The dark, cohesive psychedelia of "… Like Clockwork" is unmatched by any of QOTSA’s five previous recordings.
Queens of the Stone Age
... Like Clockwork
Matador Records
Josh Homme and company are back from the dead. During the band’s six-year hiatus, Homme clinically died on an operating table during knee surgery. Rising from the ashes of personal turmoil and creative stagnation, the dark, cohesive psychedelia of … Like Clockwork is unmatched by any of QOTSA’s five previous recordings.
This is a grower, not a shower. It’s more akin to the Songs for the Deaf’s “The Mosquito Song” than Queens of the Stone Age’s desert-rock “Avon” and Rated R’s burner, “The Feel Good Hit of the Summer.” The brooding complexity of “Keep Your Eyes Peeled” and “Kalopsia” demonstrates Homme’s musical maturation. On … Like Clockwork, QOTSA broadened its orchestration with maracas, synthesizers, piano, slide guitar, octave pedals, and even shattered glass. Homme’s restrained, cabaret-inspired guitar propels “If I Had a Tail” and “Smooth Sailing,” while “Fairweather Friends” and “The Vampyre of Time and Memory” have a late-’60s Beatles feel. While the album is largely subdued, “My God is the Sun” lands a familiar punch of scraping fuzz.
Homme initially worried if anyone would want to hear QOTSA’s new direction. His wife told him not to care and just write. Thankfully he did, creating a masterpiece that every rock fan should experience. —Chris Kies
Must-hear track: “Fairweather Friends”
Lemmy: The Movie Damage Case Films & Distribution At 64 years old, Motörhead frontman Ian Fraser Kilmister has had a career that most rockers could only dream of. Known to
Damage Case Films & Distribution
For instance, Lemmy is often credited with creating speed metal, but in most cases that’s as much as people know (if even that). Thankfully, Lemmy goes out of its way to portray a man who, as Henry Rollins fondly recalls being told by the legend, “remembers when there was no rock and roll.” The film’s retelling of stories from Lemmy’s early years—including playing in the Rocking Vicars and Hawkwind, being a roadie for Jimi Hendrix, and seeing the Beatles before they’d even put out an album—are not only great snapshots of his storied life, but also highlight what a living treasure trove of musical history he is. Not many musicians of Lemmy’s ilk are left, but the fact that he’s still writing and touring heavily at this stage of his life proves just how powerful a drug rock can be. The old line “Lemmy is God” seems to be the main message of “Lemmy,” and it’s hard to argue with that statement after seeing the big picture here.
Adam Rafferty Teaches How to Play the Music of the Jackson Five Crescent Ridge Publishing Few music catalogs are as hook and groove laden as the Jackson Five’s. Guitarist Adam
Crescent Ridge Publishing