes some of the others on the album, it definitely goes the extra mile. This time the vocals stand out a little more, reaching almost a scream instead of the casual delivery heard on side one/two. The song alternates between two distinct heavy riffs, the intro/bridge and verse/chorus. The first is slow and grinding, the second is fast and furious. "Hispanic Impressions" starts out very different with alternating hits of snare and crash on the drums and a guitar riff that isn't that heavy, but becomes so because of the drums. After using many very interesting and seemingly dissonant tones, the song comes to a halt...but its not over yet. Back to the dissonant tone riffing but this time we'll add some guitar solos. As mysteriously as this song began, less than three minutes later, its over. "You Can't Quite Me Baby" picks up with an equally as mysterious sound, but this time a little slower and lighter. Led Zeppelin once sang that "I Can't Quit You," but Josh Homme being more awesome than the world decided that YOU can't quit him. I'm not gonna argue with that claim. The song uses some very echoy and slidy guitar for a spacy feel right before going into the solo.  The solo itself uses that same formula, not quite as spacy, but still, I'm freakin' out...man. The song remains with these general elements throughout its entirety, until the end when we crank up the speed and everything just comes to a final failing chaotic stop. The next song is a title that every nerd in the world will love, including my own inner-nerd. "These Aren't the Droids You're Looking For" has an unusual beginning of completely random instrumentation but much like Stella, finally gets its groove back and starts to rock pretty hard. The guitar playing is very stressed but sounds amazing. It sounds like someone is just strumming really hard, adding to the overall push of the sound through the pickups. In the end, the rhythm falls apart, we're back to chaos, and it seems we still haven't found those droids we were after.

Side four gives us three final songs, and I assure you, it might not be worth the wait.  They're still good, they're up to par with the rest of the album, but they're either too up to par, or just wierd. "Give the Mule What He Wants," continues the string of entertaining song titles and also continues the overall tone of the album.  RIFFS, DRUMS, POWER. If it ain't broke, make lemonaide. No, wait, its gotta be your bull. Aside from the expected Homme formula, this track offers...umm...well, it offers nothing different. Moving on, "Spiders and Vinegaroons" is another spacey track that starts out with a strange guitar riff and some hand-clapping for percussion. Its the kind of song you'd expect to hear at a campfire being put on by some strange cult right before they sacrifice a virgin. So...if you're into that kinda thing, enjoy. It eventually becomes very heavy with booming drums and some strange sounding synthesizer noise, but its still feeling like a soundtrack to something terrible about to happen. For the rest of us, there's the final song on the album, "I Was A Teenage Hand Model." Aside from having the greatest song title, maybe, ever, this track starts with a little...piano? And running water...and sound effects.  Wait...is this the same album? Oh, there it is...Josh finally starts singing and that familiar Queens vocal comes back to us. The song continues with some strange instrumentation and sound effects before the final decent into what sounds like a video game on a Commodore 64 and a phone message mixed together. That was....odd.

Through 14 tracks this album presents mostly two styles: Riff oriented heavy rock, and lighter spacey rock. There's really no need for anything else (side four, I'm looking at you) because Homme does these two thing so well.  I guess I'm OK with some experimentation, the last side of the album isn't bad, its just...odd.

Strongest Song: Avon or Mexicola
Weakest Song: Side Four
Song You Know: Regular John or Avon, if any.
Why You Might Hate It: you hate riffs
Buy It?  I like my vinyl copy, but a CD or MP3s is probably sufficient here.