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Eagles of Death Metal

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Jesse Hughes and Josh Homme's greasy boogie-rock outfit, whose name is a joke at metal's expense — falsetto swagger, handclaps and riffs built for hips rather than mosh pits.

Eagles of Death Metal began in 1998 as a project between Jesse Hughes and Josh Homme, longtime friends from Palm Desert, California, first surfacing on Homme's Desert Sessions Volumes 3 & 4 that same year. Hughes handles vocals and guitar and fronts the band live; Homme, better known for Queens of the Stone Age, has largely served as drummer and producer in the studio rather than a touring member.

The band's name is a joke rather than a genre description. One account has Hughes and Homme watching a man dance to a Scorpions song and shout that it was death metal, to which Homme replied it was more like the Eagles of death metal, a line that stuck.

The live line-up is filled out by other players, including drummer Leah Bluestein, guitarists Scott Shiflett and Rex Roulette, and bassist Dustin Douglas. Homme once described the band's sound as bluegrass slide guitar mixed with stripper drum beats and Canned Heat vocals, and Hughes is known for his enthusiastic interaction with audiences at shows.

The music is deliberately simple: clipped, fuzzed-out guitar riffs, four-on-the-floor drums, falsetto backing vocals and handclaps, closer to glam and boogie rock than to anything the name suggests. Their debut album, Peace, Love, Death Metal, came out in March 2004, and its songs turned up widely in television commercials, video games and film trailers. Later albums include Death by Sexy.

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