By Joel Hanek

In the event of a world-ending nuclear disaster, I'm pretty sure the only remaining creatures on earth will be cockroaches and the members of Them Crooked Vultures. This rock supergroup — comprised of Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, Queens of the Stone Age singer/guitarist Josh Homme and legendary Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones — have survived decades of musical waves where tracks with guitars have weaned in relevancy.

Since the band announced its existence a mere six months ago, fans have been waiting in anticipation to get their hands on some music. Unfortunately, the only place to hear any Them Crooked Vultures songs were either going to one of the few live shows or by enduring a tinny camera-phone bootleg. Now fans can finally get their fix. After releasing an album track on iTunes last week for free, the band has put their entire album up for stream on YouTube.

After listening to the 13 tracks on the record, it's hard not draw comparisons to the members other projects. While Josh Homme steps up for lead vocals, many of the TCV songs lean to a more amped-up blues than the stoner-rock vibe of Queens of the Stone Age. Some songs have an inescapable QOTSA feel to them though, especially the sedated "Interlude with Ludes."

Fans of Dave Grohl will get the best of both worlds. Grohl returns behind the drum kit but also lends his backing vocals to many of the tracks, prominently featured on such tracks as "Mind Eraser, No Chaser" and "Dead End Friends."

Then there are some refreshingly unexpected tracks on the album. "Caligulove" is an organ-accented song that ventures into '60s psychedelic rock and is immediately followed by "Gunman," a distorted funky rock song that diverges into minor-soaked choruses.

The forthcoming self-titled debut will be released on November 17.

Dave Grohl's primary band Foo Fighters have a new greatest hits collection out this week, and though it has two new songs on it (including the single "Wheels"), Grohl is focusing his new output on the supergroup Them Crooked Vultures. The band reunites Grohl with Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme (Grohl played drums on QOTSA's Songs for the Deaf) and adds Led Zeppelin bass player John Paul Jones. The result is a throwback power trio whose debut album is full of swampy riffs, doomsday vocals and lots and lots of volume.

The band is currently offering up a free song on iTunes called "Mind Eraser, No Chaser." Built around a psychedelic guitar loop, the tune is the perfect blend of classic rock and modern guitar music tropes. Homme and Grohl share vocal duties, including a call-and-response section where Grohl shouts "All I wanna do is have my mind erased!" It's mostly just refreshing to hear Grohl behind the skins again, as his drum style is uniquely savage and — keeping in step with the rest of the band — extremely loud.

It's a big week for fans of Grohl's rhythmic skills, as this week also marks the release of Nirvana's "Live at Reading," the album and DVD of the legendary band's notorious set at the Reading Festival in 1992. It's the portrait of a band absolutely hitting on all cylinders and unleashing a difficult, anthemic set to a rabid festival crowd. Grohl's work behind the kit is fantastically brutal, especially on the rarity "Been a Son."

In the meantime, Them Crooked Vultures' debut album self-titled debut will hit stores on November 17.

Today marks the release of Raditude, the seventh album from Weezer. Amazingly, the group has been around for 15 years and has survived a handful of personnel changes and more than one shift in focus. But unlike fellow rock veterans Foo Fighters (who are looking back on their career with their Greatest Hits, also out today), Weezer continue to evolve with time and roll with new trends.

On their last album (2008's self-titled "Red" album), they produced a video for the single "Pork and Beans" that sought to grab hold of dozens of different Internet memes all at once. Raditude features a collaboration with Lil Wayne. And now you can grab yourself an official Weezer-branded Snuggie (which the band calls "The Wuggie"). It's a sleeved blanket with "Weezer" written across the front, and if you order one from the band's official Web site, you'll score a copy of Raditude to go along with it. It's an amazing concept, but even Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo isn't entirely sure why.

"It's hard to understand the appeal of this product," Cuomo told MTV News. "Obviously it's a giant hit, but I don't really understand why. But as soon as we came up with the idea, we were like, 'Yes! This is it!' Cultural critics are going to have to go back and figure out what was going on here. It was genius, but at this moment we don't know why."

They have certainly proven to be practical. Last Friday (October 30), the band performed "I'm Your Daddy" (the next single from Raditude) on "The Late Show with David Letterman" while wearing the unusual garments. It helped keep the group warm (Letterman notoriously keeps his studio at a frosty 45 degrees) and made for easy play as well. "The Weezer Snuggie is actually very easy to play in — that's one of the greatest things about it," Cuomo explained. "You're able to strum the guitar, you're able to do fist pumps and pound the drums and stay warm."

Back in the late 1990s (when album sales were robust and a CDs actual release date was more important than its leak date), every Tuesday in November and December was a "Super Tuesday," usually featuring a handful of big-name releases all hitting stores at the same time. Artists competed for gargantuan first-week album sales and spots on "TRL." 10 years ago, November 2 was one of those massive Tuesdays, featuring a handful of big acts putting out new, high-profile records. Foo Fighters dropped There's Nothing Left to Lose (their most successful album and the winner of the Grammy for Best Rock Album in 2000). On the same day, Mariah Carey unleashed Rainbow, lead by the smash hit "Heartbreaker" (a collaboration with Jay-Z). Counting Crows busted out their third release This Desert Life, which picked up some traction when first single "Hanginaround" became something of a graduation anthem for high school seniors. Lil Wayne put out Tha Block is Hot, his watershed solo debut on Cash Money. Elsewhere in hip-hop, Flipmode Squad's Rah Digga released her underrated solo debut Dirty Harriet, while the Roots put out their excellent live album The Roots Come Alive.

But with all those names putting out albums on November 2, 1999, who played live on "TRL" that day? Rage Against the Machine, who performed in Times Square to celebrate the release of their third album The Battle of Los Angeles, their most accomplished, complex and mature album. Lead by the single "Guerrilla Radio," the band balanced the savagery of Tom Morello's guitar assault with the funky low end and Zack De La Rocha's pointed agit-prop rapping. The band broke up soon after but reunited a few years back, though The Battle of Los Angeles was the last original album they put out. But it still holds up, and it's amazing to think that a collective could be so well versed in politics but also know how to move a crowd so well. Check out the excellent video for "Guerrilla Radio."

Sometimes working on side projects can pull a band apart and lead to their break-up. But there are other instances where key members taking time off from a giant act can help everybody recharge their batteries. Though Foo Fighters is Dave Grohl's main squeeze, he hasn't been hurt by dalliances with Queens of the Stone Age, Probot or Them Crooked Vultures. The members of Linkin Park also haven't had any trouble keeping their core strong while branching out into other areas of the music world. Mike Shinoda has had a successful run as part of Fort Minor, and Chester Bennington is currently enjoying success as the frontman of Dead by Sunrise.

Dead by Sunrise combines Bennington with members of arena-goth act Orgy. Interestingly, the Orgy members also have an electronic side project called Julien-K. The family tree runs so deep, in fact, that Bennington joked that they could plan an entire festival featuring only his bands and the connected side projects. "We're going to call it the Narcissism Tour," he joked to MTV News at the Ulalume Festival. "It'll be Linkin Park, Orgy, Fort Minor, Dead by Sunrise, Circuit Freaks, Julien-K and JK DJs."

"That's like a seven hour work day," added guitarist Ryan Shuck.

Be sure to check out the Ulalume Music Festival playlist, which features live performances from Dead by Sunrise, A.F.I. and Paramore. You can check out the whole show tonight (October 30) at 9 p.m. on MTV or at 11 p.m. on mtvU.

For a band made up of three old-school rock and roll veterans, Them Crooked Vultures have chosen a very 2009 way to debut their first single as a band. "New Fang" is the first studio recording unleashed by the supergroup that consists of Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl on drums, Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones and Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme on guitar and vocals, and the trio unleashed it on the universe via Twitter. Though the group has been touring sporadically since last month and plenty of heavy-sounding performance footage has made it to the Web, "New Fang" represents the group's first entry into an actual recording, and the results are impressive. Buoyed by a loose, insistent drum beat, a crunchy riff and a slightly psychedelic guitar lead, "New Fang" presents Them Crooked Vultures as a classic power trio and often recalls the Eric Clapton projects Cream and Blind Faith.

The turnaround for everything has been pretty quick for Them Crooked Vultures. They only revealed their existence over the summer, played their first shows in early August and quickly recorded an album that will be released on November 17. (We're especially excited about the track titled "Interlude with Ludes.") The three haven't necessarily left their old bands behind, though, as Homme is working on remastering his band's self-titled 1998 debut as well as a new QOTSA album, while Grohl just released the new single and video from his main band's upcoming greatest hits album. As for Jones, it seems unlikely that Led Zeppelin will get back together any time soon, but in all honesty, Them Crooked Vultures is a pretty excellent alternative to anybody looking for a bit of heaviness.

Muse really, really want to make it big in America. I mean, this a group whose singer/guitarist Matthew Bellamy recently told Spin magazine, "We'd like to be remembered amongst the best bands in the history of rock. It's necessary to have sustained success in this country for that to happen."

But the British band doesn't want it bad enough to cozy up to an endorsement from Fox News weeping head Glenn Beck, who was singing Muse's praises last month for what he saw as their apocalyptic, one-world order warning on their new album, The Resistance. No sooner had Beck big-upped his paranoid android buddies in the prog trio than he reported that their people called him and asked that he rescind his endorsement. Or did they? On Monday, we found out that Beck was just kidding when he claimed that Muse had put the kibosh on his kudos.

While a Beck endorsement might not put them over the top, popularity-wise, in the U.S., if their retraction request had been real, it would have put them in some impressive company in terms of bands who've asked conservative powerhouses to lay off using or praising their music. There was a flood of these no-thank-yous in last year's presidential election, most of them aimed at failed Republican nominee Senator John McCain.

The Vietnam war hero got pwned by no less than half a dozen acts during his presidential bid, from the Foo Fighters, Van Halen and Heart to John Mellencamp and Jackson Browne.

Classic rockers Boston also fired off an angry missive to Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, asking the former Baptist minister to stop using their 1975 hit "More Than a Feeling" during his rallies.

Then again, maybe if Hillary Clinton had gotten the smackdown from Celine Dion, things would have been different.

It's hard to believe, but Foo Fighters have actually been around since 1995 (which means that frontman Dave Grohl has been with his own band nearly four times longer than he was with Nirvana), so it's only logical that they'll be putting 14 years worth of hits on a compilation that hits the streets on November 3. Greatest Hits brings together such smashes as "Everlong," "All My Life," "Learn to Fly" and "My Hero." But they've also added two new tunes to the mix. One is a song called "World Forward" and another called "Wheels" (which they originally premiered on the lawn of the White House during an Independence Day party hosted by Barack Obama). The video for "Wheels" just premiered this morning, and it's a low-key performance clip that puts the group in a large, romantically lit warehouse. It's not nearly as visually stunning as some of the Foo Fighters' other work, but it does have one notable prop that makes it particularly interesting: Those old-timey microphones.

It makes sense, because with a decade-and-a-half in, Foo Fighters are one of the more venerable brands in rock music. They've toured the world, sold-out stadiums, played numerous events and award shows, sold millions of records, made memorable videos and experimented over and over again while still remaining true to their core. "Wheels" is a reserved tune about the road, but at this point, there's no better group to explain the ways of the rock world than the dudes who have just about seen it all.

Them Crooked Vultures, the strangely-named supergroup that brings together members of Led Zeppelin, Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age, made their live debut two short weeks ago at a Lollapalooza after-party in Chicago. They surfaced for their second show ever last night in Amsterdam and also released a teaser video that shows the trio — drummer Dave Grohl, bassist John Paul Jones and guitarist Josh Homme — messing around in a recording studio while a clip of their song "Nobody Loves Me and Neither Do I" plays over it. Though they have an album done, the band has been mysterious about when those songs might see the light of day, and they've been similarly secretive about their live shows. Rumors are swirling (via the band's official message boards) that they'll be making a few festival stops in Europe over the next couple of days. But most details remain hazy — even their official Web site is little more than a board, a store with one sold-out T-shirt and a creepy illustration of the band's part-man/ part-vulture mascot.

But what does this group mean for each member's respective primary projects? Grohl has drifted away from Foo Fighters before (most notably to curate his metal all-stars album recorded under the name Probot) and for all intents and purposes Homme is the only real permanent member of Queens of the Stone Age. The news of the existence of Them Crooked Vultures will probably most bother hardcore fans of Led Zeppelin. Since the legendary band reunited for a one-off concert in December of 2007, enthusiasts have been clamoring for a full-scale reunion tour, and though several rumors about more shows have surfaced over the last 18 months, it looks less and less likely Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant will do any more shows any time soon.

It might be for the better, as video shot of a live performance of "Dead End Friends proves that the band is the sort of heavy, low-ended monster that will fill in for an absent Zeppelin nicely.

July 7 is a big day for astronomers, conspiracy theorists and David Duchovny fans, as it's the supposed day that flying saucers were spotted over Roswell, New Mexico in 1946. Without the Roswell incident (wherein people thought the government was covering up the fact that they found wreckage and bodies from a fallen UFO), we wouldn't have gotten "The X-Files," "Independence Day" or Foo Fighters.

Today also marks the Michael Jackson memorial in Los Angeles, and the best example of aliens and MJ coming together is the Alien Ant Farm cover of "Smooth Criminal." The song was the first major hit for the band, who performed it live before the Video Music Awards in 2001. "How many of you guys like Michael Jackson?" asks frontman Dryden Mitchell. Answer: Hundreds of thousands of us.