10 THINGS YOU REALLY DON'T NEED TO ASK THEM CROOKED VULTURES
Yes thus far this band has been an enigma wrapped in a mystery--save for the music Dave, Joshua and John have been very publicly playing. So in the interest of keeping things very much focused on that music, here are ten things you will now already know going into an interview with Them Crooked Vultures:
1) WHAT DOES THE BAND SOUND LIKE? It sounds like the guy from Queens of the Stone Age singing and playing guitar with the bass player from Led Zeppelin and the drummer from Nirvana. Now that music is getting out there, this one is sort of unnecessary but still...
2) HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE NAME/WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Virtually every name the three guys came up with would inevitably be taken. So they came up with one that wasn't.
3) WHAT PREVIOUS HISTORY DID THE BAND MEMBERS SHARE? To recap their various histories, Dave played drums with Joshua's Queens of the Stone Age on the 2002 classic Songs For The Deaf and on the first part of the tour supporting that record. John contributed to Dave's Foo Fighters' 2005 two-disc opus In Your Honor, contributing piano, mandolin and mellotron to the double album's quieter second half. John also conducted the orchestra for the Foo Fighters 2008 Grammy performance and, together with his former bandmate Jimmy Page, sat in with the Foos for encores of "Rock and Roll" and "Ramble On" on the second night of the band's historic two-night stand at London's Wembley Stadium later that year.
4) HOW/WHEN DID THE BAND FORM AND WHOSE IDEA WAS IT? Dave first came up with the idea of him, Joshua and John playing together. Joshua thought it was a great idea but wasn't really aware how serious Dave was until Dave essentially set him and John up on a blind date, inviting both of them to his 40th birthday party in January 2009 at Medieval Times in Buena Park, CA. He had the two seated together and was able to observe their chemistry from his perch while being knighted and cheering on the Blue Knight.
5) WHERE/WHEN WAS THE RECORD RECORDED? The band members managed to find a break between their other music and family commitments and record the album at Joshua's Pink Duck studios in Burbank in sessions taking place from February to July 2009.
6) WHO WROTE THE RECORD? All three write and arrange. Joshua is the lyricist.
7) WHO PRODUCED IT? Them Crooked Vultures.
8) WHERE AND WHEN WAS THE BAND'S FIRST SHOW? August 9, 2009 at Cabaret Metro in Chicago.
9) WHENS THE RECORD OUT? November 17 in the U.S. and Canada on DGC/Interscope.
10) WHAT ARE ALL THOSE DIFFERENT INSTRUMENTS JOHN PAUL JONES PLAYS DURING THE LIVE SHOW? OK well that one's fair game. We didn't know basses could have all those different numbers of strings. And while we are all celebrating the return of the keytar, we still don't know what that standing lap steel contraption with what looks like a KAOS pad in it actually is...