Queens of the Stone Age have been giving us new stuff nearly every day, and that culminated earlier this morning, as the band released the first single from their forthcoming seventh album, Villains, and announced a fall tour with Royal Blood opening. “The Way You Used To Do” is an upbeat blues number that, interestingly, is not the song that was played in the teaseer video the band released yesterday. That’s the album opener, “Feet Don’t Fail Me.” Given Josh Homme’s trademark voice, it’s instantly identifiable as Queens of the Stone Age, yet Mark Ronson’s production gives it a bit of retro flair.
Homme promises in a press release that the album title isn’t about our current President, just a word that “looks fantastic.” Homme spoke about the band’s decision to work with Mark Ronson:
“The most important aspect of making this record was redefining our sound, asking and answering the question ‘what do we sound like now?’ If you can’t make a great first record, you should just stop—but if you can make a great record but you keep making records and your sound doesn’t evolve, you become a parody of that original sound.”
Ronson spoke about working with the band:
“Queens are and have always been my favourite rock’n’roll band ever since I walked into Tower on Sunset and bought Rated R in the summer of 2000,” says Ronson. “So it was incredibly surreal to be welcomed into their secret, pirate clan—or the ‘jacuzzi’ as Josh likes to call it. I also knew that my super fandom alone would not keep me in the jacuzzi. There were moments during the making of the album in which i was aware I was watching my musical heroes craft something that was sure to become one of my favourite moments on any Queens album. And to have some part in that felt like being in a dream–a very heavy, dark, wonderful dream.”
Villains will be released on August 25th on Matador. You can preorder it here, and check out the album’s track listing and tour dates beneath the video. Tickets will go on sale on June 22nd.
Villains
Feet Don’t Fail Me
The Way You Used To Do
Domesticated Animals
Fortress
Head Like A Haunted House
Un-Reborn Again
Hideaway
The Evil Has Landed
Villains Of Circumstance
Tour dates, with Royal Blood (9/6 – 10/24)
06/22 Niagara Falls, NY @ Rapids Theater
06/24 Montebello, QC @ Amnesia Rockfest 2017
08/12 San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands
09/06 Port Chester, NY @ Capitol Theatre
09/07 Philadelphia, PA @ Festival Pier
09/09 Toronto, ON @ Molson Amphitheatre (Budweiser Stage)
09/10 Grand Rapids, MI @ 20 Monroe Live
09/12 Columbus, OH @ Express Live! Outdoor Pavilion
09/13 Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE (Outdoors)
09/15 Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theater
09/16 Chicago, IL @ Riot Fest
10/09 Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex
10/10 Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks
10/12 St. Louis, MO @ Peabody
10/13 Kansas City, MO @ Crossroads KC
10/14 Saint Paul, MN @ Roy Wilkins Auditorium
10/15 Milwaukee, WI @ Eagles Ballroom
10/17 Detroit, MI @ Fox Theatre
10/18 Indianapolis, IN @ Old National Centre – Murat Theatre
10/20 Washington, DC @ TBC
10/21 Boston, MA @ Agganis Arena – Boston, MA
10/22 Portland, ME @ State Theatre
10/24 New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
