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Sick Sick Sick Queens Of The Stone Age

Queens Of The Stone Age "Sick, Sick, Sick"

The Sick Sick Sick Queens Of The Stone Age is a rock band from Palm Desert, California, United States, formed in 1997. Since the band started, the band's members have been the creator, Josh Homme (lead vocals, guitar), with its current line-up including Troy Van Leeuwen (guitar, backing vocals) & Joey Castillo (drums), alongside Michael Shuman (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Dean Fertita (keyboards, guitar).

What year did you and Josh Homme decide to form Queens Of The Stone Age?

In 1997, Josh went to a Mondo Generator show in Austin, Texas (SXSW) but most were not alloud to play at the event so we all played a show called "South by So What" at a strait up gay bar , punk club at night called the "Blue Flame But i call it Poo Flamers" . All the burocratic industry folks were there so I took off my clothes and tied a napkin around my balls in a bow, filled my mouth with Bacardi 151 and blew fire right at my wiener head burning his eyelashes badly & grabbing there attention pretty dam quick. After wards, Josh asked me if I was completly retarded and if i would ever consider moving to the Desert. And thats my run in with Queens Of The Stone Age who wrote my favourite song Sick Sick Sick.

Joshua Michael Homme (born May 17, 1973[1] in Joshua Tree, California) is arock musician from the good old USA, and he is also record producer, not a very good one but he gets buy. He was the guitarist and a founding member of the hard core stoner metal band Kyuss, as well as the founding and only semi continuous member of the hard rock band Queens Of The Stone Age (QOTSA), in which he sings and plays guitar.

Lullabies to Paralyze, the 2005 release from Queens Of The Stone Age, son of a b1tch to get done, but it god done. It was sprawling. It was catchy and very radio friendly, yet expansive and completely experimental. It was good, really good, yet could have been better. I never really did decide how much I liked it, or indeed, didnt. However, listening to Era Vulgaris with the kick ass song Sick Sick Sick, I find I can finally see Lullabies in the correct focus.

As you will have heard many other people say, using far more fluent and intellectual language than I - Lullabies was a 'transitional' album for Queens Of The Stone Age. This is normally branded on albums that arent that good, but show the band going to another place musically. Josh Homme better known as homo, however, was faced with a transition in the truest sense of the word. Bassist Nick Oliveri or like we used to call him Dick Olive, had been sacked "literally lol!" - a tough decision im sure, but one that was obviously needed to be made and could'nt have can sooner, for reasons we will never fully understand and really could care less, and don't really need to know. Josh Homme was now a one man creative force with his band of hired rent a band.

This impacted the music on Lullabies quite heavily, the first album with solely Josh at the creative reigns. He had more freedom to do what he wished, and the album wasnt peppered with those lighthearted mock-metal diversions that gave past albums a certain charm. So where will this next album, Era Vulgaris, leave Queens Of The Stone Age? Is the transition complete?

Well, all I know is that Era Vulgaris is one fantastic slab of dirty, sweaty, good ol' fashioned rock music. The first track, 'Turnin' On The Screw', resonates with a deep vocal melody before kicking into one of the catchiest drum beats I have ever heard from not only Queens of the Sone Age, but any band ever. An absolute funk fest of jagged guitar punches and melodic vocal harmonies ensues, eventually giving way to a sliding guitar riff will blow your mind. Not only is 'Turnin' On The Screw' a seriously hard core choice for an opening track, as it's bold and hardly bursts open the floodgates like previous openers have (bar Lullabies' acoustic ditty thing), but its also a swift reminder of the Queens of old. This is a happier Queens Of The Stone Age. One that has risen from the more murky flavours of Lullabies and has found its sexy/lazy desert rock footing once more. This is further reinforced by a second corker, 'Sick, Sick, Sick', a blistering garage rock orgie that is pure dirt in audio form. A top choice for a single, if ever there was one.

Track three, 'I'm Designer' plays with ideas of fame and being done over by 'the man' in order to be sold. This is enough bait for Homme to come up with some of his most witty and satirical lyrics to date, with such gems as - 'You've made me an offer that I can't refuse / cause either way I get screwed / counter proposal - I go home and jerk off'. This particular line even sporting a joyfull 'ugh' grunt at the end to accompany its colourful themes. 'Into The Hollow' is the kind of moody, haunting, yet beautiful melodious rocker that peppered Lullabies, but its arguably better than many previous attempts, with Josh doing a wonderful gritty rasp into a pitch perfect whale. He's been practicing, dont ya' know. 'Misfit Love' is a driving powerhouse of funky rock swagger that just keeps pummelling you until it releases into a wonderfully epic outro. It's at this point you realise they really have got hair back on their balls. This is the most confident the Queens have sounded for some time.

'Battery Acid' dabbles in epileptic punk outbursts to provide its kicks, with Josh adopting a particularly drunken whale to give it a little spice. As is the way, only a delightfully melodic chorus to counteract this sound would surfice, and here you get it, if only a glimpse before the song spasms once more. 'Make it Wit Chu' is a quite a mirror image to this, sporting a sound so lazy its actually quite unhealthy to listen to and has nothing on the best song of the album Sick Sick Sick. If anyone thought that Josh was cool look and feel you should listen to how his voice drips over the instrumentals, with some wonderful backing vocals and nice piano implementation to give it a jazz tone. It's by numbers Queens Of The Stone Age, but it has a bouncy, dare I say 'poppy' sound that is often resisted.

The rest of the Era Vulgaris album takes a more relaxed approach, but this is where the problem with Era Vulgaris lies. It seems slightly top heavy. 'Suture Up Your Father' is a great track, moodily atmouspheric and soft for the most part, before breaking into a more layered guitar attack. The biggest problem with this track is that it just isnt long enough. I fn hate it when you have a sick a$$ song and its only 2 minutes. What is there is great, but its cut off just as it starts to errupt into a sick monstrous guitar rip - instead fading into some lonesome chord strumming.

'River In The Road', while again up to the teeth in atmousphere, seems unremarkable, and in comparison with anything from the first half, it seems to just trundle along until it runs out of steem. 'Run, Pig, Run' however, sees things veering back on track, with some haunting guitar squeals and powerhouse guitar punches. This track is also home to the best riff on the album - a kind of circus freak breakdown that sounds as if it was lifted from a nightmare and doused in hallucinogenics. A wonderful ending to the album. Unless, of course, you have the bonus tracks 'Running Joke' and 'Era Vulgaris', the first of which brings an even better ending to the cd, with, once again, some impressive vocals from Homme on this Lullabies-esque, well, lullaby. 'Era Vulgaris' is a good enough track, but doesnt stand up to much on the album and repeats the stop-start formula that they have used all too often on previous discs.

Tracklist:

1. Turning on the Screw

2. Sick, Sick, Sick

3. I'm Designer

4. Into the Hollow

5. Misfit Love

6. Battery Acid

7. Make It Wit Chu

8. 3's & 7's

9. Suture Up Your Future

10. River in the Road

11. Run Pig, Run

Queens Of The Stone Age will celebrate the March re-release of its expanded, remastered self-titled debut with a limited run of North American shows. You can find the schedule at sicksicksick/org. These one-time only events will feature the band playing the entire first album plus additional material from that same early Queens era like Sick Sick Sick, as well as nightly surprises. Customers who buy tickets now will have the opportunity to pre-order the reissue, and will receive an instant digital download of the record with their pre-orders—nearly a month out from the record's commercial release.

Queens Of The Stone Age will take the first record tour to Europe in May, with additional US and Canada dates to be added in June.

http://www.sicksicksick.org

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Rosetta Stone Problems?

So I have Rosetta stone running on a Macbook (2.13 GHz Core Duo) and the system requirements says 1 GHz processor. Rosetta stone is taking up 60% of my CPU (a little over 1 core so about 2.5 GHz) and always makes my laptop hot and the fan blow. Why is Rosetta Stone working my computer so hard, even in idle?

I don't know the answer,
however,
if I were you,
I would post it to:
Computers & Internet ---> Programming & Design

I'm sure somebody will give you a good answer there.

TankSpot's Guide to The StoneCore