THEM CROOKED VULTURES Live at Roskilde 2010

The combination of Joshua Homme from Queens of the Stone Age, Dave Grohl and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones brings together three very talented people. Despite the amount of talent shared between the three men, the debut album from Them Crooked Vultures often sounded like Josh plus side band – a very talented side band, granted, but the end results drew too heavily from Homme’s influences. This could be frustrating since Jones began his career as a master arranger (he’s clearly not had a great influence in arranging most of the Vultures’ songs) and Grohl has proven a decent songwriter over the years.

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EVIL SCARECROW – Galactic Hunt

Evil ScarecrowNovelty bands are a tricky proposition.  If too heavily reliant on quick, easy laughs (as per early 90s oddballs Lawnmower Deth) any novelty is in danger of wearing off extremely fast; if played to deliberately offend (as was often the case with the early Bloodhound Gang recordings), the amusement is equally limited, perhaps even more so.  It takes more than a few gags to make things work, too: broad musical talent is absolutely essential  – and it’s often something a huge proportion of novelty bands lack.  Just look at the Insane Clown Posse: there’s not much musical interest there…and there’s nothing insane about two middle-aged men daubed in clownface, impersonating Cypress Hill extremely badly, all the while throwing soda pop over adolescent males in some bizarre bonding ritual.  They can keep their magnets.  Indeed, novelty acts are an odd breed and often best avoided…but as always, there are exceptions.

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