Josh Homme revealed in an interview for England's NME that he died and came back to life on an operating table last year.
He'd been in surgery last autumn to correct longstanding problems with his knee. That's when, he puts it bluntly, "I had an operation and died, and survived on the table."
Details, please?
"I had surgery on my leg and there were complications and I died on the table."
Wow.
"I was in bed for three months, and I've never done that before so I had time to reflect. I got cleared in the middle of December to walk round again and get out [of] bed, so after three months of just living in my mind, I was finally able to walk round again."
Three months without walking?
"So I just sprang into the new year, basically."
So did Robert Plant on New Year's Day 1976 after four months in a wheelchair and on crutches. That was from the auto accident that could have killed him -- and the hospital stay in Greece that could have stopped his life at age 26.
Two singers in bands with John Paul Jones in a similar situation just after tours!
Is Homme serious about this new revelation? NME's Dan Martin, who interviewed him, thinks so. Martin writes: "Josh is prone to exaggeration, but the serenity with which the Queens of the Stone Age leader talks about his flatline leaves us in no doubt that this is not one of his tall stories."
A pair of Ray Ban aviator sunglasses signed by the members of Them Crooked Vultures is being auctioned online to benefit the Teenage Cancer Trust.
The right lens bears the silver-toned autograph of the group's only member who goes by three names, John Paul Jones. The etchings on the left lens comes from Josh Homme and Dave Grohl.
The auction ends Monday night in England, which is still the afternoon for the continental United States. As of the time of writing, 14 bids have been placed, with the glasses set to sell for at least £122. Update: After a 31st bid was placed, the auction closed Monday with a winning bid of £300.
In other Them Crooked Vultures news, Josh Homme has given a telling interview looking back on his past 15 months with the band. Published May 7 on the Jam! Showbiz Web site to promote the current Canadian tour, the interview sees Homme answer questions about being in a band with someone who spent the 1970s with Led Zeppelin.
Has Homme stopped looking to his right during Vultures shows and realizing he's onstage with John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin? Homme answers:
"No. And I hope I never do. I always look over and say, 'What a badass, man.' This is something that has yet to stop exciting me."
And how about some of the stories Jones tells? Says Homme:
"The funny thing is, as we were recording, we'd each be sharing stories and talking. And it would dawn on me: These are Zeppelin stories. But really, they're stories about his friends who just happen to be Zeppelin. And the humanizing of those characters has really been kind of tender and cool for me. But yeah, the stories are crazy."
"We were in those other bands, so it's possible that the contributions we made to those bands may not be totally unlike to contributions we make to this band. But they're all totally different bands."
Positive press continues on the short West Coast jaunt by Them Crooked Vultures, now with the Las Vegas Weekly featuring some overwhelmingly supportive commentary about John Paul Jones.
"... the Vultures' two-hour Joint performance likely could have been called The John Paul Jones Show and drawn the same crowd. If we'd had one of those hokey noise-o-meters the mere mention of John Paul Jones' name would have cracked the red zone, and not without reason. Jones easily was the star of the Joint's one-year anniversary show, taking turns on at least half a dozen instruments, including keyboard, keytar, something fiddle-ish and more varieties of bass than I previously knew existed. The man's got chops to spare and an instrument closet befitting his decades in the music business."
Feldberg's observations about frontman Joshua Homme's behavior and comments during the show are not entirely positive, but she describes the band's music as "a solid rock stew that ricocheted between blues, psychedelic and hard rock without ever sounding unnatural." She adds, "The Vultures don't genre hop so much as they slip into each style like they're putting on a well-made coat. Somehow, they all fit."
Friday night's showing by Them Crooked Vultures at the Coachella festival in Indio, Calif., has inspired some rave reviews.
Says the New York Times blog ArtsBeat, "They slammed, unrelentingly, through every one of their cheerfully self-conscious Big Rock songs -- and they share the skill set that made the music breathe and swing even if they never stopped walloping every riff."
The rhythm section of John Paul Jones and Dave Grohl was the subject of some of the focus. Todd Martens, writing for L.A. Times Music Blog Pop & Hiss, reports, "Grohl and Jones were caught in a rhythmic give-and-take, taunting and letting their instruments bite each other, with late-night-attic clanks and just hints of a beat emerging out of the murkiness." The Pop & Hiss article is accompanied by a single Times staff photo, and it's of Jones.
Writer Bruce Feiser leaves the hyperbole out of his Desert Sun coverage of the Vultures set at Coachella, only mentioning the band members by name and saying they "played a wide range of powerful, straightahead rock, including their first single, 'New Fang,' and the Cream-inspired 'Scumbag Blues.'" His focus was on the crowd's admiration for hometown kid Joshua Homme, but Feiser misnamed another Vultures song, referring to "Dead End Kids" instead of "Dead End Friends."
Pop music critic George Varga, writing for the San Diego Union-Tribune's Web site, didn't have much to say about the set from Them Crooked Vultures but made prominent mention of the band early in his recap of Coachella's first night. Varga did see fit to quote Homme as telling the crowd, "What a beautiful night it is. We're here to get the party started on Friday night."
At the same time these Coachella reports were appearing online, Antiquiet finally weighed in on this past Wednesday's Los Angeles show, detailing how that gig at the Nokia Theater differed from past gigs in the area. "Wednesday's show presented a more evolved Vultures; in full command of the material after having road tested it for half a year, the band displayed a confidence and affinity for razor-sharp off-the-cuff jamming that borders on telepathy," writes Johnny Firecloud. "They even debuted a new song ahead of their Coachella performance this weekend," he adds, referring of course to the non-album track "You Can't Possibly Begin to Imagine."
Firecloud concludes Antiquet's review with a great summary of a year's worth of activity by Them Crooked Vultures:
With both Grohl and Homme returning to their other bands with big plans to finish the year, Them Crooked Vultures are finishing this run with an open door, and it's clear they're out to leave a lasting impression with this final string of tour dates. It's been an incomparably awesome ride since news of the Vultures' existence first broke last year, and to witness the band push themselves to deeper, more dynamic heights, challenging each other to further evolve their already ironclad mastery of the craft as they did Wednesday night was nothing short of an honor.
The Denver Post's blog Reverb features an interview with Jones in advance of the group's performance this Monday night at the city's Fillmore Auditorium. In the interview, Jones discusses the roots of Them Crooked Vultures as "the blues from a different angle." He credits Homme for providing much of their approach, saying:
"Josh likes to call it 'perverted blues.' Obviously there are the psychedelic influences, which come around from the '60s and '70s, as well. It's a really nice mix of influences, but he's also influenced by a lot of other things. It's not like we all grew up listening to what was around us. There's lot of soul in what we do.
Jones also speaks in the Reverb interview about the way the band improvises on stage, each member playing off the others:
"There's a lot of cross-talk in this band, which is nice and exciting, and it gives you a lot of ammunition to fire off in whatever direction you like."
In support of next month's Independent Record Store Day, Them Crooked Vultures will release a 10-inch picture disc single on vinyl, consisting of "Mind Eraser, No Chaser" and "Highway One" backed with an audio interview.
In this video, Joshua Homme of Them Crooked Vultures explains what Independent Record Store Day is and how customers can participate.
In the meantime, the band has also contributed a live version of "Mind Eraser, No Chaser" to support Twestival, a community-oriented education fundraising event to be held in multiple locations this Thursday, March 25.
This minute, Absolute Radio is currently broadcasting some live tracks from Monday night's performance at the Royal Albert Hall; now playing is "New Fang." DJ Ben Jones has just pronounced the gig officially the loudest ever held at the famed London venue.
Them Crooked Vultures has shot a video for their single "New Fang" with director Paul Minor, several music news sites have reported. Josh Homme's band Queens of the Stone Age had a video directed by Minor: "3's and 7's" from 2007, which can be seen here.
So, is it unanimous? Them Crooked Vultures should make a second album? I'll round up what the band says in just a moment ...
This thing I got on iTunes this Tuesday morning is hot. I am so proud to be able to tell my grandkids someday that I was at a show on the first Them Crooked Vultures tour.
(And when they say, "Who?.......")
Well, how about that second album? Who's ready?
John? Hell yeah, John Paul Jones wants a second album. This is only the best band he's ever been in, or so he says. Wait, did he just compare his current project to Led Zeppelin -- and TCV wins? He can't be serious!! In case you missed it, check out what he said. Here's the highlight, though:
"I hope there's maybe going to be another album. I don't have a band that's going to call me back – the other two do. But they're going to have to fight me for them because we're having a bit too much fun at the moment."
That's what John told Australia's Nova 91.9 FM as published Nov. 10 and summed up here. He'll have to contend with Queens of the Stone Age and Foo Fighters before there'll be another Them Crooked Vultures. The one group has "fighters" in its name. Oh well, Jonesy seems up for the challenge anyway.
OK, what about those other guys in the Vultures? What do they have to say about it?
Josh? Yeah, he's in. Here's the scoop:
"I can't wait to make another record [with Them Crooked Vultures] because in the end, it was so much easier than it should have been and honestly, it's the hardest record I have ever made. You have to climb Everest eventually."
That's what Josh told the Herald Sun, also Australian. This dude's obviously in.
So, if my tally is correct, we have two out of three, which is a majority but not binding unless it's unanimous. So, what's our lone holdout, Dave Grohl, have to say -- now that he knows what his bandmates would like?
The answer comes, this time, not from Australia but from Canada: Alan Cross of "the world's largest global newspaper," metronews.ca, poses his open question to the band whilst seated with them at Homme's Pink Duck Studios in Los Angeles.
How far can they take this? Dave props himself up against some pillows on the sectional. A big grin spreads across his face. "As far as it will go."
For those of you keeping score, it's a tie game. They've all now admitted, at least once each, that they're in for round two.
So, the question is no longer: Will there be a second album? There will.
The question becomes instead: Will it be right away, or will they be doing separate projects first?
The all-too-brief North American tour by Them Crooked Vultures comes to a close tonight with a performance at New York's Roseland Ballroom. If it goes anything like last night's concert at the 9:30 club in Washington, D.C., the Big Apple is in for an ear-splitting treat consisting of well over an hour of riffs.
Dave Grohl's career since Nirvana may have flourished the most with him singing for the Foo Fighters, but make no mistake: He belongs pounding on the drums, where his power is rivaled by his imaginative drum beats and long (trance-inspired?) fills.
Throughout the show, Grohl watched carefully as his bandmates out front unleashed each riff. Beneath a mop of hair that has been soaking since the first song, Grohl's face displayed a sly look as he eyed the man to his right, who heretofore was most famous in the band that placed him with John Bonham. A spontaneous and stilted "Moby Dick" reference between songs last night brought to mind the drummer who has been missed since 1980. For John Paul Jones, all bets are that this lineup is his favorite since those days of expanding upon Willie Dixon-derived tunes.
No Willie Dixon royalties were earned or withheld last night. The band bashes through only completely original riffs in its uncompromising set that's devoid of cover songs. The creative forces that wrote these songs in a short time this year execute them flawlessly in their live setting. The complicated rhythmic changes are memorized and performed without even the slightest exchange of a visual cue. It's all done with ears, not mirrors.
Jones inadvertently steals the show with his mastery of an array of different instruments. As each new one is strapped around his neck and displayed on the stage, the audience responds with an approval. But it's surprising to see Jones confined to a four-string bass when he's just tinkered with the freedom 10 or 12 strings a song or two earlier. He makes your average professional bass player look like an amateur.
A title and release date for the band's album have not been officially announced, although one online U.K. retailer shows Nov. 23 as the date in question. Singer and guitarist Josh Homme said their disc would be self-titled, but that could change if a new catchphrase in line with the past "Follow What's Heard" and "Deserve the Future" is favored.
Kudos to the folks over at Antiquiet for being the first to get some important details out of any member of Them Crooked Vultures regarding their upcoming album.
Singer and guitarist Josh Homme said he's not quite sure when to expect a CD release by his new supergroup with Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones. As a matter of fact, none of the band members knows! Says Homme:
"We’ve been doing a lot of stuff real kind of secretive, and we actually made a pact to not know when it’s coming out, the band guys. I’m betting… Well it’s going to be before the end of the year… We kind of have a little running bet on what the date is. And I intend to win that bet, because I’m going to cheat."
Josh, I invite you to cheat by visiting TheCrookedVultures.info for that information as soon as I learn it, hopefully, before you do.
Also of note is Antiquiet got Homme to break the band's silence on whether or not it is signed to a record label. Here's the discourse:
Antiquiet: Any idea as far as an agreement on a label, or how that’s all going to work out distribution wise?
Josh Homme: Yeah… It’s going to come out on Interscope in the states, and Sony/BMG internationally.
Antiquiet: How do you feel about that? You’ve been pretty outspoken in the past about not feeling so hot about Interscope anymore…
Josh Homme: Well, you know… If it was up to me, I’d just get a real big hot air balloon, and put ‘em all in the basket of that, and just (miming) pull the cord and let it drop over places, you know?
But, you know, it’s not up to me always.
Again, kudos to Antiquiet. You can read the full interview with Homme there.
Dave Grohl's back on drums! That's what a lot of the buzz is that's currently surrounding Them Crooked Vultures as the band sets off to cruise across North America.
In the Foo Fighters, Grohl's talents behind a drum kit were hidden away in a bushel basket so that he could be the frontman, screaming indelicately into a microphone with a guitar strapped to his back. But the former Nirvana drummer has consistently returned to the drums whenever he's linked up with Queens of the Stone Age founder Josh Homme, himself an ample guitar player, singer, songwriter and frontman.
So it's long been Grohl's dream -- and probably fans of his -- to be able to return to the drums in a tight-knit group. Grohl envisioned himself forming a band with Homme years ago -- and who better to play bass than John Paul Jones? But who among us wouldn't desire to recruit Jones to join a rhythm section in much the same way we draft reliable running backs for fantasy football? Grohl probably never seriously thought he could form a band with both Homme and Jones.
"I'd worked with John on a Foo Fighters record and asked him. I guess it was about a year ago. I bumped into him in London, and I said, 'Hey, I got this project I think might be kind of fun. Me and my buddy Josh are gonna do something outside of our bands.' And he kind of went, 'Oh, yeah, right.' And then I didn't hear from him for a while, and then a month later, he called and said, 'Hey, when do you think you're gonna do it?' So I called Josh, [and I'm] like, 'F***, man, I think he actually wants to do it! This is amazing!'"
Grohl says that when he, Jones and Homme all started jamming together for the first time, it took him only as much as two or three minutes to realize it was the best band he'd ever been involved with.
"John, I mean, you know, John is ... he's ... he's an incredibly gifted musician. Anything that he picks up, he plays with feel, he plays with passion. He's ... he's a ... you know, he's a classically trained f***ing genius. But he rips on anything! He'll pick up a mandolin and just blow your head off! You know? And ... and everybody knows what he can do with a bass guitar, and watching the two of them go at each other, you know. I get to sit there and watch those two every night, and it's awesome."
It was presumably Grohl's first interview about Them Crooked Vultures since the band's formation early this year, and so he gushed over the fact that he was finally able to talk freely about the band.
"Nobody knew; we kept it a secret for eight months. Nobody knew. And that was the best part. I'm actually relieved now that I can talk about it because I used to -- you know, I had to keep it a secret. It's like I had a secret lover for eight months and I was trying to hide her away from everybody. You know? I couldn't tell anybody!"
The only remaining secret with the band that neither Grohl nor Jones was at liberty to address in their interviews with KUT 90.5 Austin was when Them Crooked Vultures will be releasing any of their studio recordings. When Grohl was asked if he could reveal anything about their record, he clammed up, reverting to the tight-lipped nature of the band since its public debut in August. Grohl simply told the reporter:
"No. You'll see."
While some media outlets are still reporting the band's debut album will be titled "Deserve the Future" and released late this month, it's really not even certain there will be an album release in the traditional sense. As I said one month ago yesterday:
Why not drop the entire album free of charge over the course of a month, hiding uncompressed digital files on different Web sites. We'd have to follow the social networking accounts of a couple dozen different henchmen affiliated with the marketing scheme and click incessantly on suspect links to various indistinguishable vultur.es URLs. Most would reveal comical images of crooked vultures, while only a handful would be those proverbial needles in the haystack, unleashing track by track the powerful music created for fans of loud rock.
Truly, then, only the most patient and ardent fans would deserve the future.
See or hear any good song clips from Them Crooked Vultures lately?
In a move that saw the band flexing its copyright muscle, a handful of unauthorized videos have been excised from the Web.
Two high-definition videos shot by a fan while attending the only gig so far by Them Crooked Vultures have been removed from Youtube. In place of each is an explanation:
This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Joshua Homme .
The two high-definition videos had been viewed a total of 14,826 times in about 24 hours. Both videos featured clear footage of John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl and Josh Homme playing their instruments, although obscured by some heads in the way.
Probably more troubling for the band is that both videos also contained a decent audio recording of songs that have not yet been released in any form.
Four fan-shot concert videos, believed to be the first uploaded to Youtube, contain highly overloaded sound and their music is barely discernible. These four videos remain on Youtube, evidently not selected for removal in this first wave of deletions.
The two high-definition videos were removed from Youtube on Aug. 12 but were uploaded a second time each, this time with a notation pleading with the band:
C'mon Josh, it's awesome music, don't delete it, just show to us more amazing TCV!
Only one promotional video has made its way onto the video-sharing site courtesy of Them Crooked Vultures. That video, called "Nobody Loves Me and Neither Do I," matches 14 seconds of audio with an animated sequence starring some swooping vultures and three scourge doctors. It has so far been played 32,600 times.
Also removed from YouTube on Aug. 12, with the same explanation of "a copyright claim by Joshua Homme," is a supposed Them Crooked Vultures video that turned out to be a hoax. It claimed to feature a full instrumental demo by Them Crooked Vultures of a track called "Paved Death" from an upcoming album.
A U.S. Patent and Trademark Office record reveals a filing date of July 29 for the phrase "Them Crooked Vultures" by a Delaware-based limited liability company of the same name. The trademark extends to "entertainment activities" and the "production of audio and video recordings."
The band is attempting to exercise exclusive control of the release of not only its new music but also all details relating to an upcoming tour schedule.
Daily updates from the band direct Twitter users to images of the earth, each day zooming closer to a destination many assume will ultimately reveal the location of the next Them Crooked Vultures gig.
So far, the imagery appears to be closing in on a location in the North Atlantic, playing into a rumor that Them Crooked Vultures will appear at the Pukkelpop Festival in Belgium on Aug. 20, giving way to further festival dates in Europe by the end of the month. (Update, 1:32 p.m.: The image at the left centers just east of the United Kingdom and is expected to pan farther east as it hones in on the location.)
The Pukkelpop Festival announced on Aug. 6 that a so-called "surprise act" had been booked to perform on the festival's opening day, Aug. 20. The act is to go on around 9 p.m. on the Marquee stage and play for an hour, the announcement says.
Whether or not they're right is something the festival says it will not confirm until the time of the show.
"Do not expect any hints, tips or clues from us," reads the festival's announcement. "We can only promise that you will be astounded by our 100% surprise act."
The band has also been mentioned in connection with the Lowlands Festival in the Netherlands on Aug. 23 (Update, Aug. 15: Now Belgium and the Netherlands look even more like a possibility. Click here to view a map of the locations of these festivals.), the Leeds Festival in England on Aug. 28, the Reading Festival in England on Aug. 29, and Rock en Seine in France on Aug. 30.
Advance promotion of the gig roughly told ticket buyers they were going to see a band called "8436276653388588737." When split into three words, "8436 2766533 88588737" translates in phone number code to "Them Crooked Vultures."
Wyatt, a concert goer three rows from the stage, where he spotted a keyboard in front of him at stage right, said Josh Homme confirmed the band's name toward the beginning of the midnight set at Metro.
All reports Tweeted, texted, phoned and otherwise communicated either during the show or immediately after it seemed to agree that between 10 and 14 songs made their debut during the show.
Titles revealed from the set list include "Scumbag Blues," "Elephant" (or "Elephants"), "Caligula" (or "Caligulove") and "Spinning in Dandelions" (or just "Dandelions"). Wyatt recalled one song title as "The Last Breath You Take After You Give Up," which one Twitter user said he recognized as the original title for the Queens of the Stone Age track "Turnin' on the Screw." If true, cool.
Apparent concert goer JohnEParkwrites ona newly launched official forum for Them Crooked Vultures, "Unreal show. I came in with what I thought may have been ridiculously high expectations and they blew em out of the water in the first 2 minutes. ... Josh and JPJ both rocked balls. JPJ plays the bass 90% percent of the time, keys for a couple songs and the keytar for a song."
Wyatt confirmed the keytar, adding he saw Jones playing the keyboard as well, plus "a sort of portable lap steel" and all sorts of basses -- some with four, five, 10 or 12 strings each! On Twitter, NC17mentioned, "John paul jones on strapped slide guitar."
Says logan5iveon the band's official forum, "The 1st song, Elephants, kicked major ass! That felt, without question, like witnessing an inaugural musical eruption."
NylonBandoleerswrote onLollapalooza's official forum, "Pretty awesome show. ... Everyone looked like they were having a good time and they put on a hell of a show. Great way to end Lollapalooza. As for the sound, it didn't really bear a striking resemblance to any of their previous work. Josh Homme handled nearly all the main vocals, and John Paul Jones played some of the most ridiculous basses ever."
Twitter user DannyWirtzwrote, "Them Crooked Vultures is what happens when a good idea is also well done. a nice mix of all 3 bands ... Bring on the record."
Greg Kot's "Turn It Up" blog for the Chicago Tribune said the band "sounded like it was on to something fresh, invigorating and just plain nasty." The meat and potatoes of Kot's review:
Homme handled lead vocals and guitar, and was unusually clear-eyed and affable, playing with more precision than he usually musters in Queens. And Jones, whose music with Led Zeppelin is an obvious touchstone for both his bandmates, was a huge presence with his variety of four-, six- and eight-string basses, a match for Grohl’s power and a counterpoint for Homme’s melodies. The group was rounded out by Queens alumnus Alain Johannes on guitar.
The set’s foundation was hard rock and hard edges, with Jones and Grohl going toe-to-toe in the engine room. Homme played more with texture and layering sounds on his guitar, the first memorable riff showing up four songs into the set on “Dead End Friends.” His high vocals were often bolstered by harmonies from Grohl, Johannes and even Jones. There were a couple of red herrings: “Bandoliers”” flirted with tenderness (Homme introduced it as a love song) and “Interlude w/ Ludes” came off as a prank, with Jones on keytar and a shimmying Homme in lounge-crooner mode. Otherwise, it was wrecking ball time, with the arrangements sometimes taking several turns before resolving.
Two epic tracks stood out. “Daffodils,” which hinted at psychedelia with reverb effects on the vocals and a massive bass tone, was capped by a Jones piano solo. And “Warsaw” ebbed and flowed, winding down to a low-key guitar-bass exchange before building back up into a slamming finale.
History tells us that super groups usually don’t last very long. But at least this particular one is off to a rousing start.
Then, Kot includes a transcribed set list:
Elephants New Fang Scumbag Blues Dead End Friends Bandoliers Mind Eraser Gunman Daffodils Interlude w/ Ludes Caligulove Warsaw Nobodys Loves Me
To call it the greatest debut ever is like calling Kareem Abdul-Jabbar a mere center or Bruce Lee a simple martial artist. To call it promising would severely downplay the talent of the band's members and the songs that spanned their 77 minute debut.
Josh Homme, Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones took the stage with nothing to lose and nothing really to prove other than to simply rock and they did exactly that. Accompanied by an additional guitarist, Them Crooked Vultures performed a set of unheard, unreleased material that left the remants and sounds of their more familiar bands at home. Instead, they brought forth a sound that rocked, was funky, bluesy and, overall, nothing short of jaw dropping.
... There are bands who dream of sounding as perfect as this, even during a rehearsal. ...
Them Crooked Vultures isn't just another supergroup. Based off tonight alone, they're a group that could singlehandly bring Rock back to the top of the Billboard charts.
Another forum user, this one posting at the Rekords Rekords forum, writes, "It was mind blowing. If you asked me what it sounded like, I can only answer 'it sounded exactly the way it should have'. Honest to god, some of the best music I have EVER heard. John Paul Jones was incredible and smiling the whole time ..."
As for the prospect a tour, which was never really in doubt until a MTV UK report questioning it, consider the Crooked Vultures logo on the drum kit an indication that more than one show is planned.
Also take into consideration tonight's launch of Them Crooked Vultures official store, which so far contains but one black T-shirt in four men's sizes. The shirt sells for $30 and ships for an additional $10. Inside the shirt reads the slogan, "Deserve the Future." The shirt and a concert poster were sold at the gig.
Through an iPhone's distorted recording, the minute's worth we can hear of this song sounds like a heavy basher in drop D tuning:
Here's a portion of a jam in the key of A:
This appears to be the end of "Daffodils" because it has John Paul Jones playing keyboard just before a round of applause and what could be Homme uttering Jones's name to the jubilant crowd:
It's official: Them Crooked Vultures will be debuting this weekend!
The supergroup including John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl and Josh Homme has been scheduled to perform Sunday night after the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago has concluded.
The aftershow concert is scheduled for a midnight start time, and tickets are to go on sale Thursday morning exclusively online.
The concert will be a midnight show taking place after a full day's lineup closing the Lollapalooza festival this Sunday, Aug. 9. Doors are open at 10 p.m.
The appearance was officially confirmed when an e-mail from themcrookedvultures.com, the band's official site, linked to the official ticketing page. An image in that e-mail also contained the same three symbols -- the Foo Fighters symbol, the John Paul Jones symbol and the Queens of the Stone Age symbol -- that bloggers had earlier noticed were together on by an unnamed act.
Soon afterward, Brent DiCrescenzo wrote in another blog about the rumor and pointed to a page on Etix.com with tickets to be sold exclusively online beginning this Thursday at 10 a.m. Central.
Over the past few days, the group's name has been floating around the Internet as Them Crooked Vultures. It is this name that both bloggers use in their postings today.
DeRogatis points out the festival's management has not confirmed the booking. If it happens, he says the Grohl-Homme-Jones appearance would "provide the much-needed icing on the cake largely missing from this year's festival lineup by closing things out with a special intimate after-show Sunday night at Metro."
DiCrescenzo calls this event "one of the biggest 'secret' shows to grace our Chicago stages in a while."
A band name has been blurted out for the group involving John Paul Jones, Dave Grohl and Josh Homme. It's the Crooked Vultures, according to one musician who's apparently in the know.
Eagles of Death Metal singer Jesse Hughes said the name during a live interview broadcast on Power 99 in Winnipeg, Canada.
Hughes, when asked if Homme was touring with the Eagles of Death Metal, said, "No, he's actually with the Crooked Vultures. He's doing the supergroup thing with Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones."
When the interviewer asked Hughes to clarify, he paused and said, "Yeah, maybe I'm not supposed to say that."
The conversation then got back on track to the original question of who's playing with the Eagles of Death Metal.
Management for Jones offered no comment when contacted by LedZeppelinNews.com.
Visit www.TheCrookedVultures.info for all up-to-date information about this emerging band as reported by Lemon Squeezings.
Update: It appears the band will be going by the name Them Crooked Vultures. There is an e-mail sign-up at www.ThemCrookedVultures.com, a domain that was purchased in March. Some other obvious domain names -- including TheCrookedVultures.com, purchased in April -- redirect there. The band's marketing team won't be omitting new media: There are also official Twitter, Facebook and Myspace pages for Them Crooked Vultures.
John Paul Jones has indeed been in a Los Angeles recording studio, working with Dave Grohl and Josh Homme, wife of the Queens of the Stone Age has confirmed in an interview, Antiquiet reports.
Brody Dalle, who is the singer and guitarist for Spinnerette, confirmed the latest rumors about her husband's upcoming project with Grohl and Homme, as reported less than two weeks ago.
In her interview, as reported by Johnny Firecloud, Dalle says, "I'm not at liberty to talk about it… but I think [the project] is pretty f---ing amazing. Just beats and sounds like you've never heard before."
Still no official confirmation, but this pretty much firms it up! Hope to hear their new music really soon!
Sonic Youth's drummer, Steve Shelley, has just spoken with the Detroit Free Press about his experience with the "Nearly Ninety" production, which celebrated choreographer Merce Cunningham's 90th birthday. In this interview, Shelley clarifies the extent to which their music was rehearsed versus improvised night in and night out:
That was a lot of fun; that was weird. We went and played music at this dance performance at B.A.M. [the Brooklyn Academy of Music]. We had written scores of music to play of various lengths -- a six-minute piece, a ten-minute piece -- and every night we performed, they would throw down the score in a different manner. Our music would be played in a different order each night, and so it didn't really go with the dancing in a traditional sense but in a more abstract sense.
We were also performing with John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin and Takehisa Kosugi, a longtime Merce Cunningham compatriot. We were sitting on this weird metal sculpture they had built for the show that looked like a spaceship or building scaffolding, and it was just a very odd but very fun event to be at.
Just before this whole undertaking went to performance mode is when Jones made a solitary offhand comment about having been "working on some other music, which is more rock based, with a couple of other people." Not willing to let the cat out of the bag, he has since kept his "secret" under wraps.
One account that appeared this weekend suggests Jones has been rehearsing with Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters and Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age.
Meanwhile, the blogosphere has been abuzz with a guessing game concentrating on a separately reported Homme recording project. The one person claiming to be in the know is Ipecac Records co-owner Greg Werckman; he tells Rock-a-Rolla magazine that his label's other co-owner -- former Faith No More singer Mike Patton -- has been approached about joining Homme on the project Werckman says is "top secret."
Werckman says his colleague isn't the only person Homme is trying to recruit now either. "He's trying to get a lot of people involved in it, too," Werckman says. Homme would be looking at an uphill battle if he has the Faith No More singer in mind. Werckman says Homme is "trying to convince Mike [Patton] to go out to the desert but Mike hates the desert."
The report on Jones, Grohl and Homme collaborating didn't say anything about the desert. In fact, it said they'd been making their music in a good, old-fashioned recording studio in Los Angeles.
L.A., meanwhile is the main stomping grounds for Sara Watkins, who recently completed a headlining tour in support of her debut solo album, which Jones produced. While in New York back in April around the time of his debut performances with Sonic Youth, Jones sat in with Watkins on a late night TV appearance.
Now, Watkins is focused on yet another recording project. Most of the same musicians who contributed to her solo album have returned for the first album under the name Works Progress Administration. From Toad the Wet Sprocket, Glen Phillips usually handles lead vocals. The lineup is actually a lot like the group Mutual Admiration Society that Jones toured with in 2004, except for mandolin player Chris Thile, who's been playing with the Punch Brothers since Nickel Creek split. But it does include drummer Pete Thomas, who played with Jones on two albums but whose major accolade was backing up Elvis Costello in the Attractions. Also, on keyboards, is Benmont Tench, an alumnus of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
As is typical for Watkins projects, the sometimes-fourpiece/sometimes-eightpiece Works Progress Administration has already played a few dates on the road, including last weekend at the Telluride Bluegrass festival in the mountains of Colorado. Ralph Jaccodine, band manager, says Jones didn't have anything to do with the album "but we do have an all star cast."
There's a pretty good chance that if Los Angeles is Jones's hangout anytime in the near future, he would sneak his way onto the stage with Watkins and her brother Sean once again. For instance, the siblings will be in the Little Room at Largo at the Coronet this Sunday night, June 28, and the Watkins Family Hour returns on Wednesday, July 8.
On a final note, it would be funny if Jones gets to work with Mike Patton of Faith No More. Grohl may have had his mind set on drumming for Jones for years, but it was Faith No More's other Mike -- Mike Bordin -- whose name was mentioned as the other half of a prospective rhythm section with Jones way back in 1991. Bordin was Robert Plant's suggestion in 1991 for a drummer if Led Zeppelin had reunited at that time.
Quoted in the press back then about a possible Led Zeppelin reunion, Jones said, "It wouldn't be a bad thing to do. I'm not at all opposed to it. ... I think Jimmy feels the same as I do about it." And yes, 1991 was ages ago. For the highly productive Jones, a healthily growing list of collaborations probably stands in the way of resuming any pointless talks about a Led Zeppelin reunion.
"The next project that I'm trying to initiate," Dave Grohl once said, "involves me on drums, Josh Homme on guitar, and John Paul Jones playing bass. That’s the next album. That wouldn’t suck."
Right, it probably wouldn't suck, but it would just take a while -- years -- to come to fruition from when he first said it.
If indeed it has! I'm getting ahead of myself. But it's looking like, uh, it has.
Fronting the Foo Fighters only scrapes the surface as to who this guy is and what Grohl has been capable of. Once known only as the drummer throughout all of Nirvana's major success, this guy has revealed himself to be a primo singer and guitarist, savvy songwriter and ambitious collaborator.
Grohl never did make a secret of his desire to take John Bonham's place in a reunited Led Zeppelin, and when given the chance to work with -- or even just hang with -- anybody from that group, he has repeatedly taken it.
(Right, who wouldn't? Maybe the emphasis is more on the fact that he has been given those chances more often than just about anybody else in recent memory. Some would say this guy deserves it.)
And now that the name Dave Grohl has been blurted out online as one of two people working with Jones on a project that would see them releasing an album and going on tour, it seems to be a perfectly logical conclusion -- if not a convenient one.
A couple of months ago, Jones spoke out and said he'd been "working on some other music, which is more rock based, with a couple of other people." He said he couldn't reveal who they were as it was all "secret."
"Top secret" perhaps? This two-word turn of phrase was invoked less than a week ago, when Greg Werckman of Ipecac Recordings revealed to Rock-A-Rolla magazine that singer and multi-instrumentalist Josh Homme "has got a new top secret project that he's working on now."
Homme is the other guy mentioned as having been recording with Jones and Grohl, and it brings to fruition a dream Grohl expressed in the above quotation. That remark of his comes from an interview given to Stevie Chick for Mojo magazine back in 2005.
Yes, 2005. That dream of his first went public four years ago.
At that time, the Foo Fighters released the double album, In Your Honor, for which Jones met up with the Foo Fighters at their recording studio that was designed to look like the Stockholm facility where Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door was born as the brainchild of Jones, foremost among the members of that band.
Grohl may have wanted his next album to be with Jones and Homme, but it didn't happen in 2006. Sessions the following year yielded the album Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace. The band spent a while touring in support of its new disc, the highlight of which came on June 7, 2008, when Jones rounded up Jimmy Page to show 86,000 people -- and however many have bought the live DVD since its release last November -- at the Foo Fighters' Wembley Stadium finale just how well they could still play the Zep songs "Rock and Roll" and "Ramble On" in their 60s, as well as how eager they were to do it!
Since this, the Foo Fighters have gone on hiatus, and the hopes for some kind of a continued Led Zeppelin reunion beyond just one single show were dashed. Ever since things have settled down, it seems all too probable that Grohl has finally gotten his way as far as his wish to bring Jones in to help him write and play with Josh Homme.
We await official confirmation, and we also await the dates of an album release and a tour.
The two people rumored to have been ready to make loud music with John Paul Jones may have just been publicly identified for the first time.
Back in April, Jones posited that he hoped "to be everywhere this summer" with "a couple of other people" who've been "working [with him] on some other music, which is more rock based."
Now, a blog source says recording sessions have already been underway in Los Angeles involving Jones with Dave Grohl and Joshua Homme.
When Jones first hinted of a summer project, he gave few details -- and intentionally so, it appears, due to an expressed secrecy revolving around the collaboration. After dropping his sole hint in an interview with Women's Wear Daily, Jones added, "It's a secret, actually. I shouldn't have even said that, you know? There are some exciting projects coming up, let's put it that way."
But as for what this project would be named, today's disclosure says it hasn't yet been determined. But it does say an album will follow.
