Kyuss

  • Palm Desert, CA
    hometown
  • Metal
    genre
  • 1987
    started
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About Kyuss


Hailing from Palm Desert, CA, Kyuss (pronounced "kai-uss") has become something like a heavy metal equivalent to the Velvet Underground. Although they are widely acknowledged as pioneers of the booming stoner rock scene of the 1990s, the band enjoyed little commercial success during their brief existence, but their combination of sludgy, down-tuned guitars (often played through a bass amp for maximum, earth-shaking intensity), spacey jams, galloping thrash metal rhythms, and organic drums became a blueprint, often copied, but never quite replicated by countless underground metal bands.

Formed in 1990 by vocalist John Garcia, guitarist Josh Homme, bassist Nick Oliveri, and drummer Brant Bjork, Kyuss (named after a character from Dungeons & Dragons) began jamming at so-called "desert parties," in and around the isolated towns of the Southern California desert. The band gradually built a local following, signed with tiny independent label Dali Records, and released their first album, Wretch, in 1991. Under-produced and poorly financed, the album failed to capture the band's live sound and went mostly unnoticed until sporadic touring started earning Kyuss a reputation as a ferocious live unit, as well as the respect of many fellow musicians. One of these, Masters of Reality singer/guitarist Chris Goss, decided to produce the band's next effort, and the collaboration bore fruit in 1992's stunning Blues for the Red Sun. Soon hailed as a landmark by critics and fans alike, the album took the underground metal world by storm and established the signature Kyuss sound once and for all: the doom heaviness of Black Sabbath, the feedback fuzz of Blue Cheer, and the space rock of Hawkwind, infused with psychedelic flashes, massive grooves, and a surprising sensibility for punk rock, metal, and thrash.

Based on this sudden surge of interest, the band was signed by Elektra Records just as Dali was about to go bankrupt, and despite the loss of bassist Oliveri (he was replaced by Scott Reeder, formerly of the Obsessed), the band continued building momentum with 1994's Welcome to Sky Valley. Also recorded under Goss' guidance, the album nearly matched the brilliance of its predecessor and saw Kyuss taking the novel approach of grouping the songs into three extended suites. Still, despite such creative promise and an ever-growing fan base, personal strife had already begun tearing the band apart, and drummer Brant Bjork was the first to depart when they concluded their fall tour. Then, although they quickly recruited the jazz-trained Alfredo Hernandez to replace him on 1995's noticeably less inspired ...And the Circus Leaves Town, a final rift between Homme and Garcia finally brought Kyuss' meteoric run to a disappointing halt.

2000's Muchas Gracias: The Best of Kyuss collected rare outtakes and live recordings and effectively put a capper on the Kyuss legacy, but after a period of relative silence, each bandmember's talent began leaving its mark on a number of relevant projects. Garcia briefly worked with straightforward desert rockers Slo Burn in 1997 before reuniting with Reeder in the much more promising (but ultimately doomed) Unida, later lending his in-demand pipes to Hermano and other bands. Brant Bjork sang and played guitar in his own power trio, Che (featuring his Kyuss replacement Hernandez on drums), and released a number of solo albums while joining top fuzz rockers Fu Manchu on a full-time basis. As for Josh Homme, discounting a short touring stint as rhythm guitarist for Screaming Trees, he initially retreated into production and spent much of the late '90s collaborating with an impressive array of musicians on the eclectic Desert Sessions. Some of this material was later reworked into his next major project, Queens of the Stone Age, which saw him paired with original Kyuss bassist Nick Oliveri (who had kept busy working with Dwarves) and, at first, drummer Hernandez, as well. Ironically, by their third release (and last with Oliveri), 2002's Songs for the Deaf, Queens of the Stone Age had achieved significantly larger sales than Kyuss ever did, though it's arguable whether they've yet matched their predecessor's legendary status. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia, Rovi

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Music

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Photos

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  • Elektra
    Kyuss
    Elektra
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News

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  • Kyuss
    John Garcia Announces Kyuss Songs Tour
    prefixmag.com
    In the late 1980s, a legendary group emerged from the sun-baked Palm Desert and, along with contemporaneous operatorsSleep, inaugurated the genre of s...
    Read More
  • Kyuss
    Kyuss Lives! Announce Two U.S. Shows
    prefixmag.com
    . A few months later, formerKyussmembers Nick Oliveri and Brant Bjork joined Garcia and Fevery onstage for a festival performance. After seeing the au...
    Read More
  • Kyuss
    Josh Homme and Scott Reeder Sue Kyuss Lives!
    www.pitchfork.com
    Before Josh Homme took off as frontman for Queens of the Stone Age, he was part of California stoner-rock act Kyuss. The group split in the mid-90s, b...
    Read More
  • Kyuss
    Josh Homme Files Lawsuit Against Kyuss Lives! | Prefix
    www.prefixmag.com
    Tweet Last year, John Garcia, former lead singer for pre-Queens of the Stone Age Josh Homme project, Kyuss, revived the band he used to front, taking ...
    Read More
  • Kyuss
    Josh Homme's Old Kyuss Bandmates 'Shocked' by His Lawsuit | Billboard.com
    www.billboard.com
    Kyuss Lives!, the current reincarnation of seminal stoner rock band Kyuss, has responded to the lawsuit filed by former member Josh Homme, frontman of...
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  • Kyuss
    Kyuss Lives! Respond to Josh Homme Lawsuit
    www.pitchfork.com
    Recently, ex-Kyuss members Scott Reeder and Josh Homme (who now fronts Queens of the Stone Age) filed a lawsuit against John Garcia and Brant Bjork, t...
    Read More
  • Kyuss
    Court Rules on Kyuss Lives Lawsuit
    www.rollingstone.com
    As previously reported, former Kyuss guitarist Josh Homme and bassist Scott Reeder recently filed a federal lawsuit against their former bandmates Joh...
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  • Kyuss
    Kyuss/Kyuss Lives! Reform as New Band Vista Chino
    pitchfork.com
    Photo by Kristy Campbell Bear with me here, because the lineage of these bands is a bit tricky to follow: First there was a California stoner-rock ban...
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  • Kyuss
    Kyuss Lives! Will Change Name to Vista Chino
    music.yahoo.com
    RELATED CONTENTView Photo Kyuss Lives! Will Change Name to Vista Chino The ongoing saga of Kyuss Lives! took another turn recently when the band annou...
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  • Kyuss
    Kyuss Lives Will Change Name to Vista Chino
    www.rollingstone.com
    The ongoing saga of Kyuss Lives! took another turn recently when the band announced they were changing their name to Vista Chino, and that on-again/of...
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Discography

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  • ...and the Circus Leaves Town (1995)
    Kyuss
    ...and the Circus Leaves Town (1995)
    Elektra Entertainment
  • Welcome to Sky Valley (1994)
    Kyuss
    Welcome to Sky Valley (1994)
    Elektra Entertainment
  • Blues for the Red Sun (1992)
    Kyuss
    Blues for the Red Sun (1992)
    Chameleon Music Group
  • Wretch (1991)
    Kyuss
    Wretch (1991)
    Dali/Chameleon Records
  • Sky Valley
    Kyuss
    Sky Valley
    Rhino
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