Kyuss was an American rock band, formed in Palm Desert, California, in 1987. The band disbanded in 1995, and since then, members of Kyuss have gone on to form or play in several notable bands including Queens of the Stone Age, Fu Manchu, Dwarves, Eagles of Death Metal, Mondo Generator, Hermano, Unida, Slo Burn and Them Crooked Vultures.
Queens of the Stone Age is an American rock band formed in 1996 in Palm Desert, California. The band was founded by vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme, who has been the only constant member throughout multiple line-up changes. The current line-up consists of Homme alongside Troy Van Leeuwen, Michael Shuman, Dean Fertita, and Jon Theodore. The band also have a large pool of contributors and collaborators. Queens of the Stone Age are known for their blues, Krautrock and electronica-influenced style of riff-oriented and rhythmic hard rock music, coupled with Homme's distinct falsetto vocals and unorthodox guitar scales.
Doom metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other heavy metal genres. Both the music and the lyrics intend to evoke a sense of despair, dread, and impending doom. The genre is strongly influenced by the early work of Black Sabbath, who formed a prototype for doom metal. During the first half of the 1980s, a number of bands such as Witchfinder General from England, American bands Pentagram, Saint Vitus, the Obsessed, Trouble, and Cirith Ungol, and Swedish band Candlemass defined doom metal as a distinct genre.
Nick Steven Oliveri is an American multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter. He is perhaps best known as a former member of Kyuss and later Queens of the Stone Age from 1998 to 2004. Oliveri is also a solo artist and frequent contributor to his friends' albums and tours, including Winnebago Deal, Mark Lanegan Band, Masters of Reality, Turbonegro and Moistboyz, among many others. He is currently the frontman of his project, Mondo Generator, a punk and metal hybrid that he formed in 1997. He has also worked periodically with the Dwarves since 1993.
Joshua Michael Homme is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the founder, primary songwriter, and only continuous member of the rock band Queens of the Stone Age, which he formed in 1996 and in which he sings lead vocals and plays guitar, as well as occasionally playing bass and drums. He also co-founded Eagles of Death Metal in 1998, playing drums and bass for their studio recordings and occasionally performing live with them.
The Desert Sessions are a musical collective series, founded by Josh Homme in 1997. Artists such as Brant Bjork, PJ Harvey, Jeordie White, Dave Catching, Nick Oliveri, Mark Lanegan, John McBain, Ben Shepherd, Josh Freese, Chris Goss, Alain Johannes, Troy Van Leeuwen, Dean Ween, Les Claypool and many others from the Palm Desert Scene have contributed as songwriters and musicians.
Masters of Reality is an American rock band formed in 1981 by frontman Chris Goss and guitarist Tim Harrington in Syracuse, New York, United States. They took the name for the band from a misprinted label of the third Black Sabbath album. Goss has remained the only constant band member.
The Palm Desert Scene is a group of related bands and musicians from Palm Desert, California. Their hard rock sound – sometimes described as desert rock – contains elements of heavy metal, psychedelia, blues, punk, alternative, grunge, and other genres. It often features distinctive repetitive drum beats, a propensity for free-form jamming, and "trance-like" or "sludgy" grooves. The involved musicians often play in multiple bands simultaneously, and there is a high rate of collaboration between bands. The Palm Desert Scene is also notable for fostering stoner rock pioneers Kyuss. The term "stoner rock" is sometimes used interchangeably with the term "desert rock". However, not all Palm Desert scene bands are "stoner rock" and not all stoner rock bands sound exactly like those in Palm Desert. Palm Desert has been named by Blender magazine as "one of the top seven rock n' roll cities in America".
John Garcia is an American singer-songwriter. He is best known as the vocalist and founding member of stoner rock bands Kyuss, Slo Burn, Unida and Hermano. Garcia performed in Vista Chino with former Kyuss drummer Brant Bjork. Garcia and Bjork have since decided to continue their individual solo projects, with Garcia releasing his debut album John Garcia in 2014.
Brant Bjork is an American musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer from Palm Desert, California. He is perhaps best known as the drummer and founder of the influential Californian stoner rock band Kyuss. Bjork played in Vista Chino, along with former Kyuss vocalist John Garcia, up until October 2014, at which point Nick Oliveri announced that there was a falling out and that Bjork and Garcia would continue working on their solo projects. He is one of the more notable figures in the stoner rock and Palm Desert scenes and maintains a prolific solo career with over a dozen released albums.
Troy Van Leeuwen is an American musician and record producer. He is best known as a guitarist and multi-instrumentalist in the rock band Queens of the Stone Age, with whom he has recorded four studio albums. Joining the band in 2002, he is the second-longest-serving member of the band, after founding member Josh Homme. Leeuwen is also a member of the supergroup Gone Is Gone and has fronted his own projects, Enemy and Sweethead.
Christopher Ryan Goss is an American record producer and musician. Best known for producing records for Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age, he is regarded as an important figure in the development of stoner rock and desert rock genres. Goss is also the lead singer and guitarist of the hard rock band Masters of Reality.
Alfredo Hernández is an American drummer best known as a former member of desert rock bands Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age, Brant Bjork and the Bros and Yawning Man, and as a current member of his new band, Avon. He is jazz trained.
Jack Martin Blades is an American musician. He has worked in the bands Rubicon, Night Ranger, and Damn Yankees. He has also recorded with Tommy Shaw under the name Shaw Blades, and has done work alongside the Tak Matsumoto Group. Blades' most recent efforts include a second solo CD. He is also a member of the band Revolution Saints.
MeteorCity Records is an American record label. MeteorCity was founded in 1997 by Jadd Shickler and Aaron Emmel in Albuquerque, New Mexico. With the release of its compilation album Welcome to MeteorCity showcasing young unsigned Kyuss-like bands, MeteorCity helped launch the stoner rock genre and many of the genre's first bands, plus side projects from members of well-known bands including The Atomic Bitchwax and Hermano. MeteorCity Records was one of the first record labels dedicated exclusively to Stoner rock, doom metal, sludge metal, drone metal and psychedelic rock.
Fatso Jetson is an American desert rock band from Palm Desert, California, formed in 1994 by Yawning Man members Mario Lalli and Larry Lalli, along with Tony Tornay. They are often credited as the fathers of the desert strain of stoner rock later made most famous by their slightly younger neighbors Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age. While musically similar to some of their stoner brethren, Fatso Jetson incorporate a broader variety of musical influences that includes punk and surf.
Orquesta del Desierto is an American desert rock band from Palm Desert, California. Founded upon music inspired and written by producer Dandy Brown (Hermano), members of the band include or have included vocalist Pete Stahl, drummer Alfredo Hernández, guitarist Mario Lalli and guitarists Mike Riley and Country Mark Engel. The band released two albums to date: an eponymous debut in 2002 and a follow up in 2003, appropriately titled "Dos".
Kenneth Michael "Kenny" Edwards was an American singer, songwriter, bassist, guitarist, mandolinist, and session musician. He was a founding member of the Stone Poneys and Bryndle and a long-time collaborator with Linda Ronstadt and Karla Bonoff.
Stoner rock, also known as stoner metal or stoner doom, is a rock music fusion genre that combines elements of doom metal with psychedelic rock and acid rock. The genre emerged during the early 1990s and was pioneered foremost by Kyuss and Sleep.
Vista Chino is an American rock band formed in 2010 by vocalist John Garcia, drummer Brant Bjork and bassist Nick Oliveri, all previously members of Kyuss, along with guitarist Bruno Fevery.
