QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE

Songs for the deaf

CD/LP, Interscope

Josh Homme said “I’d rather be a small part of something great, than a big part of a pile of shit.” ‘nuff said.

Ever wondered, why there is a car-stereo on the innersleeve of this record? One that has knobs for “loud” and “louder” only? Not really, huh. The quality of rock-music still defines itself by two measures. On the one hand, it should have the tendency to make you turn the volume up. It has to be loud and even louder. That is where the stupid contest for “loudest band in the world” comes from (the title is held since ages ago by Motorhead by pure stubbornness). The other measure is: does the music affect your driving in following ways: makes you go faster, makes you turn corners sharper, makes you drive more reckless, makes you want to drive on and on for ever on an endless highway. “songs for the deaf” is perfect in all measures. This is the record to get up in the morning to and to put in your car to listen to while driving. Sure, that is a very American notion, beginning from the Fifties and “cruisin’ with the radio on” right through the Seventies (”Davies on the road again”) and Eighties (almost every song by Bruce Springsteen) up to being stuck in traffic jams on your 90-minute-commute to work. I don’t care about America, or to be more precise: about the USA. That war-mongering, arrogant, idiot-governed centre of the hell of commercialism and globalism. No, I don’t think Europe is any better, but it easy to spit against the USA so I’ll use that to make a few lines. Just one more point: don’t ever buy these “music for the road”-CD-Boxes that are advertised on television. You won’t ever find the feeling of the road in there. All you’re gonna find is a bunch of shit. You’ll only find the feeling of the road on the road (duh!) and you’ll make it a little better and a lot more intense with “songs for the deaf”.

The Queens of the Stone Age have their very own guitar sound and style of writing music. They are unique and that might be the best thing about them. Plus, that their style and sound are driving, energy-loaded and pleasurable to listen to. If you have your own style and that style is shitty then the best thing you can hope for is being called an eccentric, but there is worse waiting for you up the road. Even on a rather straight song such as “go with the flow” (which is going to be the second single-outtake I promise you) you’ll easily recognise them. So, I’ll only compare them to one other band and that only because this other band also has their very own style, this other band also rocks, and this other band is one of the greatest bands around ever: The Melvins. There is nothing bad about being compared to another band on these reasons is there? There is also nothing bad about a statement like: “there is nothing bad about this record”, except maybe the inherent question about the next record. But that question is typically for a certain brood of music-journalists, who take themselves and their work for much more important than the music they have to write about. Because what is mattering right here and now is the current record, right before us. And this one is great.

On “songs for the deaf” you will find a variety of different influences / roots / styles which are all combined within the style of QOTSA, which is to say: no boredom and high level of quality-roc throughout. I wouldn’t differentiate between the songs in terms of slower and faster, but rather in mellower and extremer. “Another love song” for instance sounds as if it was taken from some Sixties-vault, while “songs for the deaf” has this beautiful melody and whining singing that makes it something like a stoner-ballad, though it is broken after some time. There is even a hidden sort-of-folk-song hidden on the CD. No, no, no, it is not possible to describe this record in the common terms of music writing – but it will be fun reading the hopeless tries of the whole mass of untalented music-writers who will fail, fail, fail. But not as much fun as listening to this record.

P.S.: I’d like to think about Dave Grohl and the life he leads at the moment. Because I think that he has the best life you can imagine. Surely, he doesn’t have to work for money anymore. All the musical projects he starts for fun turn out highly successful (within bounds..), he is a great drummer and gets paid for it. Man, I envy him.