- I Like To Move In The Night – Eagles Of Death Metal – Album: Death By Sexy
You all know I like rock n’ roll, a taste I inherited growing up a young musician in Boston, one of America’s oldest classic rock cities. I’ve loved the Eagles of Death Metal ever since I first heard them freshman year of high school, for a modern rock band their super unique sound was distinctly hard to ignore. The falsetto singing, hard rock guitar riffs put to slow driving beats, and their unusual use of melodic tones really captured my attention, they have an unbelievably traditional American rock sound without sounding like anything I’d ever heard before. I’ve seen them live a handful of times, most recently at Riot Fest Denver in August, and they put on an awesome show, they’re energetic, enthusiastic and bad ass, it makes sense that Dave Grohl and Jack Black were once apart of the band. Founding members Jesse “Boots Electric” Hughes & Joshua “Baby Duck” Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, have always been musicians I looked up to.
After finding out what happened in Paris, I immediately began checking social media and news outlets to find out the status of the band, though nobody I personally knew was hurt or killed during the attacks, it felt as if close members of my family were targeted. Before I found out the band had made it out of the venue ok, despite loosing several much loved crew members, I was already mourning EODM and their unmatched sound. It was a very hollow feeling, knowing that I may never be able to hear one of my favorite bands play live again, that I may never be able to enjoy the excitement of listening to one of their new tracks. I was relieved to find that they had escaped the horrors inside the Paris venue that had been attacked, and immediately saddened again knowing their friends and colleagues Nick Alexander, Thomas Ayad, Marie Mosser, and Manu Perez, and dozens of innocent fans had been pointlessly gunned down.
I wondered why they had been targeted, this was clearly not a random attack. I came to the realization that The Eagles Of Death Metal have a very openly American vibe. It’s possible that their show was targeted because they represent a portion of our free world that is offensive to religious extremists. They’re an amazing band that has a unique sound, which is rare today in the sea of bullshit that is the music industry, but like many popular American acts they use sexualized terms and imagery playfully in their music and album artwork. What we see as creative expression that’s totally normal in our free culture is something that some people believe is blasphemy, the terrorists trying to impose their will on the world want to squash the things that truly make freedom great. Our creativity, free expression, music, and any art that provokes thought and promotes free will, are all things that these people hate because their religion tells them to. This is why those of us who believe in freedom and what it really stands for need to support artists, musicians and entertainers that provoke thought and continue to make what we believe in as Americans powerful by exemplifying what our free will allows us to do.
If you’ve never heard them before be sure to check out the video at the top of my post, it’s my favorite Eagles of Death Metal Track – I Like To Move In The Night
Peace, Love and Death Metal,
- MG
Writing on Music, Fall 2015 