Have Queens of the Stone Age lost their touch?

Queens of the Stone Age

Lullabies To Paralyze

Originally released: 2005
Interscope Records

Queens of the Stone Age last album, Songs for the Deaf, was a great album. Throughout the album the band keeps up a consistent, dark and eerie but pressing sound. In 1998 the band was anointed the new Nirvana. A heavy title for a grunge band but well justified with Songs for the Deaf. The album even contains one of my favourite songs, "Go With the Flow". It also has the commercially successful song "No One Knows", which everybody loves. Then we have "Lullabies to Paralyse". The new album appears to have lost something - is it that they have lost drummer Dave Grohl with his punch and dynamic bassist Nick Oliveri.? Were these two members so important? The album still has some of those loud and unsettling riffs but now they appear to be too unsettling.

In my opinion the early reviews of the album have been cruel and Lullabies feels like one of those albums that needs time to grow on you. It is an acquired taste so to speak. At the moment the songs are not what I have come to expect from Queens of the Stone Age but I think if I give them more time they may make me want more. Only time will tell.

The Rhythm Guitarist Singer

Singing is one of the easiest things to do in a band, doesn’t matter even if your voice isn’t the purest, it just means you have your own style, and it is relatively easy to do. Another role in a band which is usually optional is to have a rhythm guitarist. Rhythm guitar can be quite difficult although the lead guitarist is often considered the one with the real skill, but rhythm can take a lot of skill. Full praise should go to a lead singer who is also the rhythm guitarist. It is a hard to play and sing at the same time. It is like patting your head and rubbing your stomach in a circle. It is especially difficult if the singer is playing a style like Ska where the rhythm is off beat and sporadic.

Even more credit to a three piece band where the lead guitarist is also the lead singer. Kurt Cobain of Nirvana was a good example of this. He was very good at singing and playing at the same time. His voice wasn’t great but he made up for it by using it in his own unique way to produce a good sound, while playing some good guitar, although it must be said that he was not a brilliant guitarist. He was still very creative. Creative enough to be one of the major influences on Grunge music.

Johnnie Johnson, the nimble pianist on Chuck Berry's 1950s and 60s classics and a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honoree in his own right, has died in St Louis of unknown causes. He was 80. Born in 1924, Johnson began playing piano as a child. He was influenced by such jazzmen as Art Tatum, Earl "Fatha" Hines and Count Basie. He served in the Marines during World War II and was a member of the Special Services Band. After the war, he played the Chicago clubs in the blues bands of Muddy Waters and Albert King. In St Louis in 1952, Johnson began a musical partnership with Berry that ran for two decades. He can be heard on Maybellene, which became the singer-guitarist's first hit for Chess Records in 1957. The pianist's rolling, playful accompaniment, redolent of Basie's influence, ornamented such later teen-savvy Berry hits as Sweet Little Sixteen, School Days, Roll Over Beethoven, No Particular Place to Go and Johnny B Goode, which was dedicated to Johnson. Berry and Johnson split in 1973, but they reunited in 1986 for Berry's 60th birthday concert in St Louis, captured in Taylor Hackford's acerbic documentary Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll. In the early 90s, the pianist recorded a pair of well-received albums for Elektra's American Explorer series. Johnson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2001. In November of that year, he sued Berry for a share of his former band mate’s writing royalties. The suit was ultimately dismissed. His wife, Frances, and 10 children are still all alive.

Without Johnnie Johnson, Chuck Berry may not have been a success and would not have influenced so many artists including the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. Rock may have looked totally different to what it is today. A minute of silence should be had for this great musician whose influence and achievements make us indebted to him forever in the rock and roll world.

Album Review: Incubus, Morning View, 2001 Epic/Immortal

This is the first Incubus album I ever bought and have been a solid fan ever since. The first track Nice to Know You drags you in with its eerie opening then delivers its punch with a heavy riff. Then Brandon Boyd (the lead singer) bleeds his heart to you. This powerful song sets the tone for the album. Followed by the power song Circles which speaks of revengeful love then to the albums commercial single Wish You Were Here. This song appealed to the greater public due to its relative niceness but is far from the best song on the album. Incubus has strayed away from the popular mainstream due to their alternative methods such as the use of synthetisers and heavy riffs but were brought closer to the mainstream with this album. This is because, relative to previous albums, Morning View is a lot less heavy.

Founders of metal...

Who Created Heavy Metal?

The age old debate of who created metal rages across rock forums around the net, but who’s right? Some say Black Sabbath with their apocalyptic riffs, some say Led Zeppelin were the first to play metal and others claim the very first to play heavy was Jimi Hendrix. This article will try and set things straight. The very first metal riff must be penned to the Kink’s You Really Got Me although the Kinks were not a metal band. This song was released in September 1964 and I will be surprised if you can tell me an earlier metal riff. Not only is the riff metal, the sound that comes with it is very important. The ‘dirty’ sound that is achieved comes from the Kink’s lead guitarist Dave Davies taking a razor to his amp’s speaker cone.

Then we have the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Why people claim that Jimi was the first metal player was because of the ‘wall of sound’ effect that Jimi created with his pedals and amps but take these away you will hear blues based rock and roll. Led Zeppelin is always credited with the creation of metal. There is truth in that Zeppelin influenced many metal and non metal bands due to their heavy riff oriented rock but just like Jimi take away the heavy sound and you just have a great blend of blues and rock. Another great British band that isn’t often talked about but was a key in the creation of bands like Led Zeppelin is Cream. Cream started in 1966 but only lasted to 1970 with members wanting to experiment down different paths, some with great success (Eric Clapton). Cream was also blues based but like Hendrix kept a consistent heavy sound with songs like Sunshine of Your Love and White Room.

In come the three keyboard metal bands. Iron Butterfly, Steppenwolf and Deep Purple all started in 1968. Steppenwolf’s self titled album and Iron Butterfly’s In A Gadda Da Vida were both instantly popular when released in 68. Steppenwolf became even more popular when their hit single Born to Be Wild which had reached number two in the US was used as the theme song to the film Easy Rider. The line “Heavy-metal thunder” would help define a name for the new genre. These two bands were not consistently metal and still followed rock and roll basis that been set for them by bands over the last ten years. Deep Purple followed this basis for their first three albums until 1970.

1970 was a big year for what was to be metal. Four albums were released. One was Led Zeppelin 3. It contained a couple of hard rockers but was still rooted in blues and folk. The next two were Black Sabbath’s self titled album and Deep Purple’s in Rock. Between theses two albums the general public heard the basis of what metal bands were going to deliver from then on till the present. The fourth album that was released was Black Sabbath’s second, Paranoid. Where the first album had a hard bluesy feel to it, the second was something else. Something that had not been heard before. For the first time a four piece metal band had been created, they had a satanic image, they had blistering guitar solo’s and ominous lyrics. They had Ozzy Osbourne. From then on Deep Purple and Black Sabbath were the metal bands. Heavy screeching guitars, pounding bass lines, hard hitting drum beats and the banshee howl of a metal lead singer was what was to follow because of these two pioneering bands.

New Age Punk, getting better or worse?

New Age Punk is what we have now after we were deprived of the Clash and the Ramones. We have now bands like Blink 182, Good Charlotte and Simple Plan as the top punk bands. Does this mean that punk has died and shrivelled up into a ball? No, we do have Green Day still trying to hold the punk banner up high. Helping them had been the Offspring but after their last album they have left a lot to be desired. Still holding up the punk name in Australia is the Living End who have consistently made good with their albums. So the answer to my question? I believe that punk is in turbulent waters and is still in need of a steady hand to lead the ship through the storm. Maybe it will be Green Day due to their recently successful album or will the Offspring revive themselves and bring us back some creativeness to the punk scene.

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