Sick, Sick, Sick
Encyclopedia
"Sick, Sick, Sick" is a Grammy nominated 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
. A Sick, Sick, Sick EP
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).
The song features Julian Casablancas
of The Strokes
on backing vocals and synth guitar.
Additionally, 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 and also appears on the soundtrack of the game MotorStorm: Pacific Rift
. The song is also set for Guitar Hero: Van Halen
. The song was also featured in the Warren Miller film Playground.
shot a video for "Sick, Sick, Sick" on April 25 in the Los Angeles
area, featuring the band performing "at a dinner party audience of one", at "this kind of LoCal local remote homemade…church-castle
…in East L.A.".
The video starts with images of food being prepared, as well as 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's revealed that each member of the band is chained to the wall by the ankle. The cannabalistic woman rings the bell, the masked, gloved "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 seems to get hungrier and more desperate as the song goes on, and by the time Josh Homme is the only one left, she is crawling on the table, stuffing food into her mouth with both hands. Homme watches this and kicks his ankle chain around. She finally looks him right in the eye and rings the bell to order him 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 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, Josh 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.
Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Age is an American rock band from Palm Desert, California, United States, formed in 1997. The band's line-up has always included founding member Josh Homme , with the current line-up including longtime members Troy Van Leeuwen and Joey Castillo , alongside Michael Shuman and...
from their 2007 album Era Vulgaris
Era Vulgaris (album)
Era Vulgaris is the fifth full length studio album by American hard rock band Queens of the Stone Age. The album was completed in early April 2007 and released on June 8, 2007 in some countries, June 11, 2007 in the United Kingdom and June 12, 2007 in the United States...
. It was released on May 8, 2007 as a digital download
Music download
A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...
only from the U.S. iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
. A Sick, Sick, Sick EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
was also given a limited release, containing the song and three B-Sides: "I'm Designer" (remix), "Goin' Out West" (Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
cover) and "Christian Brothers" (Elliott Smith
Elliott Smith
Steven Paul "Elliott" Smith was an American singer-songwriter and musician. Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and resided for a significant portion of his life in Portland, Oregon, where he first gained popularity...
cover).
The song features Julian Casablancas
Julian Casablancas
Julian Fernando Casablancas is an American singer-songwriter and musician of The Strokes. Casablancas pursued a solo career during The Strokes' hiatus, releasing the album Phrazes for the Young on November 3, 2009....
of The Strokes
The Strokes
The Strokes are an American indie rock band formed in 1999 in New York City. Consisting of Julian Casablancas , Nick Valensi , Albert Hammond, Jr. , Nikolai Fraiture and Fabrizio Moretti ....
on backing vocals and synth guitar.
Additionally, 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
Music video game
A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs...
series Rock Band and also appears on the soundtrack of the game MotorStorm: Pacific Rift
MotorStorm: Pacific Rift
MotorStorm: Pacific Rift is a racing video game by Evolution Studios and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. It is the sequel to MotorStorm and is followed by MotorStorm: Arctic Edge for the PS2/PSP, and MotorStorm: Apocalypse...
. The song is also set for Guitar Hero: Van Halen
Guitar Hero: Van Halen
Guitar Hero: Van Halen is the third and final band-specific rhythm video game in the Guitar Hero series. As with the previous games Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero: Metallica, the game features 25 songs from Van Halen along with 19 additional songs from selected artists that have been...
. The song was also featured in the Warren Miller film Playground.
Track listing
- "Sick, Sick, Sick" (HommeJoshua HommeJoshua Michael Homme is an American rock musician, and record producer. He was the guitarist and a founding member of the stoner metal band Kyuss, as well as the founding and only continuous member of the hard rock band Queens of the Stone Age , in which he sings, plays guitar, and serves as the...
, Van LeeuwenTroy Van LeeuwenTroy Dean Van Leeuwen is an American musician and producer. Van Leeuwen began playing music at young age and started playing guitar at age 13. Soon Van Leeuwen was playing in various local bands such as Jester, 60 Cycle and later Failure...
, CastilloJoey CastilloJoseph Willam "Joey" Castillo is an American drummer currently playing with Queens of the Stone Age and Eagles of Death Metal...
, GossChris GossChristopher Ryan Goss, born August 17, 1958, is an American record producer and musician.-Selected discography:Throughout his career Goss has worked with a wide range of musicians in various genres.* 1988 - Masters of Reality by Masters of Reality...
) - 3:35 - "I'm Designer" (Primal Scream Remix) (HommeJoshua HommeJoshua Michael Homme is an American rock musician, and record producer. He was the guitarist and a founding member of the stoner metal band Kyuss, as well as the founding and only continuous member of the hard rock band Queens of the Stone Age , in which he sings, plays guitar, and serves as the...
, Van LeeuwenTroy Van LeeuwenTroy Dean Van Leeuwen is an American musician and producer. Van Leeuwen began playing music at young age and started playing guitar at age 13. Soon Van Leeuwen was playing in various local bands such as Jester, 60 Cycle and later Failure...
, CastilloJoey CastilloJoseph Willam "Joey" Castillo is an American drummer currently playing with Queens of the Stone Age and Eagles of Death Metal...
) - 3:46 - "Goin' Out West" (WaitsTom WaitsThomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
, Brennan) - 3:27 - "Christian Brothers" (SmithElliott SmithSteven Paul "Elliott" Smith was an American singer-songwriter and musician. Smith was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and resided for a significant portion of his life in Portland, Oregon, where he first gained popularity...
) - 4:23
Music videos
Director Brett SimonBrett Simon
Brett Simon is an American commercial, music video and film director.-Career:Simon graduated from Princeton University summa cum laude in 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Comparative Literature and Creative Writing, and later graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2002 with...
shot a video for "Sick, Sick, Sick" on April 25 in the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
area, featuring the band performing "at a dinner party audience of one", at "this kind of LoCal local remote homemade…church-castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
…in East L.A.".
The video starts with images of food being prepared, as well as 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's revealed that each member of the band is chained to the wall by the ankle. The cannabalistic woman rings the bell, the masked, gloved "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 seems to get hungrier and more desperate as the song goes on, and by the time Josh Homme is the only one left, she is crawling on the table, stuffing food into her mouth with both hands. Homme watches this and kicks his ankle chain around. She finally looks him right in the eye and rings the bell to order him 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
Liam Lynch (musician)
Liam Lynch is a musician, puppeteer, writer and director. He co-created, co-wrote, played the music for, directed, and produced MTV's Sifl and Olly Show....
directed 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, Josh Homme, and Wendy Rae Fowler (in her fourth appearance in a Queens of the Stone Age video, among them "Burn the Witch
Burn the Witch
"Burn the Witch" is the third single released from Queens of the Stone Age's fourth album, Lullabies to Paralyze. Many of its lyrics run parallel with the dark, folkloristic theme for this album...
") was shot at Lynch's house in front of a green screen, without any crew. Later animation similar to the "Go with the Flow
Go with the Flow
"Go with the Flow" is a song by Queens of the Stone Age from the album Songs for the Deaf, released as a single in 2003. At the 46th Grammy Awards, the song was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance.-Music video:...
" video was added.
Charts
| Chart (2007) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Austrian Singles Chart | 65 |
| Dutch Singles Chart | 91 |
| Finnish Singles Chart | 18 |
| German Singles Chart | 77 |
| US Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks | 37 |
| US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks | 23 |