Eyebrows were raised when a rather curious bunch of musicians pioneers who spearheaded different decades of audacious music hooked up to form a band. It was none other than the virtuoso bass player John Paul Jones (the guy who rocked sold-out stadiums during the Led Zeppelin era of the 1970s),who teamed with the 1990s figure of teenage angst Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters (who,during his Nirvana years,pounded those skins behind the angry vocals of Kurt Cobain),and Queens of the Stone Age rocker Josh Homme with his curious guitar tunes to form the hardcore supergroup Them Crooked Vultures. And they have indeed packed a spanking new sound with some marvellous guitar licks,mushy distortions,invertebrate bass lines,mean drumming and Joness tweaking a host of instruments,including the keyboard and the mandolin. The band sounds like theyve stretched the 70s classic-rock elements into the 90s grunge tunes,creating a new-fangled sound apt for the iPod generation. Familiar Grohl-ish pounding hammers out the opening track No one loves me ,as Homme engages in some falsettos that build into a grinding frenzy. The progressive Mind eraser moves on to the brilliant Elephants and the unabashedly construed Scumbag blues with weighty drums and bass. Reptiles sounds like Led Zep and a couple of tracks,such as Warsaw,closely follow The Doors sound. And then comes a melancholic keyboard opener to deliver the final Spinning in daffodils and to complete a smashing 13-track record. mohan.kumar@expressindia.com
