July 25, 2003 - Billboard: QOTSA Rocking The Road Through January
by Jonathan Cohen
Queens Of The Stone Age have extended their touring plans with a series of North American club dates, beginning Sept. 28 in Montreal and wrapping with an Oct. 30 Halloween show in Santa Barbara, Calif. Afterward, bassist Nick Oliveri tells Billboard.com he will tour the U.S. in November and December with his side band, Mondo Generator. In January, QOTSA, Mondo Generator and the Distillers will keep things going with a trek through Australia. What that means for fans eagerly anticipating the follow-up to QOTSA's acclaimed 2002 album "Songs for the Deaf" is that the band may not hit the studio until February. Echoing statements QOTSA principal Josh Homme made to Billboard.com in May, Oliveri says the group has a host of new songs in the pipeline but doubts they will make it into the live set lists. "We're itching to record these new ones, but we've said yes to these tours first," he says of the new cuts, which include "Paper Thin" and "Everybody Knows You're Insane." "You never know in the meantime what new songs are going to come up, and you could be glad you didn't go in and record straight away. You might get a whole other record's worth of songs that are better." QOTSA will play Lollapalooza through Aug. 13 in Denver, head to the U.K. for the V2003 festival on Aug. 16-17 and then join the Red Hot Chili Peppers for eight shows, beginning Sept. 6 in Bristow, Va. Oliveri notes with a laugh that QOTSA has been touring for so long that the group has played two consecutive years at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, held in his hometown of Indio, Calif. Asked if the band would be game to return again in 2004, he says, "Sure! At home, we've always played at places like the nudist colony or at these generator parties in the desert. To actually play with a stage, lights and a real PA in our hometown is totally cool." Like Homme, Oliveri has somehow found time to record with a seemingly endless list of collaborators in recent months. Besides masterminding Mondo Generator's new Ipecac album "A Drug Problem That Never Existed," the artist plays bass on two songs on "Peace, Love, and Death Metal," an album by Homme's side project the Eagles Of Death Metal. He can also be heard on QOTSA member Mark Lanegan's upcoming Beggars solo set, "Bubblegum," the as-yet-unreleased solo debut from former Hole bassist Melissa auf der Mar and a live release from Masters Of Reality. "You don't want to say 'no' to things like this," Oliveri insists. "I'd be a fool."

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