Released May 8, 2007 Length 3:34 | Format Digital download Label Interscope | |
Genre Stoner rock
noise rock
post-punk
garage rock Writer(s) Joey Castillo
Chris Goss
Josh Homme
Troy Van Leeuwen | ||
"Sick, Sick, Sick" is a single released by Queens of the Stone Age from their 2007 album Era Vulgaris. It was released on May 8, 2007 as a digital download only from the U.S. iTunes Store. The song features Julian Casablancas of The Strokes on backing vocals and synth guitar. An EP called Sick, Sick, Sick was also given a limited release, containing the song and three B-Sides: "I'm Designer" (remix), "Goin' Out West" (Tom Waits cover), and "Christian Brothers" (Elliott Smith cover).
Contents
In a May 2007 interview with Dose magazine, frontman Josh Homme stated, "[Sick, Sick, Sick] is the Fairy God Prince of the Gutter, touching everyone on the head and releasing them from their shackles of guilt."
The song appears in a 3-song pack, along with other Queens of the Stone Age songs "Little Sister" and "3's and 7's", as downloadable content for the music video game series Rock Band. It also appears on the soundtrack of the game MotorStorm: Pacific Rift and is playable in Guitar Hero: Van Halen. Along with "Make It wit Chu", it was featured in the Warren Miller documentary Playground.
Track listing
- "Sick, Sick, Sick" (Homme, Van Leeuwen, Castillo, Goss) - 3:35
- "I'm Designer" (Primal Scream Remix) (Homme, Van Leeuwen, Castillo) - 3:46
- "Goin' Out West" (Waits, Brennan) - 3:27
- "Christian Brothers" (Smith) - 4:23
Personnel
Music videos
Director Brett Simon shot a video for "Sick, Sick, Sick" on April 25, 2007. It features the band performing "at a dinner party, audience of one" at a "remote homemade... church-castle in East LA. Michael Shuman, Josh Homme and Troy Van Leeuwen are all playing Ampeg Dan Armstrong Plexi guitars in the video.".
The video starts with images of food being prepared and human fingers being rubbed with seasoning. A classy, beautiful woman in black is sitting alone at a huge dinner table piled high with food, enjoying her meal and watching the band perform. It is revealed that each member of the band is chained to the wall by their ankles. Every time the woman rings a bell, masked "chefs" collect a band member by the chain and lead him away to be butchered, cooked, and served to her. This is largely symbolized with footage of the band playing in a red, oven-like environment, or with their mouths stuffed with vegetables.
The rest of the band play on while the woman consumes fingers and other body parts. Instead of getting full, the woman gets hungrier and more desperate. By the time frontman Josh Homme is the only one left, she is crawling on the table, stuffing food into her mouth with both hands. Homme watches this while performing and kicking his ankle chain around. The woman looks him right in the eye and rings the bell for him to be cooked. He is led away and joins the rest of the band playing in the "oven" as the woman collapses on the table, spent but still eating.
Liam Lynch directed the official alternate video for the song. It was released on queensofthestoneage.de on May 30, and was made by Lynch at his expense (i.e. without being commissioned, outside of the label), but once it was finished the label picked it up and made it the official video for Germany. The video, which stars Lynch, Homme, and Wendy Rae Fowler (in her fourth appearance in a Queens of the Stone Age video, among them "Burn the Witch") was shot at Lynch's house in front of a green screen, without any crew. Later, animation similar to the "Go with the Flow" video was added.