Kyuss-Welcome to sky Valley. The rawest sound of desert rock ever recorded?

Submitted by Wonder-Lad t3_121a4og in Music

This album probably gets mentioned a lot here but I just couldn't contain myself and needed to gush about it somewhere. What a fucking masterpeice. An entire album filled with atmosphere. An atmosphere of grime and dirt. You can almost taste the salt of the desert in the air when you listen to this album.

Starting off with the band's hottest hit song, Gardenia, and continueing track by track with songs that keep pulling you in and grabbing your attention. A good mix of heavy instrumentals and soulful vocals the whole way through. Each song is similar enough in tone and tempo to represent a unified sound yet distinct enough to never be boring and monotonous. One of the best albums I've heard my entire life. Every time I listen it's like the first time. A road trip essential.

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brandonsfacepodcast t1_jdl3487 wrote

That sounds and atmosphere is created partly by plugging the guitar into a bass amp.

If you've never visited the desert this album was written and recorded in, you should. The desolation of Sky Valley (the unincorporated city) is palpable even though it borders some bustling cities, it's completely understandable how they wrote this album here.

It is indeed a fantastic record

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dryphtyr t1_jdllt25 wrote

They also used the upper register bass strings on their guitars

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Philboyd_Studge t1_jdl4paz wrote

So fucking great. I can listen to Whitewater like over and over again

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Wonder-Lad OP t1_jdlauct wrote

Dude, if I put this on I have to listen to the entire thing.

I can't listen to 100° without going into Space Cadet right after.

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ScrotiusRex t1_jdmksd3 wrote

Well honey you know that you can and will lick by fat doowoo

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krowmada t1_jdl4oma wrote

agree that this is more deserty. but blues for the red sun is the better album for me.

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dryphtyr t1_jdllpen wrote

Both are great, but blues is definitely the one I like better. Sky valley is how I discovered them though. I was going down the Tool rabbit hole back in the Napster days.

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The_Dale_Hunters t1_jdlxxsg wrote

Demon cleaner cover pull you in?

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gypsy-ghost t1_jdm747f wrote

That's how I found Kyuss

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The_Dale_Hunters t1_jdmvvoq wrote

I found them in an equally random way. on Ween’s “Paintin’ the Town Brown” record, in the linter notes they talk about opening for the awesome band Kyuss, so I sought out any album I could find and was floored.

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fungus-and-bugs t1_jdl9geg wrote

Great call on that album. I just listened to it for the first time and it was very much like you described it.

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rylalu t1_jdlrqzm wrote

Discovered this when i worked at the liquor store one of my coworkers would play music on his zune and helped me to discover kyuss, megadeath, parliament, Ohio players, system, and so many other great bands. I was like listening to pink floyd, the drifters beck and nirvana pretty much religiously before that. Kyuss changed my whole perspective on metal. Better than the QOTSA I had heard on the radio back then. Th whole thing about some guy told kyuss their like the queens of the stone age and they just adopted it. Funny.

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UglyInThMorning t1_jdlz53u wrote

>play music on his zune

Man I miss the Zune. They weren’t as popular as iPods were but everyone who had them loved them.

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primcharly t1_jdm855p wrote

I came late to both Kyuss and QOTSA but from what I remember learning, Kyuss came first and when they broke up Josh started QOTSA, wit Nick and Mark joining him for Rated R. Did they actually play at the same time or was it another band you were thinking of?

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theonetheonlytc t1_jdnubut wrote

Kyuss was not around at the beginning of QOTSA. They have done a couple reunions over the years without Josh Homme and a few members of Kyuss are featured on Rated R, but the original lineup has not existed since QOTSA first self titled album.

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rylalu t1_jdna6b9 wrote

Just the story my coworker told me had no reason to question him.

He knew a ton about music and was a bass player in a few bands when he wasn't selling 4 locos to hobos.

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theonetheonlytc t1_jdntnkv wrote

Queens of the Stone age came about after Kyuss broke up. It was Josh Homme's next project with him as the frontman this time.

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Wonderful_Dog386 t1_jdltx3d wrote

The band of all bands.

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joe_mamasaurus t1_jdocdnc wrote

For real though! How many bands have come from Kyuss or are Kyuss adjacent? 10-12? Something like that.

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Wonderful_Dog386 t1_jdpxatt wrote

Yes, that’s amazing right. But not only that. To me their music sounds like it came risen straight from the dirt. Their sound is so fucking raw, pure and connected.

With all other music I listen to music. With Kyuss I listen to the sounds of earth. There is some indescribable connectedness to their music.

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Benzaah t1_jdlr6rl wrote

Saw them warm up for Metallica on their Australian tour when I was 16 in 92, at their prime and man they were good. Green machine https://youtu.be/R-MSfd2S7lo and 50 million years trip https://youtu.be/iGWrO2KTBwA

Their last album doesn’t get much love but has 2 of my favourites catamaran https://youtu.be/qnTW7yqtyxk and el rodeo https://youtu.be/qnTW7yqtyxk

But you cannot go past gardenia https://youtu.be/O8VmoqBz9Vg and 100* https://youtu.be/9lnfyMGBi6w

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eldonte t1_jdm32jp wrote

Size Queen and One Inch man are my favourite Kyuss songs. From that last album. I saw Kyuss Lives in 2011. I was just starting to go to shows around the time they broke up, so I missed the chance to see the OG lineups, but for bands of the genre of that era I did manage to see Monster Magnet with Fu Manchu opening. That was the Dopes to Infinity/Daredevil albums for each. Both bands were putting out excellent music at the time and continued to put out great stuff for years afterwards.

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Creative_Rock_7246 t1_jdpem5a wrote

My wife surprised me with Kyuss Lives tickets. I tried buying tickets but they sold out and was bummed about it for months but she surprised me with the tickets a week before the show 😍😍😍😍

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Guava7 t1_jdm2qnr wrote

That's how I found them as well, at the Melbourne gig. Thought they were awesome.

Scott Reeder played in long white basketball socks and they slowly came off his feet throughout the gig. By the last song he had these super long floppy things hanging off the end of his feet. Was hilarious.

And then Metallica played. Faaaaarrrrkkkk.

One of my all time favourite gigs.

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PryanLoL t1_jdm0fnf wrote

Catamaran is a cover of Yawning Man. And yet it sounds like a Kyuss song.

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qhartman t1_jdm537n wrote

Definitely a special place in my heart, but I like ... Circus leaves town... better. Haven't seen anyone mention them on this thread, but if you like this stuff check out King Buffalo. Easily my favorite band that's active right now, and they have a similar sound. Dead Star is their top album for me.

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universalapplepie t1_jdmxg5m wrote

King Buffalo is absolutely incredible. I've seen them twice now live, and they kill it every time. I can't say enough good things about them.

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arawks t1_jdny5wj wrote

Listened to a couple of King Buffalo's songs and dig them. Thanks for posting!

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fungus-and-bugs t1_jdos99d wrote

Checked out King Buffalo and have to thank you for the awesome recommendation. I listened to the Dead Star album and loved it

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SidKafizz t1_jdmbyvi wrote

Came across this post in my feed and thought I'd give it a listen.

I'm not what you'd call a metalhead and I'm a little on the old side to be a member of the original audience, but this isn't bad. My only complaint is that the recording is so dense and lo-fi, which I assume is the way it's supposed to be. I'd like to hear the drums a little bit clearer.

While I'm probably not gonna head right over to Etsy and order 12 Kyuss t-shirts, I enjoyed listening to the album on a snowy March Saturday morning. So thanks to Reddit and your glowing review for slightly expanding my aging musical horizons.

Not sure that the hidden track was necessary!

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deaththinkdeeply t1_jdlmsb6 wrote

First experience with true desert rock around 2006. To this day one of my all time favorite albums. I share your sentiment.

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chessmasterjj t1_jdlbxyq wrote

Yeah. They kinda invented a genre with this album.

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jasper333333 t1_jdmah5x wrote

I fucking love Kyuss.

I’ve been listening to “Wretch” a lot recently - so raw.

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thiophosgene t1_jdm3tqo wrote

Wretch s also superb. Love Has Passed Me By is so raw.

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sanjuro37 t1_jdlxbyl wrote

Man, fond memories of being a teen and first getting into metal and buying a then-new book called The Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal that was as you’d guess a primer on important bands but every now and then the writer would go hard for a name that was off the beaten path and prob the three lesser known bands he blatantly plugged for were Candlemass, Voivod and Kyuss. This was around 2004-05 and I tried to hunt down this and Blues for the Red Sun based on that book but at that time internet shopping was still in a relative infancy. Amazon was a fraction of what it became, specialty stores were hard to search for. Hell, even google was only gaining traction. And Kyuss couldn’t even be found on Limewire to pirate. But I finally managed to get a CD of this, where the tracks were bundled into suites like an 8-track, which initially frustrated me but it helped me fall in love with that whole record. Whether it or Blues is better doesn’t matter to me, they’re both perfect, filthy stoner psychedelia. The Isn’t Anything/Loveless of stoner rock

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ugmold t1_jdm0823 wrote

Splendid album

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Josh100_3 t1_jdlj99g wrote

I remember having this on CD and it gave me the shits that you couldn’t skip tracks lol.

I should listen to it again. Great album

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jdino t1_jdm5tha wrote

Dopesmoker

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Knife_Chase t1_jdocr8r wrote

I remember first getting into queens and thinking how great they were to later discover Josh was part of a different classic influential band before that. Guy is mad under respected.

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Creative_Rock_7246 t1_jdpef3a wrote

Kyuss is rarely, if ever, mentioned here.

They're in my top 3 greatest bands of all time tho

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Western-Low8220 t1_jeabjre wrote

Yes definitely in my top five favorite albums of all time. And it is a true album for each track can't breathe without the song before or after it. I live in Cleveland but back in the year 2000 I took a road trip by myself out to Arizona to see some friends. I waited until I crossed into New Mexico and started Sky Valley. It was in mid September around 6:30 p.m. the road was smooth the sky was starting to turn orange and it was the most amazing experience. Thanks for posting about this

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