Good evening dear friends on today’s #brynsmusicselection are Queens of the Stone Age, an American rock band formed in 1996 in Palm Desert, California. The band’s line-up includes founder Josh Homme (lead vocals, guitar, piano), 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).
Throughout their 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. 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.