Josh Homme casually dropped the news recently that his band Queens of the Stone Age were set to return for their seventh album. Now, long-time bandmate and suit-wearing aficionado Troy Van Leeuwen has taken it a step further. Speaking on 2 Hours with Matt Pinfield, Leeuwen revealed that the band were “already talking about what we’re going to do. There’s tonnes of idea bouncing around… We’re going to do something before the end of the year, as far as recording goes.” So with the impending return of QOTSA confirmed we go back to the very beginning and chart how they became one of the greatest rock bands of their time.

Josh Homme started his career as the young guitarist in legendary desert rock outfit Kyuss. The quartet boasted heavy and sludgy rock that was purpose built for long nights spent out in the middle of nowhere with little more than generators and a small audience of likeminded individuals to keep them company. While they are now viewed as an influential band though, at the time they went largely ignored by the masses. Upon their split in 1995 an EP arrived a year later with the flipside featuring three songs from Homme. It garnered little to no reaction, but this would be the first anyone would hear of Queens of the Stone Age.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-AOPFRXebg

The self-titled debut was released in 1998, and was almost entirely devised from one man’s vision. The new project, which also featured ex-Kyuss member Alfredo Hernandez, was a melodic approach to heavy rock. It was softer at the core, purposely more accessible, and seemingly more at ease to let its guard down than Kyuss ever was. The music still had the same driving rhythms that were familiar and a hard boiled edge that had been cultivated from too much time spent out in the harsh desert sun, but beneath that exterior was an undeniable sense and love for melody. For Homme, the debut acted as much as a departure from Kyuss as it was an arrival for Queens of the Stone Age.

The robotic riffs, chugging bass, and single eyed vision from the debut was then expanded upon for 2000’s Rated R. The sophomore effort was the first real indicator of who the band would later become and how it would operate and evolve. A whole host of guests put their fingerprints on it, but it still remained uniquely Homme’s vision. It was undeniably a stylistically restless and highly ambitious album. Nick Oliveri came in on bass and general mad man duties, while Mark Lanegan performed vocals for the first time with the band. Yet it’s not these sort of details or additions that stick with you about the album. It’s more about the fact that they had the gall to open it with a song called Feel Good Hit of the Summer that just lists an albeit impressive mixture of drugs in the system over and over again. They used just about any instrument they could get their hands on; bongos and xylophones included. Oh, and they enlisted the help of Rob Halford on backing vocals for no other reason than that he was working in the studio next to them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2mybZ3KT2E

Songs about teenage acid trips, hangovers and the failure to keep secrets were then left behind in the dust as a sprawling drive through the desert gave the band their mega-hit and a concept album that still stands as one of the greatest in music history. The idea was simple for Songs For the Deaf; Homme wanted to recreate the desert road trip soundtrack. Monstrous riffs, screams and dusty guitar lines were a feature, and that was just on the first track You Think I Ain’t Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire. In between classics such as the impossibly catchy No One Knows and Go With The Flow were splices of jerk-off radio presenters who loved the sound of their own voices more than the music they intermittently played. But while proving to be annoying at times and humorous at others, they anchored the album into the truths of the long haul desert car journey; The constant twisting of the radio dial to try and find something good to listen to. The window wound down fully while the wind hits you like you’re holding a hairdryer right up to your face. The vast nothingness of the desert on the horizon. And how the sweat underneath your armpits has made the shirt you’re wearing stick to the skin like glue.

Dave Grohl was brought in to play drums in the ever rotating fixture of the band. Mark Lanegan was made a full-fledged member and Nick Oliveri provided the Ying to Homme’s more refined and poised Yang. It was arguably the greatest line-up QOTSA ever had. It is arguably the greatest album the band has ever made. But that is part of what makes QOTSA so great, you could reasonably argue for just about every album they’ve made as being the best and not be wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s88r_q7oufE

After the brutal high point of Songs For The Deaf, Grohl returned to his day job with the Foo Fighters, Lanegan stopped being around as much, and Oliveri was kicked out of the band entirely. Fans worried about what Homme would be able to provide amongst all the upheaval, but what he gave them was a dark and twisted album. Lullabies To Paralyse had very little of the muscular swagger that the record preceding it had. Instead of trying to replicate it, QOTSA went in another direction entirely. Whereas the insane screams of Oliveri opened the last album, Lanegan opened this one with a lovesick lullaby. The difference couldn’t have been more marked. It was a brave move and was one that was backed by the first appearances of long-time members Joey Castillo on drums and guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen.

Along with Homme, the trio formed the core musicians for the album and, as was now the calling card for the band, a whole host of others came in and added their own touches. Long-time friends and collaborators like Alain Johannes, Chris Goss, Dave Catching, Jesse Hughes and Homme’s now-wife Brody Dalle all appeared on the album to varying degrees, while ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons played on stand out track Burn the Witch. It didn’t receive quite as much fanfare and critical praise as Songs For The Deaf and was seen as a massive departure by many, but Homme was happy with it. It was the most personal record he had made so far in his career and had by all accounts been a pleasure to make.

“To me, it’s not necessarily sad, it’s just dark. When the album starts, it’s already night time. And halfway through it goes past midnight. For me, I like to write about things that are dark or twisted. Where the poetry seems to be is when you start in the dark and reach for the light,” he told Pitchfork at the time of the album’s release.

The fifth album Era Vulgaris followed two years later and featured yet more line-up changes. Current members Dean Fertita and Michael Shuman were drafted in alongside the usual cast. The talk of guest appearances was overwhelming as usual, with Julian Casablancas, Billy Gibbons, Trent Reznor and Mark Lanegan all rumoured to appear. However, not all of these came to fruition on the album as Homme again sought to redesign his band’s sound. Throughout his career he had always sought to defy expectations and flip them back on themselves, but here he returned in a way to his old sound of robotic riffs. The softer and richer guitar sound was replaced with jarring and spiky stabs (the smooth blues of Make It Witchu being a notable exception) along with the new heavy influence of electronic music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LT_kDj4Xzo

It would be another six years until QOTSA released their next, and currently, most recent album. Their sixth arrived with similar stories like all the other albums. There were returning members- Dave Grohl on drums for a few tracks and Nick Oliveri, departures- Joey Castillo, new arrivals like John Theodore, a whole host of guest stars including Sir Elton John, Reznor, and Alex Turner from Arctic Monkeys, and anticipation for where Homme would take himself and his band next. However, …Like Clockwork wasn’t like any of the other albums.

“[Matador founder] Chris Lombardi told me that this is Act Two of Queens of the Stone Age and I agree with that. Act Two just happened to start with me waking up in a hospital,” Homme told Spin in 2013. For so many years he and his band had seemed indestructible, but in between albums Homme found out that he was not.

…Like Clockwork was forged after Homme “died” on the operating table after a routine surgery went wrong and he had to be brought back to life. The vulnerability stemming from this traumatic experience is heard throughout the record. On The Vamypre of Time and Memory Homme is accompanied by just his piano as he sings, “I want God to come and take me home ‘cos I’m all alone.” In I Appear Missing, he addresses his past mistakes in life with unnerving clarity as he comes around from his near death experience. “Pieces were stolen from me, dare I say given away.” It was a version of Homme that no one had encountered before. Introspective, fragile and confused are not words that you would have attributed to QOTSA at any other time during their career, yet on their sixth album it fit them perfectly.

“One thing that is clear, it’s all downhill from here,” Homme sings with his fading falsetto on the final track of the album. On a deeply personal record that addressed a man who was lost in the world that he thought he had in the palm of his hand, it can be seen as a dark summation of his situation. But Homme always talked about reaching around in the dark for the light. And while he did, he managed to find it, and shone the spotlight on himself in a way that he never had before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEIVlYegHx8

What’s to come next for the band is anyone’s guess. As of yet, there’s been no official announcements, or even rumours about direction, guests and the like. Much like how their last album was influenced by Homme’s near death experience, it’s possible that their forthcoming record will similarly hone in on the emotional consequences of more recent events – most notably, the terrorist attack in Paris last year, which saw dozens killed at a concert of Hughes and Homme’s other band, Eagles of Death Metal. 

Whatever may be on the horizon for Homme and co, we’re so excited that they’re back, and we can’t wait to hear it.

Image: Brantley Gutierrez

Following the success of Mr Pop’s latest release; Post Pop Depression, Iggy was joined by Josh Homme and Arctic Monkeys‘ Matt Helders for an intimate performance on KCRW live session. Performing Sunday, generally agreed to be the centrepiece from the new album, the rendition is pretty much everything you could wish for.

Transitioning easily from record to live performance, there’s little disparity between the two aside from a certain rawness that you expect. Despite his 68 years, Iggy Pop never falters. And even if the frenetic energy of his stage shows is missing, at least there seems to be less danger of him expiring half way through. Which, I will admit, has been a very real (if possibly unfounded) fear for me while watching him perform previously.

The album itself, which was recorded in secret last year, has received nearly unanimous acclaim, harking back to Iggy Pop’s iconic Idiot, a number of tracks – including Sunday – drawing on Bowie’s Station to Station era. Post Pop Depression is the highest charting album of Iggy’s career to date after debuting at Number 17. It is also possible that this will be the last ever release from the punk legend, who was quoted as saying, “I feel like I’m closing up after this. That’s what I feel. It’s my gut instinct.”

Mr Pop will be joined by Homme and Helders once again for a series of live dates later in the year, showcasing Post Pop Depression. Kicking off on May 13th in London, the band will be gracing the stage of the historic Royal Albert Hall. An appearance at The Isle Of Wight Festival has also been confirmed.

You can read our full review of Sunday and the album Post Pop Depression here.

Image via KCRW

Post Pop Depression stands as an album that you never knew that you wanted. It came so out of the blue, so unexpected, that the shock of the revelation was almost as exciting as the revelation itself. Iggy Pop – a grizzly old rocker often cited as the preeminent punk godfather, wild provocateur, and all-round iconic front man, working alongside a modern day great in Josh Homme who has spent the last ten years or so of his career working with people like Billy Gibbons, John Paul Jones, Elton John, and that guy from Scissor Sisters.

While the names featured on this record are undoubtedly impressive, they serve as a backing band to Iggy as he reflects on life and death with the type of detail only experience can yield. However, that’s not to say that Homme’s fingerprints aren’t all over this too. His unmistakable guitar riffs slither around along with his backing vocals beneath Iggy’s crooned singing and lyrics that remain thoroughly transparent and honest throughout.

“I sent him a dossier on me by FedEx: written form, no email. I sent him three essays I’d written on my sex life about specific people. I also sent him an interview I did with an eminent critic here in New York about his concerns about my career,” Iggy recently recounted in an interview when explaining how the collaboration first came into existence.

After a few months of processing time, the duo agreed to work together and met up in the LA desert. Homme then called on multi-instrumentalist Dean Fertita and Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders to complete the all-star line-up for Iggy’s 17th solo album of his career. The secret project was started over a year ago at the Rancho de la Luna studio, yet amazingly was only just recently announced on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyP0O2NH9v8

The album begins with Break Into Your Heart, which features a minor key guitar riff from Homme that wouldn’t sound out of place on Queens of the Stone Age’s Lullabies to Paralyze. It’s a carnival of darkness as Iggy croons over the dusty desert atmospherics. “I’m gonna break into your heart, I’m gonna crawl under your skin.” And that is exactly what this brooding opener does. It sneaks in with a cool and detached bravado, before revealing its true destructive intentions. “Break them all, take them all, fake them all, steal them all, fail them all, touch them all.”

The first single to be released from the album was Gardenia, which has been repeatedly linked to the late great David Bowie. The comparisons can be made both lyrically and texturally, but make no mistake: this is an Iggy Pop track. The bright, sunny guitar opening gives way to a jaunty rhythm and Iggy waxing lyrical about “your hourglass ass and your powerful back,” and so on. It’s a seedy reflection on sexual obsession, as images of cheap motel rooms, leather burgundy chairs that have seen better days, and a seemingly unimpressed Iggy Pop sitting in the corner of a smoke-filled room while watching the women pass by him, flash in and out of focus. They may be beautiful and alluring, but they can never quite match up to Gardenia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m8TmlS20ZA

American Valhalla then follows with an entirely irresistible low bass groove. But it’s also a song that is completely resigned to its fate. The looming nature of death pervades every note and every lyric that Iggy spits out here, like the saddening declaration, “I’ve nothing but my name.” While In the Lobby features a desert groove, complete with wailing guitars fixed up against a rumbling drum beat that almost has a jungle feel to it.

The album’s centrepiece Sunday takes the spotlight, with rolling drums and a clean guitar line. It confidently struts along like some disco-loving lothario, taken straight out of his late 1970’s pomp. You can almost see the questionably coloured pastel suits, the platform shoes, and the disco ball as it spins above in a room which suddenly turns dangerous. A chugging bass line kicks in and a cacophony of backing vocals all filter around Iggy’s delivery. An all-female choral group then enters into the mix as it drifts off into a hypnotic and stunning orchestral conclusion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMBQMQfrPso

The slowest track on the album, Vulture, sees Iggy observing the desert scavenger picking to pieces the flesh of life. Next, stoner guitar riffs create a thick sludge of noise on the creepy German Days. A bar room guitar riff quickly delves back into the dark, claustrophobic jam it always intended to be. It is a perfect soundtrack to Halloween night, as a great Homme guitar solo blasts away beneath Iggy’s foreboding “oohs,” drifting by like a ghost ship out in the ocean.

Chocolate Drops is a ballad full of world-weary wisdom that features a delightful call and response between the two main architects, Iggy and Homme. There is talk of, “when every day is judgement day” and “when your love of life is an empty beach,” while a pained guitar line stumbles around in the background. It then breaks down among the ringing of funeral bells; “There is nothing in the dark, it’s just an old excuse.” The fragility of the circumstances of ageing is laid bare here in unnerving honesty; it sees Iggy grappling with the very notions of mortality. Assessing a time when all those dreams have either been achieved or have perished into the past, when all those lovers have long since vanished, and when you’re left with nobody but yourself.

An Iggy and Homme duet , Paraguay, sees their voices mix together hypnotically until a slow strum of guitar begins. Iggy then declares “I’m going to where sore losers go” while masterfully adding that all he needs to survive is a “bank account and tamales.” The album closer is the sound of withdrawal – a man who has seen and experienced everything he could ever have wanted to. He claims he “has no fear,” but for once you doubt his sincerity. There is a sadness to the escape while the piano trickles away delicately. Then, it deconstructs via a stop-start three minute epic, which sees Iggy morph into an angry man once again as he lays out all his issues with a world that he proposes he will soon leave behind. He is pretty much talking as he addresses everyone, perhaps even subconsciously himself too, in a scathing outro. “Everybody’s fucking scared. Fear eats all the souls at once. I’m tired of it. And I dream about getting away. To a new life. Where there’s not so much fucking knowledge. I don’t want any of this information. I don’t want you. No. Not anymore. I’ve had enough of you. Yeah, I’m talking to you.” A Homme guitar solo, which is one of the best of his career so far, then rips in to go along with the sound of a band giving it everything – one last hurrah.

For what is reportedly his final studio album ever, this is a dark reflection of a man who is tired of his surroundings, defiantly spitting in the face of all convention until the very end. And really, would you expect anything less from Iggy Pop?

Post Pop Depression is out on March 18th via Loma Vista.

Image: NME

Josh Homme stopped by for St Vincent’s Beats 1 program where the two had a quick chat and St Vincent played the Queens of the Stone Age frontman a special mixtape of Iggy Pop tunes.

The Mixtape Delivery Service sees St Vincent taking all manner of requests from fans for her to create them a mixtape in relation to a specific topic. So far there has been curated playlists for an 11-year old girl who wanted pure 1980’s pop hits, and for a woman who was going to reveal she was gay to her family over the 4th July holiday.

After collaborating with Iggy in the Californian desert, the Queens front man requested a mixtape of purely Iggy Pop tracks. St Vincent was only too happy to oblige to this request and played the classic The Passenger, alongside some new tracks such as Gardenia and Break into your Heart which Homme featured on.

The pair, who also worked alongside Dean Fertita and Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders, crafted the iconic front man’s 17th solo album at the Rancho de la Luna studio in Joshua Tree. The all-star line-up meeting up in secret early last year, after Iggy had reached out to Homme to collaborate.

In a recent interview with The Guardian, Homme described Iggy as, “the last of the one-and–onlys.”

“I was looking to make high-quality, non-band solo work, where you really put both feet into it. I wanted to find the best and he’s [Homme] the best,” Iggy said of his collaborative partner.

Together they created a record that drew heavily from the blueprints of Iggy’s previous work, on albums such as The Idiot and Lust for Life, to make something new entirely.

Post Pop Depression is set for official release tomorrow (March 18th) and has seen Homme and Iggy embark on a run of promotional visits for the record, which also recently included an extended chat with the guys for the Nerdist podcast.

You can listen to the whole mixtape at Apple Music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMBQMQfrPso

Image: Andreas Neumann

 

 

A serious FOMO inducing clip has appeared online, showing a live performance by Iggy Pop and Josh Homme. The pair, along with a full band, played Iggy Pop’s iconic Lust For Life at what was reportedly a warm up gig at The Teregram Ballroom in Los Angeles. Having recently announced their collaborative album, Post Pop Depression, the show comes just a week ahead of the expected album release from the band.

Scheduled to drop on March 18, they have also announced a run of live shows starting later in the month. And if the video from their secret show is anything to go by, they will not disappoint. Homme and Mr Pop we joined by Dean Fertitia (Queens of The Stone Age and The Dead Weather) on guitar and keyboards, with contributions from Arctic Monkeys‘ drummer Matt Helders for the record.

Appearing on stage, Iggy has lost none of his legendary energy, despite his 68 years. Tearing around with the same frenzied moves that spawned an entire generation of frontmen, the familiar riff (also appropriated by a number of bands) is accompanied by screams, and a crowd pretty much going nuts.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl-qj5A1zwQ]

The band also reportedly performed tracks from their new album at the show. Post Pop Depression has now been made available to stream in full ahead of its release, via NPR. The nine tracks are the first music to be released by Iggy Pop since 2013, and predominantly deal with the question of his own validity in today’s world.

The band’s short run of tour dates will take them all over the world, apparently opting for smaller venues over vast arenas. Homme has been reported as saying that they will only perform in “small, beautiful theaters where their presence might still seem disruptive.”

Image: Queens of The Stone Age

Godfather of punk Iggy Pop has released Sunday, the third single from his forthcoming album Post Pop Depression. The album is a collaborative effort with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age and Eagles of Death Metal, and Sunday follows on from Gardenia and Break Into Your Heart.

Pop has been vocal about the weighty emotion attached to his forthcoming album, with the initial ideas for the album stemming back to the late 1970s, when Pop was working and living with David Bowie in Berlin. Homme, too, has stated that working on this album helped him through the trauma which followed the attack on the EODM concert at Le Bataclan in Paris last November.

The sprawling track spans more than six minutes, kicking off with a rolling beat from Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders. Pop’s immediately identifiable, uniquely rich voice soon enters, paving the way with harmonies, bright guitars, and a wavering melody that indeed exudes a Bowie-influenced sound. As the track progresses, strings play a stronger and stronger role, eventually altering the atmosphere and sound entirely – I imagine it may flow into a string-laden track on the full album.

Iggy Pop has explained that Post Pop Depression is a kind of spiritual follow-up to Lust For Life, and that it may actually be his last album ever. Considering how incredible each of the three tracks released so far are, if this is true, he’s going out with one hell of a bang.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=zMBQMQfrPso

Post Pop Depression comes out on March 18. Check out the full track listing here:

Break Into Your Heart
Gardenia
American Valhalla
In The Lobby
Sunday
Vulture
German Days
Chocolate Drops
Paraguay

Image: NME

 

 

We’re already in February. What? It’s already been one of the most insane months of new musical releases in memory, and we still have eleven months of 2016 to go. From a stunning David Bowie finale, to the long-awaited eponymous debut from Nevermen (a frontman supergroup consisting of Faith No More’s Mike Patton, TV On The Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe and rapper DoseOne) surprise releases from Massive Attack and Rihanna, new music from Kanye, PJ Harvey, A$AP Rocky and a tonne more, it’s actually overwhelming – and did I mention that’s just what we’ve been listening to in the past couple days?

The past thirty one days have been musically intense. And I’ve made a real effort to not just listen to hip-hop, considering that my 2015 was almost exclusively rap-centric. So to try and lay it all out, here’s your loyal H&E editor’s top four tracks of the month that has just passed.

4. Explosions In The Sky, Disintegration Anxiety

I fucking love Explosions In The Sky. I love post rock, and they’re among the world’s best when it comes to it. Their particularly unique brand of instrumental music, dominated by flickery guitars and immensely emotive, sweeping phrases, has stunned me both on record and on stage for years. They’re a band that I associate with at least two past relationships, meaning that I’ve had a tumultuous and at times, almost resentful connection with the Texan quartet. However, my relationship with EITS has prevailed although those relationships did not, and I was overjoyed to learn that they were gearing up to release their first new record in five years. Read our Flashback Friday piece on The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place to discover how another of our writers has been similarly impacted.

I was admittedly worried that their new material would rehash their old sound, but it doesn’t. It progresses. This track is heavier and shakier and darker than what we’ve heard from them before. It’s not soaring and majestic in a way I may have expected. It broods, it drones, it bathes in darkness and uncertainty. As the rhythm comes in, you’re not sure what to expect. Every layer that we’re familiar with is there, but they’re heading in a totally different direction – the road less taken, the road with a dark and distorted rhythm. Most importantly, it leaves me wanting so much more. And come April 1, when their album The Wilderness comes out, I have a feeling we’re in for something truly special.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT2UmlUmDQI

 

3. Iggy Pop & Josh Homme, Gardenia

It’s difficult to quantify my collective respect and love for both Iggy Pop and Josh Homme, of QOTSA and Eagles of Death Metal recognition. The pair have separately released some of the most meaningful and influential music in my life and musical journey. When I heard that the pair were releasing a collaborative album, my heart nearly stopped. And the first single Gardenia is simply phenomenal.

To me, Iggy Pop’s career was nothing short of over. It’s been a long while since he’d released anything memorable – a judgement I doubt I’m alone in believing. But hey, it’s 2016. If the world can fall in love with Justin Bieber and Zayn Malik, it should not be surprising that at age sixty-eight, Iggy Pop may be on the brink of releasing one of the best records of his career.

Homme has reportedly called Post Pop Depression a sequel of sorts to Pop’s seminal solo album Lust For Life, and it’s easy to see why. Gardenia is equal parts fun and lustful, with a slinky post-punk rhythm, remarkably coquettish lyrics, and an almost teenage infatuation with this woman, Gardenia, along with her hourglass ass and the ditch of her spine. I haven’t heard a song that’s put this much of a smile in my face in a long while.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m8TmlS20ZA

2. Massive Attack, Take It There ft. Tricky & 3D
I cannot believe that Massive Attack just dropped an EP. It was almost midnight when I heard the word that Ritual Spirit was upon us and I genuinely freaked out. Trip hop may just be my favourite niche genre ever, and other than Portishead, Massive Attack are very obviously the leaders of the clan. They hadn’t released new music since Heligoland in 2010. With incredible features from Young Fathers, Azekel, Roots Manuva and Tricky, they packed as much as they possibly could into the release – and I for one, am so grateful for that. I’m also grateful for the news that this isn’t the only MA we’ll be hearing this year – they reportedly have a second EP and a full album on the way.

The lead single and video is Take It There ft. Tricky. Now, the very fact that this track features Tricky makes it extremely special. A founding member of Massive Attack, he had not recorded with the group since way back in 1994. Also, I am a die hard Tricky fan. False Idols and Maxinquaye are two of my all time favourite albums, and everything he’s done as a solo artist has well and truly crept under my skin.

This song fucking rocks. It’s flawless. The dark blend of a rhythm with a heavy piano, and the hazy vocals, only complemented by the deeply disturbing video clip. It’s seductive and dark and sexy and yet kind of upsetting, and it does things to me in a way that only Massive Attack can manage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWSt_q7M3zI

1. The Drones, To Think That I Once Loved You

I have long classified The Drones as my favourite Australian band ever. My god, do I love The Drones. Every single time I’ve seen them live I am blown away. Each time I listen to them, I am blown away. And that doesn’t happen to me very often. Their incredibly unique sound – more poetry than lyrics, more garage versions of Nick Cave meets drunk punks than your average Aus rock, has endlessly been a source of emotive relation for me. So tormented and hyperbolised, yet so close to home, that I’ve experienced manic phases where I listen to them constantly, and then cannot play them for months on end, multiple times over the years.

I was honoured to chat with drummer Christian Strybosch last year (in what was his first ever media interview, funnily enough) about the ten year anniversary of Wait Long By The River…, during which he also revealed that they were working on a new album. Christian said, “it’s a bit of a departure from what The Drones have ever sounded like”, and with 2015’s Taman Shud  and now this, I have a feeling we’re in for one of the best Australian albums in memory.

To Think That I Once Loved You feels like the spiritual sequel to Nine Eyes, from their unbelievable 2013 album I See Seaweed. “I’m all I needed finally on my own,” Liddiard boasted, having discovered solace in solitude. Yet there was always a sense of self-convincing in that song. And now, To Think… feels as though that character was ultimately uncertain in his sentiments, and fell back into a relationship with another – no doubt the same woman from the first song – only to once again come away from it, darker and more bitter than ever before. There’s an intensity, a realness in the new track, an emotional power that has shaken me to my core in a way that I have not felt in some time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XibHLDrlUls

Earlier today we were given the fantastic news of an impending collaborative album between Iggy Pop, frontman of punk originators The Stooges (and potentially the craziest man walking this Earth) and Josh Homme, frontman of Queens Of The Stone Age and the drummer for Eagles Of Death Metal. Being announced out of nowhere on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, the record is titled Post Pop Depression and due for release on March 18th this very year.

Naturally, we said ‘holy shit’ and found ourselves looking several weeks ahead to this fantastic record to be, not even thinking we’d be hearing anything from it for at least a little while. We were very, very wrong, Iggy and Josh shortly followed up their big announcement by sharing the first single from Post Pop Depression, the outrageously good Gardenia. Have a listen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m8TmlS20ZA&feature=youtu.be

Those warm and fuzzy desert rock riffs awash with sunny reverb, the bassline strutting back and forth with Iggy’s soft baritone crooning over the top of it all into a smooth chorus that will stick with you long after the song fades out and an in-your-face spoken word breakdown that’s vintage Iggy. The production from Homme is stellar from what we can hear thus far, and Iggy’s other backing band members are no slouches either, with Dean Fertita (also of Queens Of The Stone Age and Dead Weather fame) and Matt Helders, (of drumming duties with Arctic Monkeys), both bringing their talents to the table.

A tracklist for the album, which can be preordered from Monday, was also released and looks like this:

Break Into Your Heart
Gardenia
American Valhalla
In The Lobby
Sunday
Vulture
German Days
Chocolate Drops
Paraguay

With a tour to follow the release of this pleasant surprise of a record, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that Iggy and Josh (sounds like the title of the greatest sitcom ever right?) will pay Australia just a quick visit for a show or two.

Post Pop Depression is out March 18th via Caroline Australia

Punk pioneer and legend Iggy Pop and rock demigod Josh Homme, of Queens Of The Stone Age and The Eagles Of Death Metal, have come together to release a new collaborative album. Entitled Post Pop Depression, the record is due to be released March 18 of this year and the duo have also announced their plans to tour with the material.

Work began after Iggy Pop initially contacted Homme suggesting the possibility of working together on a project. Like any sensible man, and musician, Homme appreciated the enormity of such an offer, and the pair began to exchange song ideas and notes. Homme was particularly interested in Iggy Pop’s Berlin stint with David Bowie, especially after dissolving his group Kyuss, a decision influenced by his feeling that they would never achieve the same kind of brilliance as Pop and Bowie did on Lust For Life and The Idiot.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQvUBf5l7Vw]

His first record since 2013’s Ready To Die with The Stooges, Post Pop Depression hints at Iggy Pop questioning his own validity in today’s world. Commenting on the project he said “In American life, because it’s so hypercompetitive, what happens when you’re finally useless to everyone except hopefully not yourself? What happens then? And can you continue to be of use to yourself? I had a kind of character in mind. It was sort of a cross between myself and a military veteran.” Nearly a mythical creature of music, the question of whether he is a legend or the last dinosaur is an understandable one.

Josh Homme termed the record a “much deserved victory lap” for Pop, who he described as “the last one of the one-of-a-kinds”. He also told of how working on Post Pop Depression has helped him deal with the trauma of the Paris terror attacks that targeted The Eagles Of Death Metal’s show last year. Despite not being present at the show at Bataclan, Homme was deeply affected by the incident and said of his collaboration with Pop “The fact that I had this to work on, it saved me”.

The project also draws some fairly serious talent along side Homme and Pop, with Dean Fertitia (QoTSA and The Dead Weather) on guitar and keyboards, and contributions from Arctic Monkeys‘  drummer Matt Helders. A tour of the album is also expected, where the group will also be joined by QotSA’s Troy Van Leeuwen on guitar and Chavez’s bassist Matt Sweeney. Though initially recorded under their own aegis, Post Pop Depression will be released under Loma Vista records. Josh Homme and Iggy Pop will also appear on this week’s Late Show with Stephen Colbert for the debut performance of the new material.

 

 

There’s a new, dark fairytale and conceptual live gig set to tour soon with a roll call to make your jaw drop. Gutterdämmerung is the cinematic realisation of Bjorn Tagemose‘s original story in which a young girl is sent by an evil  priest to retrieve and destroy the evil guitar belonging to none other than the devil himself. In a series of videos, the cast list has been teased by Henry Rollins and Iggy Pop, who both star in the project.

It’s a fully immersive, loud as fuck experience, where silent movies and live rock music intertwine to create “the loudest silent movie on Earth”. Rollins is a co-screenwriter and plays the aforementioned priest, while Iggy portrays a “punk-angel” who unleashes the Devil’s guitar and sin in general upon Earth out of sheer boredom. Joining the musicians are icons of their genres including Grace Jones, Jesse Hughes (Eagles of Death Metal), Mark Lanegan and Lemmy Kilmister (Motörhead) as well as actors Tuesday Cross and Olivia Vinall.

Today it was announced that joining the already immense cast is none other than Hughes’ EODM bandmate and all round rock legend (or as Hughes describes him “a wizard, not a magician, the ginger Elvis, the 6’5 viking monster of sound, fury and unbelievable good taste”) Josh Homme and French electronic icons Justice.

Speaking on the project, Iggy Pop describes the film as an archetypal epic in the vein of The Oddessy or Beowulf, so in the immortal words of Jesse Hughes “It’s fucked up – so stay posted.”