Queens of the Stone Age – Songs for the Deaf Genre: Metal/Riff Rock Rating: 4.5/5 Nick Oliveri - Bass/Vocals Josh Homme – Guitar/Vocals Mark Lanegen - Vocals Dave Grohl – Drums Brendon McNichol - Lapsteel/guitar/piano

Born form the ashes of Kyuss, and familial to bands like Fu Manchu, the Dwarves, Unida, and Karma to Burn, the Queens of the Stone Age has it's roots deep in the stoner rock genre, but it has been building it's own reputation on very new, different breed of music. Is it metal? Sure. Could it be considered Alternative Rock? Yup. Melodic pop? Yea, sort of. How about Operatic Dance Music? Uh, no. If that really exists, it's not that. It's not that at all. Queens of the Stone Age's latest release, 'Songs for the Deaf' is varied enough in range and style that it presents not only enjoyable songs, but an overall flow rarely present in today's releases.

Even though I was listening to a promo copy of this disc a month before it came out, I bought this disc for under nine bucks on the day that it was released. Not only is that cheap for a new disc, but included were a bonus DVD, a poster, and a ticket to a QOTSA acoustic show. All free. Now, I don't know how you rate value, but this was a steal in my book.

Posters haven't been my thing since I was in 8th grade, free acoustic shows are usually oversold, and nine times out of ten bonus discs are worth slightly more than the free AOL CD's that clog my mailbox week after week. They're usually full of crap that wasn't good enough for the album, and full of dorks trying too hard to act like rock stars. But, given the fact that the bonus DVD free, I figured I'd at least give it a look.

I was surprised. It not only showed that these guys are dorks (clue: most of your idols are. It takes brains to get to the top.), but that they were personable dorks. It contained 5 videos that give a behind the scenes look at shows, interviews, and practice sessions. In one, Josh Homme is giving Dave Grohl his ideas of how the drums on a particular song should go. Dave Grohl gives the impression that he was very comfortable accepting direction from Josh. Grohl is huge. From Nirvana to the Foo Fighters, the man has made a name for himself in the big leagues. Yet, like the other guys in QOTSA, he doesn't give off the big league ego that we typically associate with rock stars. He got on the project by publicly requesting to work, tour, and record with QOTSA out of admiration for their previous work. When do major label stars request to be on a minor label band's album? When does that happen?