NEW CAMPUS LOCATION
BY VANESSA SALVIA
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Eagles of Death Metal play
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The Eagle Has Landed
Rock’s new saviors condemn us to death by sexy.
D
espite the name, Eagles of Death
Metal are neither classic rock nor
death metal. They are party band
extraordinaire, with a sound like a sexed up
White Stripes, if Jack White had a huge mus-
tache and dressed like a refugee from the
Village People. EODM began as an inside
joke and made its first recorded appearance
on Desert Sessions Volume 4, a series of
freeform recording sessions spearheaded by
Queens of the Stone Age and ex-Kyuss gui-
tarist Josh Homme.
Homme, Jesse Hughes (a.k.a. J. Devil
Huge) and Timmy Van Hamel recorded one
fantastic album, Peace, Love, Death Metal,
before Van Hamel departed to rejoin his pop-
ular band, Millionaire. With Homme on
drums and Hughes fronting on guitar and
vocals, Eagles of Death Metal will appear at
John Henry’s on Oct. 18 along with The
Swiss Army . After two days of coordinat-
ing with his publicist, Hughes, — at a tour
stop in Hollywood — spoke with me by tele-
phone. What follow are excerpts from our
conversation.
Vanessa: You were driving through the
desert yesterday.
J. Devil Huge: Yeah, I was. It was my
birthday this weekend you know, honey? I
got kind of full of the hell fire and fury of
rock and roll in Las Vegas.
V: I thought maybe you were on a peyote
binge and that’s why you didn’t return my call.
J: No. Never anything natural. I am not
a hippie. I’m just joking! I’m here to make
everyone happy and please every woman in
the world with rock and roll.
V: How is the tour going for you?
J: It’s going unbelievably fucking —
pardon my language — amazing. It’s been
one fantastic moment to the next. Because,
you know, I never played rock and roll
before. This is my first record. My first gig
was with the Eagles and Placebo like a year
ago. And it’s been wild. Now it’s hordes of
ladies chasing us down. MTV and glamour
and videos and money and shameless, unbe-
lievable hedonistic behavior. It’s like every-
thing I hoped it would be! The Eagles were
kind of taking flight on their own and hon-
estly it sounds kind of corny but it was just
doing shit on its own and it wanted itself to
be alive.
V: The band’s kind of shrouded in mys-
tery. It’s hard to find facts.
J: Well, it’s no mystery. It’s a rock and
roll purity thing. We stick to what Little
Richard would love. And then we’re just
here to dance. You know, it seemed like so
much in music was really lame and bitter.
You couldn’t belong or listen to The Clash
unless you’d been into them since ’81. You
know what I mean? There was kind of this
attitude in rock and roll that was really petty
and jealous and lame, and everyone stopped
dancing! And people stopped making music
for ladies. I dare say that Limp Bizkit is not
making music for ladies. It’s making music
for angry 14 year-old boys.
V: They’re not making music for me,
that’s for sure!
J: That’s what I’m saying! And here you
are, honey, you’ve been trying to track down
this rogue-ish mustachioed freak who isn’t
even returning your calls and you’ve got bet-
ter things to do, darling! That’s why Eagles
of Death Metal make music to dance to. It’s
like we’ve come to condemn everyone to
Death by Sexy.
V: That doesn’t seem like a bad way to go.
J: Well no, and there’s rebirth of course.
Reincarnation into the sexy otherworld.
V: I’m intrigued by your views and I’d
like to subscribe to your newsletter.
J: [Laughs] I’ve got an excellent
newsletter. And it’ll come out just for you,
darling! I hoped you would like me. You
may just like me yet!
V: Why should I like you?
J: Because I’m a sweetheart. Because I
can both boogie and woogie. Because I
have, from what I’ve been told by some of
the experts in the field, one of the finest mus-
taches in the history of rock and roll. I mean,
when you’ve finally been rocked by the
mustache, it’s a whole new world! It changes
stuff up, and, darling, that’s why I want you
to be at the front row. I do need to make it up
to you. I did not mean to not make that call
to you yesterday!
V: Why do people like Eagles of Death
Metal?
J: Well, sometimes it’s just for the obvi-
ous; it rocks. Honey, it’s hot, and it’s the real
deal so to speak in terms of outrageous sex-
iness. But it’s also boogie woogie. It just
dances. It’s all-inclusive. It’s emotionally
healthy. See, the songs [on Peace, Love,
Death Metal] are just good old rock and roll
songs. I stole the songs that I wrote from
some of the best rock music made of all
time. This is technically the greatest rock
album ever made. People are dancing again.
And that’s why you should love Eagles of
Death Metal, darling. Because it loves you
ew
so much!
OCTOBER 14, 2004 31