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Eagles of Death Metal is a side project's side project---longtime pals Jesse Hughes and Josh Homme together under the rubric of playing riffy, cartoonish Motorhead biker-metal with all of the deadly seriousness and blatant irony that comes with it. Mainstream rock hasn't been even remotely threatening for about 25 years, and Hughes knows that; the devil horns that have long been relegated to the same pop-cultural recycling bin as the safety pin and mohawk once again adorn the new EoDM album cover, and EoDM's music remains the minimalist, grinding greaser approach to hard rock long ago established by Eddie Cochran and periodically revived, but never this well. The first video (dir. Akiva Shaffer) from new record Death by Sexxy, for "I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News)" is a grin-inducing paint-by-number rock-cliche-fest. The song, complete with ubiquitous baritone voice of authority, is a direct descendant of Cochran's "Summertime Blues", with elements of George Thorogood (whom I believe has a copyright on the word "bad") and Loggins and Messina's (by way of Poison) "Your Mama Don't Dance". The riffs are as tight as Hughes' jeans, which combined with the handlebar mustache and aviator shades channel Rob Halford, which makes it all the more hilarious when he blows the clothes off a girl with a guitar solo. Cameos from Jack Black and Dave Grohl should be expected at this point; both have established themselves as the dual-headed saviors of all things Hard Rock and Metal. It's great that something this supposedly tossed off is bound to be one of the best rock records this year.