The Wiz: Desert Rock Pt. 2
Desert Rock Week, part two. Multi-instrumentalist, singer, producer, and, for many, the godfather of stoner and desert rock: Brant Bjork.
While still at high school in Palm Desert in 1987, he and friends including Josh Homme and John Garcia formed the band that would become desert and stoner-rock pioneers "Kyuss". Bjork was their drummer and one of their principal writers.
After the band's third album, Bjork left in 1994 following disagreements with Homme, later the founder of "Queens of the Stone Age", over their musical direction.
After leaving, Bjork established his own label, largely for bands he was involved with. He also contributed on various instruments to volumes 1, 2, 5 and 6 of Homme's musical collective "The Desert Sessions".
Bjork produced the debut album by "Fu Manchu", whom I wrote about yesterday, and joined them on drums during some of their golden years. Watch him tearing into the kit in Germany in 1998:
He has played guitar and drums in other stoner and punk-rock bands, as well as the heavier "Mondo Generator", led by his friend and former "Kyuss" bassist Nick Oliveri. Here is a 2004 performance with Bjork on drums:
In 2006, he also created music for an artistic, sometimes psychedelic landscape film about California's desert scene and way of life. Bjork appears in some of the footage:
Toward the end of the century, he began a parallel solo career that continues today. He has since released around 15 albums under his own name and with accompanying bands, playing most of the instruments himself on many of them. Alongside his familiar desert groove, he sometimes slows down into blues rock and more minimal, occasionally instrumental stoner sounds.
His latest, self-titled album came out last week. It absolutely captures that relaxed, smoky desert mood for me, and sounds excellent from the opening track. What style! Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5svHG5XDfCpthCG6JWm4qi... YouTube: https://youtu.be/Zr-XXO8pLoA
That occasional restraint never diminishes the live performances. He still rocks hard and gets everyone moving, as at Rockpalast in 2019:
P.S. Bjork's latest album came through the excellent Heavy Psych Sounds, a label specializing in stoner rock and related styles, also mentioned in my post about "The Sonic Dawn".
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