![]() ![]() This 50/50 partnership between Palm Desert and Seattle legends proved monumental, yielding the best straight-up hard rock album the 21st century’s given us thus far. On SFTD, Homme, Oliveri, Grohl, and Lanegan are given equal billing. ![]() Homme enlisted former Kyuss bandmates Alfredo Hernández and Nick Oliveri on the band’s self-titled 1998 album and 2000’s Rated R, respectively, handling the bulk of instrumentation himself but also relying on a revolving door of guest musicians. QOTSA’s third album was the first to list more than two people as “Queens Of The Stone Age” in its credits. As early as 1992, Dave Grohl was calling Kyuss “the future of grunge,” playing Blues For The Red Sun to everyone from his Nirvana bandmates to Metallica’s Kirk Hammett in order to spread, as he said in a later interview, “the good word.” Grohl and Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan would become major presences in Homme’s ensuing work, and nowhere more so than Songs For The Deaf. Despite evolving concurrently and sharing more than a few similarities (brawn, drugginess, yarling, etc.), desert rock and grunge aren’t frequently linked and rarely cross-pollinated with each other. He decamped to Seattle, the other West Coast city enjoying a mid-’90s hard rock boom, and soon joined Screaming Trees as a touring guitarist. Homme, who’s never participated in any of the many Kyuss reboots over the years, seemed a little jaded with this whole “desert rock” scene. By the time they broke up in ’95, Palm Desert was busting out of its skintight Levis with bands of a similar ilk, ranging from heavy psychedelia (earthlings?) to muscle car hard rock (Fu Manchu), but all courting distinctly Hell’s Angels vibes and most sharing members. (Get it yet? These guys like to party.) Kyuss was ultimately a short-lived, under-appreciated, and hugely influential project, their two masterpieces Blues For The Red Sun and Welcome To Sky Valley both among the greatest stoner metal albums of all time. ![]() It was called Katzenjammer, which is a German slang term for a hangover. By 2002, the 29-year-old Homme had already been in the game for 15 years, having formed a band with four of his future Kyuss bandmates when they were all in high school. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |