There is something quietly menacing about "Era Vulgaris", which is quite a feat for a record as uncompromisingly loud as this one. Still, lurking under all that earth-shattering distortion lies something waiting for you to let your guard down so that it can pounce, a brooding, hungry shadow.
Which makes sense for the miscreant's manifesto that is the latest QOTSA album. Josh Homme held the mirror up, and let's just say he wants to finish what he saw there. And he's not just reflecting himself, but our whole sorry, hedonistic, self-absorbed community at large. But he's not condemning, no no. He's inviting us to the party for one last glut of vice before the whole thing burns to ashes in a brilliant glorious flash. Once again, videos with *** were created by my own self.
1. Turnin' On The Screw***
There's a strange dichotomy at work in this song that I couldn't quite fathom at first. From the get go, the instrumentals drive into you hard, and keep on twisting. The vocals, on the other hand, hover aloof and unconcerned with the acidic muck happening beneath them. It's like an inexperienced mash-up artist has chosen some tracks that don't quite mash well. But then Josh shuts his muttering mouth so that he can better concentrate on throttling his guitar. That tortured wrangling is his true voice, and the lofty tone coming out of his mouth is only a cracking facade.
2. Sick, Sick, Sick
This track is a siren's song of meat-grinding proportions. A virulent junkie anthem if I ever heard one, and I'm not just talkin' about smack. I'm talkin' about sex, violence, you pick your poison and let it consume you. Ever wanted to eat yourself into oblivion? QOTSA have, and they like it there. They want you to join them in the abyss, and then they want to do things to you there. Apparently that's The Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas singing backup, but I'll be damned if you can tell, which is par for the course with QOTSA albums. No matter how brightly you shine when you walk into the studio, Josh will bring you into the fold, and you'll like it 'cause he said so. I'm including a second version of the video below, even though it doesn't contain the whole song, 'cause it's got the decrepit cartoon bulbs from the cover.
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3. I'm Designer
Take note, all you merry hipsters, QOTSA are very angry at you. They've been lurking about in the feral breeding grounds on the edge of mainstream rock 'n roll for far too long to put up with your preening. Everyone's pure till the price gets just right, so wipe that look off your mug. The Queens just want to beat some sense into you before you go signing anything.
4. Into the Hollow***
A creepy little number, both musically and lyrically. The song begins with what sounds like an old music box, and then raises a pulsing lament. It seems to be leading you somewhere as the beat drives on, the melody slowly cascading upward, sounding almost heavenly at times. Which would be calming if it wasn't for the fact that this is a song about wanting to die, but not wanting to die alone. The hair on my arms actually stands up as the finale fades to the steady beat of a heart monitor and then out completely.
5. Misfit Love
This one actually seems a little superfluous to me. Granted it's got all the grinding goodness of most QOTSA tracks, but it doesn't have any real stand out breaks, and lyrically it recycles the themes of desolation and desperation that are already well represented earlier in the album.
6. Battery Acid
Though it begins with the lumbering crash of a rampaging behemoth, Battery Acid quickly picks up the pace. As Josh yells about robots and leeches (and he's looking at you), the instrumentals careen towards the brink, stopping only for a bridge that verges on mockery, with it's modern rock growl-shouts, before plunging back into the fray.
7. Make It Wit Chu***
A welcome breather from the thrash, "Make It Wit Chu" is a masochistic soul single, almost sweet, like the misunderstood backseat fumblings of sweaty teens. Reason can go fuck itself while I fuck you, it says. Awww, QOTSA got a crush on. And then, inexplicably, the song ends with what sounds like the intro to the worst B-Movie horror flick you've never seen.
8. 3's & 7's
A rollicking request for innocence, "3's & 7's" is the closest this album comes to a mainstream rock single. It's full to the brim with chunky riffs and hooks, it's short, and it's mean. It's good to know QOTSA can pull this out of the hat if they want to.
9. Suture Up Your Future
Once again, the vocals float eerily over mounting layers of guitar, bemoaning the futility of hope, until it all comes crashing down, wave after wave, over us. The haunting repetition of the final chord chills me. It is both beautiful and terrifying, and then it is gone.
10. River In The Road
"River in the Road" is a post-apocalyptic nightmare of cartoon proportions, and it's coming to eat your young. Run while you still can.
11. Run, Pig, Run
Ah now, this is the QOTSA I love! Every time you think the song has settled, it jumps up and slaps you in the face. Comfortable? Switch! The guitar line types out a quick staccato against the sludge, as a chorus of the damned drones aimlessly onward. And to end it, as one, all the instruments and voices rise into a miraculous wall of noise and then quit.
Bonus Track. Era Vulgaris
This is the title track from the album, and only a band as ridiculously rock 'n roll as QOTSA would leave a kick-ass song like this one, featuring Trent Reznor of all people, off of it. It's the TITLE TRACK for cryin' out loud. It was included as a bonus track for the UK edition, those lucky bastards. Being the benevolent slag that I am, I have included it here for you. Enjoy!
Queens of the Stone Age: Era Vulgaris
Sebastian Jacks: Live @ Balinese Showroom
For those of you aren't possessed of the free time necessary to spend hours wandering around in virtual space, Second Life is an online world where all of the content is created by its inhabitants rather than by a limited group of programmers. I play music regularly there, under the pseudonym Sebastian Jacks, and the schedule and location of these concerts is posted at the bottom of the page. I finally got around to setting up a way to record the stream of these shows, so I'll be throwin' up some of the stand out tracks every once in a while. And now, with out further ado...(fanfare and other grand flourishes), the very first of what I'm sure will be a steady trickle of live material.
Over It - LIVE @ Balinese Showroom 6/26/07
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White Stripes: Icky Thump
Sometimes, when I've got a particularly kick-ass new record on, I get this big shit-eating grin on my face and it won't go away. It has to be a new record, mind you, fresh for consumption, and it's really gotta jam, you know. And what'll happen is, I'll have it on while I'm browsing around - as I am want to do - and all of a sudden I'll have to stand up. Then I'll find myself dancing all alone in my apartment with the aforementioned grin plastered all over the place. And the only thing for it is to listen to the damn thing over and over ad nauseum until I've purged it from my system. Though the really good ones, they never leave you for real. They hang with the monkey.
Icky Thump is one of these, so beware. Round about Little Creme Soda mine kicked in, though I peaked at Rag and Bone, yowling at the ceiling with Jack and Meg. And the rest is sweet butter as well. I'll lay it out track by track, and we'll see what we get on the way down. (FYI, the videos with *** next to the title were created by yours truly.)
1. Icky Thump
Good lord, what is that glorious drone. An electric bagpipe? Nope. I dug around, and it's an old-fangled doodad making all that noise. Specifically a 1946 Univox Synthesizer. This thing carries around it's own 6 watt amp and an 8" speaker, and was made 'fore yo daddy sucked air. Oh, and it can only play one voicing at a time, thus Uni Vox. It's the Devil's own pipes. It's the manic speedfreak noodlings of some middle-eastern flautist. Also, Jack's guitar is having some kind of dual epileptic/tourettic seizure during most of the instrumental break, which makes me smile indeed. Rock as violent psychotic reaction. And when he's not causing electric convulsions, he's grinding out the dankest, slow groove riffs he can muster. And Meg's holding it all together, which is no mean feat. To quote a lyric later on in the album, it must be like "containing an explosion". Check this video out, btw, Jack co-produced it, and it's like every fevered vision I have of the black out spots in my memory. Only in Spanish.
2. You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do What You're Told)
A bitter anthem, aimed at the weak-willed. I see a crowd of angry concert goers chanting this with their fists in the air, as a polo-shirted dweeb gets tread on by his nagging nag. There is an air of tongue-in-cheekery about the track though, a playful cadence that keeps the edge off, though it doesn't deflect the blow.
3. 300 M.P.H. Torrential Outpour Blues
Ah ha, a sneak attack. Just when you thought it was safe to settle, those pretty mellow blues get up and try to strangle your brain from behind. Seriously, that acoustic riff is so beautiful it's sad, but I should have been prepared for violence 'cause the instruments seem to be straining against the softer dynamic, getting close to the skin a couple of times before finely breaking through. I guess I should have figured it out with the lyric "I'm breakin' my teeth off / Tryin' to bite my lip". Broken teeth are never the sign of good things to come.
4. Conquest
Think you know where this record is going? Think twice, bitch. Coming straight out of left with a vengeance, this Patti Page cover is the soundtrack playing when Clint Eastwood rides a circus elephant into the rabid center of a mosh pit and starts taking names. This one was a grower, folks, so let it live on you for a while. You'll see.
5. Bone Broke
Bone Broke doesn't really make itself known. It's solid rock, and Jack's vocals carry the track through well enough, but sandwiched between the oddity of "Conquest" and "Prickly Thorn" it just gets lost in fanfare (literally).
6. Prickly Thorn, But Sweetly Worn
I really should lump this track and the next together. Alone this track would be too silly, too folksy, to fit. What's amazing and slightly alarming about this track is it's sincerity, it's wide eyed rural heartiness. This is high-land hobbit music, except...
7. St. Andrews (The Battle is in the Air)***
....all of a sudden all those crazy halflings drop acid, the fire melts into the sky, and it all comes whirling down around you. Combined, these two tracks provide a much needed interlude, a breather before "Icky Thump" hits you with it's patented grin producing one-two sucker punch.
8. Little Creme Soda***
Step 1: Crank up the volume. Maybe the last few tracks lulled you into a false sense of security. You're all: "Okay so, this is some avant-nonsense self-indulgent headspace rock. I'm gonna make some nachos.". To which I reply: "Sit the flock down, you miserable wretch and listen up good.". This song rocks so hard it goes a full minute of pounding growl before dropping Jack's half muttered proclamations into the mix. And what deranged musings they are, Jack spitting them out with the conviction of a raving street preacher. Oh well, oh well, oh well.
9. Rag & Bone
Step 2: Put your shoes on. Open the window. Crank it up some more. Turn the base up, give your neighbors a taste. This track is dripping with tasty goodness. It's hilarious, it rocks socks, and its good to get down with. I love the spoken interplay between Jack and Meg, Meg so sweet and insidious, and Jack with the perfect charlatan's bark. I've found myself shouting "Rag & Bone" randomly throughout the day.
10. I'm Slowly Turning Into You
Loooooove the organ in this one y'all. The other thing I love is that this is a song about a relationship that doesn't settle for an easy answer. Love is complicated and difficult, it ain't got no fairy tale resolutions. (BTW, the fan video I found for this track is fairly deranged and hilarious.)
11. A Martyr For My Love For You***
This song starts like it should end with a moral about not dealing with the devil. In a sense it does, only Jack's the devil, and he's trying to save some cute little thang from himself. God knows the Devil never changes. Another great host of organs presides over large chunks of this track as well, and we're all a little better for it.
12. Catch Hell Blues
Old fashioned style slide blues meld into percussive waves of distortion topped with a healthy portion of electric nursery rhyme squeal. Amen.
13. Effect & Cause
I think Jack is channeling Dylan on this one. It's got Okie folk progressions, and a slyly playful tone, and a tambourine for cryin' out loud. A good simple way to end it. It's like the shows over, but they're just playing this one for the stragglers while the roadies pack up the gear.
Well, we've made it to the other side. Congratulations. Go back and start again from the beginning. And say hi to the monkey on the way there.
