Queens of the Stone Age
Songs for the Deaf (Interscope) Whatever anyone hands you, QOTSA’s “Feel Good Hit of the Summer” 2000 (sing it: “nicotine, Valium, Vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy, and alcohol”), was in reality the brown acid. The dirge drama of the L.A.-based duo’s sophomore full-length, R, was a bad trip compared to the sleek, drive-time jet propulsion of Songs for the Deaf. It would take a cabbage not to hear the influence of guest Dave Grohl (and Screaming Tree Mark Lanegan) lacing guitarist Josh Homme’s sweetleaf vocals and Nick Oliveri’s wrecking-ball bass. Right off the bat, “Millionaire” goes from lo-fi fuzz into full screaming stereo in the time it takes to recharge the raygun on Foo Fighters. The frenzied tear of “Songs for the Dead,” and the maniac bombast of the 75-second “Six Shooter,” Grohlsome. Said screaming-meamies are contrasted with the mid-Seventies Sabbath cry of “First It Giveth,” and “Sky Is Fallin’,” while you can almost hear ol’ Ozzy singing “Do It Again” and doing his Master of Reality cry on the supernaut title track. With the Charlie Sexton-gone-grunge of “Hangin’ Tree,” swift current of “Go With the Flow,” and garage gangliness of “Another Love Song,” Songs for the Deaf only lets up in the Pros & Cons of Hitchhiking conceit of L.A.’s radio wasteland that links the songs into a cohesive spin around the block. The heartbeat/electrical synapse DSOTM gurgles of opener “The Real Song for the Deaf” signal that you’re about to OD on the real feel good “hit” of the summer, 2002. (QOTSA plays Stubb’s Saturday, Sept. 28.)
This article appears in September 6 • 2002.
