By Matthew
ueens of the Stone Age — because the band says Kings of the Stone Age sounds too lopsided. Homme's previous group, Kyuss, was fine stoner rock, but it took itself a little too seriously for my taste. I don't know enough about their history to understand what changed in the transition to Queens, but Homme seems to have come alive. Something really came together with their 1997 self-titled album... plus it had a close up of a bikini bottom on the cover.
I didn't come across QotSA until a few years after Songs for the Deaf was released. Kyuss turned me off enough that when I heard Homme was on to something new, I wasn't interested. Add that to the fact that the worst elements of my college art classes seemed to like them. Whenever malt liquor and the stink of marijuana was in the print studio, it was too often accompanied by QotSA. That was death by association.
It wasn't until a friend sat me down and forced me to listen to a few tracks that it started sinking in. These guys were making some exciting stuff. The Desert Sessions impressed me even more. I don't know a lot about the collaborative process that was used during the recordings, so I can just enjoy the product – it's immediate and expressive stuff that does not require intoxication to enjoy.
When I think about Queens, I think about a bombastic, bassy sound and flowing melodies. Homme's silky voice just doesn't sound like something that should be at the front of the music behind him, but it works. There is no band with more tracks on my adrenaline fueled exercise mix than QotSA.
I also need to give a quick shout out to Leon Russel for his crappy 60's anthem, "Queen of the Roller Derby". The lyrics are poop and mildly misogynistic, but hey... it's about roller derby, and it starts with a 'Q'!
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