The Desert Sessions

Vol. V/VI (Man’s Ruin)
by Craig Regala

The Desert Sessions are a series of recordings made out in the desert Kyuss made famous. Mr. Josh Homme (Kyuss/Queens of the Stone Age) gathers friends and musical compatriots to lay down some grooves, come up with some ditties, and engage in various fuckery that gets recorded and plapped out on 10″ vinyl slices first and later, two by two, on CD. “Hooray!,” the rock fan says, “Wait a minute,” the consumer says, “Uhh, yeah,” I say. This is the first one of these I’ve gotten to listen to more than once. It has a whimsical, goofus angle that would please both the tall and small if they liked the middle period of the Flaming Lips – the “pop” that rocked and rolled around the alt.consumer base when MTV’s “120 Minutes” and the Lollapalooza audience were rubbing noses.

I think it was the Village Voice guy, Robert Christgau, that stated “Something Funny Happened to Me Yesterday” (I could have the title jumbled), by The Rolling Stones was the best song ever about tripping. That statement is the key to this disc. The lysergic quotient is funny, silly, creepy, and campy, but not brutal/punishing in any way. (For that, you’d hook the new Nightstick). The music has a loosely-constructed, wide-open, sunny feel. Surf riffs, “new wavish” quasi-jerky Devoish chord changes bump into the desert/stoner heritage you’d expect from the people involved – members of QOTSA, Earthlings?, Tuatara/Screaming Trees, Fu Manchu, Kyuss, The Aliens, Miracle Workers, Dwarves (keep in mind their skewed AM radio side), and the Sea Hags. The tones are warm, the tempo’s relaxed, and as a “single thing,” it seems more like a Fatso Jetson record than any single other unit. Funny, I don’t see ‘m credited anywhere. Maybe it’s synchronicity and the pink beam of their vibe (like the one that hit writer Phil Dick) bathes the studio where this was recorded. I hope one of these bands picks up the first cut, “You Think I Ain’t Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire” – it’s a real good one. Oh, and the lyrics were provided by “The Poetry Contest” winners. Neat, huh?
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