You'll Hear About These Guys Again

A band formed of three musicians who happen to be part of three of your favourite bands is quite certainly a success… or a complete failure. Some of you who read this blog often will probably remember I have already said that in a previous post, so I will not insist on it. Let's talk about what makes me say it again instead.

The subject is a band, called Them Crooked Vultures. The members are three young debutants on the music scene: Josh Homme on vocals and guitar (known as the singer of the obscure band Queens of the Stone Age), Dave Grohl on drums (he also drummed for Nirvana and sang in Foo Fighters, if you ever heard about them) and John Paul Jones on bass and keyboards (a former member of a rather unknown English rock band called Led Zeppelin).

Now, after we smiled a little bit, let's be serious. Not only these guys started to sing together (which is great and beautiful enough) they actually decided to record an album, called (fairly enough) Them Crooked Vultures. It has thirteen tracks, and two of them had already been released as singles, namingly Mind Eraser No Chaser and New Fang. Very Queens of the Stone Age like – and this impression is given not only by Homme's voice, but also by the instrumentals, mostly. You get the same refreshing, kick-your-ass-baby feeling you have when you listen to a QotSA album. Powerful guitar riffs and some drums lines which invade your ears and your brain, making you want to shake your head until your neck will break.

And, of course, due to Jones' presence, we have also some Led Zeppelin moments mixed in the whole thing, the most noticeable ones being Reptiles and Elephants. One of the most interesting tracks is Warsaw or the First Breath You Take After You Give Up, and please don't think it's just because of the title. It's very long and it has a very, very elaborated instrumental (which brings us back to good-old-Led-Zeppelin days again).

If you expect to hear something new, then… better don't. Them Crooked Vultures don't try to make something innovative or to enlarge their (or our) musical perspective. They do what they know and they do it good. That should be enough.

*photo courtesy of Them Crooked Vultures official site