NEW YORK, NY (Interscope Records) - With three critically-acclaimed albums for Interscope under their belts, countless bottles of booze in their bellies and legions of hardcore fans coming out to their infamously debaucherous live shows night after night, it's fair to say that the
Queens Of The Stone Age are very much a real rock and roll band.
Simply put, they do what real rock and roll bands do. They play loud and drink hard and write albums full of emotionally charged rock songs that keep you coming back for repeated listens after you've been knocked flat on your ass the first time you hear them. Don't get it twisted though - like the greats who came before them, they're not afraid to write a gloriously delicate acoustic ballad here and there either.
They also tour, a lot. And so, being the sort of classically-minded dudes that they are, the Queens Of The Stone Age will be releasing a feature length concert DVD/live album called "Over The Years and Through The Woods" on November 22nd.
The live album, which features all the crucial Queens hits from their studio albums, also includes the brand new track "Fun Machine" as well as "Make It Wit Chu", a previously unreleased gem from singer Josh Homme's fabled Desert Sessions, an ongoing series of collaborative songwriting and recording sessions where marquee musicians such as PJ Harvey and Deen Ween are invited down to his studio Rancho De La Luna in Joshua Tree, California to join him in collectively exploring new musical terrain.
You can think of "Over The Years" as a "to go" version of the Queens' decibel-happy shows, but that really won't be doing the three and a half hours of live, rare and acoustic performances and behind the scenes footage of the band and their pals like Dave Grohl, Mark Lanegan, Billy Gibbons and former Queens bassist Nick Olivieri making fools of themselves, justice. It might help to think of "Over The Years" as a 21st century version of Led Zeppelin's "The Song Remains The Same" for the volume of its material or even "A Hard Day's Night" for its willingness to show the Queens having a laugh, but they'd rather you see and hear it for what it really is - the definitive encapsulation of the band and their music from their not so humble beginnings to their current status as one of the rock's biggest and most dynamic acts. Included in the concert footage from the band's sold out Brixton Academy and Koko shows in London last summer are live favorites from "Rated R" and "Songs for the Deaf" such as "No One Knows". "Feel Good Hit Of The Summer" and "Go With The Flow" as well as new Queens classics from their latest album "Lullabies To Paralyze" like the smash single "Little Sister" and their most recent bombshell, "Burn The Witch". In addition to the three-plus hours of live and uncut Queens mayhem, "Over The Years" also boasts 75 minutes of audio bliss that covers all the bases Queens fans need to get the rush of their favorite songs performed live and loud shot directly into their homes.
While Sir Homme and the rest of the Queens can't provide you with all the things that the group's live shows are infamous for (that would be illegal and very hard to fit into a plastic box), with "Over The Years" they've given you all that they've got. Naturally, it all rocks. And isn't that why you just had to get down with them in the first place?
Following the multi-platinum success of "Songs For The Deaf" and the top ten single "No One Knows", the Queens of the Stone Age played the main stage at the Leeds Festival and performed live on the David Letterman Show, Late Night With Conan O'Brien and Saturday Night Live. They are currently on tour with Nine Inch Nails and have recently written on their website https://www.qotsa.com that they will be playing a series of unannounced guerilla gigs at small venues across the country in the months to come. Their current album, "Lullabies To Paralyze", has sold over 300,000 copies and is expected to appear on many critics' top ten lists for 2005.
