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Queens of the Stone Age

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Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Age - Live in Berlin, 2005
Background information
Years active1997–present
MembersJosh Homme website = Official website

Queens of the Stone Age (QOTSA) is a rock band from the Palm Desert, California area in the United States, formed in 1997.

Originally formed under the name Gamma Ray by guitarist Josh Homme and drummer Alfredo Hernandez to outgrow the stoner rock label that had begun to envelop previous band Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age developed a style of riff-oriented, monotonous, heavy and repetitious music, which Homme described as 'robot rock', saying that he "wanted to create a heavy sound based on a solid jam, and just pound it into your head".

Since Queens of the Stone Age's second album Rated R, all albums have been released by Interscope Records. Their 1998 self-titled debut album was released on Loose Groove.

History

Early career (1996-1999)

Queens of the Stone Age began with Josh Homme in 1996. Originally called "Gamma Ray", Homme changed the name to "Queens of the Stone Age" in 1997 as German power metal band Gamma Ray were threatening to sue. According to Homme and former bassist Nick Oliveri the name origins are thus:

When we were making a record in 1992, under the band Kyuss, our producer Chris Goss, he would joke and say "You guys are like the Queens of the Stone Age." The band was originally called Gamma Ray, but we got threatened with a lawsuit because someone else had it. So we were Queens of the Stone Age.- Oliveri (2000)

Kings would be too macho. The Kings of the Stone Age wear armor and have axes and wrestle. The Queens of the Stone Age hang out with the Kings of the Stone Age's girlfriends, when they wrestle. And also, it was also just a name given to us by Chris Goss. He gave us the name Queens of the Stone Age. Rock should be heavy enough for the boys and sweet enough for the girls. That way, everyone is happy and it's more of a party. Kings of the Stone Age, is too lopsided. - Homme (2000)

In the fall of 1998, they released their self-titled debut album, Queens of the Stone Age, which was recorded with Josh handling both guitar and bass guitar playing duties, Alfredo Hernandez on the drums, and included several other instrumental and vocal contributions by Chris Goss and Hutch. Soon after the recording sessions were finished for the album, former Kyuss bassist Nick Oliveri and guitarist Dave Catching joined and touring commenced. A recording of a phone message which plays the voice of Nick Oliveri stating his decision to join the band can be heard at the end of the album's final song, "I Was a Teenage Hand Model".

Rated R (1999-2001)

Over the next couple of years the line-up changed, something that would happen a lot in the band's future with Homme being the consistent member; Hernandez was no longer in the band.

It really is more of a musical experiment... It keeps moving and reinventing itself. That way we never get painted into a corner. - Homme (2000)

I'd like to keep it loose, open and free, I just think that if we can expand and contract, then there's nothing we can't do, and even the old songs will never be something like, 'Oh, let's not play that any more.' - Homme (2000)

2000's Rated R featured a plethora of musicians familiar with Homme and Oliveri's work and "crew" of sorts: among others, drummers Nick Lucero (who has gone on to record with Paul Avion) and Gene Trautmann, guitarists Dave Catching, Brendon McNichol, and Chris Goss contributed, and even Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford, recording next door, stepped in for a guest spot on "Feel Good Hit of the Summer". The album received positive reviews but found little commercial success, aside from scoring the band notable opening slots with the Foo Fighters, Hole, and at Ozzfest 2000.

Songs for the Deaf (2001-2004)

Frequent touring for Rated R generated support for the band, and grew with Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl's joining in late 2001/early 2002 to record their third album. Songs for the Deaf was released in August, and also featured ex-Screaming Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan, a floater since Rated R. Although Songs for the Deaf gained major attention, Grohl returned to his other projects. Former Danzig drummer Joey Castillo filled his spot during the European leg of the supporting tour and joined the band full time. Also featured on Deaf was former A Perfect Circle bassist Paz Lenchantin filling in on viola and piano for the final track "Mosquito Song."

Although the ongoing success repeated to lift the band to new heights, it was in 2002 at the Rock am Ring festival in Germany when the band played - according to Homme - "the worst show we've ever played and it was in front of 40,000 people." [1] The band then decided to tattoo themselves with "Freitag 4.15", as it was at that time when they started to play.

Me, Mark [Lanegan], Josh [Homme] and Hutch, our soundman, have the same tattoo, it's from Rock am Ring festival. The time we had to play was 4.15 in the afternoon and it was just a terrible show. It sucked, it was horrible. That's why I tattooed it on my ribs, where it would hurt, so I'd never forget. - Oliveri interview with Daredevil Magazine (2005) [2]

Deaf's popularity peaked when it reached gold status in 2003 and the singles "No One Knows" and "Go With the Flow" became hits on radio and MTV. Constant touring continued, culminating with a string of headline dates in Australia in January of 2004, after which Oliveri was fired for what was said to be disrespect of the group's fans and excessive partying. But in July 2005, Homme claimed in a radio interview that Oliveri was fired when he was convinced that Oliveri had been physically abusive to his girlfriend.

A couple years ago, I spoke to Nick about a rumor I heard. I said, 'If I ever find out that this is true, I can't know you, man. - Homme interview on BBC Radio 1 (July 6th 2005) [3]

Lullabies to Paralyze (2004-2006)

Homme, along with Eleven multi-instrumentalist Alain Johannes, A Perfect Circle guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen, and Castillo, recorded a new album for 2005 called Lullabies to Paralyze (taken from a lyric on the last song of the album Songs for the Deaf, "Mosquito Song").[4]

Despite Lanegan reportedly turning down an invitation to remain with the band, he recorded vocals on new tracks and is appearing with the band on tour as scheduling and his health permit. It was rumored that Homme fired Lanegan; however, this was just a rumor:

Basically, if there was a negative rumor that someone brought up to me I would just encourage it... like when someone was saying: Well, Mark got fired, Lanegan, you know. And I was like: Yeah, Mark is fired, too, yeah. But he was just touring his own solo record, you know. - Homme (2005) [4]

Queens of the Stone Age live at the "Independent Days Festival", 2005.

Lullabies to Paralyze was leaked onto the internet during Feb 2005, and then officially released on Tuesday, March 22nd, 2005 in the USA, debuting in the number 5 slot on the Billboard Music Chart. The release featured the appearance of several guests, most notably ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons.

The band released a live album/DVD set called Over The Years And Through The Woods on 22 November 2005. This album featured a live concert filmed in London, England, and in the bonus features, included rare videos of songs from 1998 to 2005.

In fall 2005, the group (along with Autolux for the first half of the tour and Death From Above 1979 for the second) supported Nine Inch Nails on their North American tour of With Teeth. NIN's guitarist Aaron North appeared as an onstage guest on December 19 and 20 2005 at the Wiltern LG in Los Angeles "Monsters in the Parasol" and "Long, Slow Goodbye".

Homme's former Kyuss bandmate John Garcia also joined the band onstage on December 20. As a special encore they performed three Kyuss songs: "Thumb", "Hurricane" and "Supa Scoopa and Mighty Scoop". This was the first time that Homme and Garcia had played together since 1997.

The next album (2006-present)

In March 2006, Chris Goss said in an interview with Modern Guitars Magazine that he and Homme are again teaming up to produce the next album.[5] In June, in an interview on the Australian radio station Triple J, Jesse Keeler, the former bassist from Death from Above 1979, revealed that he would be playing bass on the album, but said that he would more than likely not be touring with the band.[6]

In July 2006, Homme confirmed that "we're back in the studio, writing", but when asked who is in the band this time around he said "That's not a healthy question. You'll ruin the surprise. We've gotta keep our cool." [7]

On September 4th Jesse F. Keeler mentioned he will not be on the new Queens record. The conversation (on the Death From Above 1979 message board is here.

Lineup

Current lineup

Live band:

Previous members

Vocalist

Guitarists

Bassists

Drummers

Other

  • Mario Lalli - Guitar/Lap Steel/Keyboards (1999 for 17 days) - substituting Dave Catching who was in Europe from April 10th to 27th

The first lineup

According to fansite thefade.net [1], the first live appearance was probably at the OK Hotel in Seattle on November 20 1997. Back then, the line-up consisted of Josh Homme, Matt Cameron, Van Conner and John McBain.

Discography

Albums

Studio Albums

Live Albums

EPs

Singles

Year Title Chart positions Album
US Hot 100 US Modern Rock US Mainstream Rock UK Singles Chart
1998 "If Only" - - - - Queens Of The Stone Age
2000 "The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret" - #36 #21 #31 Rated R
2000 "Feel Good Hit of the Summer" - - - - Rated R
2000 "Monsters In The Parasol" - - - - Rated R
2002 "No One Knows" #51 #1 #5 #15 Songs for the Deaf
2003 "Go with the Flow" - #7 #24 #21 Songs for the Deaf
2003 "First It Giveth" - - - #33 Songs for the Deaf
2005 "Little Sister" #88 #2 #13 #18 Lullabies to Paralyze
2005 "In My Head" - #32 - #44 Lullabies to Paralyze
2005 "Burn the Witch" - #38 #40 - Lullabies to Paralyze

DVDs

Other appearances

Musical Equipment

Homme's traditional setup has been his Ovation Ultra GP guitars (3 of them in different finishes, although the red one was rarely seen) played through his collection of Ampeg Vt-22 combos. The Ovation guitars were part of a limited production run, with less than 1000 made in 1984.

During the tours up until Lullabies to Paralyze, Homme used the following:

  • Gibson Marauder
  • Maton MS503
  • Maton MS520
  • Epiphone Dot Black

For the Lullabies to Paralyze tour and record, he has retired the GPs, and plays almost exclusively semihollow guitars, including:

  • Maton BB1200 Betty Blue
  • Maton BB1200 Tobacco with Scroll Tailpiece
  • Motor Ave Bel Aire - Black with Silver scratchplate
  • Maton MS526 with Bigsby
  • Maton MS500/12 Homme Signature
  • Gibson Barney Kessel Signature
  • Yamaha SA503 TVL in Black (Troy Van Leeuwen's signature Yamaha guitar)
  • Teisco '68 V-2

Troy Van Leeuwen also uses hollowbody guitars including several Yamaha AES1500s, his signature SA503 TVL, other Gibson and Yamaha hollowbodies, a Gibson Les Paul and also a Chandler lap steel guitar.

A detailed description of the band's equipment prior to Lullabies can be found at thefade.net.

Much of this research has been gathered through the observations of the Queens of the Stone Age official forum on the 'QOTSA Guitars' thread.

Trivia

During the Rock in Rio 2001 show, the bassist Nick Oliveri was arrested for up to the stage naked and only with a bass guitar. In an interview he said: "Whoa people in Carnival here dances naked why I can't do the same?" [2] [3] [4]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Knowing Me, Knowing You". Rock Sound Magazine. 2002-November. Retrieved 2006-01-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Drozd, Jens. "Nick Oliveri interview". Daredevil Magazine. Retrieved 2006-01-04.
  3. ^ Cohen, Jonathan (2005-07-06). "Homme Comes Clean On Oliveri Firing". Billboard Magazine. Retrieved 2006-07-11. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ a b "Queens Of The Stone Age Interview". Vertigo. Retrieved 2005-05-18.
  5. ^ Holland, Brian D. (2006-03-09). "Chris Goss Interview". Modern Guitars Magazine. Retrieved 2006-04-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ "Mel in the Morning interview with Jesse Keeler (mp3)". Triple J. 2006-06-22. Retrieved 2006-06-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ "Queens Of The Stone Age return". NME. 2006-07-05. Retrieved 2006-07-07. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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