It seems that with each change of season, a member of
Queens of the Stone Age is issuing a new album by one of their many side projects, as early 2004 saw the release of the debut full-length by the
Eagles of Death Metal, Peace, Love & Death Metal. The group's chief contributors include
QOTSA main man
Josh Homme (who goes by the alias of
Carlo Von Sexron, and handles drums, rather than his usual guitar/vocal duties), and Jesse Hughes (vocals, guitar). Both hail from Palm Desert, California, and have been friends since Hughes' family moved to the aforementioned arid location in 1979. The pair bonded as teenagers while playing together on the same local soccer team, but went in separate career paths after graduation --
Homme went on to form the underappreciated
Kyuss, before launching
Queens of the Stone Age, while Hughes attended the University of South Carolina, and became a journalist.
Homme later re-entered the picture, and convinced his old friend (who was down in the dumps at the time over a divorce) to start jamming on music. The
Eagles of Death Metal were formed soon after, as the group debuted with a few tracks on
Volumes 3-4 of
Homme's ongoing Desert Sessions series in 1998. Despite their misleading name, the group's sound was more akin to classic garage rock, with some elements of
the Rolling Stones added in for good measure. But the new group was put on the back burner while
Homme got
Queens of the Stone Age off the ground (interestingly enough, with another high school friend of both his and Hughes, bassist
Nick Oliveri). When
QOTSA quickly became one of the world's most talked about hard rock bands (due to such exceptional releases as 1998's
Queens of the Stone Age, 2000s
R, and 2002's
Songs for the Deaf),
Homme sought to re-launch the
Eagles of Death Metal as more than just a one-off project. Reconvening in 2003, the duo recorded three day's worth of material (almost all of the songs being taped on the very first take). A buzz surrounding the group began amongst the
QOTSA faithful when
Homme wore an
Eagles of Death Metal t-shirt throughout
QOTSA's Lollapalooza road jaunt that summer, while a sneak preview track, "I Only Want You," was mysteriously leaked via mp3 among fans online. With
QOTSA taking a breather,
Homme and Hughes (with guitarist
Timmy VanHamel in tow) then set out on the
Eagles' very first tour, as they opened up for
Placebo during late November/early December. The group's highly anticipated debut full-length, Peace, Love & Death Metal finally surfaced in March of 2004 (after several proposed release dates came and went) -- issued via
Homme's own Rekords Rekords label, and AntAcidAudio (a sister label of Ipecac Records, run by
Mike Patton). The group's first European tour followed shortly thereafter, opening for
the Distillers. Additionally, Hughes supposedly recorded a solo album, Fabulous Weapons, a year before the recording of Peace, Love & Death Metal. The recording was ultimately shelved, but as reported on the
Eagles of Death Metal's website, it may surface as a limited release. Hughes and
Homme reconvened in fall 2005 to make the second
Eagles of Death Metal album; joined by
Jack Black,
Brody Dalle,
Mark Lanegan and
QOTSA's
Joey Castillo, they recorded
Death by Sexy in eight days. After a brief U.K. tour late that year, the
Eagles of Death Metal toured with the
Strokes in spring 2006, leading up to
Death by Sexy's release. 2008's
Heart On was more polished but still scuzzy. ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide