Queens of the Stone Age

These Palm Desert homeboys sweat out enough sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll on Era Vulgaris to douse a Burning Man ceremony. Josh Homme, leader of the ever-changing lineup, shreds and sleazes his way through the band's scintillating fifth album -- a soundtrack to an Easy Rider for a new confused generation. They kickstart the testosterone with gut-punching riffs and decadent bass, but the Queens never forget who they're really rockin' for: the ladies. With Homme's come-hither falsetto, they boogie like its 1970 and even drop a groovy, slow-jam with the amusing "Make It Wit Chu."

"I'm one of a kind," Josh Homme boasts on the new Queens of the Stone Age album. "I'm
designer!" Well, that's one way to put it. There aren't any others like him, that's for sure,
and he's never been an easy one to figure out. Here's a rock star who seems to shuffle his
band's lineup as often as he shaves his back, yet who always sounds like himself, making
fun of solemn art types but working harder than any of them. He manages to be t... More >