The first record Josh Homme ever bought: “You’re kind of looking to go wild”
In 2017, Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme shared the ‘soundtrack of his life’ and selected a string of records that defined a certain personal chapter. Reflecting the eclectic eccentricity of Homme’s choice of collaborators, Homme gave insight into his taste for the contrary when discussing Mark Ronson’s production chops on Villians: “Excitement, surprise, curiosity, mystery: These are all the greatest parts about being in a band. I think on a fundamental level, it reads funny and I enjoy that.”
Queens of the Stone Age’s output since their 1998 self-titled debut has taken creative detours and unexpected u-turns. Lullabies To Paralyze‘s dreamy brass coda that haunts ‘Long Slow Goodbye’, Songs for the Deaf‘s hidden dusky folk of ‘Mosquito Song’, or Homme’s confessed inspiration from trance music for their ‘robot rock’ of Era Vulgaris, Homme is no bluesy, hard-rock purist.
Welcoming collaborations with an array of artists including Elton John, Mark Lanegan, Lindsey Buckingham, and Trent Reznor, Homme’s diverse musical explorations played out in his work all stem from his intrepid nose for the element of surprise.
Jackson Browne, Carl Perkins, Duran Duran, and even Britney Spears feature in his record round-up for Entertainment Weekly, all credited with scoring essential parts of his life from first loves to childhood obsessions, Homme casting aside any pretensions of what’s ‘cool’ and simply embracing what he thinks is ‘good’: “My goal is to like as much music as I can. I don’t have guilty pleasures, because I don’t really feel bad”
Another significant entry is Pennsylvania psych-rockers Ween. Having toured with them in 1994 when playing with former band Kyuss, Homme made his affection for their East Coast experimentalism clear: “Ween changed my life in that they confirmed that all you have to do is love the music you play, and you don’t need to care what genre it is.”
He added: “They’re avant-garde and sensual and bizarre and aggressive and gentle and funny and romantic and honest, all in one go. It’s a very strange bite. At the time, I believed in doing something singularly, one thing so much that it was yours. And they believed in disregarding any rules that were available, everywhere.”
The first album Homme ever bought with his own money, however, was a relatively obscure live hardcore compilation from 1983 Eastern Front, featuring recordings from Chron-Gen, Wasted Youth, and The Lewd, among other lesser-known punks from the era.
Homme recalled: “I bought it purely for the cover. People say ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’, but that’s what people with a shitty cover say. The next three were the Cramps’…Off the Bone, Misfits’ Legacy of Brutality, and the Stooges’ Raw Power. When it’s time for you to revolt and buy real music, no matter what you end up buying, you’re kind of looking to go wild.”
A gem that set Homme on a road to rock ‘n’ roll stardom, Queens of the Stone Age’s dedicated fans owe a lot to the fringe, Eastern Front Records document.
