Hmmm. I really do like QOTSA and I have since the days of Kyuss, but I just can't seem to endorse Homme's crazy desires for solo projects. Personally, I hope Homme keeps the lineup he's got for a while. I really like Troy Van Leeuwen and Joey Castillo, and they seem to work well live and in studio.
Whenever it was Homme and Olivieri, the music was sweet and they were the badasses of their day, partying at night and fighting other banRAB by day. But after Homme fired Olivieri, I think QOTSA really lost its soul, the metal tinge upon its conscience. Don't get me wrong, I still liked EV, but Lullabies was awful and neither album is a match to their first three and a half works. Rated R and SFTD were amazing, retaining a good bit of the ol' days of desert rock while drawing Homme's talented falsetto into their works.