The bands first release was 2004’s, Peace, Love and Death Metal. The new album is called, Death By Sexy and it is very sexy. Call it a vanity project, side group, joke band, you can call it what you want, but it still rocks.
Jesse Hughes (guitars, vocals), Timmy VanHammel (guitars, vocals) and Josh Homme (drums, vocals) have all worked together in the past on various projects (like Homme’s Dessert Sessions 3&4) from the late 1990’s. Like other projects Homme has been involved in, the line up for the band is somewhat flexible. In the past the band has included, Joey Castillo (QotSA & Danzig), Samantha Maloney (Hole & Motley Crue), Dave O’Conner (Desert Sessions) and Brody Dalle (The Distillers).
The sound of the album reminds me of a live show at a small club. The night your friend told you to check out this band they heard and you all went down there and the band was actually good. In this case the band is great. Stripped down and not overproduced. The album was recorded in Van Nuys, California in less than two weeks. The album is an enjoyable listen, one of those all the way through albums. Death by Sexy is light in subject matter and tone but not overly pop-ish. Songs like Cherry Cola have a good rock sound mixed with tongue in cheek lyrics and infectious choruses. Outside of the Disco era (or Chris Pontius), who else could get away with lyrics like, “Got some needs yeah, I need to shake it” (from Cherry Cola). On, I gotta feeling, the lyrics are more 80’s Hair Rock than Donna Summer. When Hughes sings, “I gotta feeling that you wanna come over. I get you here and I will make you roll over”, you can’t help but be amused. On Don’t speak, the song ends with someone saying “That last one was retarded”. Does the band have introspective and somber lyrics? Not so much, but they are funny.
With all of that stuff out of the way, back to the music. I really liked the sound of the album. It crosses styles and genres, without being pretentious. Chase the Devil is a fast Rockabilly inspired number, where Hughes really switches up his vocal sound. Solid Gold has a very danceable drum pattern mixed with some shakers and some nice vocal sounds. Don’t speak (like many songs on the album) has a head nodding and ass shaking sound not unlike AC/DC. I like to move in the night has a bluesy ZZ Top sound to it. The guitars are heavy but not metal, the drum sounds are clear but not obtrusive and the vocals are flexible enough to fit with every genre change.
Hughes says, “I came to make a bang yeah” on the song Don’t Speak and the Eagles of Death Metal do just that - bang.
Check out the album stream here.
Check out the video for, I want you so bad here.
Ahmad T. Childress
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