Desert Rock Heroes Stöner Land in the Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- The latest collaborative project featuring desert-rock legends Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri, power trio Stöner comes to the Bay Area this week to play shows in Santa Cruz and Albany.
Bjork and Oliveri were founding members of influential Palm Desert band Kyuss that helped inspire the stoner-rock movement that emerged during the '90s. The powerhouse rhythm section served as the engine that drove the songs heard on the group's debut Wretch and the groundbreaking sophomore album Blues for the Red Sun that helped the band land a recording contract with Elektra Records.
Oliveri would leave Kyuss before that second album was released, going on to be a key member of high-octane punk legends the Dwarves (under the pseudonym Rex Everything) and leading his own band Mondo Generator as well as later serving as co-frontman and songwriting foil in Queens of the Stone Age, the group started by Kyuss guitarist Josh Homme after that band split up in 1995.
Meanwhile, Bjork left the Kyuss after their major-label debut Welcome to Sky Valley in 1993, moving on to join popular Orange County punk/metal outfit Fu Manchu for a series of albums and tours. Bjork's talents behind the kit have earned him a future spot in Valhalla's pantheon of rock percussionists alongside the likes of Led Zeppelin's John Bonham, Sabbath's Bill Ward and the Who's madman drummer Keith Moon.
Unlike many drummers, Bjork is an equally gifted songwriter, guitarist and singer who also has fronted a number of heavy rock bands including Che and Brant Bjork and the Bros. Fans rejoiced in 2010 when Bjork reunited with original Kyuss singer John Garcia and bassist Oliveri to tour as Kyuss Lives! with Belgian guitarist Bruno Fevery filled the sizeable shoes of Kyuss founder and Queens of the Stone Age leader Homme.
But when the group announced plans to record new material under the moniker, Homme and latter-era Kyuss bassist Scott Reader blindsided the band with a lawsuit that eventually forced a name change to Vista Chino. Despite the turmoil of the legal battle and not one, but two departures by Oliveri, Vista Chino has emerged triumphant with Peace, a stunning debut album on Napalm Records that lived up to the high standards set by Kyuss.
While Bjork and Oliveri have stayed busy with their own projects, with both musicians releasing a number of reissues and compilations through the Heavy Psych Sounds imprint. Oliveri additionally teamed with fellow stoner-rock veterans Bob Balch (Fu Manchu) and Gary Arce (Yawning Man, Ten East) for the band the band Big Scenic Nowhere, with the bassist contributing to a pair of EPs and the full-length album Vision Beyond Horizon. Two years ago, he and Bjork announced a new collaboration in the band Stöner.
Rounded out by longtime Brant Bjork Band drummer Ryan Gut, Stöner isn't looking to reinvent the wheel when it comes to fuzzed-out, heavy desert rock grooves. But given that 2/3 of the band actually invented the wheel in this case, that is not a bad thing. Filled with propulsive, head-nodding rhythms and Bjork's laid-back vocal delivery, the band's debut Stoners Rule and follow-up pandemic in-concert document Live in the Mojave Desert showcase an iconic sound that the players helped define. The band will be previewing material from it's forthcoming sophomore Heavy Psych Sounds album Totally... set for release in early May.
While its current "Interstellar Taco Tour" was supposed to feature desert-rock brethren and pioneering Palm Desert outfit Yawning Man, illness has forced the band off the bill. Instead, the support slot will be filled by Yawning Man/Fatso Jetson guitarist Mario Lalli and his improvisational collective the Rubber Snake Charmers for these two shows in Santa Cruz and Albany. Regular collaborators include his son bassist/guitarist Dino Lalli, Fatso Jetson/All Souls drummer Tony Tornay, jazz-punk guitar great Joe Baiza and noted saxophonist Vince Meghrouni.
Lalli had already emerged as a major force on the Palm Desert scene in the mid-1980s with his groups Across the River and Yawning Man that featured later Kyuss/The Obsessed member Scott Reeder and cousin Larry Lalli on bass, guitarist Gary Arce and future Kyuss/Queens of the Stone Age drummer Alfredo Hernandez long before Fatso Jetson came together. Yawning Man became a staple of the infamous underground generator parties held in remote parts of the desert, playing extended psychedelic jams that helped shape the minds of then teenagers Josh Homme, Brant Bjork and John Garcia prior to them forming Kyuss.
After Yawning Man ran its course for the time (the group would eventually reform and start releasing albums in 2005), Fatso Jetson came together in 1994 when the Lallis teamed with drummer Tony Tornay. Mixing elements of heavy rock, surf and psychedelia, the trio would be signed to Greg Ginn's SST Records, which released its first album Stinky Little Gods in 1995. While Mario would also spend time as an auxiliary member of Queens of the Stone Age and contribute to Homme's Desert Sessions recordings, Fatso Jetson would regularly tour and record through the rest of the decade for a number of labels including Man's Ruin, Bong Load Records and Homme's Rekords Records. For the Santa Cruz show, Bay Area sludge/noise band and fellow Heavy Psych Sounds act Disastroid opens.
Opening the Ivy Room show on Friday will be local psychedelic-rock outfit the Spiral Electric. The roots of the band date back to when singer, guitarist and keyboard player Clay Andrews first met lead guitarist Nicolas Percey at a Fillmore concert featuring Primal Scream and the Brian Jonestown Massacre in 2009.
The new friends struck up a creative partnership, writing songs that mixed modern and classic psychedelia with Britpop hooks, shoegaze drone and propulsive surf guitars. The pair teamed with a rhythm section and traveled to Los Angeles to record their first EP -- 2015's Upon Your Shore -- that showcased the band's expansive sound.
The group would follow up with a second EP late in 2016 entitled Ask the Sky that further refined the Spiral Electric's approach to creating neo-psych anthems in the studio. The band built on it's local following, touring and sharing Bay Area stages with like-minded artists from here and abroad including Dead Meadow, Spindrift, the Kills, Swervedriver, Black Mountain, Lumerians, the Dandy Warhols, Cat Power, Jjuu-Jjuu and Turn Me On Dead Man.
Starting in 2018, the band (now filled out by bassist Michael Summers and drummer Matias Dragos) worked on compiling and recording the material that would make up its first proper full-length album. Released in the spring of 2019, the sprawling, hour-plus eponymous effort spotlights a heavier guitar attack without sacrificing the band's knack for crafting swirling, psychedelic ear candy. Recorded with Dead Meadow bassist Steve Kile and mastered by noted engineer Howie Weinberg (Nirvana, the Mars Volta, ), the new album marks a significant leap forward in the Spiral Electric's sound.
Later that year, the band broke in bass player Cedar Wingate with appearances at several California music festivals including Desert Stars (Joshua Tree), SubZero Festival (San Jose) and Oakland's Holiday on the Moon that Andrews helped organize. New bassist Ryan McKnight made his live debut when the Spiral Electric supported King Buffalo at the Bottom of the Hill last fall. The band recently returned home after a week of recording in Los Angeles, laying down tracks for their next album.
Stöner with Mario Lalli and the Rubber Snake Charmers
Thursday, Feb. 24, 8 p.m. $15-$20
Urbani Cellars
Friday, Feb. 25, 8 p.m. $17-$20
The Ivy Room