As Scottish tunesmiths BIFFY CLYRO prepare to release their fifth record Only Revolutions, Edwin McFee chats with bassist James Johnston and hears all about working with Josh Homme, why their latest sonic manifesto is their most positive to date and why he’s glad he doesn’t have to support Limp Bizkit anymore.
Proof that Irish rock is in rude good health, Evil Harrisons boast slick metal riffs and vocals reminiscent of Josh Homme on this track, but who cares? That home-grown intrinsically Irish romantic title does all the donkey work. Of course it vies for attention with the B-side’s “Quit raising my Cane!”
The opening track from the Belgian rockers’ second LP, the Josh Homme-produced Paradisiac, kicks off with an understated swirl of bass-heavy drumming, riffage to the max and crazed electronic distortion before the climactic chorus proves them to be a version of Soundgarden introduced to the complex ways of the noughties.
Sadly, Tim Vanhamel’s sound isn’t so much a voice as an unprojected whisper, but given time they could prove to be something very special.
Here’s the deal: ‘3s & 7s’ is an intelligent song which features the band’s trademarks biker rock riffs and some fine falsettoing by Josh Homme. So it contains the attributes that are consistent with the ever-changing line up, but in a bar brawl with any of their other tracks – even the feeble album tracks from Lullabies To Paralyze – this would be hospitalised in an instant. It’s a weak demo that somehow made it onto the album. Then was released as a single. A lead one at that. Pity.
Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme on the firing of bandmate Nick Oliveri, the London bombings and his plan to disappear once their current tour is over
The highly-anticipated collaboration from the rock supergroup made up of drummer Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Probot), vocalist/guitarist Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss, Eagles of Death Metal), and bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) will be released on November 16 in Ireland and the UK.
From badass bunnies via political incorrectness to the mightiest drummer in rock ’n’ roll, it’s all in an interview’s work for Queens Of The Stone Age mainman Josh Homme.
Brody Dalle is tired – but then she has had a pretty intense few years of it. Peter Murphy learns how The Distillers survived marital discord and peer disapproval.
Stepping out from under the shadow of Tricky – but refusing to leave her former amour entirely behind – Martina Topley Bird has staked her own claim with one of the albums of the year. Comparisons with Billie Holiday may be flattering but, as she tells Stuart Clark, she’s too “pig-headed” to be anyone other than herself
2006 seems to be the Chinese year of the side project, what with Broken Social Scene, James Dean Bradfield, The Raconteurs, Thom Yorke and now this second album from Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme – or ‘Baby Duck’ as his alter ego dictates.
Peter Murphy considers Nirvana’s legacy and wonders will we ever hear their like again. Producer Butch Vig and Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age help him with his enquiries
If anyone had told me a year ago that I’d be flinging my knickers at a bloke in a catsuit and another who used to be in a boy band I’d have told them to fuck right off. But, they wore me down and I eventually succumbed to the cock rockin’ charms of The Darkness (albeit with the help of a persistent Stuart Clark). And as for old Trousersnake, well, frankly, who wouldn’t?
Jesse Hughes of Eagles Of Death Metal takes time out from showering with nubile fans to explain why the Republican party is too left-wing for him, sings the praises of George W Bush and tells us what it’s like to have a former Sex Pistol as a post-rehab sponsor.
Coldplay, White Stripes, Strokes, Queens, Garbage, Oasis, JJ72, Franz... With a whole slew of major albums in the pipeline, it looks like ‘05 will be the wrong year to kick that addiction to noise.
If there’s a central problem with War Stories, it’s that at times it strays too close to rock orthodoxy and loses the offbeat stylistic flourishes that made Unkle such an exciting proposition to begin with.
Hailed as the new Courtney Love, Distillers vocalist Brody Dalle has surely been taking tips from the ex-Hole star on how to keep herself in the headlines.
They may claim that they’re not interested in world domination, but US underground infatuated Dublin rockers Angels Of Mons are nonetheless brewing up a storm on the Irish indie scene.
Most Unkle productions feel like they were conceived by a brain only capable of operating in widescreen – they aim toward all-encompassing epicity, but end up as nothing but a half-agreeable mess
You’ve grown your hair and want to make a bitching rock record. Who do you call? Arctic Monkeys tell Stuart Clark about their remarkable journey from Sheffield to the Mojave.
New Order will play this summer's Oxegen festival and there is a strong possibility that Queens Of The Stone Age and the Cocteau Twins will also be added to the bill
For this year’s crop, it’s entirely possibly that Blood Mountain could be their Number Of The Beast or Wheels Of Steel. Those with the benefit of slightly more experience, however, will find that Mastodon offer little that’s particularly new.
Sexually outrageous on stage, potty-mouthed Canuck Peaches turns out to be rather a sweet-heart in person. And for the record: no, she’d rather you didn’t stick your hand up her crotch.
Is it sexual liberation in handy CD form? Well, we can’t know for sure, but listening to Peaches, one can momentarily forget that we live on the same planet as the faux girl power of the Pussycat Dolls.
Having dominated the charts here for the past ten years, Ash are gearing up for a full-scale invasion of America. Stuart Clark dons his hard hat as Tim, Mark, Rick and Charlotte tell him about their new record of mass destruction Meltdown, and the A-list celebrity company they’ve been keeping in the city of angels.
True, Caught In The Net would rather wank pigs in hell than attend a Panic At The Disco gig, but we wouldn’t be as fascistically anti-emo as the Russian parliament who want to make possession of an asymmetrical fringe a criminal offence.
A mish-mash of different sounds and styles from goth to Pumpkins-esque alternative to moany-sleazy-girl rock, Auf Der Maur’s album is lacking anything worthy of a mere toe-tap.
Recorded in sunny California, under the sonic supervision of Nick ‘Foo Fighters’ Raskulinecz, Ash’s fourth studio album is one big-sounding, drums-pounding, amps-to-eleven, NOISY MOTHERFUCKER of a record (as the irate neighbour said to the policeman).
