Queens of the Stone Age Preview New LP, Tour With Gritty ‘The Way You Used to Do’
Queens of the Stone Age unveiled a grisly and jumping new song “The Way You Used to Do” from their upcoming album, Villains, out August 25th. The band has also announced a North American tour in support of the record this fall.
“The Way You Used to Do” boasts a blown out bluesy guitar riff but moves forward with a light, danceable touch as singer Josh Homme’s vocals sift between a wail and delicate croon.
Villains, which marks Queens of the Stone Age‘s first album since 2013’s …Like Clockwork, is available to pre-order and comes with an instant download of “The Way You Used to Do.” Mark Ronson produced the record with co-producer Mark Rankin and mixer Alan Moulder.
In a statement, Homme said the most important aspect of Villains was “redefining our sound, asking and answering the question, ‘What do we sound like now?’ If you can’t make a great first record, you should just stop – but if you can make a great record but you keep making records and your sound doesn’t evolve, you become a parody of that original sound.”
Homme also noted the album’s title isn’t a political statement, but rather “a word that looks fantastic” and “a comment on the three versions of every scenario: Yours, mine and what actually happened. Everyone needs someone or something to rail against – their villain – same as it ever was. You can’t control that. The only thing you can really control is when you let go.”
Queens of the Stone Age have a handful of live dates scheduled for this summer, including festival dates at Outside Lands in San Francisco and Riot Fest in Chicago. They’ll kick off their North American tour in support of Villains September 6th at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY and wrap October 24th at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Tickets go on sale June 2nd. More information is available via the band’s website.
The group first teased Villains with a website reboot and a short, eerie clip that included footage of studio sessions and shots of potential lyric sheets. On Wednesday, the band released a longer video in which Homme is hooked up to a polygraph machine and asked various questions about Villains and album track “Feet Don’t Fail Me.”
After the band finished touring in support of …Like Clockwork, Homme immediately turned to an array of new projects. In 2015, he reunited with his Eagles of Death Metal cohort Jesse Hughes for Zipper Down, the band’s first album since 2008, and then partnered with Iggy Pop to produce the punk stalwart’s 2016 album, Post Pop Depression. Homme also co-wrote and contributed to two songs on Lady Gaga’s recent record, Joanne, “Diamond Heart” and “John Wayne”
Over the past few years, other members of Queens of the Stone Age have also been involved in various projects. Guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen joined the experimental rock supergroup Gone Is Gone with members of At the Drive-In and Mastodon, while Dean Fertita recorded new records with the Dead Weather and the Kills and contributed to Post Pop Depression.
Villains Tracklist
1. “Feet Don’t Fail Me”
2. “The Way You Used To Do”
3. “Domesticated Animals”
4. “Fortress”
5. “Head Like A Haunted House”
6. “Un-Reborn Again”
7. “Hideaway”
8. “The Evil Has Landed”
9. “Villains Of Circumstance”
Queens of the Stone Age Tour Dates (New dates in bold)
June 22 — Rapids Theater — Niagara Falls, NY
June 24 — Amnesia Rockfest 2017 — Montebello, QC
August 10 – Majestic Ventura Theater – Ventura, CA
August 12 – Outside Lands – San Francisco, CA
September 6 – Capitol Theatre @ Port Chester, NY
September 7 – Festival Pier @ Philadelphia, PA
September 9 – Budweiser Stage @ Toronto, ON
September 10 – 20 Monroe Live @ Grand Rapids, MI
September 12 – Express Live! Outdoor Pavilion @ Columbus, OH
September 13 – Stage AE (Outdoors) @ Pittsburgh, PA
September 15 – Agora Theater @ Cleveland, OH
September 16 – Riot Fest @ Chicago, IL
October 9 – The Complex @ Salt Lake City, UT
October 10 – Red Rocks @ Morrison, CO
October 12 – Peabody @ St. Louis, MO
October 13 – Crossroads KC @ Kansas City, MO
October 14 – Roy Wilkins Auditorium @ Saint Paul, MN
October 15 – Eagles Ballroom @ Milwaukee, WI
October 17 – Fox Theatre @ Detroit, MI
October 18 – Old National Centre @ Murat Theatre – Indianapolis, IN
October 20 – TBC @ Washington, DC
October 21 – Agganis Arena @ Boston, MA
October 22 – State Theatre @ Portland, ME
October 24 – Madison Square Garden @ New York, NY
January 22, 2018 – Save On Foods Memorial Centre, Victoria BC
January 24 – Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, BC
January 25 – KeyArena at Seattle Center, Seattle, WA
January 26 – Rose Quarter – Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR
January 27 – Hult Center For the Performing Arts – Silva Concert Hall, Eugene, OR
January 29 – Selland Arena at Fresno Convention Center, Fresno, CA
January 30 – Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, Sacramento, CA
February 1 – Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, CA
February 16 – The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas – The Chelsea, Las Vegas, CA
February 17 – The Forum, Los Angeles, CA