England’s The Duke Spirit specializes in primal blues-fueled rock whose emotional subtleties are blasted forth on a take-no-prisoners wave of guitar squelch and sass. So it comes as some surprise to learn that the band almost called it quits before recorded last year’s Neptune LP out in the California desert with Queens Of The Stone Age producer Chris Goss. Singer Liela Moss talks about this, about spending seven weeks in the Palm Desert, and about Miranda July in this interview.

And for good measure, a ballad: