Eagles of Death Metal

[LoathedVermin72]

Oh man, they should really name their next album Party of Perversity

[Strat]

Oh man, they should really name their next album Party of Perversity

I woldnt be shocked if they did. Ill petition for it.

I can just see Jesse Hughes prancing across the stage at the Bataclan Theatre in Paris with his slicked-back hair and long sideburns.

“This one is for the ladies!” he shouts through a bushy mustache covering his upper lip. “I love the ladies! Can we hear it for the ladies in the house?”

Then, all of a sudden, without warning, two men in black clothing start shooting randomly at the sold-out crowd of 1,500 people. For 10 minutes it’s bedlam. And Jesse Hughes and his Palm Desert-born band, Eagles of Death Metal, are watching helplessly from the stage.

They rush out a back door to safety. They learn about the handful of terrorists taking hostages – their fans – from outside of the theater. They learn about the 129 people killed in Paris in the worst attack on French soil since World War II from the media, just like Jesse’s family in the Coachella Valley.

I’ve known Jesse, 43, since he was in his early 20s, just out of Palm Desert High School. I thought his band, the Scary Time Ramblers, fused blues and punk in a way that presaged what Jack White would do with the White Stripes a decade later. The band broke up before a local record producer I exposed them to could do anything for them. But Jesse later told me my review of the Scary Time Ramblers at Nona’s fast-food Italian restaurant in Cathedral City made him feel he could make it as a professional musician.

Years later, his high school best friend, Josh Homme, helped him record an album with a band they called Eagles of Death Metal. They played the 2006 Coachella and made a good chunk of change licensing their music for television shows and commercials. They were named the Valley Favorite Band in Desert Magazine’s Best of the Valley competition.

Jesse tempered the good times with hard times. He divorced the mother of his child, battled drugs, and dealt with disrespect from other rockers for not having a hard, trendy sound, like his friend, Josh, of Queens of the Stone Age.

But Jesse always acted like the luckiest man alive. He was making a living at what he wanted to do. He was reveling in the appreciation of his fans, especially those ladies. He said over and over he was living the dream.

But now that dream has turned into a nightmare. We may never know if those terrorists knew Jesse was living the kind of dream they wanted to tarnish -- the American dream. Everybody says the attack had to have been planned months, maybe years in advance. So how could they have known they were shooting the fans of an American who reveled in the kind of ideal the terrorists from ISIS had long vowed to destroy?

Nicolette Powell from Melbourne, Australia, wrote on Jesse’s Facebook page, “Jesse Hughes, when on stage, you are the epitome of unbridled joy. As unthinkable (as) the events in Paris have been today, it is even more unthinkable that it would happen in the space of love that you create.”

It will be difficult for Jesse and the others in his band, including Joshua Tree resident Dave Catching, to overcome this tragedy, this attack on their way of life. Everything about this band was joyful. They named it Eagles of Death Metal because, as death metal bands go, they were the equivalent of The Eagles. But now national commentators have been mistakenly calling Eagles of Death Metal a “metal” band.

The band’s biggest album was their probably second one, “Death By Sexy,” which contained the minor hit, “I Want You So Hard (Boy’s Bad News).” But now “Death By Sexy” and “Boys Bad News” have different connotations.

Josh’s nickname for Jesse was “the Devil.” That could have referenced a lot of things. Jesse admittedly had demons. On his solo album, “Honkey Video,” he addressed that in “Speed Demon.” On “Death By Sexy” he wrote a song called “Chase the Devil.” But Jesse was more like the Devil with the Blue Dress On. He just wanted to have fun.

Eagles of Death Metal are suddenly a household name. They’re the American band that was playing Bataclan Theatre when Western dreams were attacked. But people don’t know how good this band really is. They don’t know how Jesse can play the Rolling Stones riffs of Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood with just one guitar. They don’t know how Jesse can conjure the spirit of Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis on a variety of guitars. They may not see what I saw in Jesse as a youth and what Josh Homme has known all along.

It may be difficult to remove the stench of Paris from the Eagles of Death Metal resume. But Jesse has the fortitude and heritage to be able to move on.

Jesse worked as a volunteer on the late Sonny Bono’s unsuccessful Senate campaign and grew to admire him as a guy who could make fun of himself, but care so deeply about helping others that he could be brought to tears by their plight. He once told Jesse he knew he wasn’t going to win that Senate campaign, “But that’s no reason not to fight.”

The Eagles of Death Metal have decided to discontinue their European tour and return to the United States, according to the Agence France‑Presse. I haven’t seen an official explanation from the band, but the Foo Fighters also have canceled the rest of their European tour because their leader, Jesse’s friend Dave Grohl, says the closing of borders and the international mourning have made it impossible for them to play on.

But Jesse knows he must continue to fight for our ideals by playing on. American artists have always played through times of war and crises to keep our culture alive. They’re what our soldiers are fighting for.

I hope Jesse, who lives in Los Angeles now, will return to the desert -- where I last saw him mischievously trying to record the judges’ deliberations for one of the showcase competitions for Tachevah: A Palm Springs Block Party.

He once told me that returning to the desert is “like coming back to reality every time. I can come back here and do my dishes and I’m immediately in reality land.”

He said he comes to the desert, “so I can feel normal again.”

We’ll embrace him when he returns to the Coachella Valley because he now represents the American dream. And we want that to survive.

[MadTIGERmaN]

I say we get a team of Navy Seals to fly the Eagles of Death Metal into the heart of Syria, and put on the best damn rock and roll USO Show EVER!

and would have to close with Rockin' In the Free World of course



that all being said, I cant even imagine getting on stage again for any band anytime soon.

[Strat]

I will love the devil and his song

[Strat]

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... z3rVGCQJAs

[Birds in Hell]

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/eagles-of-death-metal-merch-manager-nick-alexander-killed-in-paris-attack-20151114#ixzz3rVGCQJAs

Very, very sad.

[VinylGuy]

So weird they choose this band to do this. These guys sre just awesome. I cant figure why something like this and this people.

Hope they continue playing.

[BurtReynolds]

So weird they choose this band to do this. These guys sre just awesome. I cant figure why something like this and this people.

Hope they continue playing.

I doubt they were a target. It was probably just a good place to murder a lot of people.

[VinylGuy]

Yeah, but still weird.

[tommymtcom]

What weirds me out about this whole thing is that had I been in Paris yesterday I would almost certainly have been at either the EODM show or the Germany/France game.

[Strat]

What weirds me out about this whole thing is that had I been in Paris yesterday I would almost certainly have been at either the EODM show or the Germany/France game.

Absolutely. I posted on FB about this, thanks KD for chiming in as well, but this one hits home more as it was an attack on my safe haven. A fucking rock n roll show. A place I go to turn off the bullshit, to find hope, have fun, live laugh and play.

[VinylGuy]

Im afraid of how the right wing politics is going to take this.

[BurtReynolds]

Im afraid of how the right wing politics is going to take this.

Hughes and Homme are somewhat right wing themselves, aren't they? I'll be curious what they have to say about it.

[Strat]

Im afraid of how the right wing politics is going to take this.

Hughes and Homme are somewhat right wing themselves, aren't they? I'll be curious what they have to say about it.

Homme is probably going to suit up and go fuck every ISIS soldier in the ass

[Kaius]

What weirds me out about this whole thing is that had I been in Paris yesterday I would almost certainly have been at either the EODM show or the Germany/France game.

Let's talk some more about how badly this could have turned out for you.

[Strat]

Shut up Kaius.

[Kaius]

Why? So he can make this tragedy all about how it would have been him had he been in France yesterday? What's the point of that? Talk about self-indulgent.

[Strat]

Why? So he can make this tragedy all about how it would have been him had he been in France yesterday? What's the point of that? Talk about self-indulgent.

No, yes, i am, umm, i mean, no.

Are we able to serious talk or no? This one hits a little more close to home for me. No, its not about me, but it is about a thing that has been and was always a save haven for me. Music, live concerts. You just never think......And here we have an act of war on such a gathering that is near and dear to many of us.

Shut up kaius.

[Kaius]

Ok. I don't think we are on the same page here. I hope you feel better soon.

[Strat]

Ok. I don't think we are on the same page here. I hope you feel better soon.

You son of a bitch.

As long as my Wild win in OT here ill be just fine, thank you.