I heard about, and then completely ignored, this photo album of Mastodon recording their new album. Why did I completely ignore it? Because I’ve seen bands record albums. It looks like dudes standing in a studio playing instruments. And unless you’re dealing with a band who haven’t recorded together in a very, very, very long time, well… that’s not too exciting. So these kinds of shots in and of themselves are usually not very cool.

Well, I’m an idiot. If I had looked, I might have seen this pic of Dave Grohl in the studio with the band:

Instead, I had to read about it on Heavy Blog is Heavy. D’oh!

ANYWAY, let us now analyze this photograph into, ahem, oblivion.

Click to read more…

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

If you could pick one band that should have action figures, it’s gotta be Watain, right? And I don’t mean those creepy roided-out Todd McFarlane things that are at, like, Spencer’s and Suncoast for fat suburban virgins. Original Star Wars-size is sufficient… although that makes me think #1 should be Immortal, since a Blashyrkh playset would be cooler than the Death Star and Unicron combined. (The actual Death Star playset being total bullshit, of course.)

I never considered Electric Wizard for this dubious, infantilizing honor, but after reading Bennett’s cover story on them, they absolutely qualify as a fuck yeah. Not when they were a trio, but today, seeing as how they’re comprised of a married couple, another dude who the better half of said couple “can’t imagine… in my wildest dreams doing an interview anywhere, let alone on the phone,” and another dude with a full facial tat, which recalls either, well, you know or Fuckface Enigma from the Jim Rose Circus (who my friend and I randomly saw in a downtown Cleveland mall 15 years ago, which prompted him to turn to his dad and remark, completely nonplussed, “Hey… Fuckface Enigma.”) Anyway, whether you’re a Dopethrone head or just catching up/dropping out via Witchcult Today and Black Masses — and come on, it’s all the same (amazing) song — you’ll see these delightful degenerates as collectible plastic after reading the piece, too.

Further incentive: the second-ever Decibel Flexi Series entry — this time a live version of 2008’s “The Watcher” from the mighty Enslaved — as well as the worst cover typo we’ve ever let slip by (other than “Queens of the Stone Age: The Coolest Band of the Year Every Year”). That said, Josh Homme would definitely make a sweet-ass action figure. He pretty much dresses like Han Solo already. Any other suggestions?

-AB

The February 2011 issue of Decibel comes with a fully movable kung fu grip, but the only way to ensure you get one of them there flexi discs every month is to get a full subscription!

One of these men will not be on the new Kyuss album. Guess which one?

Kyuss Lives!, the ridiculously monikered Kyuss non-reunion which replaces Josh Homme with some dude no one has ever heard of, are apparently “thinking of doing another record,” according to this interview with vocalist John Garcia. I object to the use of the word “another” because in case these dudes haven’t noticed, they’ve never made a record before, but I’d like to think that the phrase “thinking of”* means “it’s not written in stone yet,” “there’s still time to stop the madness,” and “we said this to gauge the reaction of fans, possibly as represented by an incredibly smart, exceedingly handsome Jewish blogger from New York.”

So, assuming that Garcia was, indeed, trying to get a message to me to see what my thoughts were, I’d like to now respond by saying: I don’t think this is a good idea.

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The first official photo of Kyuss Lives.

I know that everyone and their mother would love to see a Kyuss reunion, but they’re one of those bands where you kinda hafta stop and consider: What would constitute a Kyuss reunion?

Take, for example, Kyuss Lives, a not-really-new band that will reunite 75% of Kyuss’ original Wretch and Blues for the Red Sun line-up. The missing member, in case you couldn’t figure it out right quick, will be Josh Homme, who will be replaced by some dude I’ve never heard of, Bruno Fevery.

But is this exciting news? I mean, it sort of is, right?

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Reader Shane Gillis sent in this video, which appears to be a bunch of clips strung together of an obviously overcaffeinated Dave Grohl in the studio with Them Crooked Vultures (who are pretty “meh” even by “meh” supergroup standards). And while, on the one hand, it’s pretty funny, on the other hand, I know that in real life I hate being around people this loud and obnoxious. Guess it’s a good thing that Grohl is a rock star and we’ll never be friends. I didn’t wanna be friends with him anyway…

-AR

I don’t really know what the critical consensus was on the self-titled debut solo album from ex-Hole/ex-Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf der Maur, but I thought it was catchy as hell. It came out just a few months after Courtney Love’s America’s Sweetheart and certainly blew that album right the fuck out of the water, that’s for sure. If you’ve never heard it, all you really need to know to understand what kind of record it is is that Josh Homme co-wrote and appears on the album alongside James Iha, Jeorde White (a.k.a. “Twiggy Ramirez”), and some other nifty guest musicians. Either those names appeal to you, or they don’t.

ANYWAY, that was almost six years ago already, and I kinda thought maybe Ms. Auf der Maur was done with music or something. But not so! She’s just released a video for “Out of Our Minds,” the title track from her new solo album, which a press release tells me “extends into a 28-minute, HD film starring and conceived by MAdM, as well as a limited edition comic book and matching Picture Disc Vinyl illustrated by Jack Forbes from Brooklyn, NY.” Personally I’m not sure that I care about anything other than the music, but, hey, good for her for being ambitious.

So this isn’t really metal and I’m not as wild about it as I was, say, “Followed the Waves” or “Taste You”* from her last album, but it’s not bad at all:

Out of Our Minds comes out March 30. And it features a duet with Glenn Danzig!

-AR

*If you can find the French language version of “Taste You,” check it out instead of the English version. The song sounds a million times sexier en Francais.

While there are more obvious statements than “supergroups more often than not fail to meet our expectations” – “fire will ruin your house” and “Guns N’ Roses have gone through numerous line-up changes” are tied with it – there aren’t many. And yet, with the announcement of a formation of one, excitement is usually the first emotion called upon. And while saying that supergroup prospects should immediately be met with caution is like saying a new car should be approached with the attitude that you will most likely wrap it around a tree, the failure/success ratio is sadly stacked toward the former. However, this usually isn’t the fault of the uber-collective, but our own gargantuan expectations assuming that this new band featuring members of other bands we like will be as good as all the involved bandmembers main projects COMBINED. And while there have been some out and out failures as of late (cough Greymachine cough), the other two most notable supergroups that reared their heads this year – scraggly doom metal gathering of titans Shrinebuilder and semi-unkempt gathering of some dudes from your uncle’s favorite bands Them Crooked Vultures – have gotten an unfair rap in the wake of their respective debuts’ releases. While to say the bands’ detractors dislike their albums because they don’t rival Neurosis, Sleep, the Melvins, Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age, or Led fucking Zeppelin is unfairly ignoring their actual grievances, to write off either Shrinebuilder or Them Crooked Vultures would be a damn shame, in that, while not reinventing any sort of wheel, in a year where the biggest supergroup commercially was Chickenfoot, a solid doom metal album and a solid stoner rock album are two pretty significant things to dismiss.

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MS reader AcidBeagle sent us the below YouTube embed of a brand new Them Crooked Vultures track called “Mind Eraser.” It’s pretty good (pretty, pretty, pretty good!), but that’s about as far as I’m going to go with it.

While the prospect of a Grohl/Homme/JPJ union was indeed tantalizing in theory, the partnership has turned out to be pretty “meh” in practice. It’s perfectly fine boogie/blues/whatever rock music, but would anyone ultimately give a shit if not for the star-studded cast of characters involved? Methinksnot, but you be judge.

-VN

Honestly, I was never that excited about Them Crooked Vultures, for the simple reason that supergroups are anticlimactic nine out of ten times (and the fact that Queens of the Stone Age haven’t made a record I’ve wanted to listen to more than once since Songs for the Deaf didn’t help). Still, I was open to giving the band a shot.

Then I heard their first single, “New Fang.”

When Gary Suarez described this band’s music as “seriously generic and geriatric classic rock,” he wasn’t kidding.

Click to read more…

People seem to be pretty into Them Crooked Vultures, the new group featuring Josh Homme, Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones. Ya’ll have been emailing us all sorts of live clips that have been popping up, and Blabbermouth posts news about them any time one of the members so much as takes a shit. I admit, the prospect of this band is pretty tantalizing and I’m quite excited about them myself — I just don’t need to get all in a tizzy about 30 seconds of crappy cell-phone footage and a U.S. tour that doesn’t even hit New York (prediction: CMJ. Watch for it.)

Anyway, here’s some actual, real, worth-reporting news about the band: there’s a preview of the song “Scumbag Blues,” along with some nifty old-school looking animation, posted on Them Crooked Vultures’ official YouTube account (sent in by MS Maniac Jonathon Edwards). Watch it below.

So the guy with the umbrella/cane is obviously JPJ (cane = old, and all of those platinum records on the wall behind him), but of the other two vultures which is Grohl and which is Homme? Your guesses are as good as mine.

-VN

Last month I reported on the tantalizing supergroup combo of Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and John Paul Jones. In the past few days that post has become tremendously popular, either because ya’ll really want to know about this group or because my headline of HOMME + GROHL + JOHN PAUL JONES = BONER is attracting people curious about the dick size of the aforementioned men. But we’re pretty sure it’s the latter, because the supergroup, now dubbed Them Crooked Vultures (how fucking perfect is that??) made their live debut this past Saturday evening at a Lollapalooza afterparty to a sold out crowd at the Metro in Chicago.

The Internet’s a buzzin’ with news and speculation about the band. I’ve seen no less than a dozen Facebook/Twitter posts; Spin.com has a list of funny things overheard at the show; Blabbermouth has a 30-second teaser of the song “Nobody Loves Me And Neither Do I” which I’ve re-posted below. Pretty much any excuse to talk about this band… oh wait.

No word yet on a release date for an album. Check out the teaser clip below… it sounds pretty much like you’d expect it to, which is a great thing.

-VN

I’ve gotten multiple e-mails from peeps about this interview The Eagles of Death Metal front dude Jesse Hughes just gave to the Montreal Mirror.

Now, I should preface this by saying I’ve heard very little of TEODM’s music, and what I hear didn’t do anything for me. But, clearly Hughes is a funny guy.

But the statements everyone is harping on seem kinda… well… shrug. Read for yourself:

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Metal Hammer reports that Josh Homme, Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones (those are the dudes from Queens of the Stone Age / Kyuss, Foo FIghters / Nirvana and Led fucking Zeppelin respectively, for the uninitiated or just plain retarded), in what would be the second extremely boner-worthy collaboration involving Josh Homme to surface in the past month.

Grohl is kinda-sorta getting his childhood/ongoing wet-dream of playing drums for Zep, kinda sorta. The man can pretty much do no wrong in my book, whatwith Probot, playing with Mastodon, a million other side projects, and of course the continued quality output of Foo Fighters. A collabo with Josh Homme makes perfect sense given his stoner/metal background, and JPJ is just the icing on the cake! Gonna be some deep, stoney shit.

-VN

Josh Homme’s favorite band, the ever-defiant and unabashedly offensive Dwarves, needs no introduction to any of you awkward overgrown boys who stood gawking and giggling in the local Sam Goody at their album covers as even more immature adolescents. Fronted by miscreant Blag Dahlia, the group made itself known as much for its brash punk rock tunes as for intentionally, sacrilegiously tasteless artwork that could be considered pornographic to a hapless Palin-esque puritan. After a retrospectively hilarious Beatles-referencing stunt of “killing off” exhibitionism prone guitarist HeWhoCannotBeNamed, the band was evicted from the unamused Sub Pop and ultimately found a new home a few years later on Epitaph. Despite not having released a new album since 2004, the Dwarves carry on with live assaults for their rabid fans.

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Apparently Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme launched into a foul string of expletives and threw a bottle at some dumbass kid, after said kid threw said bottle at him while the band was performing at the Norwegian Wood festival this past weekend. This is why I love the Internet so much — this video is an absolute must watch before it gets pulled! Some choice nuggets include:

“I’m not so sick that I can’t go down there and beat the fuckin’ shit out of you!”

“I’ll still buttfuck you in front of all your friends!”

“You chicken-shit fuckin’ faggot! Hey you, you fuckin’ pussy motherfucker! I will fuck you up!”

“This dickless fuckin’ turd has no friends anyways.”

Watch and enjoy. Why is it that when Axl Rose does this kind of thing it sparks a riot and when Josh Homme does it everyone from audience members to the blogosphere applauds? Axl, you watching this?

-VN