Queens of the Stone Age have spent the last three months baking in the hot sun of Joshua Tree, California — a setting perfectly suited to their dusty, desert-rock — putting the finishing touches on their upcoming album, Lullabies to Paralyze.
The record, due March 22, is being recorded at Rancho de la Luna studios and features such songs as "Tangled Up in Plaid," "Someone's in the Wolf" and the pleasantly titled "The Fun Machine Took a Sh-- and Died." All in all, the band has completed 20 songs.
Rancho co-founder (and Queens' guitarist) David Catching said, "The album is fantastic, [Queens' frontman] Josh [Homme] really grows with each album. The tone is somewhere that they haven't gone before: Each album goes a little further down a dark road.
"The vibe on the album is great. Lots of cool people coming in and adding the magic," he continued. "Billy Gibbons [from ZZ Top], Dean Ween [from, um, Ween] and lots of others. We've all been friends for so long and we feel really grateful that we're starting to make a dent in bad music on the airwaves."
The band has been posting information about Lullabies on its Web site, including several photographs of Gibbons and the Distillers' Brody Dalle jamming with the Queens, which now basically consist of Homme, Catching, multi-instrumentalist Troy Van Leeuwen, drummer Joey Castillo and bassist Alain Johannes, who replaces the departed Nick Oliveri (see "Nick Oliveri, Mark Lanegan Leave Queens Of The Stone Age"). Other guest stars include Garbage's Shirley Manson and Jesse "The Devil" Hughes from the QOTSA side project the Eagles of Death Metal.
According to Catching, QOTSA and producer Joe Barresi have been experimenting heavily with different instruments and recording techniques, a claim supported by several photos on QOTSA.com, which show Homme conducting a brass band, beating on metal buckets and unzipping his fly into the mic.
"Joe is as good as it gets as an engineer/producer — [he does] lots of experimentation with miking and sound," Catching explained. "They've been working really hard to make it sound as good as possible. It's remarkable all the talent that everyone has — probably the best in rock and roll."
Until the album hits shelves, Homme will continue to play the occasional live gig with the Eagles of Death Metal, of which Catching is a member.
"Eagles of Death Metal have been great. The shows were more than well received," he said. "We've been having a blast — lots of attendance records and women going wild."
