Queens Of The Stone Songs For The Deaf
Karina Edling
Self-proclaimed prehistoric royalty Queens of the Stone Age are back from the desert wastes of California, and they're putting the 'rock' back in 'blowing shit up' (in a healthy, non-terrorist kind of way). Now, it's no secret that, when it comes to rock's metal edge, these Queens want badly to be kings; you need look no further for proof than 2000's blistering, thuggish Rated R, on which frontman Josh Homme's searing guitars and theatrical vocals brought the band close enough to their goal to sniff the fleurs de lis. That, however, is history, and with Songs for the Deaf, the Queens have hit a new peak in their development: the sound is more massive, the chaos is more calculated, and with hired gun Dave Grohl at the kit, the band has an unprecedented drive that leaves them poised for their strongest bid for power yet.
"You Think I Ain't Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire" embodies the greatest strengths of rock at its hardest-- stunning riffs, breakneck speed, and guitars that churn and spit like a threshing machine. It's riddled with decades-old metal cliches, but the Queens know what their audience expects, and they use this knowledge to continually twist rock stereotypes into a vicious full-nelson until they beg for mercy. It's fantastic, and this is just the first track.
"No One Knows" changes Songs for the Deaf's pace by sliding into an easy groove, sleazing its way across a dimly-lit bar, half-drunk and reeking of cheap cologne, to put the moves on your girlfriend (or, you know, you, depending). This is four-to-the-floor slime of the highest quality, folks, and it's the second installment in this album's triad of genius, completed subsequently by the next track, "First It Giveth". "Giveth" brings the drama like a champ, with Homme singing in pained falsetto over punishing riffs during the verses, and opening up into aggro-overdrive for the appropriately apocalyptic chorus.
But along the path to greatness, there are pitfalls, and one Homme often falls into here is the old "chamber of lost souls" effect (made popular by Alice in Chains on some of their later albums), which he uses to fill out the backgrounds of some of these songs. The multitracked Hommes aaah'ing melodramatically in undead unison make slogging through "Hanging Tree" and "Go with the Flow" a pretty grim endeavor. It doesn't help that these songs churn along interminably long after their riffs have run dry, either. And worse still, the band has quit winking at their metal excesses entirely, toeing the line between mindless fun and xFC-metal gothery. Fortunately, this is only a temporary decline, but that these two tracks hit back-to-back in the dead center of the record makes for a much steeper dropoff than if they'd been sequenced farther apart.
There's also the issue of the between-song skits. As skits go, these are pretty tame, but that doesn't make them any less obtrusive. The album even opens with one: the sign-on of KLON (that's "clone") radio, "the station that sounds more like everybody else than anybody else." It's a broad parody of the Clear Channel wavelength empire, and while admittedly pretty fucking funny, the target is a bit obvious-- especially given that PS2's "Grand Theft Auto III" beat them to the punch two years ago and pulled it off expertly. My biggest problem with these interruptions, though, is that they do little for the aggregate effect of the album-- after a couple playthroughs, they only serve to stifle the momentum QOTSA manage to develop.
Yet, this same biting cleverness also pervades many of the songs, lending an air of spontaneity and plain good times-- there's a fake stop in one of the early tracks that's so ludicrous I laughed out loud. And there are even better moments to be had elsewhere: the wavering surf guitar on "Another Love Song", or the good old-fashioned brain-sickness of "Six Shooter" and "Mosquito Song," the latter played lovingly by what sounds like the orchestra of the damned.
When these guys are on, it truly is the wrath of the righteous. However, Songs for the Deaf vacillates constantly between soaring heights and mind-numbing lows, making for a true hit-or-miss affair. But even if they can't have it all, the guys do offer as real a showcase of metal-tinged panache and stellar songwriting as anyone might hope for from a band labeled 'stoner-rock.' Besides, if the entire album was as strong as the first three tracks, it'd probably burn you alive. As it stands, Queens of the Stone Age settle for attempted murder. And that ain't bad at all.
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Songs for the Deaf is the 3rd studio album from Queens of the Stone Age, released on August 27, 2002. The album marks the transition from a looser sound in its predecessor, Rated R , and into a heavier, riff-driven rock. It is known for the singles Go With the Flow and No One Knows, two of the best-known songs from the band, and also from the feature of Dave Grohl on drums.
The album has the concept of a drive from Los Angeles to Palm Desert, California, listened through the radio stations on the car. You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire begins with the sound of the car being started and the radio stations, shuffled, until it stops at the KLON fictional station, which announces the song. Throughout the album, there is radio stations shuffling between songs that conduct one into another, up until A Song For The Deaf. After that, the "hidden tracks" don't present any radio sound at all.
Deaf is most known for featuring Foo Fighters' frontman Dave Grohl on drums, but, although everyone believes he wrote the drum tracks, they were originally worked by the previous drummer, Gene Trautmann. After Trautmann left the band, Josh Homme called Grohl (since Queens had opened for Foo Fighters on the Rated R era) inviting him to play the drum tracks for the new album. Grohl then put Foo Fighters into hiatus, playing drums for the album and playing on the promotional tour for Deaf. The first gig from the short tour with Grohl was in the Troubadour, in Los Angeles, on March 7, 2002; and the last one was on July 28, 2002, on the Fuji Rock Festival. Shortly after, Grohl returned to Foo Fighters, releasing the album One By One on October 22, 2002. After Grohl's exit, ex-Danzig drummer Joey Castillo entered the band for touring, turning into official drummer up to the recording process of Queens' 6th studio album, ...Like Clockwork.
Songs for the Deaf marks the last appearance in studio albums from Brendon McNichol, Gene Trautmann and Nick Oliveri, and the first appearances from Natasha Schneider and Alain Johannes. On the touring lineup, it was debut for Joey Castillo and Troy Van Leeuwen, which later became two of the most important musicians in Queens history. It also marked the last Queens tour for Nick Oliveri.
The Real Song for the Deaf is a ghost track from the album: hitting play on Millionaire and then rewind on the CD version takes to an 1:33 minute-long hidden track. The "song" begins with a man saying "Huh? What?" and then takes us to a bassline which goes to the end of the song. The bassline was recorded in such a deep, low tone it is possible that deaf people might actually percieve the vibrations in it, "hearing" the song (hence the name, The Real Song for the Deaf).
After A Song for the Deaf ends, there is an approximately 30 second-long break, and then a "hidden track", that is the recording of a bit of Feel Good Hit of the Summer, but with the lyrics exchanged for laughter.
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