(RCA Records/Sony)

Hard rock supergroup leave politeness at the door

When I think rock & roll supergroups, all too often my mind wanders to the ill-fated Rock Star Supernova, the reality TV-created band where Metallica’s Jason Newstead, Guns & Roses’ Gilby Clarke and Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee chose Canadian pouter Lukas Rossi and enjoyed a quick journey to oblivion. The empire-building cameras of Mark Burnett were fortunately kept well away from Them Crooked Vultures, where Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl and Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme fulfil poster gazing fantasies by holing themselves in a studio with Led Zeppelin bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones … and bashing out some mean, lean rock & roll. You’ll hear more QOTSA and Zeppelin than Foos on this album, though Grohl’s skin beating (whoops, careful!) would make Led Zep tub thumper John Bonham proud. Opening song No One Loves Me might have a self-pitying title, but its thick, Physical Graffiti-esque production and bump ‘n grind attack makes for an appropriately snarling beginning to the album. The group have fun basically cramming as many Zep riffs as they can in the seven-minute Elephants, while the Queens vibe is present in tracks like Mind Eraser No Chaser and Dead End Friends, though the bottom end is filled out much more completely by the virtuosic runs of bass master Jones. Scumbag Blues is like a hybrid of the proto groove-metal of Zeppelin’s Trampled Under Foot and Cream’s psych-blues (helped further by Homme’s Jack Bruce-esque falsetto). Extra points to Homme on this track for his stinging lead work. For Jones in particular, Them Crooked Vultures must have been a journey back in time, after his many years as producer, arranger and collaborator with such disparate artists as Diamanda Galas, The Butthole Surfers and REM. This is certainly the most straightforward rock & roll album he’s been involved with since Led Zep’s heyday. In fact, it brings the best out in everyone, Grohl drumming like it’s his last day on Earth and Homme both retaining the desert rock chops that make his best work so compelling and cutting down on the meandering that sometimes hampers QOTSA’s records. It’s loud, impolite, bug-eyed and bonkers (check the creepy metal circus swirl of Reptiles for proof) and sprawling (but not too sprawling). Unblock your sinuses with this go-for-the-gut epic.

****

MATT THROWER

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