God Save the Queens

Queens of the Stone Age just may be the coolest band in rock today. Not the best, although they're just about as good as any mainstream rock band you're likely to hear today, but really really cool. If the Queens were a movie star, they'd be Lauren Bacall. Their brand of (for lack of a better term) 'stoner rock,' doesn't scare away hipsters by being as aggressive or as licentious as some of their peers, and metalheads can enjoy them because they're not too cool to act like they're enjoying themselves. Which makes them even cooler. Their newest album, Era Vulgaris, may be their coolest yet, though it's not their best.



Bandleader Josh Homme is wholly responsible for the Queens' coolness--now that he controls the Queens as much as Trent Reznor controls NIN, his composed, laconic persona drips from all sides of Era Vulgaris. Having already cemented his stature in the hard rock world before he could legally drink (you owe it to yourself to pick up his masterpiece with Kyuss, Blues for the Red Sun), the prolific Homme has spent the past decade doing whatever he pleases, tossing off various side projects (The Desert Sessions, Eagles of Death Metal, etc.) and guests appearances (Mastodon, Local H, etc.) without so much breaking a sweat. Homme's perpetual creativity played has played a great role in everything he's done, but there's no denying that his collaborators have took him to an even greater height, and that's where we have to consider Era Vulgaris.

From the moment the album starts, with the hard-grooving 'Turnin' on the Screw,' Queens-lovers (particularly fans of their hit 'No One Knows') will notice the absence of Dave Grohl, whose busy, energetic drumming has been replaced by the competent but robotic Joey Castillo. Grohl may be too much to ask for right now--he's pretty busy with the Foo Fighters, among other projects--but Castillo never pushes Homme the way Grohl did, and it's hard not to wonder how much harder Era Vulgaris would've rocked with Grohl's monster fills. Also still AWOL is Nick Oliveri, QOTSA's undisciplined, loose-cannon bassist whose unpredictability perfectly complemented Homme's coolness on the first three Queens albums. Homme proved that he doesn't need Oliveri or Grohl to make great records on 2005's Lullabies to Paralyze, a diverse, storybook-inspired gem that was a great as anything he'd ever made, and now that he's got nothing to prove, he doesn't. Yet Era Vulgaris still packs a wallop.

Homme makes the most of Grohl and Oliveri's absence with simplified songs, such as Desert Sessions leftover 'Make it wit Chu' and 'Misfit Love,' both of which sound more like the minimalist Eagles of Death Metal than anything else the Queens have done. The band is creative enough to make a great song out of two or three chords, especially the sizzling single 'Sick, Sick, Sick,' and the backwards 'Teen Spirit'-sounding '3's and 7's,' and Homme's pedal capabilities can make the less interesting tracks sound good while they're playing. It's not as seamless as their classic 'Rated R' or as diverse as 'Lullabies,' but there's no denying that Era Vulgaris is an addictive, enjoyable album from one of rock's finest talents.

QOTSA made one of my all-time favorite music videos--check it out...