Friday: Eagles of Death Metal - Complexity

     I've never really been a huge Eagles of Death Metal fan. Back in the day, when I first heard about the involvement of queen of the stone age Josh Homme in a band with this name, I was initially excited and then subsequently disappointed to discover that there's no death metal going on here (shocker, right?).

     This morning, however, as both a fan of music of every stripe and as a citizen of the world, I feel like it's the least I can do to feature an Eagles of Death Metal song as my own personal show of 'solidarite'. I'm sure by this point anyone reading this will be aware of the horrific attacks that occurred in Paris last night, the most deadly of which took place at an Eagles of Death metal show. Scattered and incomplete reports seem to indicate that the band made it out OK, but nearly 100 of their fans did not.

     I'll leave discussions of international geopolitics and debates about the validity of Western involvement in places like Syria to the experts, real and otherwise, that will undoubtedly be talking about this for some time to come. I just write a music blog, and some speculative fiction, so I'll limit my comments online to this: it is a tremendously sad thing for me to hear that people anywhere in the world cannot gather together safely and without fear to enjoy music.

     All of that said, your Friday song is "Complexity", the lead single from the latest Eagles of Death Metal album Zipper Down. Solidarite, mes amis.

Wednesday: Queens of the Stone Age - I'm Designer

     Usually I'm one of those guys whose like "Sure, the new album is OK, but the old stuff's better". Name pretty much any band I listen to, and chances are I'm a bigger fan of their earlier work than their later stuff. This post is intended to demonstrate that I listen to more than a band's first two albums.

     Now, before you go too crazy, your Wednesday Queens of the Stone Age song does come from an album that's nearly nine years old already. But "I'm Designer" comes from the bands fifth studio album, 2007's Era Vulgaris, meaning that it definitely qualifies as coming from something other than the band's first couple of albums. And yet it's still cool, proving that Queens of the Stone Age have remained capable of crafting some good tunes throughout their career. Keep it coming, boys.

Friday: Queens of the Stone Age - Little Sister

     Grab your woodblocks and cowbells because I'm switching gears a bit for your Friday song. As I often do, I'm going to mellow things out a little going into last weekend -- a little, but not too much. Things are still going to be rocking enough, courtesy of Queens of the Stone Age.

     Regular readers will by now have picked up on the fact that I tend to favour (not always, but often) the earlier material in the catalogue of any given band. While this is equally true of Queens of the Stone Age, I'm more than willing to admit that Queens has written some great tunes since 2002's Songs for the Deaf.

     Tunes like your Friday song "Little Sister" from 2005's Lullabies to Paralyze, a suitably sleazy, radio-friendly rocker that's just quirky and weird enough to be right at home in the Queens Corpus. Bonus points for the warbly, squirrely tone on this track's guitar solo -- I think it's something simple like a pitch shifter or whammy pedal, but that doesn't make it any less fun.

Queens of the Stone Age - If Only

     Venerable stoner rock/post-rock/whatever band Queens of the Stone Age have been around long enough, and developed a back catalogue deep enough, that everybody's bound to have their own opinion about what's good and what's not.

     While we're not going to debate which album is the band's best (because that's clearly 2000's Rated R) we could spend some time one which album is most underrated. Or most overlooked. Either way, the answer is Queens' 1998 self-titled debut. Most Queens fans would likely acknowledge how great Rated R and Songs for the Deaf are, but might also forget that Queens of the Stone Age is a great record full of great songs.

     Grooves like today's song. I thought perhaps you could use something a little more chill today, both because it's Humpday and because I've been assaulting you with technical death metal for the last two days, so I've decided to go with the laid-back groove of "If Only" from Queens of the Stone Age. Sit back, turn the volume up, and let your fondness for newer Queens of the Stone Age be swept away in a wash of fuzzed-out guitars.

Sunday: Aeges - Fault

     The instrumental well has run dry, but that doesn't mean I'm out of cool stuff to show you. Far from it, this evening I've got something slick and catchy for your earholes.

     In some contexts either "slick" or "catchy" could be a four-letter word, but when talking about today's song from Aeges both are positives that translate into a sound reminiscent of Queens of the Stone Age, if Queens were a little less out there and a little more conventionally heavy. I know it's a bit of a cop-out to label anything post-anything these days, but I don't think post-Queens of the Stone Age would be an unreasonable way of describing the rocking riffage that Aeges look set to bring to the table.

     Have a listen to lead single "Fault" from the band's sophomore LP Above & Down Below for a taste of the slick, catchy goodness that is Aeges.

Song of Friday: Mastodon - Colony of Birchmen

     Silly, sleepy me, going to bed last night without posting a song. Shame on me.

Song of the Day: Queens of the Stone Age - A Song for the Deaf

     I've been going on about it all weekend, so by this point the observant reader should have picked up on the fact that it's a long weekend here in Canada, which makes today the holiday Monday. Today is the actual day off (for those of use who get the day off) and as such I thought I should perhaps feature something appropriate this evening.

Song of the Day: Queens of the Stone Age - Better Living Through Chemistry

     Once again it's the weekend (funny how they come around every week, eh?) and since there's only a couple of them left this summer, I thought maybe I'd go back to the template from last weekend, by which I mean picking some songs that are perhaps a little more laid back, a little more chill. As is so often the case, the band was the easy choice. My friends and I listened to a ton of Queens of the Stone Age through high school and into university; the first three QOTSA albums in particular were never far from our Discmen (yeah, I'm that old). The choice of song was less obvious, given that QOTSA can rock a laid-back groove with the best of them (*cough* Kyuss *cough*), but I think I settled on one that will take your day and set it to "chill" without too much difficulty.