Queens Of The Stone Age - Queens Of The Stone Age

Last week QOTSA re-released...finally...their self titled debut album

I should probably say before starting that the original version of this album is only just my favourite QOTSA record (just pipping the amazing Rated R re-released last year). Being a big Kyuss fan, this album is probably the one that sounds closest to Josh Homme's previous creation. There's still elements of the robotic playing carried of Kyuss, but not as frequent and certainly not as long.

Opening track Regular John, and following track Avon are such a great introductions to Queens. Seeing as Josh never sang for Kyuss, that job going to the brilliant John Garcia, you hear Josh finding his voice and battling through nerves it seems. Regular John is still a favourite of mine and sounds great live too.

Fuzzy guitar sounds will always grab my attention, especially when they're produced exactly as they're played. One of my many gripes about music, and films to a degree, these days is the overproduction of it all. I hear far too many songs where everything sounds all "nice, clean and polished, which won't hurt anyone!!!". Except my ears. Seriously, hearing bands these days is pretty annoying in that more often than not you can guess what's going to happen next, because all the hard work of finding the noise/riff/melody that's beautifully tucked away somewhere is presented to you. Sort of like say, playing a video game from the start with cheat codes activated and finishing the game with no effort rather than getting good at the game and playing it from scratch.  Fortunately, there are distorted guitar noises all over this record, and what I tend to find is that re-releases tend to make everything louder, which is no different here.

The re-release also contains 3 tracks not on the original, including one of my good friend Clewzy's favourite's called The Bronze. The other two are These Aren't The Droids You're Looking For and Spiders And Vinearoons. And the best thing about the new additions is that they don't make what was already a great album worse, but enhance it. Containing great songs like How To Handle a Rope, You Can't Quit Me Baby and forgotten classic Give The Mule What He Wants, the three additions are certainly not out of place.

This record also has amongst it my favourite Queens Of The Stone Age song, Mexicola. I just love the angry and almost hungover sound of the bass, which when combined with Josh Homme's guitar sounds like a sledgehammer smashing into a wall. The guitar itself just sounds like dripping electricity oozing from everywhere around you. Again on this song you hear Josh finding his voice and almost quite unsure of how to sing this song. I really struggle to sing the praises of songs and why I like them so much. With this one I probably guess it's cos whenever I've seen Queens live it's been the song I've had the most fun hearing (although A Song For The Dead with Kyle Ray at Hyde Park will live with me forever)

All in all, this is still my favourite QOTSA album and will still probably go down as a criminally underrated album. If I'm in a pub/bar with a juke box, I'll always have a look to see if anything from this record is on it, and will more than likely play it. Which for me shows just how good it really is

RIP Mike Starr

Just read that Mike Starr, original Alice In Chains bass player died. He played on one of my favourite albums, Dirt, released in 1992

The Adjustment Bureau

I'd just like to start by saying, I'm not the most articulate person in the world and often struggle to say what I mean....so bear with me




MATT DAMON!!

Watched this movie at the weekend with Lindsay not quite sure what to expect. The premise was interesting enough: Man is on successful path, goes wrong somewhere, meets woman, gets back on track, then told by men in suits that he shouldn't see woman anymore.

The men in suits are what basically got me curious about the film; the usual "who are they", "why are they doing this" questions.  MATT DAMON!! is the local boy with the troubled youth who done good who doesn't quite feel fulfilled, until he meets the woman, and they fall for eachother pretty much immediately. Not quite as fast as you'd expect, but no shocks so far. The woman then runs away from security guards in suits (I've always wondered why security guards wear suits - I never feel confortable in a suit, so I hardly imagine they're great to wear while running after people or fighting etc. All they seem to do is make shoulders look wider)

After a chance encounter on the bus (or so it seems, or does it?) MATT DAMON!! then gets to learn of the men in suits. Some brief descriptions of why they do what they do, basically them following orders, and mild religious references to angels tries to give the impression that they are following God's will, but MATT DAMON!! doesn't care for it.

The film then moves forward in time, basically repeats itself but reveals more and mentions things like how without the men in suits the world started wars and how free will destroys mankind. They now try to make sure that everything is going towards "The Plan", without ever revealing what the plan is, other than small snippets which are only ever mentioned to try and get MATT DAMON!! to do what they want.

All in all, the ending was quite disappointing, and the film really could have been something memorable if it wanted to. However, like the Lost finale, it just leaves lots of unanswered questions, and is jus completely underwhelming. Not something I'd ever plan on buying

So...this is new

Just thought I might make a small blog about things that catch my eye or just really love. Things like games, films, tv, music etc and just share them for whoever wants to listen. I'll have a play around and update every now and then