Queens of the Stone Age (commonly abbreviated QOTSA) is an American rock band formed in 1996 in Palm Desert, California.
The band was founded by vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme, who has been the only constant member throughout multiple line-up changes.
The current line-up consists of Homme alongside Troy Van Leeuwen (guitar, lap steel, keyboard, percussion, backing vocals),
Michael Shuman (bass guitar, keyboard, backing vocals), Dean Fertita (keyboards, guitar, percussion, backing vocals), and Jon Theodore (drums, percussion).
Formed after the dissolution of Homme’s previous band Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age developed a style of riff-oriented, heavy rock music.
Their sound has since evolved to incorporate a variety of different styles and influences, most notably including collaborations with Screaming Trees lead singer Mark Lanegan and Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl.
Musical style
Throughout its career, the band has been described as alternative rock, stoner rock, alternative metal, and hard rock.
Homme has described the band’s self-titled debut album as driving music, angular and recorded dry, with the album featuring solid and repetitive riffs in its song structure.
Rolling Stone magazine also noted a “connection between American meat-and-potatoes macho rock of the early 1970s, like Blue Cheer and Grand Funk Railroad, and the precision-timing drones in German rock of the same period.”
The band’s following album – Rated R – contained a wider variety of instruments, several recording guests and lead vocals shared by Homme, Oliveri and Lanegan.
Homme has also commented that “Our first record announced our sound. This one added that we’re different and weird.”
The band continued to experiment on their third album, Songs for the Deaf, which also featured a line-up including three lead vocalists, many guest appearances and wide range of instrumentation, including horn and string sections.
Homme has described Lullabies to Paralyze as a “dark” album, which includes imagery inspired by The Brothers Grimm folk and fairy tales.
In 2005, Homme explained, “Where the poetry seems to be is when you start in the dark and reach for the light—that’s what makes it not depressing to me…”
The album changed gears from the band’s previous distinct “driving” sound, much due to the departure of longtime member Nick Oliveri.
The band almost exclusively used semi hollow body guitars during the making of the record. With Era Vulgaris the band continued to develop their signature sound with more dance-oriented elements and electronic influences, while Homme has currently gone back to being the only lead vocalist in the band and uses more distinct vocal melodies.
Homme has on numerous occasions described their music as “rock versions of electronic music,” stating that he takes inspiration from the repetitive nature of electronic trance music along with various forms of dance music, hip-hop, trip hop and krautrock.
This heavy rock style mixed with the structure of electronic music has been dubbed by Homme as “robot rock” in an interview with KUNO-TV at the Roskilde Festival 2001.
In a 2013 interview with guitarist Matt Sweeney for Guitar Moves, a web series made by Vice Media’s music channel Noisey, Homme revealed aspects of his distinctive guitar playing style.
He demonstrated the ‘Josh Homme scale’, which he claimed was the result of years playing and altering the blues scale.
The scale has the intervals 1, b3, 3, b5, 5, 6, b7. His scale is the half whole scale with the second degree (b2) omitted.
In the same interview Homme referenced some of his earlier influences on his playing, citing both polka guitar styles and the techniques of Jimi Hendrix.
Tracklist
A1 My God Is The Sun
A2 You Think I Ain’t Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire
A3 No One Knows
A4 Burn The Witch
A5 Smooth Sailing
A6 If I Had A Tail
B1 The Vampyre Of Time And Memory
B2 Little Sister
B3 Make It Wit Chu
B4 I Sat By The Ocean
B5 Sick, Sick, Sick
B6 Go With The Flow
QOTSA Live In Philadelphia
Members (Current)
Josh Homme – lead vocals, guitar, piano (1996–present), bass (1996–1998, 2004–2007)
Troy Van Leeuwen – guitar, lap steel guitar, keyboards, synthesizers, percussion, backing vocals (2002–present), bass (2005–2006)
Michael Shuman – bass, synthesizers, backing vocals (2007–present)
Dean Fertita – keyboards, synthesizers, guitar, percussion, backing vocals (2007–present)
Jon Theodore – drums, percussion, samplers (2013–present)
Former
Alfredo Hernández – drums, percussion (1998–1999)
Nick Oliveri – bass, co-lead and backing vocals (1998–2004)
Mark Lanegan – co-lead and backing vocals (2001–2005), keyboards (2005)
Dave Grohl – drums, percussion (2001–2002, official members; 2013, session members only)
Joey Castillo – drums, percussion (2002–2012)
Alain Johannes – bass, backing vocals, guitars (2005–2007)
Natasha Shneider – keyboards, backing vocals (2005–2006)
Touring musicians
Dave Catching – guitars, keyboards, lap steel (1998–2000)
Gene Trautmann – drums, percussion (1999–2001)
Brendon McNichol – guitars, keyboards, lap steel (2000–2001)
Dan Druff – bass, backing vocals (2004–2005)
Queens of the Stone Age discography
Queens of the Stone Age (1998)
Rated R (2000)
Songs for the Deaf (2002)
Lullabies to Paralyze (2005)
Era Vulgaris (2007)
…Like Clockwork (2013)
Villains (2017)
Kyuss was an American rock band, formed in Palm Desert, California, in 1987.
Kyuss disbanded in 1995, and since then, members of Kyuss have gone on to form or play in several notable bands including Queens of the Stone Age, Fu Manchu, Dwarves, Eagles of Death Metal, Mondo Generator, Hermano, Unida, Slo Burn and Them Crooked Vultures. In November 2010, three former members of the band (minus Homme, who declined to participate) reunited under the adapted moniker “Kyuss Lives!” for a world tour with plans to record a new album at some point. A federal lawsuit subsequently filed by Homme resulted in Oliveri leaving the band in March 2012, and five months later a court ruled that Garcia and Bjork were not allowed to release audio recordings under the Kyuss Lives! moniker. As a result, they changed their name to Vista Chino.
The Palm Desert Scene is a group of related bands and musicians from Palm Desert, Southern California.
Their hard rock sound – often described as desert rock – contains elements of psychedelia, blues, heavy metal, punk rock, acid rock, alternative rock, and other genres.
It often features distinctive repetitive drum beats, a propensity for free-form jamming, and “trance-like” or “sludgy” grooves.
The involved musicians often play in multiple bands simultaneously, and there is a high rate of collaboration between bands.
The Palm Desert Scene is also notable for fostering stoner rock pioneers Kyuss. The term “stoner rock” is sometimes used interchangeably with the term “desert rock”.
However, not all Palm Desert scene bands are “stoner rock” and not all stoner rock bands sound exactly like those in Palm Desert.
Palm Desert has been named by Blender magazine as “one of the top seven rock n’ roll cities in America”.
Kyuss discography
Wretch (1991)
Blues for the Red Sun (1992)
Welcome to Sky Valley (1994)
…And the Circus Leaves Town (1995)
Band members
Josh Homme – guitars (1987–1995)
John Garcia – lead vocals (1987–1995)
Brant Bjork – drums, percussion (1987–1994)
Chris Cockrell – bass guitar (1987–1991)
Nick Oliveri – guitars (1987–1988), bass guitar (1991–1992)
Scott Reeder – bass guitar (1992–1995)
Alfredo Hernández – drums, percussion (1994–1995)
