By Kimberly Chun

WHEN YOU WANT to get to the bottom of a hard-partying yet elliptical band like Queens of the Stone Age – and with leader Josh Homme struck by an illness that makes it hard to breathe, let alone sing or answer interview questions – then who better to consult than the new Queen on the scene? In a ratings twist from the band's Rated R (Interscope, 2000) days, keyboardist Natasha Shneider is also the only one with XX chromosomes.

After less than a month spent touring with the seemingly bro-ed out Queens – a band that in the past has seemed as heavy on the testosterone (Homme and ex-pard Nick Oliveri) as it was with grunge-era star power (Mark Lanegan and Dave Grohl) – surely the smart, self-conscious Shneider has some insight into the otherwise all-boy shenanigans swirling around her. Isn't it a challenge being a woman ... in this band?

" 'Do you find it challenging being a woman?' – yes!" she drawls mordantly. The deadly but glamorous combination of a Russian accent and lingering nasal congestion makes her sound like a radio transmission from the Oriental Express – and the dust of the czars is threatening to choke off all communication. "But in this band – no! Actually I find it quite challenging to be a human being on this planet."

But she pauses to consider, then conquer. "A woman in the band? I'm not a very girlie kind of woman. No. Just a human being that happens ... not to have a dick."

Speaking from a hideously decorated backstage in Winnipeg ("The colors are all under the umbrella of vomit"), the Moscow native and current Los Angeles resident accomplishes the weird feat of both heightening the smoky decadence surrounding the band and reducing it to a reality that's as glaring and potentially disorienting as daylight in the desert.

A key songwriting prong in the proggish trio Eleven, along with Queens of the Stone Age bassist Alain Johannes, Shneider provided the keyboards and some spoken word on 2002's Songs for the Deaf (Interscope) as well as lead vocals and various instruments on Homme's side project, Desert Sessions' Vol 7/8 (Southern Lord, 2001) but didn't perform on the Queens' new fourth album, Lullabies to Paralyze (Interscope), a disc that's still making the rounds on the radio via the single "Little Sister," a so-wrong-it's-right-on Queensy union of a spiraling Breeders riff with bracingly mechanistic hard rock, candy-apple crunch. Who can resist that stingy cowbell, the weakest yet most compelling to have never seen the light shining through the holes in a disintegrating "Keep on Truckin' " T-shirt?

Though not as heavy on the hard pop as Songs for the Deaf, the rest of the new album is mined with surprises, including the mournfully pretty "This Lullaby" and the clodhopper blues of "Burn the Witch." Throughout, the band demonstrate an understanding of the principles behind the Stooges with a fatal combination of beautiful, almost danceable grooves and ugly, brash guitars – heavy on the ass-shaking bottom, please.

Shneider obviously has the moxie needed to match Homme, guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen, and drummer Joey Castillo. She played her first shows with them at South by Southwest after a scant "three and a half" practices. "I just walked in and said, 'Heeeey, the band is so awww-some. It's time I joined,' " she says, laughing like Pirate Jenny. She and Johannes have been close friends with Homme for about five years, since Eleven toured with Queens. "Josh was a fan of our band before this whole thing happened. But nobody auditioned, in other words. There was no ad placed and no ad answered," she says with amusement.

The admiration goes both ways: she loves Homme for his songwriting abilities but especially adores his mind, which she describes as "approaching the speed of light and all the unknowns that it implies. It's creative every second of the day, as opposed to some people who are extremely creative in what they do, but then in social situations they can be a tremendous bore. Josh is like that all the time, sort of a wonder," she observes. "Kind of like watching a child that's going to do crazy stuff. It's the danger of not knowing what's coming – from that mind."

That mind changes up set lists with each show, though according to Shneider, the Queens are such a happy family these days that they simply can't get off the stage, playing occasional two-hour-plus sets. The transcendent moments onstage are what Shneider has learned to crave, she growls, "like a huuungry wolf wanting to eat."

Still, she realizes the group remain something of an aberration on the charts, a band with roots in Homme's early-'90s experience in Kyuss, which appealed to headbangers, punks, and Olympia, Wash., indie rockers alike, and a pop and critical hit that attracts guests like ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons and Garbage's Shirley Manson, who appear on the new album.

"I wouldn't be able to be in a band where I didn't respect musicians in the band or the music that's written," Shneider says, now serious. "It's an incredible thing, it's original, and it's got balls and a burning fire, and it carries something really important for young people. We're not just rehashing what the first, second, or third album sounded like – always, always reaching out, always growing ..."

Queens of the Stone Age play with Throw Rag Sat/16, 9 p.m., Fillmore, 1805 Geary, S.F. $25. (415) 421-TIXS, (415) 346-6000.

To purchase Queens of the Stone Age music featured in this article, visit iTunes: