Them Crooked Vultures

Them Crooked Vultures was the kind of supergroup that sounds too good to be real on paper and then actually delivers: Josh Homme singing and playing guitar, John Paul Jones on bass and keyboards, and Dave Grohl pounding the drums and adding backing vocals, with Alain Johannes filling out the sound on stage. They came together in Los Angeles in 2009, started recording that February, and played their first show in Chicago on August 9, with a European debut ten days later.

"New Fang" was the first single, out in October 2009: a slinky, swaggering riff with a hip-shaking groove that sounds like three old pros having the time of their lives. The self-titled album landed the following month and debuted at number 12 on the Billboard 200, with "Mind Eraser, No Chaser" as another dose of heavy, twisting hard rock. The Deserve the Future Tour kicked off on October 1 and ran into 2010, and "New Fang" went on to win the Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance in 2011.

Then they went on hiatus in 2010, and busy schedules have kept a second album from happening, though all three have said they'd like one. They did come back together in September 2022 for the Taylor Hawkins tribute shows at Wembley Stadium and the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, with Greg Kurstin on keyboards.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.