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I think you’ve got me confused for a better man.
“New Fang” - Them Crooked Vultures

Wanna Go For A Ride?

Them Crooked Vultures performs “Spinning In Daffodils” at the Fuji Rock Festival on 7/30/2010

OK, music and technology (and music technology for that matter) nerd that I am, I have started collecting high quality live versions of this song to play back on my Apple TV (Gen. 2 for those that care). And I’ll probably post the really good ones here, so you get to suffer from … um … ahem … participate in my idiosyncrasies.

I still love that John Paul Jones appears to be having the time of his life performing with these guys and how, as one YouTuber puts it, Grohl beats “the living hell out of the drums.”

Enjoy!

I feel so far away from heavy rock now. It’s quite odd, how mine and John’s paths seem to have crossed over—we’ve sort of gone into each others’ worlds a bit.
Robert Plant on seeing former Led Zep mate John Paul Jones with Them Crooked Vultures at the Royal Albert Hall, The Independent
Hey, did I tell you about my idea that I’m gonna start a cover band where I do Radiohead songs, country versions of ‘em, and I’m gonna call it Rodeohead? And then I’m gonna start a band that plays Madonna songs heavy metal style and I’m gonna call it Madonnica?
Dave Grohl in a Them Crooked Vultures interview with Video Hits

I’m Dave Grohl, Dammit!

Yes you are, Dave. Yes you are.

Behind the scenes with Them Crooked Vultures for the BBC Radio 1 session we previously discussed

You’re Just Another Dog To Be Trained

Them Crooked Vultures perform “Gunman” at Fuji Rock Festival on 7/30/2010

OK, so I know it’s looking like I have some kind of man-crush or bromance going on with Them Crooked Vultures, but it’s just that I keep running into this amazing video footage of them. The CD does not do these guys justice. Their chemistry comes across live much better than in the studio.

And that’s a good thing.

It would be a real shame if that word ‘supergroup’ were valid. To me, what that means is people cashing in on what they’ve done in the past as if it were what they just did.
Josh Homme on Them Crooked Vultures’ supergroup status, Guitar World, March 2010
Josh would be saying, ‘I have this song with 17 different parts, and nothing repeats.’ And I’d say, ‘Okay, wait: Shouldn’t we maybe repeat something? Like maybe twice at least?’
Dave Grohl on the creative process with Them Crooked Vultures bandmate Josh Homme, Guitar World, 2010
Josh is very conceptual, whereas I tend to just go for it without thinking too much. There’s a lot of thought in everything Josh does. So when he’s presenting a riff or a song idea, he’ll talk about it for 10 minutes without even playing the guitar: ‘Okay, this riff is a three-parter, right? It starts out with this tempo that sounds like elephants walking and holding hands…’ Finally I’ll say, ‘All right, could I just hear the riff already? Am I allowed to hear it?’
Dave Grohl on the creative process with Them Crooked Vultures bandmate Josh Homme, Guitar World, March 2010

FRESH POTS!

If you watch carefully, in the beginning of the video in the previous Them Crooked Vultures post, Josh Homme says, “Fresh pots!” to which Dave Grohl replies (among expletives), “I’m never gonna live that down.”

Here’s what they are referring to …

Dave Grohl in FRESH POTS!

There’s nothing funny I can add to this, so I won’t even try.

Dizzy From A Dozen Twirls

Them Crooked Vultures - “Spinning in Daffodils” at BBC Radio 1

There is so much to like in this video of Them Crooked Vultures performing “Spinning in Daffodils” at BBC Radio 1 that it’s hard to know where to begin. For starters, there’s the 12-string bass goodness John Paul Jones is laying down—which at times sounds an awful lot like the clavinet on Zeppelin’s “Custard Pie”—and the bombastic drumming of Grohl. Simply put, Dave is a monster behind the kit and has to be one of the hardest hitting drummers around. The guitars provide an almost dissonant layer of sound on top that creates a sense of tension and counterplay to the rumbling rhythm beneath. And I love how the song continues to build and build to this feverish pitch, getting louder and more raucous, until it finally breaks down into Jones’ piano solo that finishes it off.

Another striking observation is the contrast between Grohl and Homme—how Dave’s drumming and facial expressions get more intense as the song progresses, while Josh seems to grow calmer and more reserved as the cacophony around him escalates.

I avoided this particular “supergroup” in the beginning, trying not to get caught up in all the hype, but I’m really surprised at how tight these guys are and how much they seem to have gelled into a real band.

But most of all, I think I love how much John Paul Jones seems to be having the time of his life.

Update: 08/26/2010 10:30am
OK, I’ve already admitted that I’m very late to the game with TCV, but I just heard the album version of “Spinning in Daffodils” for the first time, and this live version is so much better in every possible way. I don’t know what it is, but the album version just lacks the intensity this has.