The problem with most recent supergroups is that they’ve neglected
to factor in significant amounts of super. Jack White is a major
presence in the Raconteurs and Dead Weather, to be sure, but he is
supported by hugely talented yet comparatively obscure bandmates. And
while Monsters of Folk offer a certain amount of commercial firepower
and an interesting hybrid of talent, Bright Eyes and My Morning Jacket
cater mostly to slavish fanboys.
Them Crooked Vultures aim to restore the luster to the supergroup.
Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal) and Dave
Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) are potent new-generation ringers on
guitar and drums, but installing Led Zeppelin’s iconic John Paul Jones
in the Vultures’ bass-and-everything-else slot is audacious brilliance,
resulting in a trio that effectively crosses rock’s modernity with its
classicism. The CD pulses with fresh inspiration and roils with
hammer-and-tong intensity — from the new-rock blister of “Dead
End Friends” and “New Fang” to the classic thunder of “Elephants,” the
Cream-like lilt of “Scumbag Blues” and the Move-meets-Bowie rumble of
“Warsaw or the First Breath You Take After You Give Up.”
Jones’ contributions to Them Crooked Vultures cannot be overstated;
the multi-instrumentalist may well be the most musically adept and
intuitive bassist in rock history, and his value to this enterprise is
both as forward musical thinker and direct conduit to rock’s most
fertile and evolutionary period. As a result, Them Crooked Vultures
swagger and storm into rock’s future with some amazingly effective side
trips into its past, just like the supergroups of old. — Brian Baker
This article appears in Nov 25 – Dec 1, 2009.
