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Josh Homme

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Josh Homme

Joshua Michael Homme (born May 17, 1973[2] in Joshua Tree, California) is an American rock musician and record producer. He was a founding member of the stoner metal band Kyuss, as well as the founding and only continuous member of the hard rock band Queens of the Stone Age (QOTSA), in which he mainly sings and plays guitar. However, Homme is a multi-instrumentalist and plays guitar, bass, drums, and keyboard. He co-founded and occasionally performs with Eagles of Death Metal as its drummer, and continues to produce and release a musical improv series with other musicians, mostly from the Palm Desert scene, known as The Desert Sessions. In 2009, he appeared in a new project called Them Crooked Vultures with Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones. In 2010, Homme has concentrated his efforts on Them Crooked Vultures over all other projects.

Early life

Homme was born in Joshua Tree, California and grew up in Palm Desert, and began playing guitar at age nine.

Musical career

Kyuss (1988 to 1995)

Main article: Kyuss

At age 15 in 1988, Homme formed a hard rock band with school mates John Garcia and Brant Bjork in Palm Desert called Sons of Kyuss (originally known as Katzenkjammer, and later shortened to Kyuss). Homme was the band's lead guitarist. The band would become a cult phenomenon by the early nineties.[citation needed] The band often drove for hours out to isolated locations in the desert and plugged into generators to perform, and these events, known as "Generator Parties" became urban legend among rock subculture.[3]

Queens of the Stone Age (1997 to present)

Main article: Queens of the Stone Age
File:Homme and Oliveri at the Rancho.jpg
Homme and Nick Oliveri at the Rancho de la Luna, 1999

When Kyuss split up in 1995, Homme joined the Screaming Trees as a rhythm guitarist[4], touring but not recording with the band. He and vocalist Mark Lanegan became close friends during this time.[citation needed] Disliking the band's continual disharmony and lack of progression, Homme left the group after less than a year.[citation needed] He founded Gamma Ray,[5] a group more centered to his unique style and tastes, which later became Queens of the Stone Age in 1997. Queens of the Stone Age released their eponymous debut album in 1998. Originally, he had asked a number of singers, including Lanegan, to perform as lead vocalist for Queens of the Stone Age,[citation needed] but ended up singing lead for the first time in his career.

Following their debut, the band released several singles and EPs. With the next album, Rated R, the band used a wider range of instruments to achieve a more relaxed, spacious and psychedelic sound.[6] Despite differences from the band's debut, Rated R became Queens of the Stone Age's first mainstream hit. The next release, 2002's Songs for the Deaf, however; would gain even more buzz from the music community and fans alike.[7] In Songs for the Deaf, Homme continued his filtering of stoner metal and hard rock through the progressive rock aesthetic. The album centers around Homme's memories of an uncomfortable ride through the California desert, where he had performed in his days with Kyuss, and where there was little else to do but listen to Spanish radio stations.[8]

During this time, Homme had a falling out with bassist and friend Nick Oliveri. Following the release of Songs for the Deaf, their relationship deteriorated until Homme fired Oliveri from the band in 2004.[9] Homme began writing their next album, Lullabies to Paralyze, named after a lyric from the Deaf hidden track "Mosquito Song".

Queens of the Stone Age's fifth album, Era Vulgaris, was released in early June 2007 and received generally positive reviews from critics.[10][11][12]

In 2010, following on from his work with rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures, Homme confirmed he would be back into live shows with the band. A re release of their debut album has been confirmed as well as a tour to follow it and the band have also been booked to play many late Summer 2010 festivals; the highlight being England's Reading and Leeds festivals which Homme commented on saying: "we have nothing to promote so we're just gunna go out and play a hardcore rock show" the band sub headline to Guns N' Roses at these two shows despite Homme and Axl Rose's very public dislike for one another.

The Desert Sessions (1997 to present)

Main article: The Desert Sessions

Homme founded The Desert Sessions in 1997 as a musical collective series "that cannot be defined", at the Rancho De La Luna in Joshua Tree. The recordings are done "on the spot", in matters of hours and the line-up is constantly changing with new contributors being added for each new recording. Artists such as Brant Bjork, PJ Harvey, Jeordie White, Dave Catching, Nick Oliveri, Mark Lanegan, Ben Shepherd, John McBain, Josh Freese, Chris Goss, Alain Johannes, Dean Ween and many others from the Palm Desert scene have recorded with The Desert Sessions.

At Desert Sessions, you play for the sake of music. That’s why it’s good for musicians. If someday that’s not enough anymore, or that’s not the reason behind you doing it--that’s not your raison d’être--then a quick reminder like Desert Sessions can do so much for you, it’s amazing. It’s easy to forget that this all starts from playing in your garage and loving it. - Josh Homme

So far, ten volumes of from The Desert Sessions have been released. Homme also stated in the September[when?] issue of NME that he would record more material with The Desert Sessions.

Eagles of Death Metal (1998 to present)

Main article: Eagles of Death Metal

In 1998 Josh formed Eagles of Death Metal with friend Jesse Hughes. Recordings from this project first appeared on Homme's, The Desert Sessions Volumes 3 & 4, released that year. Over the next few years, Homme became distracted from EoDM due to the success of Queens of the Stone Age. However, in an October 2008 interview, he re-affirmed his commitment to the band saying, "This isn't a side project for me. I'm in two bands. I have musical schizophrenia, and this is one of those personalities[13].

So far the band has released three albums: Peace, Love, Death Metal in 2004, Death by Sexy in 2006 and most recently Heart On in 2008. Due to his commitments with QOTSA Homme doesn't regularly tour with the band, but occasionally makes appearances during live performances.

Them Crooked Vultures (2009 to Present)

Main article: Them Crooked Vultures

In July 2009, it was revealed that Homme, Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones were recording together for a musical project named Them Crooked Vultures.[14][15] The trio performed their first show together on August 9, 2009 in Chicago at The Metro to a crowd of approximately 1,100 ticketholders. The band has been steadily touring with live rhythm guitarist/auxiliary man Alain Johannes.[16] Them Crooked Vultures was released by Interscope Records in the United States on November 17, and Sony Music internationally.[17] They performed on Saturday Night Live as a musical guest on February 6, 2010, and on Austin City Limits on February 14, 2010.

Other musical projects

Other acts with which Homme has collaborated include: Mondo Generator, Foo Fighters, PJ Harvey, Fatso Jetson, Mark Lanegan Band, Trent Reznor, Masters of Reality, Millionaire, Wellwater Conspiracy, U.N.K.L.E., Primal Scream, Melissa Auf der Maur, Paz Lenchantin, A Perfect Circle, Death from Above 1979, Earthlings?, Mastodon, Peaches, The Strokes, Local H, Biffy Clyro and Arctic Monkeys.[18]. He also collaborated with Liam Howlett from The Prodigy for a remix of The Prodigy track Take Me To The Hospital in August 2009 called Take Me To The Hospital(Josh Homme and Liam H.'s wreckage remix).

Homme was featured on Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen in the song "Stone Cold Crazy", on Blood Mountain by Mastodon, in the song "Colony of Birchmen", and on Impeach My Bush by Peaches in the song "Give 'Er".

Homme, along with friend and Kyuss/QOTSA contributor/producer Chris Goss, performed as "The 5:15ers" at the inaugural ArthurBall (an offshoot of the ArthurFest festival) in Los Angeles on January 26, 2006.[19] The two were credited as "The Fififf Teeners" when they co-produced QOTSA's second album, Rated R, and their latest disc, Era Vulgaris.

Personal life

Homme and his wife, current Spinnerette frontwoman Brody Dalle, have a daughter named Camille Harley Homme, born on January 17, 2006. The couple resides in Palm Springs. Coined "Queens' rough rider" by the Los Angeles Times, Homme collects motorcycles and rides a rare, post-war Falcon Motorcycle.[20] In a radio interview, Homme and Nick Oliveri agreed to give the LAPD permission to use the song "Feel Good Hit of the Summer" in anti-drunk driving films in return for a reduced sentence, following the Blag Dahlia incident.[21]

Name and pseudonyms

Homme's surname is of Norwegian origin, and is believed to come from the town Valle, Norway.[citation needed] On several occasions (the BBC radio documentary "Time For Heroes: The Pixies" and on his secret "fan letter" on the final track of Mastodon's album Blood Mountain), he pronounced it as rhyming with "mommy". However, according to the most commonly used Norwegian variants the right pronunciation would be [hummə]. When Homme was interviewed in 2005, he again pronounced his surname as rhyming with "mommy". Josh Homme pronounces his name, 647k OGG fileⓘ[22] Homme adopted the pseudonym "Carlo Von Sexron" to credit his playing of bass, keyboard, piano, and drums on such albums as The Desert Sessions Volumes 3 & 4, and Peace, Love, Death Metal from Eagles of Death Metal.[23]

Homme is also known as "(King) Baby Duck" to Dalle and the members of Eagles of Death Metal.[24] He is also referred to as "J.Ho.", "Joe's Hoe" and "The Ginger Elvis".[25]

Controversy

Homme in 2007

In 2004, Homme was arrested for assaulting Dwarves frontman Blag Dahlia and Karl Doyle, at an L.A. club. Upon pleading no contest, Homme was ordered to remain at least 100 yards (100 m) away from Dahlia and the club, was sentenced to 3 years probation with community service, and was forced to enter a rehab program for 60 days.[26]

At the 2008 Norwegian Wood festival in Oslo, Norway, Josh Homme drew criticism for his reaction to an audience member who had thrown a bottle at him during the song "3's and 7's".[27][28]

Do me one favor though, don´t trow any shit at me. You trow something at me I´m not so sick that I can´t go down there and beat the fucking shit out of you, know what I´m saying? I may have a fucking 102 temperature and been puking for three days, but I'm never too sick to fight. I'll still buttfuck you in front of all your friends. Hey you, right there! With the fucking hat on, hey, pussy. Turn around you fucking pussy with the black hair. Turn the fuck around you chicken shit fucking faggot. Hey, you. You fucking pussy motherfucker. I will fuck you up. Come on up here. Come on up here, you fucking little faggot. You know what? Get your fucking ass up here. You're so stupid you'll come up here. Lift him up so I can kick him in the fucking face.

The incident drew accusations of homophobia from several blogs, which were then picked up by the mainstream media.[29][30] Homme replied with a lengthy public letter denying all accusations of homophobia, and blamed the tirade on a high fever.[31][32]

Musical equipment

"I don’t [share secrets] only because my sound is important to me and I’ve spent a lot of years just working it over with little tricks here and there, I almost feel like if you reveal too much of that you give away something that’s near and dear to you. It’s like you put it up on the altar and say, ‘Here, everyone take a slice"

Josh Homme, June 2007[33]

In an interview about guitars in 2008, Homme claimed to own an amount of guitars close to 35, adding that only 3 of them were "really good". He also declared that he purposely did not have a Fender Stratocaster or a Gibson Les Paul, but that he's always in search of intriguing, unique guitars, which are not always generally accepted as "quality" guitars, but are nevertheless great to use. He said that he tends to buy "weird, Japanese" guitars, or guitars that are already "scarred" and thus have a story.

Homme also has been quoted as saying he eats up to three pineapples before going on stage to give him the energy to play guitar professionally.

[34]

Kyuss-era gear

Guitars

Homme owns three 1984 Ovation GPs[35] and often downtunes his guitar to C standard. He is very evasive about his guitar equipment, choosing to either change the subject or even lie when asked about his setup in interviews.[36]

  • Ovation Ultra GP - Homme owns three 1984 Ovation GPs (one sunburst, one black, and one red).[35] The sunburst finished GP were also modifed with a string through body and fitted DiMarzio Super 2 pickups. The black one has been fitted with a Tune-o-matic bridge.[37]
  • B.C. Rich Mockingbird - Used up until Blues for the Red Sun.
  • Gibson Les Paul Goldtop
  • Gibson Les Paul double-cut - Finished in a very rare cream color, later owned by Dave Catching.
  • Gibson SG - Cream color finish.
Amplifiers
  • Peavey amplifiers - Used during the early days of Kyuss.
  • Marshall amp with Ampeg bass cabinet - Used on Blues for the Red Sun.
  • Tube Works amplifiers with Ampeg bass cabinets - Used during the later years of Kyuss.

Queens of the Stone Age-era gear

During the tours up until Lullabies to Paralyze, Homme mainly relied on his Gibson Marauder, his Epiphone Dot, Maton M503 and M524 along with his Ovation GPs and Ovation VXT. For the Lullabies to Paralyze and Era Vulgaris recording sessions and tours, Homme retired his GPs, and almost exclusively plays semihollow guitars. He is also listed as a user of Seymour Duncan's SH-11, SHR-1b and SH-1 guitar pickups.[38]

Guitars
Homme performing on the Lullabies to Paralyze tour, during which he almost exclusively used semihollow guitars.
  • Motor Ave BelAire - The first ever BelAire model was sold to Homme's longtime collaborator Alain Johannes. A few weeks later Homme ordered one for himself in a black finish and with a silver scratchplate.[39] The guitar was also Homme's main guitar during the recording of Era Vulgaris.
  • Ovation Ultra GP - Homme used his GPs until the Lullabies to Paralyze tour. These guitars were tuned down to C-standard tuning.
  • Ovation VXT
  • Maton MS503
  • Maton MS524
  • Maton MS520
  • Maton BB1200 - "Betty Blue" in Black, Blue, Red Wine and a Tobacco sunburst with Scroll Tailpiece.[40]
  • Maton BB1200JH - The new Josh Homme signature guitar based on his favorite Maton, fitted with custom wound "Hommebuckers" and a trapieze tailpiece.[41]
  • Maton MS500 12 string - Developed by Maton in collaboration with Homme, available in standard[42] and deluxe[43] versions.
  • Maton MS526 - Equipped with Bigsby vibrato.
  • Gibson Barney Kessel Signature . Barney Kessel's signature guitar, produced between 1961 and 1974.
  • Yamaha SA503 TVL - Bandmate Troy Van Leeuwen's signature semihollow guitar in black finish, equipped with three P-90 pickups and two three way switches.[44]
  • Teisco '68 V-2 - An unusual Japanese guitar that "wishes it was a Fender" originally purchased by a friend of Homme in Boise, Idaho.[45]
  • Epiphone Dot - A cheaper version of the Gibson ES-335 launched by Epiphone in 1958.
  • Gibson Marauder Custom - A short-lived solid body produced from 1974 to 1979, designed to compete with Fenders single coil guitars.[46]
  • Gibson SG
  • Ampeg Dan Armstrong - A Plexiglass guitar featured in the "Sick, Sick, Sick" video.
  • Hagström HJ-500 - A reissue of the jazz box originally designed by Jimmy D'Aquisto and Hagström.
  • Gretsch Corvette - Used during the recording of Lullabies to Paralyze.
  • Gretsch Spectra Sonic - Also used during recordings.
  • Christocaster - A crucifix shaped guitar. Built from church organ pipes and a neck salvaged from a pawnshop fire. Built by Chicago guitar builder Fred Mangan.[47]
Pedalboard includes
Amplifiers
Homme on stage.

During the early days of QOTSA much of his late setup from Kyuss was still being used, later Homme turned more towards Ampeg amplifers and cabinets.[37] Throughout his career Homme has experimented a lot with different combinations of amplifiers, cabinets and settings, here is a list off some of the equipment he has been known to have used.[37][48][49]

In addition to guitar, Homme frequently plays a Yamaha SA-70 semihollow body bass on songs such as on "Burn the Witch" and "Long Slow Goodbye," as well as every track on QOTSA's debut album except for "You Would Know" and "Give the Mule What He Wants" as well as piano and keyboard under the pseudonym "Carlo Von Sexron". Homme also plays the drums with Eagles of Death Metal, on The Desert Sessions as well as on some QOTSA tracks. He has also occasionally played lap steel during the Desert Sessions.

Discography

For a more comprehensive list, see Josh Homme discography.
Band or artist Album Release date Credits
Kyuss Sons of Kyuss 1990-04-19 Guitars
Kyuss Wretch 1991-09-23 Guitars
Kyuss Blues for the Red Sun 1992-06-30 Guitars and co-producer
Kyuss Welcome to Sky Valley 1994-06-28 Guitars and co-producer
Kyuss …And the Circus Leaves Town 1995-07-11 Guitars and co-producer
The Desert Sessions Volumes 1 & 2 1998-02-24 Vocals, guitar, keyboard, drums, and bass
Queens of the Stone Age Queens of the Stone Age 1998-09-22 Vocals and guitar, bass, keyboard and piano.
The Desert Sessions Volumes 3 & 4 1998-10-27
The Desert Sessions Volumes 5 & 6 1999-09-14
Queens of the Stone Age Rated R 2000-06-06 Vocals, guitar, percussion, drums, piano, backing vocals, mixing, concept and co-producer.
Kyuss Muchas Gracias: The Best of Kyuss 2000-11-28 Guitars and co-producer
The Desert Sessions Volumes 7 & 8 2001-10-16
Queens of the Stone Age Songs for the Deaf 2002-08-27 Vocals, guitars and co-producer.
The Desert Sessions Volumes 9 & 10 2003-09-23 Vocals, guitar, bass, drums, percussion.
Eagles of Death Metal Peace, Love, Death Metal 2004-03-23 Drums, percussion, bass and producer.
Queens of the Stone Age Lullabies to Paralyze 2005-03-22 Vocals, guitar, bass , piano, drums, percussion and co-producer.
Eagles of Death Metal Death by Sexy 2006-04-11 Drums, backup vocals, keyboards, bass, guitar and producer.
Queens of the Stone Age Era Vulgaris 2007-06-12 Vocals, guitar, percussion, bass guitar, lap steel guitar, piano, organ, percussion ball and co-producer.
Eagles of Death Metal Heart On 2008-10-28 Drums, guitars, bass, percussion, vocals and producer.
Them Crooked Vultures Them Crooked Vultures 2009-11-17 Vocals, guitar, organ, lap steel, production

References

  1. ^ http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/queensofthestoneage/biography
  2. ^ IMDB entry: Joshua Homme
  3. ^ Billik, Kira L. (14 March 1993). "Confused punk rockers' have an identity crisis". Buffalo News. pp. G3.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  4. ^ Christopher J. Kelter (1998). "Queens of the Stone Age Review". Rough Edge.com. Retrieved 2007-05-09.
  5. ^ "Discography entry for Gamma Ray". TheFade.net. Retrieved 2007-05-09. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  6. ^ "Allmusic - Rated R Review". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-06-24.
  7. ^ MTV.com: Queens of the Stone Age: A Stone Unturned
  8. ^ "QOTSA Enjoying Life With Dave". Rolling Stone. 2002-05-03. Retrieved 2007-06-21.
  9. ^ Cohen, Jonathan (2005-07-06). "Homme Comes Clean On Oliveri Firing". Billboard Magazine. Retrieved 2007-05-09.
  10. ^ "Era Vulgaris, Metacritic rating". Metacritic. Retrieved 2007-08-10.
  11. ^ Thomas Erlewine, Stephen. "Queens of the Stone Age, Era Vulgaris". Allmusic. Retrieved 2007-08-10.
  12. ^ Hodgson, Jaimie (2007-05-20). "Queens of the Stone Age, Era Vulgaris". The Observer. Retrieved 2007-05-20. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  13. ^ "Eagles of Death Metal Part 1: Joshua Homme". SuicideGirls.com. 30 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-31..
  14. ^ Queens of the Foo Zeppelin?
  15. ^ http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=124540
  16. ^ http://blogs.suntimes.com/derogatis/2009/08/them_crooked_vultures_at_metro.html/
  17. ^ "Them Crooked Vultures Interview @ Antiquiet". Antiquiet. October 2, 2009. Retrieved October 11, 2009. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  18. ^ "Josh Homme to produce Arctic Monkeys". Retrieved 2008-08-25.
  19. ^ "The 5:15ers with Josh Homme and Chris Goss". Retrieved 2006-07-10.
  20. ^ "Queens' rough rider: as Josh Homme cleans up his act, his band gets raves for a new album" (article). Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2007-06-21.
  21. ^ http://nardwuar.com/stream.php?url=http://serviette.ca/radio_show/nw20070914.mp3
  22. ^ taken from an interview with KBZT radio station, May 19, 2005. 27 seconds in length
  23. ^ Allmusic.com entry for Carlo von Sexron
  24. ^ Montgomery, James. "QOTSA's Josh Homme, Brody Dalle Expecting Their First Child". MTV News. Retrieved 2006-06-26.
  25. ^ "Queens Of The Stone Age: Homme's 'haunty' new axe" ((web posting)). Kerrang!. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
  26. ^ http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jun/24/entertainment/ca-queens24 Queens’ rough rider - LA Times
  27. ^ Pitchforkmedia - Josh Homme Wigs Out on Bottle Tosser at QOTSA Gig
  28. ^ NME - Queens Of The Stone Age's Josh Homme bottles fan
  29. ^ Reporter’s Notebook: Why doesn’t Josh Homme’s homophobic rant mean the end of Queens of the Stone Age?
  30. ^ Spike.com - Josh Homme Bottles a Fan in the Face
  31. ^ Rogers blogg. Josh Homme lackar ur
  32. ^ Josh Homme denies being homophobic
  33. ^ "Josh's main guitar setup".
  34. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtTHcTW9DZY
  35. ^ a b "Equipment". Thefade.net. Includes short interview on guitar playing
  36. ^ http://www.eqmag.com/article/lost-art-keeping/jun-05/10528
  37. ^ a b c http://www.oocities.com/tabs_for_the_deaf/equipment.htm
  38. ^ http://www.seymourduncan.com/artists/featured_artists/82
  39. ^ http://www.motorave.com/BelAire.htm
  40. ^ http://www.maton.com.au/news/german-maton-bb-1200-review.html
  41. ^ http://www.maton.com.au/events/amac-2008.html
  42. ^ http://www.maton.com.au/electrics/ms500-12-std.html
  43. ^ http://www.maton.com.au/electrics/ms500-12-dlx.html
  44. ^ http://www.yamaha.com/guitars/products/productdetail/0,,CNTID%25253D60169%252526CTID%25253D600012,00.html
  45. ^ http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/interviews/interviews/josh_homme_new_qotsa_album_shakes_more_ass_than_ever_before.html
  46. ^ http://www.gibson.com/allaccessfeatures.aspx?aliaspath=/zTrash/AllAccess/Know%20Your%20Gibson_%20Marauder%20and
  47. ^ http://www.fredmangan.com/
  48. ^ http://hobbs1767.tripod.com/band/equipment/joshsetup.html
  49. ^ http://guitargeek.com/chat/showthread.php?s=64642165bfdba6a7b73ff774f19a0b1e&threadid=16923&perpage=15&pagenumber=1
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