NME Feature Article Analysis

By Meghan

GeneralThe magazine has chosen to interview the group because it is made up of three famous musicians and they had kept the group a secret. By writing an article on it, the magazine is more likely to get people to want to understand what has happened. The genre is somewhat reflected by the use of profanities and the black and white text with a splash of red. The photo, however, is not particularly rock and roll. The target audience is anybody who knows about the supergroup as it was such a big shock to fans of the bands. If you don’t know who the band is, the article will most likely not interest you unless you know any of the members within the band. The dps (double page spread) doesn’t have anywhere which specifies whether or not it is part of a regular feature.

Mode of AddressThe text is quite informal and uses a lot of taboo language. For example, “work with his best fuckin' mate Josh Homme.” It is quite comical as each subheading is an instruction that links to the title, as if it is an instruction guide. To be able to fully enjoy the article, you need to have a basic knowledge of each of the member’s separate careers. However, you can still read it with no knowledge. All of the speech is the artist speaking directly- we do not know what questions were asked. There is no example of specific semantic fields within the text but the bands have been abbreviated to Foos, Queens and Zeppelins. There is some slang such as “jam” and “muso”, but mostly just profanities. This is probably to attract a younger audience.

LayoutThere is an equal amount of text to pictures as each takes up a page. There are four columns, to split up the reading into an easier format. There isn’t really a photo frame. We don’t see any of the questions that are asked the band members. There seems to be a byline on the right hand side. There is one quote which is enlarged as it is quite an amusing one due to it’s silliness as John Paul Jones’ main remark about the band positively is presented to be “It’s nice that nobody’s been shouting for “stairway”…” There is a huge drop cap T at the start.The article covers quite a few dps as it is 2539 words long, including the title but not the space taken up by the enlarged quotes. The write was making the article more interesting by making it like a guide book, so the writer would have liked to write a lot. There is no box-outs.

ImagesThere is one long shot here of the band as a whole, on location, where they are using direct address. The picture is in colour which makes it look nicer, and more noticeable in line with the lack of colour on the text page. The location seems an odd one as it doesn’t seem to link to the article in any way, however we could guess it is at the studio where the album was made, or was meant to represent a barren place where vultures may live. There is a caption, however, it is too small to be read on my computer as it cannot be zoomed into.

Small DetailsThere is a page number- the double page spread may go across pages 24-25 (again it it is hard to read). The masthead is not on the page and there is no footer or mention of a website.

The Article (which appears on the page)

NME ArticleHow to make a supergroup.The worry was that Dave Grohl, John Paul Jones and Josh Homme might damage their legacies with Them crooked Vultures. The result, says NME is a band worth of being mentioned in the same breath as their past glories...The first anyone knew of it was a page on the Lollapalooza website in August this year, which just stated 'Metro - 8/9 -Midnight' below three symbols: that of Queens Of The Stone Age, Foo Fighters and John Paul Jones' own cipher from 'Led Zeppelin IV. That was enough for the show to sell out in three minutes. When Josh Homme, Dave Grohl and Jones came onstage, announced themselves as Them Crooked Vultures and blew faces apart with their never-before-heard, Sledgehammer Of The Gods rock, two questions arose: 1) How the hell had they managed to keep this a secret? and 2) How amazing is this? The three members are speaking exclusively to NME about Them Crooked Vultures for the first time, although scheduling conflicts, most notably Grohl's overseeing of the Foos' 'Greatest Hits', mean they have to do it individually. Such an air of a flame that could flicker out at any time is only adding to the excitement surrounding this, something which the band are hardly quelling. Fittingly, given the way they announced their arrival, they even have their own coat of arms now. "I consider the album to be the most exciting thing I've done in my whole entire life," says Dave Grohl from Nirvana and Foo Fighters. John Paul Jones can barely contain himself, "Oh YEAH I'm excited! It's a dream... it's like the old Zeppelin days." Josh Homme simply smirks, "Well, no pressure then."Meet In An Unusual PlaceThem Crooked Vultures began, as these things often do, in drink. Dave Grohl was speaking to his pal John Paul Jones after presenting Led Zep with an award in London in September last year, and since he was "absolutely pissed," rattled on about his plans to work with his besht fuckin' mate Josh Homme, and asked Jones to come play in LA. Grohl and Homme both wanted a break from Foos and Queens respectively, had been looking for an excuse to work together again for ages, and now Grohl had an amazing one. "For 20 years people have asked me what my dream band line-up is. And now I can say, I'm in it!" he says. However, at the time Jones had a Led Zeppelin around his neck. "I wasn't quite sure what was happening with another band we were trying to start!" he laughs. "Once we heard that Robert didn't want to do anything, Page and I weren't going to reform Zeppelin, but just a new band. But nothing came of that, so I called Dave up and he invited me over for his birthday party at Medieval Times." The US restaurant chain where you eat while watching knights duel on horses was a very Grohl-ish place to set up Homme and a member of that most Arthurian of

bands on their "blind date". Homme recalls, "Dave never mentioned John to me until December, and I didn't even believe him until January [at his birthday party]. What was good about Medieval Times was that there was no risk of pretension. It broke the ice. With a lance." Jones says they quickly arranged to play amid the clash of swords. "It was weird, the blind date, but I was aware of Josh's music, obviously, and I thought he was really interesting as a singer, a guitarist and songwriter. I couldn't imagine it not working."When It Comes To Rehearsals, Man UpTwo days later, these three legendary musicians converged on Homme's Baby Duck Studios like the greatest gunfighters in the West ready to prove who was the fastest of them all. Grohl and Homme, arguably the greatest drummer and guitarist of their generation, eyeballed each other as they set up, but when Jones strolled through the doors like an old sheriff - the greatest bass player of all time, who was playing 'Kashmir' while they were still shitting in nappies - they trembled. This was not for the faint-hearted, this was muso-a-muso, Goliath Vs two only slightly smaller Goliaths, and the sheer weight of musical history hung between them in the air. Josh Homme is still having palpitations about what happened next. "It was white knuckles - oh right, HERE, and then HERE. It was like cramming for a test. To be honest, I was fucking nervous. It was just a blur. But the second jam it was like, this is on. It had a real forward motion to it, and I think we all understood we had to grab hold of it." Grohl chuckles at the memory of the Titans Of Rock awkwardly seeing if they should get serious. "After three days John had to go back to England, and we put down our instruments, sat down and looked at each other and went, 'OK, should we be a band?' and everyone nodded. It was funny, none of us has started a new band for years!"