Five things you should know about The Eagles of Death Metal

1 Yes, the band’s drummer, Josh Homme, is also in Queens of the Stone Age. He and lead singer Jesse ”Boots Electric” Hughes were boyhood friends growing up in Palm Desert, Calif.

2 Their new CD, Death by Sexy, features vocals by Jack Black. ”We did a signing in L.A., after the first album,” Hughes recalls, ”and there was Jack and Dwight Yoakam and I almost s— myself.”

3 The Eagles of Death Metal started as an ”experiment.” ”The fun was missing in rock & roll,” Hughes says. ”The music forgot about women, man. It’s the biggest no-brainer: If you want to have a good time, you need baby girls dancing everywhere. You aren’t going to achieve death by sexy if the sweethearts aren’t smilin’.” Adds Homme: ”I gotta be honest, I haven’t been playing for guys for, like, 10 years now. This band is like the Queens [of the Stone Age] audience without the mean drunk guy. For years, I’ve been trying to get that one mean drunk guy outta there.”

4 If you want to see the duo live (and aren’t a mean drunk guy), they’re opening for the Strokes’ current nationwide tour.

5 In case you didn’t notice, Hughes has a mustache. ”I woke up one morning and the gods of rock & roll had bestowed this mustache upon me; it’s a soft boomerang of love.” Homme: ”It takes guts to be the rock & roll Tom Selleck. A ‘stache is shaped like the beginning of a Y?it says ‘Yes!’ I tell Jesse he’s like Freddie Mercury’s straight nephew.”