The rock group Queens of the Stone Age (technically) began their music in Seattle in 1996 after the breakup of principal member Josh Homme’s prior band Kyuss. The vocalist/guitarist’s new group was initially called Gamma Ray, but after releasing one EP, they were forced to change their name after another band called Gamma Ray threatened legal action. Instead of winding up in the dust bin of forgotten ’90s bands as a result, Gamma Ray became Queens of the Stone Age based off a nickname (with a feminine twist) given to them by a music producer.
Blasting out of the gate with their self-titled debut album in 1998 and never looking back, QOTSA has had a variety of lineups around Homme in the years that followed. Despite this, the group has never surrendered their hard, stoner-rock roots mixed with blues, alt-rock, and shivering, sinister moments of lo-fi, acoustic-laced introspection. They haven’t even turned into “Dad Rock” after almost three decades of activity (and several major health scares for Homme), making it look as though Queens of the Stone Age will continue to be around for the long(er) haul.
1
Regular John (Queens Of The Stone Age, 1998)
Dirty Deeds Done Rock Cheap
The first song on QOTSA’s self-titled debut (and the first song written for the project), “Regular John” would find the band slipping into the early groove of hallucinogenic, head-nodding, dance-worthy, riffing rock and roll that’d quickly become one of the group’s entrancing signatures. “Regular John” is a droning mass of bassy, guitar-and-drum head rush that pulls your ears in for the rollercoaster ride and never once lets go.
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Lyrically, the song is about someone who regularly solicits prostitutes and is meeting someone new, giving “Regular John” a slightly slimy sensation of something where our eyes (and ears) should be averted from the subject matter. But much like what they say about car accidents, there’s a macabre attraction that doesn’t allow for that space. Hearing Homme sing out a (fake) number for the woman being solicited makes “Regular John” feel like the after-dark version of Tommy Tutone’s famed hit song “867-5309/Jenny.”
2
In The Fade (Rated R, 2000)
Living For The Comedown Clarity
The follow-up to Queens of the Stone Age’s self-titled debut LP was 2000’s Rated R, which featured a new rotation of musicians that included the debuts of bassist Nick Oliveri and the famed, late great Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan. Lanegan takes the lead vocal spot on the sublime song “In The Fade,” which spotlights the sharpness of serious thought that accompanies the comedown of sobriety after substance usage. Homme and Lanegan blend their singing seamlessly here between equal bursts of smooth-slinking mid-tempo grooves and aggressive rock freakouts.
Homme wanted to give Lanegan a prominent role on Rated R as he felt Lanegan’s group Screaming Trees weren’t appreciated nearly enough. The move pays off with songs like “In The Fade,” which, despite its deep-diving thoughts on life and mortality, ironically feels like a “high” because of Lanegan and Homme together at their best as narrators. It may not feel as healing as the song Stevie Nicks used to help cope with the death of her Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie, but “In The Fade” still feels quite cathartic three years after Lanegan’s untimely passing.
3
The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret (Rated R, 2000)
Keeping Things Private Inside
The first single released from Rated R, “The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret,” has that immediately entrancing QOTSA instrumental sound that’s similar to the band’s introductory 1998 track “Regular John.” Throbbing guitars and rhythmic percussion patterns present the first tease of something great, and Homme closes the deal on the song by shaping it with the immediate sensation that he has a mysterious (and potentially deadly) secret he’s not telling.
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Half of the art of storytelling is in the emotion and shape of the presentation, and there’s something to Homme’s voice that takes his work in a uniquely tonal direction. He feels scorned, ominous, and burned by something unknown, to the point that the listener feels like they either had a role in it or are being purposefully kept on the outside looking in. Or maybe “The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret” is meant to be presented in the framework of advice whispered hurriedly behind a hand, so don’t miss out on what Homme’s about to say.
4
No One Knows (Songs For The Deaf, 2002)
The Uncertainty Of The Unknown
Another initial single for QOTSA off their 2002 album Songs For The Deaf, “No One Knows,” ultimately went on to become arguably the band’s most well-known hit to date on an LP considered to be their breakout effort. Joined by Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl behind the kit for this album, the effect is felt as (even for a hard-rock-leaning band) songs like “No One Knows” hit even heavier and with greater punch.
Backed by thick bass lines, heavyweight drum sections, and guitars that practically jump off the recording with energy and wild, reckless abandon, “No One Knows” is slick and rich with appeal even in its nihilistic worldview. Whether these lyrics are desert air hallucinations, drug-induced psychosis, or simply dark-winged philosophy (perhaps all three), you’re along for the trip in a world lined with chaos both real and (perhaps) imagined. Whether that perspective happens to be true or not, simply “No One Knows.”
5
Long Slow Goodbye (Lullabies To Paralyze, 2005)
Mourning Song To The Missing Ones
Opening with the ominous sound of a phone that’s disconnected, the 2005 QOTSA album Lullabies To Paralyze closes with the very aptly-named “Long Slow Goodbye.” A relatively more mellow-edged song for the band, the track feels almost like a fever dream as the narrator within worries and wonders after someone they care about who has vanished for unknown reasons. Their ultimate fate is never divulged or known, but Homme only continues to feel more lost and faded by the sadness of the matter.
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The dream-like quality of “Long Slow Goodbye” is found in how desperate and open-ended this search for someone is without any answer or resolution. Like a screenplay built out of the stray parts and stresses in our own minds, the story simply ends inexplicably, as though it was never fully written. But the feeling and the emotions are still fully in place, and that’s not only ominous, but, quite frankly, frightening to imagine. “Long Slow Goodbye” is all the fear without any of the logic to eradicate the tension, and that makes the song only more profound in scope.
6
3’s & 7’s (Era Vulgaris, 2007)
An Ode To Deceptions
Unleashed like a rockin’ rocketship without brakes or an airbag, “3’s & 7’s” was the second single dropped from QOTSA’s 2007 studio album Era Vulgaris. Still holding on to that charming, thrilling, trance-dance grip on hard rock of the group’s origins with a sheen of snide anger that almost feels murderous in its depths, “3’s & 7’s” is a cathartic response to the idea of being deceived and lied to about something, with the title standing for making the best from an awful hand of cards in poker.
Given the subjective shape of the lyrics, “3’s & 7’s” can be shaped into the picture of almost any bad situation, and finding a way to get over, around, or through it while punching the air to the guitar riffs and percussion crashes provided. Take this song for a few spins, and you might just find that “3’s & 7’s” is likely to make that conflict feel just a bit better than it was previously.
7
The Vampyre of Time and Memory (…Like Clockwork, 2013)
Finding The Way To Get Back Up
One of the more down-tempo, melancholic songs from the Queens of the Stone Age catalog, “The Vampyre of Time and Memory,” found the group in a wholly new, raw, and unprecedented position on their 2013 LP, entitled …Like Clockwork. Named after the delays in making the album that were so numerous they seemed routine, “The Vampyre of Time and Memory” was the first song Homme wrote for the record. It was also the first track he’d written after dying and being brought back to life on an operating table following complications during routine knee surgery.
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The piano ballad echoes the profound shock, loss, depression, and efforts to rebuild himself that Homme went through following this experience. Queens of the Stone Age has certainly never lacked or shied away from talking about the dark side of heavier topics; this was one of the first times one of their songs felt even further deepened and silently sobered by the harsh reality of an event that nearly proved fatal. “The Vampyre of Time and Memory” feels like a nod to the later Beatles catalog, and it’s a masterful homage to going through the worst and still going.
8
Feet Don’t Fail Me (Villains, 2017)
Embracing The Fun Of The Moment
After the often darker-toned paints used to construct the picture of the band’s prior album, …Like Clockwork, QOTSA got a bit looser and into the groove again on their 2017 LP Villains. Joining forces with the more dance-oriented producer Mark Ronson, that impact and shift can immediately be sensed on the opening track, “Feet Don’t Fail Me.” Beginning with a slow build that finally erupts into an oily-backed, David Bowie-ish rhythm, Homme quickly makes his intentions known that he’s gotta move on and keep on dancing.
With a title and skeletal premise devised by famed eccentric rocker Iggy Pop (whom Homme had recently collaborated with at the time) as well as an unused instrumental idea from their work together, “Feet Don’t Fail Me” is a song about continuing to chase what drives you and what makes you drive in the first place. For Homme, that goal is the ebb and flow of music and his art, and Villains gives that a fresh coat of paint without losing the band’s customary sense of swagger.
9
The Evil Has Landed (Villains, 2017)
The Power Of Letting Loose And Letting Go
“The Evil Has Landed” continues the theme on Villains of Homme and QOTSA moving on and moving forward from the serious darkness of …Like Clockwork, in order to loosen up and embrace the joy of living in the moment for as long as it lasts. The track has Homme describing himself as going on a living spree, and despite how tangled up and muddy we might all be, he’s all for letting go and not letting anything anyone says deter him.
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When that moment of fully embracing the joy of the race and the pace of life hits, the resulting full-band tempo shift is like an electric shock, Led Zeppelin-inspired haymaker punch to the throat, head, and gut all at the same time. “The Evil Is Landed” becomes a song to drive down the open road to, if that drive involved being in a movie about being the getaway driver during a bank heist. This track is 120 miles per hour down the freeway, foot to the floor, holding nothing back, so get out of the way.
10
Carnavoyeur (In Times New Roman…, 2023)
Talk Less And Smile More
In Times New Roman… is the most recent Queens of the Stone Age release (dropping in 2023), and keeps piledriving through the heavy darkness of the world with the band’s equally heavy, customary, dissonant hard-rock approach of observance to it all. Having been through further health issues as well as an extremely bitter divorce by this time, Homme comes at a song like “Carnavoyeur” with a gallows-humored push away from the table of taking it all too seriously.
Comparing himself to a vulture who hears the goodbyes of others against a viciously growling backbeat of sound, Homme acknowledges the harsh, brutal, emotional distress of matters. But he also offers an unusual sense of optimism, by saying there’s nothing to be done except to smile and push onward as best as you can. Because life goes on and doesn’t stop for anything, so don’t lose your time getting stuck in the mire.
- Date of Birth
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1996
- Active
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Yes
- Number of Albums
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8
