Maps of Music

Songs for the Deaf (2002)

Where the lyrics of Songs for the Deaf take you, and where it was really made.

Drummer Dave Grohl admitted he had not drummed for a long time when he joined, yet he played on what the band treats as its breakout record.

Key places

Sound City Studios, a recording location (2002)

Recording site Sound City Studios — Sound City Studios is listed as a recording location for this album. The pin marks the studio building in Los Angeles. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Conway Studios, a recording location (2002)

Recording site Conway Recording Studios — Conway Studios is listed as a recording location for this album in Los Angeles. The pin marks the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

The Site in San Rafael, a recording location (2002)

Recording site Tarpan Studios — The Site is listed as a recording location for this album, in San Rafael, California. The pin marks the city centre, not the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Grohl's first show with the band at the Troubadour (2002)

Live show Troubadour — Dave Grohl's first performance with the band took place at the Troubadour in Los Angeles on 7 March 2002, months before the album came out. The pin marks the city-level location. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Third studio album by the American rock band Queens of the Stone Age
• Released 27 August 2002 by Interscope Records
• Loose concept album: a drive through the California desert from Los Angeles to Joshua Tree
• Along the way the listener tunes into radio stations from towns such as Banning and Chino Hills
• Last album with Nick Oliveri as a full-time bassist; he was fired after the tour
• First album with Dave Grohl on drums

Background

• Several songs are reworked versions of tracks first made for Desert Sessions, Josh Homme's side project
• Grohl admired the band since they opened for Foo Fighters and wanted to appear on the previous album Rated R
• Homme invited Grohl to join in October 2000
• Grohl and Homme had been friends since 1992, when Homme played guitar for Kyuss
• Mark Lanegan joined as a full-time member in 2001

Recording

• Grohl's drums were recorded in a small, dead-sounding isolation booth
• Cymbals were recorded separately, so Grohl performed each song twice
• Engineer Eric Valentine credited Grohl for his patience during the process
• Recording locations listed include Conway Studios and The Site in San Rafael

Cover

• The US double LP cover differs from the CD: a red Q on a black background with no other text
• The UK vinyl cover is the CD cover with the colours reversed
• The person on the disc is musician Dave Catching, who plays on the album
• The CD had three cover colours (red, magenta, orange); the red version is the most common

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

Tracklist

Disc 1

Disc 2

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Queens of the Stone Age is an American rock band formed in Palm Desert, California, in 1996 by vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme.
• The band was founded shortly after the dissolution of Homme's previous band Kyuss.
• Its self-titled debut album was released in 1998.

Members

• Josh Homme is the only constant member through multiple line-up changes.
• The line-up since 2013 consists of Homme, Troy Van Leeuwen, Michael Shuman, Dean Fertita, and Jon Theodore.
• Former members include Nick Oliveri, Mark Lanegan, Joey Castillo, and Natasha Shneider.

Career

• Rated R (2000) was the band's major label debut with Interscope Records and was critically and commercially successful.
• Songs for the Deaf (2002) featured Dave Grohl on drums and was certified gold in 2003.
• ...Like Clockwork (2013) became the band's first album to top the Billboard 200 chart.
• The band has been nominated for 9 Grammy Awards.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Entertainment Weekly: Josh Tyrangiel called it the year's best hard-rock album and gave it an A
• Splendid: praised it as another genre-demolishing album from the band
• Mojo: listed it as the year's third best album
• Kludge: ranked it sixth on its best albums of 2002 list
• NME: placed it sixth best; all three singles made its Tracks of the Year list
• Kerrang!: rated it number one on its best albums of 2002 list
• Uncut: placed it at number 31 on its 100 Best Albums of the Year

Reappraisal

• Often cited as the band's greatest album to date
• Music critic Steven Hyden called it the greatest hard-rock record of the 21st century
• Metacritic score of 89 (universal acclaim), the third highest-rated album on the site from 2002

Records

• Peaked at number 17 on the Billboard 200 after its late August 2002 release
• First US gold certification on 27 January 2003; over 500,000 copies shifted
• UK platinum certification on 20 September 2002, with sales over 100,000
• Platinum in Canada
• US sales estimated at 1,186,000 as of June 2007 (Nielsen SoundScan)
• Two Best Hard Rock Performance Grammy nominations: No One Knows (2002) and Go with the Flow (2003)
• Platinum from the IFPI in 2008 for one million copies sold in Europe
• No One Knows ranked eleventh in Triple J's Hottest 100 of the last 20 years in 2013

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Grohl said he had not drummed for a long time when he joined and that fronting a band was tiring
• Oliveri said the fake radio DJ segments were a jibe at stations that play the same songs over and over
• The album was planned for 13 August 2002 but was postponed by two weeks
• Grohl delayed Foo Fighters' album One by One to October 2002 to tour for this album
• The single No One Knows includes a Spanish-language DJ segment that introduces the next song
• The US double LP cover shows a red Q whose line is a sperm cell and whose circle is an egg cell

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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