Them Crooked Vultures
Them Crooked Vultures (DGC/Universal)

Forming a supergroup has long been one of the surest ways of screwing up a great musical reputation. Just ask guitar god Jimmy Page, whose mid-’80s project the Firm, starring Bad Company vocalist Paul Rodgers, remains a landmark of mediocrity.

One exception that proves the rule is Them Crooked Vultures, the new three-piece featuring Page’s old bandmate John Paul Jones on bass and keyboards, alongside Queens of the Stone Age singer-guitarist Josh Homme and Foo Fighters/Nirvana veteran Dave Grohl, back on drums, where he’s at his most impressive. This self-titled debut packs plenty of wallop—no surprise, given that Homme and Grohl made powerful music together on QOTSA’s stellar 2002 album Songs for the Deaf. But it’s Jones who’s the sonic foundation here, the heavy-rock equivalent of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

If you’re searching for the Zeppelinesque on Them Crooked Vultures, you’ll have no problem. It’s all over the place, throwing off echoes of the classic records Jones put out in the early ’70s, when Homme was still in diapers. The blues stomp that comes crashing through the last half of the album’s opening track, “No One Loves Me & Neither Do I”, would have been right at home on Physical Graffiti, and the same goes for the toxic hip-shake of “Reptiles”. Jones even dusts off the old Clavinet keyboard he used on Zep cuts like “Trampled Under Foot” to add funk to the high-and-jaded mix of “Scumbag Blues”. Meanwhile, Grohl—a proud descendant of John Bonham—takes as much joy in devastating haymakers as he does in flurries of punches.

But all of this makes Them Crooked Vultures sound like a throwback, and it is not. The band creates a potent noise all its own on songs like “New Fang”, where it establishes—and then casually inverts—a massive riff, as if performing sleight-of-hand with a boulder. “Dead End Friends” puts a marvellously burbling bass line under garage-simple guitar. “Gunman” sets up a fearsome, corrupt groove and then breaks it with a chorus that comes off like vintage, spacebound Bowie.

Not all of the record works this well, but even in the less-memorable patches Homme’s strong vocals and the consistently superb playing of all three members of Them Crooked Vultures sound great coming out of the speakers—just as they did coming through the cranked amps in the blistering set I witnessed at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre on November 21. Experience counts.

Download This: “New Fang”