Music: October 2008 Archives

If music be the food of love, then Eagles of Death Metal are a super-sized serving. Though their music has little to do with The Eagles or death metal, core members and BFFs Jesse Hughes (a.k.a. The Devil) and Joshua Homme (a.k.a. Carlo Von Sexron) have embraced the hard rockin', easy lovin' ethos of such bands. The pair went from kicking a football around together during their formative years in Palm Desert, to kicking musical ideas around as adults on the road.

Homme was the first to commit his life to music, forming cult desert generator party band Kyuss at the age of 14. After Kyuss' demise in '95, Homme regrouped, fulfilling many of his rock & roll dreams with his next band, Queens of The Stone Age.

Hughes' journey to rock was less direct, he got waylaid by university, a career (as a journalist), and a wife. As his relationship turned sour, the guitar seduced Hughes, who reunited with Homme to make sweet, rootsy rock & roll under the moniker Eagles of Death Metal.

At first, Eagles of Death Metal was perceived as a side project by Queens of the Stone Age fans, but the deafening buzz surrounding their 2004 debut album, Peace Love Death Metal, soon changed that. Homme found himself torn between two very viable bands, and was forced to choose between his two loves when both hit the road simultaneously.

As Eagles of Death Metal prepare to release their third album, Heart On, Homme talks to Suicide Girls about his passion for his bands, and how he spreads the love in the musical ménage à trios that is his life.

Click HERE for my full Suicide Girls interview.

Instead of blowing a pile of cash on a music video the usual way, DJ, producer, musician, and left field thinker Moby decided to offer a $10,000 cash carrot to aspiring and upcoming filmmakers. He launched a competition for the video for his new single, the disco-electro-pop "Ooh Yeah" (from the album Last Night), in June via his Moby Gratis site (which offers free music for independent and non-profit filmmakers). The winning entry selected by Moby, which was directed by Matteo Bernardini, was recently unveiled. On his website, Moby warns viewers, "if you're watching at work your boss might think it's porn" -- which is reason enough to give it a watch.

An outspoken political, environmental and animal rights activist, the video shows the lighter side of Moby, who spends much of his energy campaigning against serious shit, and blogging to promote his enlightened agenda, and the Democratic cause.

Shortly after Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination, in one of his entries Moby said, despite the tawdriness of the nomination process, that "Obama has run one of the best presidential campaigns in memory." I dropped Moby an email to find out why he thought that, and to get the skinny on his old Connecticut neighbor, George W. Bush.

Click HERE for full interview.

SoCal rocker's Lit are organizing an all star auction to raise funds to cover medical expenses incurred by their drummer Allen Shellenberger, who was diagnosed with a grade 4 malignant brain tumor in May of this year.

Click HERE for more info.