Them Crooked Vultures Album is out. Get it.

In case you haven't heard, the rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures has a new album out. In case you don't have Facebook or have watched television or listened to any rock-oriented radio station in the last two months. Maybe you've heard something about this.
Frequently, when a supergroup is assembled, it has lots of hype but the material - many times - doesn't live up to the names involved.

This one does. In fact, it surpasses it.

For the past several months, the band has laid out a superb marketing scheme of posting pieces of songs on youtube or facebook and pumping up their semi-secret shows with links to the general location in the form of Google Earth maps (one of them went from a space shot of the earth and then zeroed in onto Belgium, where they played early in the Fall). They've also used their Vultures animation and drawings as teasers on youtube and immediately shut down pirated youtube videos of their very infrequent shows.

The album was finally released on Tuesday (Monday, if you count the band streaming the entire thing on youtube) and it's fantastic.

In case you haven't heard, the group consists of Josh Homme (who plays guitar and sings for Queens of the Stone Age and The Eagles of Death Metal) on guitar and lead vocals; Dave Grohl (on drums), former drummer of Nirvana and now guitarist/singer for The Foo Fighters and the now over-60 John Paul Jones, former bass player and keyboardist of the monstrous Led Zeppelin. The lineup alone generated enough hype as it is and the album doesn't let down.

Their debut record simply called Them Crooked Vultures delivers the heavy rock you'd expect from those guys. The general sound is heavy rock, with a progressive groove that isn't heard very much these days. Most of the songs have a dark and heavy sound with Jones on bass and Grohl - who plays similarly to the late Led Zep drummer John Bonham - on drums along with Homme playing guitar and singing lead.

Of course there will the invariable comparisons to the members other bands (naturally) and if you have to compare, the record sounds mostly like a Queens of the Stone Age album (mostly due to Homme), but it also at times, sounds eerily like Led Zeppelin . Several of the tracks - including "Reptiles" and "Scumbag Blues" sound like Zep during the "In Through the Out Door/Coda" period late in their career. Homme evens sometimes sounds a little like Robert Plant occasionally, but the post-Zep Plant (like, in the late 80's and 90s). He also sounds like David Bowie singing sometimes. (If you listen carefully, you can also hear Grohl singing background vocals sometimes too)

With the addition of Jones - who hasn't played music regularly or recorded in a long time - the keyboard and bass material he contributes gives the music more of a Led Zeppelin feel and Homme and Grohl - who seems to channel Bonham on a few tracks - both go along with him.

The band - which also consists of Alain Johannes on additional guitar - is amazingly tight, especially considering that Grohl has primarily played guitar for much of the last 10 years and Jones is almost 64 years old. Jones keeps up with the young guys like he was 30. It has helped that Jones played with the Foo Fighters at their Wembley Show in 2008 (available on DVD now) and Grohl has played drums with Homme and the Queens of the Stone Age on a couple of albums. But still.

The band has played two LA shows this week (one at The Roxy and one at The Wiltern) and Homme seems humbled by the assembled group. He nonchalantly introduced Grohl at The Roxy show with a oh-yeah-this-is-Dave-on-drums vibe, but its Jones who gets the biggest ovations during the introductions. Homme then, almost as an afterthought, says 'and I'm your host, Joshua.'

If you want to hear what will be probably be at the forefront of the resuscitation of rock-music-as-popular-music trend, get yourself a copy of Them Crooked Vultures.

The band is on Facebook, myspace and they have their own site also. Here.