Brant Bjork

I’ve been listening to a bit more of this guy lately, in particular, Gods And Goddesses and Punk Rock Guilt.   Prior to that it was Jalamanta, Saved By Magic, and Black Flower Power.

In the beginning:  there was Kyuss, famous for giving us Josh Homme, the lead dude of Queens of the Stone Age.  With that band he’s on Wretch, Blues for the Red Sun, (Welcome to) Sky Valley and ....And The Circus Leaves Town.  Since Kyuss are also famous for being one of the first stoner rock bands, and are still well esteemed to this day, that alone would give BB solid stoner rock credentials.

Then it was  Fu Manchu, for the albums, No One Rides For Free, The Action is Go, Jailbreak, Eatin’ Dust, King of the Road (their best album), and California Crossing. 

QOTSA bassist Nick Oliveiri had a falling out with Homme – who can be a bit strong-minded about running his band – so he wound up making his own band, Mondo Generator, which has two studio albums, Cocaine Rodeo and A Drug Problem That Never Existed, both of which BB is on.

Solo.  He has 7 albums as “Brant Bjork” (Jalamanta, Brant Bjork & the Operators, Keep Your Cool, Local Angel, Tres Dias [a compilation with only one unique song], Punk Rock Guilt, and Gods & Goddesses), two as “Brant Bjork and the Bros” (Saved By Magic and Somera Sol), and one with his “Low Desert Punk Band” (Black Flower Power).  The solo distinction is that with the prior bands, he was playing drums, whereas now he’s playing multiple instruments and seems to be on guitar & vocals live – basically doing a Dave Grohl/Foo Fighters switch.  I suppose you could call him the Dave Grohl of stoner rock.  What’s even funnier is that Grohl himself played drums briefly with Queens of the Stone Age and teamed up with Josh Homme and John Paul Jones (yes, the Led Zeppelin bassist/keyboardist) for Them Crooked Vultures.

Although I haven’t heard all his material, I’ve heard the Kyuss, the Fu Manchu, about 1/3 of his solo material.  It all qualifies as stoner rock, and all has a definite groove of coolness.  I’ve seen him in concert a few times, although only as a drummer: Kyuss (1995), Fu Manchu (2002), and Kyuss Lives (2011).  I’m still trying to catch him playing a tour as his solo band. 

Note: despite the term “stoner rock”, much of this music is not psychedelic at all, and Bjork’s stuff is not either.  It’s riff driven, with some bands like Bjork’s having a definite groove element to it, almost “heavy-funky”.  The scene also includes bands which are much slower and sludgier (“doom”), such as Electric Wizard and Acid King (imagine Black Sabbath’s “Into the Void” – but even slower), or others which pick up the tempo considerably with a quasi-thrash vibe, like High On Fire.  It’s not music which requires marijuana to enjoy, but many of its fans are proud tokers, and some bands even celebrate it in their names:  Bongripper, Bongzilla, Weedeater, Weedpecker, etc.  The genre seems to take Black Sabbath as its starting point, and then spliff it up with some weirdness, a la Pink Floyd, or what I call Black Floyd.  They inject just enough originality to avoid simply being de facto Black Sabbath tribute bands, but they often sound very much the same as each other. 

If you’re a fan of classic heavy metal – AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest – you’re going to find that the bands are getting older and touring less and less.  Black Sabbath will be lucky to follow up 13 with another album and tour – and Bill Ward is effectively retired.  Priest are close to shutting down.  AC/DC may have one more album and/or tour after Rock or Bust, and Maiden eked out its most recent album, Book of Souls, which still hasn’t been released (ETA 9/4/15), before Bruce Dickinson’s cancer scare.  When they do tour, it’s large venues at high prices.  The beauty of the stoner rock scene is that none of these bands have blown up huge, so they’re playing local clubs fairly often for modest prices.  There are some stoner rock festivals in Europe, but I haven’t seen one come by the DC area yet.  But the bottom line is that you get “Black Floyd” in your home town fairly often.  And you don’t even have to toke up.  

Queens of the Stone Age

As you might have guessed, this blog is due to a recent concert, Queens of the Stone Age, at Merriweather Post Pavilion, in Columbia, Maryland, on July 17, 2014.   QOTSA (as they are commonly referred to) were the headliner for a change.  I had seen them three times before:  in June and September 2002 at the new 9:30 Club (Washington, DC) on the Songs for The Deaf tour, and in September 2008 on the Era Vulgaris tour at the Ram’s Head Live in Baltimore.   By now Nick Oliveri is no longer with the band.

The current lineup is Josh Homme (vocals & guitar), Troy Van Leeuwen (guitar), Dean Fertita (keyboards & guitars), Michael Shuman (bass), and Jon Theodore (drums).  In the past Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) has been on drums, and the inimitable Oliveri was the prior bassist.

They have six studio albums now, self-titled (1998), Rated R (2000), Songs For the Deaf (2002), Lullabies to Paralyze (2005), Era Vulgaris (2007) and …Like Clockwork (2013).   I got into them shortly after Rated R came out, and to date that remains my favorite album.  Somehow it breathes more, it’s less compressed, and it has my favorite songs, including “Better Living Through Chemistry.” 

QOTSA’s musical style can best be described – by me, at least – as a funky variant of Soundgarden.  They have their own style, somewhat twisted lyrics and sense of humor.  It has to be heard to be appreciated – if at all.

It’s funny that I didn’t like Oliveri when he was in the band, but I miss him now that he’s gone.   In his absence the band’s stage presence is simply Homme singing and playing guitar backed by 4 competent nobodies.  There are no gimmicks, lasers, light shows, or anything aside from the band.  Homme’s intersong banter is arrogant and nasty, but at least coherent.

QOTSA has a connection with the following three groups, which merit mention herein, as follows:

Kyuss.   Any discussion of QOTSA should include Kyuss.  This was one of the first “stoner rock” bands, active between 1987 and 1997, with a revolving lineup.  John Garcia (vocals), Homme, Oliveri, and Brant Bjork (drums) are the most important members.  They made 4 albums before breaking up, but they’ve reformed recently around Garcia, Bjork and Oliveri as Kyuss Lives.   Apparently Homme still has the rights to Kyuss, so Garcia then renamed the group Vista Chino.  I don’t find the Homme-less material as good as what they did with him.  We actually saw Kyuss in 1995, opening for White Zombie at Merriweather, but I can’t remember that set.  I made up for that by seeing Kyuss Lives in 2011. 

Masters of Reality.   Founder and main member Chris Goss has a close relationship with Homme and Kyuss.  He produced the Kyuss albums and the first two QOTSA albums, including Rated R.  While it may be a stretch to call him “the godfather of stoner rock” (as some do), he undeniably has a major role in the genre.  This band’s material is also good, though I’ve yet to collect all of it.

Them Crooked Vultures.  This was a short-lived “supergroup” of Josh Homme, Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones (yes, the Led Zeppelin bassist/keyboardist), with one self-titled album (2009) and a brief tour I couldn’t catch.  The band they sound closest to is (drumroll, please) QOTSA.