Wednesday 31 August 2011

Them Crooked Vultures- Them Crooked Vultures

So today I started reading the Biography of Led Zeppelin, When Giants Walked the Earth, I've only gotten as far as the part on the formation of the band but it's really interesting! Led Zeppelin were supposed to be a super group! Page wanted Keith Moon and John Entwhistle from The Who, Jeff Beck (Former Yardbirds member and Guitar God!) and Steve Marriott from The Small Faces. And at one point, I think Stevie Winwood from... Traffic? (Feel free to correct me.)

This would have been a CRAZY line up. But of course he ended up finding Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham. This line up however is what we know today as Led Zeppelin, so in a way I'm kinda happy his original line up didn't work out. (But if you wanna check out a song done by most of this line up, Check Beck's Bolero by Jeff Beck.) Now the reason I'm bringing this up is because years later in 2009 the Bassist from Led Zeppelin, John Paul Jones some major muso's tried the same thing. AND SUCCEEDED! Their success was called, Them Crooked Vultures.

Them Crooked Vultures is made up of John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) on bass. Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) on Drums and John Homme (Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss) on Guitar and Lead Vocals.
I am SO happy this band was formed! Because the last major super group was Creme and (kinda) The Yardbirds, (And who remembers them?... Except my dad.)

I think this band is brilliant. They take a little from all their bands and give it a new fresh twist. I like this... Alot. Now when I first heard this album I wasn't crazy about it, but I guess at the time I was like 13 and didn't really know Nirvana or Led Zeppelin, (I Still Don't know Queens of the Stone Age. I'm getting on it! I have a music back log.) But now I realize how brilliant this band is.

Now the first song, No one loves me, and neither do I, starts out with a 4 Bar drum line. And I love this cuz it kinda gives it this off time-ish feel, even though it isn't really. Then the guitar comes in and I find the guitar in this band really unique in a way. It just feels different to alot of samey 3-chord-pop-punk-lots-of-distortion Bullshit you find now-a-days. I just wish more bands would do this. But to be honest I can't really say why I find this guitar different? I guess it has been done before but it's quite refreshing to hear it again I guess.

Track 2, Mind Eraser, No Chaser, has an awesome intro with that guitar I love again, then the vocals come in and I love this guy's voice! It's really different, but familiar? It's good! I also love the lyrics, I appreciate good lyrics, but I think I'm gonna stop mentioning the lyrics in my reviews cuz I can never really say much about them. Lyrics are a very tricky subject to talk about cuz often lyrics won't make any sense to anyone but the lyricist. I know that if anyone listened to my lyrics they probably would think I was on drugs, but they make sense to me. So I think from now on I'll say something more basic to talk about lyrics, in an almost neanderthalic tone for all you under-developed Trolls to comprehend. From now on I'll say. Lyric Good Or Lyric Bad. Or in  some cases Lyric Shitty!

Now Track 4, Dead End Friends, is FREAKING AWESOME! It appears on the Sound Track for the game Skate 3 and when playing it I put this song on repeat... Untill I'm sick of it. Once again I LOVE the guitar. There's something very classic rock about it with a fresh twist on it and in the solo he keeps hitting dead notes which is kinda hard to notice but it gives it this raw vibe. It also reminds me of guitar hero when the game tells me I fucked up and I'm an idiot.

Track 5, Elephants, does something really unique. It has the intro and then it goes double time when the drums come in and that's impressive cuz that must have been really hard to co-ordinate! I know keeping just one tempo is difficult when in a band, but then again they do have a world class rhythm section.
And then after the sped up part they then slow it down to the same tempo as before with perfect timing, without skipping a beat. All I gotta say to you guys is... Nice!

This album is full of gems. It really is. If I were to give it a genre I'd say, Experimental-mental-rock! (You guys can use that.) This band is kinda just one big rhythm section. The lead guitar isn't that spectacular and I don't fucking care! It's good! Lead is over-rated any way! (I'm just saying that cuz I can't play lead... Sigh.) I definitely recommend this band and I hope we get more from them in the future.

Here's a link to Them Crooked Vultures- Them Crooked Vultures on Grooveshark. The songs are in a weird order, but they're all there.

So tell me guys, What do you think of the new Plug in Your Head look? And tell me what you think of Them Crooked Vultures. You can leave a comment "In the Comment section below" (lol) or you can e-mail me at xtianzzyzx@gmail.com You can also comment and follow me on twitter @XtianZzyzx. It's all in the side bar. You can also +1 this post if you like it. (You can also +1 it if you don't.) And tell your friends.

Finally, you can recommend music at the same addresses or ask me to review an album! I'm up any challenge you can throw at me.

I'll be back next week with another Recommendation, so until then, Turn Up the Volume and Plug in Your Head!

Xtian Zzyzx



P.S. Sorry if you were hoping for the new RHCP album, but I haven't heard it yet. It only came out yesterday so I couldn't buy it.

1 comment:

  1. If you like this, check out Jimmy Pages pot-Zep band 'The Firm' or Rubber Plant's 'The Honeydrippers'.
    One love (you can guess who)If you like this, check out Jimmy Pages pot-Zep band 'The Firm' or Rubber Plant's 'The Honeydrippers'.
    One love (you can guess who)

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