Death By Sexy

Death By Sexy
Generic, stereotypical rock-magazine. Kinda.
#42 May 2005
Queens Of The Stone Age Extravaganza:
Interviews with Josh Homme and Jesse Hughes
SEK 49KR US $4.95 UK £3 EU 6€
Review of Lullabies To Paralyze
The Desert Sessions
and more...
Death By Sexy
ADDRESS
Box 666
252 27 Helsingborg
PHONE NUMBER
042-164721
FAX
042-164722
E-MAIL
[email protected]
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Martin Björck
EDITORIAL STAFF
Victoria Shulga
CONTRIBUTORS
Matthew Fritch
Phil Ascott
Eric Fong
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Stephen Simons
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Martin Björck
Victoria Shulga
COVER
EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE a band comes along that
changes how we look at music. THE BEATLES,
THE ROLLING STONES, BLACK SABBATH.
All of those are fine examples of music that
changed genres, lives and futures. But does
these thing happen now in the “modern” age
with rockmusic?
In the heavier department, bands like RAGE
AGAINST THE MACHINE and KORN set the standards for rap-metal . But what about the “normal” rock?
When will our messiah come?
Well, actually he already came a few years
ago. His name is Joshua Homme and he made
his prescense known in 1990 as a member of
KYUSS. But not until recent years has his miracles been praised by the masses.
.
A new album, after sideprojects and member
turbulence, has
seem the light of
day. So therefor
we give you interviews with
both
Josh
and his cocollaborator
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE made it onto the
from Eagles
scene in 1998 lead by Josh Homme with their Of
Death
self-titled debut. Their critically acclaimed Metal, Jesse
Rated R with hit songs like “Feel Good Hit Hughes, alOf The Summer” and “The Lost Art Of bumreviews
Keeping A Secret” was released in 2000 and and a special
outake on Josh’s
so the buzz began.
feelings about the
THREE YEARS LATER, after rumours of calling it
songs on the album.
quits, QOTSA emerged with a new album. And more.
People went crazy. Dave Grohl (FOO FIGHT- Enjoy.
ERS, EX-NIRVANA) was behind the drums, Mark
April 2005
REPRO AND PRINT
Sune & Patrik Tryckeri AB,
Helsingborg
Death By Sexy is
printed on
115g MultiArt Silk (content)
200g MultiArt Silk (cover)
DISTRIBUTION
Svenska Interpress, Press
Stop, Listo, PrioInfo, Swets
Blackwell, Prenax, Narvesen, DCA, Akademiska
Bokhandeln, Stockman/
Akateeminen Kirjakauppa,
Suomalainen Kirjakauppa
PUBLISHER
INGen Tidning AB
Org nr 245580-0042
AND NOW IT’S TIME AGAIN
MARTIN BJÖRCK,
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Martin Björck
PUBLICATION DATE
Lanegan (EX-SCREAMING TREES) layed
down some vocals and Josh
and long time companion
Nick Oliveri shared vocal
duties. The success was
instant.
In this issue:
ARTICLES
6 The Hellacopters
8 High On Fire
10 Isis
12 Cult Of Luna
13 Nine Inch Nails
14 Mastodon
16 Koma
20 A Perfect Circle
22 Turbonegro
30 Mondo Generator
36 The Eagles Of Death Metal
40 The Desert Sessions
42 Mark Lanegan
46 Foo Fighters
74 Entombed
76 Josh Homme
OTHER
17
18
25
26
29
48
Hate Mail
Competitions
Live Right Now
Groupies
Hot Or Not
Artist Setup
REVIEWS
51 Albums
68 Singles
70 Oldies
ISSN 1980-1984
25
Death By Sexy #42 May 2005
Death By Sexy #42 May 2005
5
REVIEWS: ALBUMS
joke (the fake radio announcements
that interrupt Songs for the Deaf;
his drumming on the garage-pop
side project Eagles of Death Metal).
He also admires extreme discipline,
whether it’s a taut, Teutonic-rock
groove, a minimal but devastating
guitar riff or a barely disguised pop
tune. It’s the tension between Homme’s conflicting impulses that pressurizes Lullabies to Paralyze’s highest
points and accounts for its lows.
Queens of the Stone Age
Lullabies To Paralyze
AS LEAD GUITARIST and singer for one
of hard rock’s remaining bastions of
old-fashioned chops, Queens of the
Stone Age’s Josh Homme had his
work cut out for him on Lullabies
to Paralyze. The previous Queens
album, 2002’s Songs for the Deaf,
brought Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl
back to the drum pedestal he had
abandoned post-Nirvana and elevated the Queens to the platinum
mainstream with the breakout radio/
MTV hits “No One Knows” and “Go
With the Flow.”
YOU’VE PROBABLY ALREADY HEARD Little Sister,” the first great rock single
to hit radio in 2005. More like Foo
Fighters than anything QOTSA created with Grohl, this compressed
wonder -- all buzzing guitar lines,
plus an explosive singalong chorus
-- announces a further move away
from traditional hard rock and toward the art punk of the Strokes and
other modern popsters. Homme gets
even more wired on “Medication,”
which streamlines QOTSA’s blare
to a combustive hum: The band hovers on one chord for most of its two
minutes, then abruptly veers in jagged angles to heighten the drama.
was predestined,
but few could’ve predicted Homme’s
firing of founding bassist Nick Oliveri, a wildman whose telepathic musical connection to Homme defined
the band’s fury. Lullabies to Paralyze,
the Queens’ fourth album, suffers
from Oliveri’s departure and Grohl’s
absence. Drummer Joey Castillo lacks
Grohl’s wallop, and stopgap bassists
can’t replace Oliveri’s melodic dexterity or his ingrained ability to dart
around Homme’s rigid riffs.
“Everybody Knows That You’re Insane,”
winds even tighter. Beginning with a
slow-burning slide guitar that soars
like Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Freebird”
layered over the final moments of
the Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So
Heavy),” the skyrocketing intro creates a false sense of serenity before
jump-cutting into a nasty blitzkrieg
chorus thrash. Stereo guitars drive
the song’s tense verses as Homme and
mates evoke the Buzzcocks with far
more finesse than bands like Green
Day ever do.
he first distanced himself
from his teenage beginnings as the
guitarist for early-Nineties stonermetal band Kyuss, Homme has been
caught between opposing aesthetics:
He loves an extended jam (the first
QOTSA album, all those Desert
Session discs) as well as an extended
when Homme returns to the protracted riffage of his
past. Its back-to-back monster jams
“Someone’s in the Wolf ” and “The
Blood Is Love” occupy nearly fourteen droning minutes that unravel
the breathless momentum of the
previous eight tracks. Subsequent
GROHL’S DEPARTURE
EVER SINCE
52
Death By Sexy #42 May 2005
A LIKELY KISS-OFF TO OLIVIERI,
LULLABIES FALTERS
cuts like the piano-pounding “Broken Box” and the pensive “Long Slow
Goodbye” rally somewhat but fail to
match the first half ’s immediate intensity.
A CAMEO by returning QOTSA contributor Mark Lanegan lacks the
spark of previous appearances, and
Garbage’s Shirley Manson and the
Distillers’ Brody Dalle are barely audible on the slinky “You Got a Killer
Scene.” The only outsider who adds
something Homme couldn’t have
played or sung himself is ZZ Top’s
Billy Gibbons, who lends his Texas
guitar spice to the White Stripes-ish
“Burn the Witch.” Now that Homme
is calling all the shots, he lacks both
a manic foil to his confident cool as
well as someone to rein in his inevitable deviations from what he does
best: dark-chocolate rock with a soft,
gooey center.
“Where is the white groove?”
Josh Homme
BY PHIL ASCOTT
76
Death By Sexy #42 May 2005
J
osh Homme cracks open a beer,
pushes the ’Do Not Sit Here ’
sign to one side and settles himself
down on an antique chaise lounge.
We’re sat in the vast lobby of the sixstory Ambassador Hotel, deep in the
heart of downtown L.A. Just behind
us there’s a huge fountain, chandeliers
pepper the ceilings, while intricate
hand-carved wooden décor brightens
the walls. Yet there’s not another soul
in sight. No-one checking in. Noone offering to carry anyone’s bags.
There’s no fancy frocks. No muzak.
No nothing. Why? Because the Ambassador, once Los Angeles’ premier
nightspot, is now a decaying wreck.
The Ambassador’s fall from grace
is startling, especially considering
it’s fascinating history. After all, this
was the very building where the first
Oscar statue was presented in 1930,
where Hollywood legends like Jean
Harlow and Rudolph Valentino partied, where Mickey Mouse celebrated
his second birthday! More sinisterly,
it’s where the Charles Manson murder trial jury stayed for nine month,
where millionaire Howard Hughes
became a recluse and went mad and,
most notoriously, where President
John F Kennedy’s brother Robert
was assassinated. The Hotel closed
to the public in 1989 and has since
been hired out almost exclusively
for film and TV shoots; scenes from
True Romance, The Mask, Rocky,
The Wedding Singer, Pretty Woman
and Deep Impact has been filmed
here. Now owned by Unified School
District, any day now it will be demolished and the land used for two
schools. ‘Only in America’ as they
say…
It seems wholly appropriate that
we join Homme in the Ambassador’s
plush yet crumbling surroundings,
as in contrast, adaptability, renewal
and regeneration are key elements in
the guitarist’s success. As the only remaining founder of Queens Of The
Stone Age – following the departure
of long-term bass collaborator Nick
Oliveri last year – Homme continues
to doggedly pursue his own unique
musical philosophy, happily pulling
in like – minded musicians to join
him in his ventures. His ability to let
the band evolve under his firm guidance has become vital to its success.
The impressively diverse new album,
Lullabies To Paralyze, for example,
may feature ZZ Top guitarist Billy
Gibbons and Homme’s beau Brody
Dalle amongst its cast, yet practically every track is still stamped with
Homme’s signature traits: trippy
vocals, freaky off-the-cuff solos and
killer riff after killer riff.
Out-dated and neglected, The
Ambassador falls apart. Meanwhile,
re-inspired and refreshed, Homme
goes from strength to strength. Time
to grab a beer and go head to hea
with the man who is, for all intents
and purposes, Queens Of The Stone
Age.
DID YOU FEEL ANY PRESSURE TO FOLLOW
THE SUCCESS OF SONGS FOR THE DEAF?
“The thing is I’ve been doing this a
while now and inevitably there are
questions of pressure and who feels
it, who doesn’t. Who applies it and
who doesn’t. I never want the pressure of outsiders when making music and so far I’ve been able to get by
without outside pressure because I
write all the time. So when someone
says, ‘Do you feel any pressure to follow up your last record?’ I’m always,
‘No, no, it’s already done’”
DO YOU ALWAYS COME IN WITH THE BASIC STRUCTURE FIRST?
“That depends. Queens has never
really operated where it’s like, ‘I’ve
written the songs, fuckers.’ Queens
has always been about the same idea
that was brought from Kyuss: that
you play your favourite songs that
WHEN DID YOU START THE WRITING PROC- no-one else is playing, so you have to.
I write a lot; so I bring a lot forward.
ESS FOR LULLABIES?
“I don’t say, ‘I’m gonna go write for But they get shaped and honed. If
a while – I’ll be back.’ I like to keep any one person doesn’t like it once it’s
going. I write all the time. The best been through the ringer, we just don’t
songwriting habit is to have no habit. play it.”
When it’s raining and the wipers are
on they’re going, ‘boom, boom, boom, HOW DID THE RECORDING PROCESS DIFboom,’ and I just start going ‘now, ne, FER FROM SONGS...?
“Deaf was the hardest record I’ve
now, ner’.”
ever made because we hade an outDO YOU SING THE IDEAS INTO A TAPE RE- sider there (producer Eric Valentine).
CORDER?
We had to get rid of him because the
“No, I have a fear of demos because fact of the matter is, I know what I’m
they often suck the life out of the supposed to do. I don’t actually need
song, Or that’s my fear. So I just sing someone to finish it for me. I think
them till I remember them – pound that’s why we don’t really work with
it into my head, basically. Plus it’s outsiders, because it’s not really necgood for your brain to flex like that.” essary. I do on other projects because
it’s fun. But for Queens I feel I know
SO YOU HAVE THE 15 NEW SONGS STORED what it’s supposed to be. This was
IN YOUR HEAD?
simple – five weeks, done!”
“Sure. I eventually have to write
words down, but I can keep a couple THE OPENING TRACK LULLABY FEATURES
of stanzas in my head for each one. If MARK LANEGAN SINGING WITH YOU ON
I have titles then they’re often times ACOUSTIC. DO YOU OFTEN WRITE ON
of great inspiration because they’re a ACOUSTIC GUITAR?
complicated idea. They’re not a fin- “Yeah, I write mostly on acoustic. Beished thought, but they’re the direc- cause if it sounds good on that, if it
tion of an idea. I mostly just chase sounds heavy, then that’s a good sign.
them around, but that chase is con- Using distortion or volume alone isn’t
stant. By January it had been weeded definitive, you know? It’s usually a
condiment, like, ‘The tastes horrible,
down to 15 songs.”
Death By Sexy #42 May 2005
77
so use loads of ketchup.’ But when your own character. It becomes
you have something good and you exclusively about your own taste,
add a little ketchup, it’s really good.” which is what guitar is. Being technically good means you have learned
HOW MANY ACOUSTICS DO YOU HAVE?
the rules. What does that have to do
“Six or seven. With all these things with it?”
I’m always searching for that character. Like, ‘You old bastard, look HOW DID YOU DEVELOP YOUR TRADEat you sitting there!’ Or, ‘You sweet, MARK TIGHT RHYTHMIC STYLE?
sweet girl.’ It almost doesn’t matter “It’s a philosophy thing, not a playing
how much I pay for them. Normally thing. I realised something when I
they’re inexpensive. There’s some- was writing the first Queens record:
thing about the ones that most peo- in general white people don’t sit comple leave alone; they have something fortably with the black groove. So
behind their eyes, metaphorically. you get excluded from these things
It’s about a connection and a tonal- that are really pelvic, groovy and sexy.
ity that’s odd. It always starts with a So I was like, ‘Where is the white
look, If it looks cool, it’s probably got groove?’ It’s in stuff like Devo, where
a better chance of being cool.”
everything’s so stiff. And if everyone
plays stiff then it flips over on itself
WHICH MAKES DO YOU PREFER?
and gets groovy. A skinny strangle-y
“Lots of one-off companies. I like arrogance, that’s the white groove, in
Guild stuff- even down to how they my opinion. So I do my interpretawrite their name, the writing of the tion of that. And it’s difficult because
name Guild looks cool. I’m very su- it’s about what you don’t do. It’s
perstitious about guitars and amps tough to play, ‘dow, doo, dow, doo’ for
because they’re the extension of seven minutes and not do anything
your personality, and they have their else. It took a long time to be able to
own as well. They don’t like you to do that.”
do certain things, y’know? They get
picky. So I really try to listen to what HOW DID BILLY GIBBONS’ INVOLVEMENT
COME ABOUT?
they’re saying.”
“I’ve always been a huge fan. Those
DID YOU HAVE THE SAME EQUIPMENT IN early records – Fandango, Tres
THE STUDIO THIS TIME?
Hombres – they’re so casually per“Always. But I do bring in new stuff.
There’s always the bread and butter, SHOWING THE HORNS AT BDO 2004.
but there’s experimental stuff too because it can never be static; though
consistency is nice. This is the first
record I didn’t use my old Ovation
on, because it’s time now for me to
push on. I’ve exhausted every version of my old setup. However, you
do know I’m never actually gonna say
what I play in Queens!”
WHY AREN’T YOU HAPPY TO DISCUSS
WHAT GEAR YOU USE TO RECORD WITH
QUEENS?
“Because the search has been the
most fun part for me. So I recommend that. You don’t deserve it if
someone just tells you about something, because what have you done?
I think that search is how you find
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Death By Sexy #42 May 2005
fect. And when I say perfect, they’ve
got character and mistakes – great
stuff. The tones are like, ‘That sounds
good,’ when in reality it’s like, ‘Holy
fuckin’ shit!’ He usually says no to
collaborations, but I just said, ‘I gotta
call Billy.’ I was glad he said yes because we hade a great, and very equal,
exchange. I learnt so much.”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT BEING CONSIDERED A GUITAR ICON YOURSELF?
“Ultimately, something like that is
not for me to say. I’m just trying to
be constantly
re-inspired by the guitar because
sometimes you get sick of it. If it’s
being snippety with you you’re like.
‘Fuck you then, for a month. You’ll
see!’ That’s the kind of relationship I
have with it. Where we talk to each
other and I’m like, ‘Why are you being a dick to me? I didn’t do anything
to you.’ Then it’s like, ‘Well, it’s because you didn’t do anything.’ Arguments and shit like that…and makeup sex!”
SO WITH LABELS in a bidding war, tremendous buzz around a debut album that won’t be out for three more
months, an unconfirmed band lineup
and a music video for an unreleased
song that’s already been banned by
MTV, there’s only one question left
to answer.
WHO THE HELL ARE THE EAGLES OF DEATH
METAL?
The Eagles Of Death Metal
BY ERIC FONG
“I can’t come to the phone right now. I’m actually hiding
in the bathroom because I just collected money for the
second keg and I called the cops. Heh… eh…” [beep]
“WE DON’T EVEN have a record out,”
explains Jesse, “and when I was at the
Warfield a couple of weeks ago when
the Queens played, I had to run be– JESSE “THE DEVIL” HUGHES’ VOICEMAIL GREETING
cause people were yelling, ‘That’s
J. Devil!’ I walked up to Josh and I
DUE TO THE RECENT success of the surrounds Jesse’s band, The Eagles of
was like, ‘What the fuck did you do
Queens of the Stone Age and the Death Metal. The only traces of the with me? I can’t even go get a piece
still-rising prominence of the many Eagles were buried in three tracks of pizza.’ I’m getting 300 fan e-mails
branches on its family tree, Blender released on a rare vinyl, as well as a a day from chicks sending me nude
named Palm Desert one of the top guest appearance on the drug-addled pictures.
seven rock n’ roll cities in America. Palm Desert jam-session compilaFunnily enough, Jesse “The Devil” tion, Desert Sessions 3 and 4. Since “JOSH HOMME came and ruined my
Hughes – one of the people that then, Queens frontman and longtime life with rock n’ roll. I suddenly went
Blender named as a contributor to friend Josh Homme has kept Jesse’s from being a single father and video
the Desert rock scene – doesn’t even band in the press, answering the store clerk to a cock-swinging rock
have an album out, much less a record common interview question, “Who n’ roller overnight, with tattoos and
the hell are the Eagles of Death Met- a new haircut and everything. You
deal. Yet.
al?” by simply describing (and, in ef- know, ‘I need the rocker haircut #14
ALL OF THE music executives in the fect, glorifying) band founder Jesse as
and those four tattoos and I’ll be
world couldn’t have orchestrated a a National Rifle Association member okay.’”
buzz as great as the one that now who loves porn and crystal meth.
36
Death By Sexy #42 May 2005
Eagles frontman Jesse Hughes has
been friends with Josh Homme since
grade school, when Jesse moved to
Palm Desert in 1979 at the age of
seven into a house right down the
street from Josh, and quickly dove
headfirst into an unglamorous lifestyle that all too eerily paralleled the
classic ‘70s film Over the Edge. Soon,
the Queens family tree began taking shape, and Jesse befriended Nick
Oliveri (Queens bassist and Mondo
Generator frontman). “I met Nick in
fourth or fifth grade,” reveals Jesse.
“He’s the real deal. He was too fucking cool for school – he was an outlaw, he was fucking crazy. Everyone
kind of looked up to Nick because he
did all the things that we wanted to
do. I was quiet, almost a D&D nerd,
and I didn’t have the courage to defy
my parents. But Nick would tell the
teacher that he didn’t have his homework because he stuffed it up his
ass.”
visited Jesse on one fateful New Year’s
Eve and, through a few pep talks and
jam sessions, pulled his old friend
out of the gutter and back onto the
gluttonous path of sex, drugs and
rock n’ roll.
then they’re talking about it with
everyone they know, and when rock
n’ rollers are talking about something
with groupies and hangers-on, then
it starts a rumor quick.”
over the Internet,
whispered rumors became confirmed
facts – and once the up-tempo, old
school rock n’ roll-flavored ass-shaking boogie “I Only Want You” made
its way onto people’s computers, the
first fact about the Eagles of Death
Metal was this: They’re sure as hell
not death metal.
AS TUNES LEAKED
songs for the
Eagles of Death Metal debut, Peace,
Love and Death Metal – due February 10, 2004 through Josh’s Rekords Rekords label and Mike Patton’s
Ipecac Recordings – in order to deal
with the struggles of his divorce. The
recording session consisted of three
days’ worth of mostly one-takes, and
without any money, time or confirmation as to who besides Jesse played
on the album (but let’s just say your
first few wild guesses won’t be too far
off ).
JESSE BEGAN WRITING
the album,
it was a who’s who of rock n’ roll stars
walking in and out,” explains Jesse.
“That scared me, man. That was hard
for me at first. But I could see their
faces, and it seemed to me that they
were listening to something new. An
excitement started with them – and
“WHEN WE WERE RECORDING
WHILE JOSH has explained in the press
that their band name came to be because they share an equal love for the
Eagles and death metal, Jesse says
that that explanation is just a philosophical justification in hindsight. In
fact, Jesse’s story behind the conception of the band name is quite comical: “We were in the back of a VW
van, shit-faced and loaded. We’d just
been in a bar, and some guy kept playing Poison and saying, ‘This is death
metal!’ I finally said, ‘Dude, this is the
fucking Eagles of death metal.’ Then
IN HIGH SCHOOL,
Jesse and Josh grew
closer while playing on the same soccer team – a team that also included
Brant Bjork (Mondo Generator, exKyuss, ex-Fu Manchu). “We were all
kind of the more brutal players on
the team. I was the team captain for
a while, so in a manner of speaking,
you could even say we were rock n’
roll jocks.”
A UNIVERSITY of South Carolina graduate and former journalist by day,
Jesse reached a crossroads two years
ago while knee-deep in the misery
of an ugly divorce. “I didn’t feel very
sexy,” confided Jesse, “and I wanted
to feel sexy.” Re-enter: Homme, who
LIVE AT THE AB CLUB IN BRUSELLS 2004
Death By Sexy #42 May 2005
37
we looked at each other and busted
up laughing.” Despite now swimming
neck-deep in the tears of metal heads
who expected corpse paint, BC Rich
Warlocks and ominous whirlwinds
of vile putrefaction, Jesse maintains
that the most horrific music lies not
in predictable imagery, but in the attitude – an uncompromising dedication to the corruption and deflowering of today’s youth.
“THE FIRST ROCK N’ ROLLER ever was
Little Richard with ‘Tutti Frutti,’”
says Jesse, “and that dude was fucking death metal. He showed up in a
silk suit and scared the shit out of
every person in America. I’m a huge
collector of early ‘50s Public Service
Announcements, and in them, all
these actors are telling you to break
your rock n’ roll records because
they’re evil. And that’s death metal
– that’s fuckin’ scary shit. It was ‘hide
the women and the children,’ and
wow, it’s Little Richard, so hide the
boys too. Now, death metal is kabuki
makeup and cookie monster vocals
– and that ain’t fuckin’ scary.”
YOU’LL HEAR PLENTY of Little Richard
influences in Peace, Love and Death
Metal, mixed with the flamboyant
swagger of the Rolling Stones, the
sexual yowls of Prince and the pelvic
thrusts of Kiss. “So Easy” could pass
for an authentic Paul Stanley-penned
tune, and “Miss Alissa” is a swift,
skanky, bluesy rocker that would
have surely earned Jesse a pitchfork
stabbing had it been released in the
‘50s. Production-wise, the session
was a weekender, so it’s not glamorous – but the stripper-trance grooves
and the attitude are just right.
IN AN UNEXPECTED SURPRISE, “I Only
Want You” entered the charts in Europe as an Internet Download track,
and it eventually hit the radio in Europe as well… and the legend of Jesse
“The Devil” continued to explode.
He’s even got the e-mails to prove it:
“The German fans are sick. They just
don’t care. I’m getting 14 year-olds
38
Death By Sexy #42 May 2005
sending me e-mails that say, ‘Do you THEN, OF COURSE, there’s the meth (I
like to fuck? We do out here in Ger- hear you callin’). Actually, doctors
many and we’d love it if you’d come would agree that speed is exactly what
a supercharged nut like Jesse needs.
here and fuck us.’”
“Chemically, I’m hyperactive,” he exWHILE JESSE WON’T be in Germany to plains, “and speed focuses me.” At the
gratify 14-year-olds any time soon, age of 23, doctors put Jesse on Ritathe Eagles of Death Metal will be- lin, and eventually, Dexatrine. And
gin a short tour in mid-November – anyone who’s heard the hazy, atmoswhich includes a stop at Slim’s in San pheric sounds of any Desert Sessions
Francisco on November 24 – featur- album will agree that those sounds
ing Tim van Hamel (Millionaire) can’t be achieved without a little bit
and, of course, longtime friend Josh of experimentation. “[Drugs] play a
Homme rounding out the lineup.
big factor [in the Desert Sessions],”
says Jesse. “But drugs can make your
AS FOR THE ACCURACY of Josh’s de- music, or help you maintain a frame
scribing Jesse as a gun-totin’, porn- of mind for you to make music. I
lovin’, meth-huffin’ son of a bitch? want to maintain a feeling – and I
“Yes, I am very pro-gun,” says Jesse. just want to stay awake.”
“As the saying goes, ‘God made men
and women, and Sam Colt made FOLLOWING the Eagles of Death Metthem equal.’” According to Jesse, the al’s short tour, Jesse’s going to have
video for “Midnight Creeper” – in fun staying busy until Peace, Love
which he fantasizes about extracting and Death Metal hits store shelves
revenge on his ex-wife – has already – but thanks to the growing buzz,
been banned by MTV.
he won’t have to try too hard to find
things to do. Not when there’s a rock
n’ roll lifestyle to live, wild oats to sow
AND PORN?
“When you’re the executive manager and a growing cult myth to glorify.
of a video distribution firm, you can He’s already built a respectable list
sometimes end up with, oh, I don’t of campfire-worthy groupie stories
know… 2,300 pornos. I love sex, (hey, they don’t call him “J. Huge” for
man.”
nothing).
“RECENTLY, I WENT HOME with this
girl,” says Jesse. “She has a boyfriend
– a big boyfriend. We were bangin’,
and her boyfriend came home while
I was washing my face in the bathroom. When we came out – I don’t
care what anyone says, but sex has an
odor. That’s what funk is. That’s what
my grandfather told me – in the Deep
South, “funky” was the smell when
you came in and thought your wife
was with another dude. It smelled
like sex, and unless you’re a cold, icy
son of a bitch like me, you can’t really
pull off getting busted. He pinned
me up against the wall, and he was
about to lift me off of my feet when
I said, ‘Honey, I’m gay!’ Then he let
go and said, ‘Yeah… yeah, that’s true.
You must be.’”
BUT NOT ALL of his stories have happy
endings: “Dueling groupies at the
Colony Road Inn in Burbank tried
to stick shit up my ass. One of them
whipped out this very slender strapon; it wasn’t thick or big or shaped
like a dick, it just looked like a point.
She said, ‘I heard you were kinky,’ and
I said, ‘Yeah, but you didn’t hear that
I was stupid.’”
feigning homosexuality and taping “Do Not Enter” signs
onto his ass, Jesse does what he can
to interact with the growing cult of
fans. “We have a corny clichéd kick of
sending autographed pictures to people. And I hand-make shirts and send
them to fans. To me, someone who’s
taking time out of their life to write a
scumbag like me… needs some support. So I’ll send them things, and
now fans come up to me and give me
handmade t-shirts and jackets. I’ve
got a couple pairs of pants that I wear
all the time that fans custom-fitted to
my ass just by hanging out at a show
and checking me out and eyeballing
my ass.”
IN BETWEEN
happy to be able
to capitalize on the publicity that
Blender gave the Palm Desert scene,
his reference in the magazine wasn’t
quite all peaches and cream. “They
blatantly printed, for my mother and
everyone to read, that I’m a speed
freak and a porn head – after I asked
the dude not to.”
THOUGH JESSE’S
Oops. Were we not supposed to say
anything about the crystal meth and
the porn?
“Oh, you can. Cat’s out of the bag,
baby.”
BACKSTAGE ANTICS
Death By Sexy #42 May 2005
39
The Desert Sessions
BY MATTHEW FRITCH
YOU’RE MORE LIKE A COORDINATOR.
Yeah, I’m like a party coordinator.
A scientific caterer. And I think it’s
good that way because I woke up and
walked down the road from the place
I was staying to Rancho De La Luna,
which is where the studio is [in Joshua Tree] and this guy Alain Johannes
had recorded a song in its entirety
and had done five tracks by noon.
He really understood it well. He was
left to his own devices. If we’re there,
we work together; if not, you work
alone. But it’s not really work. It’s just
get it all out.
ARE THERE TIME LIMITS FOR THE SESSIONS?
A
s reported in Death By Sexy
#32, Queens Of The Stone
Age frontman Josh Homme recently
put the lid on another pair of Desert
Sessions, the name given to the furtive recording efforts with his musician pals at Rancho De La Luna, a
studio in California’s Joshua Tree
National Park. Homme began the
Desert Sessions in 1997 (post-Kyuss
and pre-Queens); the early volumes
were released on the now-defunct
Man’s Ruin label, and the latest installment (seven and eight) provided
the impetus for Homme to start his
own label, Rekords Rekords. The
new volumes are all you’d expect
from a funny proto-metal gathering; Queens fans shouldn’t pass it up.
Among the participants for the latest rounds are Mark Lanegan (now
a full-time member of the Queens),
Samantha Maloney (Hole), Chris
Goss (Masters Of Reality), Brendon
McNicholl (Queens), Nick El Dorado (Like Hell), Fred Drake (Earthlings?), Natasha Schneider and Alain
Johannes (both of Eleven and Chris
Cornell’s band).
Death By Sexy phoned Homme
and Lanegan at Bearfoot Studios
in Hollywood, where the two were
recording the new Queens Of The
40
Death By Sexy #42 May 2005
Stone Age album, due in the spring.
Despite being “on the clock” in terms
of spending Fred Durst’s money on
studio time, both men were relaxed
and eager to discuss the simpler,
madcap days of the Desert Sessions
six months ago.
It’s usually five to seven days. You
get people out for three or four days,
they leave and you bring in one more.
I finally understand it better this
time around - less people is better.
It takes a day or two for everyone to
be around new folks and decompress
and get out of the city and be like,
“Hey, how ya doin’ this morning?”
Everyone should have nametags: “Hi,
my name’s Mark.”
WHEN DID YOU START DOING THE DESERT
IT’S LIKE A RELAXATION SPA.
SESSIONS AND WHY?
It’s totally new age. It’s a totally relaxing, therapeutic massage on the
brain.
It started in ‘97, before the Queens
started, and it was kind of the reason
why the Queens ended up the way
they are, as a floating thing. It just
seemed like I didn’t have a band, and
I always wanted to get together with
a bunch of folks and switch instruments and go out to the middle of
the desert and ask, “Do you remember why you started playing?” There’s
no managers and no record-industry
types. There’s barely even condiments
for sandwiches. And just go out there
and improvise and say, “I got a part
in this key, we can transpose it and
change the tempo and fit it with your
part and here we go.” It’s like a genreless, long-running mixed tape.
IS THERE ANYONE WHO’S KIND OF IN
CHARGE OF ALL THIS?
WHAT’S JUST COMING OUT IS SESSIONS
7 AND 8; DO YOU SEPARATE THEM INTO
SESSIONS SO YOU CAN PUT THEM OUT ON
once you just start fucking with their
names. The people who are there
aren’t assholes who need to get their
egos refined, so why not just break it
all down to make it as egoless as possible? Just call each other names and
get it to where it’s fluid - it doesn’t
matter who’s there. I think for seven
and eight, it was the most sharing,
most caring of all them. There’s so
much interaction between Chris
Goss and Alain and Mark and Natasha Snyder and Brendon and Fred
and Sam Maloney.
IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LAST SONG, “PIANO BENCH BREAKS,” I THINK WE CAN
GUESS WHAT HAPPENS TO MAKE EVERYBODY START LAUGHING. BUT HOW DID
THE BENCH BREAK AND WHO WAD SITTING ON IT?
I was sitting on it with Chris Goss,
who’s a big guy. And I’m 6’5”, 210. So
there’s two big guys sitting on this
old piano bench and naturally, as it’s
starting to crack, he pushed down on
my shoulder to stand up so he sent
me ass-first, feet up in the air almost
behind my ears. Maybe something
as funny has happened to me before,
but under those sort of mind-altering chemicals and everything, to have
that happen ... I literally laid on the
floor for 15 minutes. It’s one of those
things that must be included. Hey,
can you hold on a second? I hear a
beeping.
VINYL?
IS THAT YOUR OTHER LINE?
I know Man’s Ruin put the volumes
five and six out on 10-inches.
Yeah, the new one’s on a double-gatefold 10-inch. I think I’m gonna do
that for all the subsequent releases.
It’s just a little less flimsy, it’s a solid,
cool kind of collector’s piece. Vinyl
has gotten to the point where it’s exclusively for the collector, I guess. So
it might as well be a really cool piece.
Nah, the shark-tank man is here to
clean the shark tank.
A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE OPERATING UNDER
PSEUDONYMS FOR THESE SESSIONS. IS
THERE ANYONE HIDING BEHIND THEM WE
SHOULD KNOW ABOUT?
I rope it all together, but I would
No. When doing the credits, I get
hardly say that qualifies me as being
bored, and after everyone gets listed
in charge.
UM, YOU HAVE A SHARK TANK?
No, it’s the studio’s.
OH, RIGHT - I FORGOT WHERE YOU WERE.
Yeah, where are we?
LET’S TALK ABOUT REKORDS REKORDS.
DID YOU START IT TO SPECIFICALLY RELEASE THE LATEST DESERT SESSIONS, OR
WAS IT SOMETHING YOU’VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT?
I don’t want to start a label, actually,
but Man’s Ruin was going under and
they were having some trouble doing what they’d always stood for. No
one else would be able to put it out
that I’m aware of and make sure all
the musicians get paid and do everything fair and accurate. I know there
are some labels that put out music
for art’s sake, but I don’t know which
ones.
the bands except the ones that sold
over a million copies, you know? So
all they have are these monoliths like
Smashmouth and U2 and whatever
- Limp Bizkit. Holy shit, man.
DO YOU HAVE A WORKING TITLE FOR THE
NEW QUEENS RECORD?
IT WOULD PROBABLY TAKE JUST AS MUCH
TIME AND EFFORT TO FIND THOSE LABELS
It’s called Songs For The Deaf.
AS IT WOULD TO DO IT YOURSELF.
WHAT WOULD BE THE MOVIE RATING ON
Exactly. I think part of what happens
is that small labels want to get bigger.
And bigger is not better. I’m just going to put out three or four releases
a year and make it so that if you like
the Desert Sessions, then you’ll definitely like everything else. It’s all this
good if this is your taste.
THIS ONE?
This one will be rated B for Bizarre.
This is the most all-over-the-place
one. It’s kind of like the trancey element of the first one and the musical
diversity of the second one - except
even further. The last record we kind
of wrote about ourselves and things
that we’d done, and this one, we were
I HEARD YOU’RE PUTTING OUT AN ALBUM on tour for so long that it’s not like,
BY FATSO JETSON.
“I’m a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride,”
Yeah, the next release is Fatso Jetson, it’s about what we saw. Translating
which is a band that, in my mind, has other people’s stories from English
always been about two years ahead into French and back into English.
of its time. It’s almost like jazz, SSTheavy, Minutemen mixed with Black THAT’S A BETTER PERSPECTIVE, I THINK,
Flag and Captain Beefheart. They FOR LISTENERS.
did a couple releases on Man’s Ruin Well, when you’re just living your life
as well. So the thing is to put out mu- and not watching anyone else’s, you
sic for music’s sake. Oh, and the oth- write about your thing and hopefully
er thing is to try and get a major label it’s something people can latch onto.
to offer a million dollars for the label But when you start writing about
and then just go, “No.” And that’s it. what you see, it’s certainly much
more universal. There’s a lot of bands
SPEAKING OF MAJOR LABELS, HOW ARE right now that are like [singing], “Me
THINGS GOING WITH INTERSCOPE?
and I and I was doing stuff.”
They’re alright. I think we came to
the label because of their ability to NOBODY WANTS TO HEAR MUSICIANS
push bands like Primus, which isn’t SINGING ABOUT DRINKING CRISTAL AND
a band I necessarily like, but they’re DATING SUPERMODELS.
really bizarre. All we’re really trying And it’s just like, “Holy shit, let me
buy you a journal. That’s what it’s
to do is reach people who really dig
our shit, and the hard part is find- for. Stop telling me about you, ‘cause
ing those people. It just seems like I’m tired of hearing about it.” I think
it runs away from this confessional
Interscope used to be really good at
pushing bands that were bizarre or [singing], “I’m all alone, I’m scared
weren’t following this fake rulebook. and this is never gonna happen to me
again, goddamn.” And it’s just like,
And now they’re not as good at it
“What? Get out of here, man. You
anymore, but that’s cool.
are ruining this whole party.” Should
YOU KNOW THEY JUST SIGNED ...AND YOU I pass you on to Mark? Hold on a
second, I think he went to buy more
WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD.
That would be good. I would be non-filter smokes. Oh, here he is.
glad to see that. Interscope merged
with A&M and Geffen and cut all
Death By Sexy #42 May 2005
41
POST MAGAZINE B ECONOMIQUE
INGEN TIDNING AB, BOX 666, SE-242 27 HELSINGBORG, SWEDEN
Death By Sexy
Generic, stereotypical rock-magazine. Kinda.
#42 May 2005
Queens Of The Stone Age Extravaganza:
Interviews with Josh Homme and Jesse Hughes
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Review of Lullabies To Paralyze
The Desert Sessions
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