Stoner rock

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Stoner rock

Development phase: Late 1980s, early 1990s
Place of origin: United States
Stylistic precursors
Punk Rock · psychedelic rock · Doom Metal
Pioneers
Soundgarden · Monster Magnet · Kyuss ·
Instruments typical of the genre
Electric guitar · electric bass · drums
Impulse generator & pioneer
Yawning Man · Saint Vitus · Masters of Reality · The Melvins
Important local scenes
Palm Desert · New Jersey

Stoner Rock is a style of rock music that originated within the Palm Desert desert rock scene . The style is closely related to Stoner Doom .

Concept history

Stoner rock

Josh Homme, here with Queens of the Stone Age in 2014, rejected the name Stoner Rock

The word stoner rock goes back to the English slang expression "stoned" for stoned . In 1997 at the latest with the sampler Burn One Up! Music for Stoners the media breakthrough, although according to Josh Homme the word is probably of European origin and only established itself two years after the first big scene bands had subsided. Josh Firestone, an internal employee of MeteorCity, initially skirmished with the term desert rock to describe the bands, although the in-house label Roadrunner Records agreed on stoner rock at one of their meetings at the latest. This sampler also features one of the first songs by the stoner rock band Queens of the Stone Age . Josh Homme, who was also present, later commented on the term in an interview with stonerrock.com .

“Just so you know: I was at a meeting where they threw that term around. They asked me what I thought of it and I just said, 'I think he sucks' "

In addition to Homme, many other scene artists see the term stoner rock critically, although it is the only term for this music that has established itself in the long term and has established itself in music journalism, marketing and literature. Scott Reeder , bassist for the stoner rock band Kyuss , spoke of having wished for the term earlier, as he always had a problem with being pushed into the metal corner . However, some journalists and musicians are of the opinion that the term stoner rock discredits musicians and reduces music solely to the use of drugs .

Desert rock

Another problem is the term desert rock as a synonym for stoner rock . While some journalists are of the opinion to describe the same style, others understand desert rock as a regional demarcation to stoner rock in order to name those bands that Created as part of the scene around Palm Desert . Not only stoner rock bands circulated around the Palm Desert scene, but also bands like Unsound or The Breed , whose social and musical reference points are more likely to be assigned to punk , which is sometimes due to the influence of the band Black Flag . But also the desert rock band Yawning Man, which musically makes use of psychedelic rock and refines this sound with nuances of surf rock, is considered one of the pioneers and initiators of desert rock. In addition to Yawning Man, there are other bands from the punk, hard rock and metal environment such as Throw Rag , House Of Broken Promises , Unida , Mondo Generator , Nuclear Youth , Hornss , Dali's Llama , who were all part of the desert rock scene and thus, despite their musical differences, can also be understood as desert rock bands. The term Desert Rock is understood as an umbrella term for all bands that have emerged in the context of the Palm Desert scene . The term does not define a uniform style of music, but includes the mass of bands that are stylistically oriented towards punk , metal , hard rock, stoner rock and psychedelic rock.

The scene had never made music with the intention of being commercially successful, but rather understood jamming to be the greatest asset, which is an essential factor for a wide range of musical diversity.

In addition to Desert Rock , Jörg Steineck, director of the Lo Sound Desert report, speaks of desert punk here to describe the sound of the bands that belong to this desert rock scene , but are not based exclusively on stoner rock and a musically harder, music imbued with punk and metal. In general, the bands from the scene saw themselves as a community , regardless of the musical differences. Socio-culturally, the scene always understood punk and metal as a common and only denominator.

This explains why stoner rock is a genre that falls under the umbrella term desert rock. Desert Rock is the umbrella term for all bands with different styles of music that have emerged as part of the scene around the Palm Desert collective.

“Punk rock at that time, punk in the desert stood for a wide range of music. There was no dress code or musical restriction as the word punk implies today. It was a very open scene with big differences within individual groups. "

- Vince Meghrouni, Fatso Jetson

style

Style features

According to Allmusic , stoner rock is based on influences from punk and blues rock , but the performers also draw on elements of doom metal and psychedelic rock . Bands like Black Sabbath , The Melvins , Saint Vitus , Blue Cheer , Blue Öyster Cult and Hawkwind are identified as role models. The stoner rock groups complement this style of doom, punk, psychedelic and acid rock with the humming sound of the early grunge artists of the Sub Pop label .

The style-defining basis is the blues rock, this is supplemented with deeply tuned guitars, some of which are played by bass amplifiers, rattling drums, remote to rocky vocals, strong groove and a generally very bass-heavy sound. Occasionally, elaborately structured "20-minute pieces" with a detailed structure and long meditative and jam-like sections are part of the music. A dynamic contrast between very gentle and hard passages is typical. Musically, there is a kinship with Doom Metal , which is mainly limited to guitar playing, especially the riffing and distortion, while the sound is otherwise more reminiscent of the heavier psychedelic rock bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s, which are common to many stoner bands serve as a source of inspiration. Stoner bands often use a variety of effects devices such as fuzz , wah-wah pedals, flanger and distortion .

Hybrids and further developments

Some of the internationally widespread groups do not just use the stoner rock of the first bands, but use elements and nuances of many related genres and let these flow into their music. The Swedish stoner formation Truckfighters is ascribed a closeness to Tool , although Tool is at home in the Progressive Metal segment . In an interview, Steineck talks about his documentary Truckfighters Fuzzomentary about the musical change of the band and their influences.

"Truckfighters seemed to have morphed into something different, that's what I like about them. Their new album doesn't sound like this stereotype kind of 'stoner rock' anymore "

“The Truckfighters seem to have changed, and that's what I like about them. Your new album no longer sounds like this stereotypical form of 'stoner rock' ”

- Jörg Steineck, producer and director

Bands like Orange Goblin or Mammoth Mammoth have always combined their stoner rock with hard rock elements. The German band Color Haze uses influences and varieties of psychedelic rock to complete their sound design . Despite many new bands, there are still formations and groups such as Fu Manchu or Slo Burn , reactivated by John Garcia in 2017 , who still serve stoner rock in a purist manner without resorting to influences from other genres. With Vic du Monte's Persona Non Grata , formations emerged in the mid-2000s that were stylistically based on post-punk and have developed from members of earlier stoner & desert rock bands to this day.

history

Beginning time and development

The Masters of Reality group around Chris Goss is one of the most important pioneers of stoner rock

Stoner Rock originated in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In addition to Chris Goss ' Masters of Reality , Mario Lalli , whose band Yawning Man had a great influence on Kyuss, who are considered the epitome of stoner rock, paved the way . In addition to the early releases of Doom Metal and Psychedelic Rock, The Melvins defined between 1986 and 1991 a rhythm-dominated, sluggish metal that was to have a lasting effect on grunge, sludge and stoner.

Together with the debut of the popular grunge band Soundgarden Ultramega OK (1988), the album of the Stoner Doom group Sleep Holy Mountain (1992) and the albums Blues for the Red Sun and Welcome to Sky Valley of stoner rock -Band Kyuss formed the sound into its own regional genre, with Sleep using the Stoner Doom, which they were to expand later with the album Dopesmoker . The band Monster Magnet , which, like The Atomic Bitchwax, came from New Jersey , where its own local scene had developed, became known at the latest with their 3rd album Dopes to Infinity and achieved commercial success that lasted beyond the local scene. The New Jersey scene developed relatively simultaneously independently of Palm Desert.

One of the most important desert bands known in the scene jargon were Mario Lalli's Yawning Man. The intense appearances of Yawning Man in particular meant that the events in the desert soon became a meeting point and an insider tip for the scene. Due to their influence on later stoner rock bands such as B. Kyuss is the formation among fans and scene bands as the inventor and initiator of what was subsequently called desert rock . Musically, Yawning Man uses a form of psychedelic rock saturated with surf elements.

According to the big names in the scene like Brant Bjork , a. Yawning Man one of the pioneers of Desert Rock :

"Yawning Man was the sickest desert band of all time. You'd just be up there in the desert, everybody'd just be hanging, partying. And they'd show up in their van and just, mellow, drag out their shit and set up right about the time the sun was goin 'down, set up the generators, sometimes they'd just go up there and drink beers and barbecue . Sometimes it would be a scene; sometimes it would be very intimate. It was very casual and loose and everybody would like, while they're playing, everyone would just lounge around. They were kinda like a house band. It wasn't militant like Black Flag. It was very drugged, very stone-y, it was very mystical. Everyone's just tripping, and they're just playing away, for hours. Oh, they're the GREATEST band I've ever seen. "

“Yawning Man was the worst desert band ever. You just had to hang out in the desert and party and they would come by in their van, slowly clearing their shit and building up. Exactly at the moment when the sun was going down they started their generators. Sometimes they just went upstairs to drank beer and had a barbecue. Sometimes it was a real scene and sometimes it was very familiar. It was easy and casual. Everyone just hung around while they played. They were like a house band, not militant like Black Flag. It was more numb, stoned, and very mystical. Everyone was on a trip and they just played for hours. Oh, they are the BIGGEST band I have ever seen. "

- Brant Bjork (2002)

In the 1990s, the Palm Desert in California was considered the Mecca of stoner rock , where a scene of dozens of musicians, producers and artists produced numerous projects. The so-called generator parties were the focal point of the alternative music scene around Palm Springs in the early 1990s. The collective around the Palm Desert scene developed due to the lack of alternative musical events in the surrounding cities. The resistance to loud music and possible complaints about disturbances of the rest of the residents also contributed to the young people using the desert as a place of retreat.

Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl , who spoke of a musical revolution in 1992 in connection with the scene and the Kyuss album Blues for the Red Sun , also had a major influence on the popularity of stoner rock . In television interviews and music magazines, Grohl praised Kyuss as the spearhead of the scene so much that the media attention soon gave the band the opportunity to go on tour as the opening act with the heavy metal formation Metallica .

In addition to Grohl, Masters of Realitys Chris Goss played a central and important role in the stoner rock scene. His band's first album had a great influence on the musicians and gave the scene important musical impulses. In his Monkey Studios in Palm Springs, California, he worked on Kyuss's albums from 1992 and was a key figure in sound design. Due to these extraordinary achievements and his influence, laut.de speaks of the father of stoner rock . In addition, thanks to his sentence “You guys sound like the queens of the stone age”, he is indirectly credited with finding the name of the later Josh Homme project. For this, reference points to the concept of constant change of members can be recognized.

Regional decline and aftermath

Due to the great hype, the scene surrounding events quickly grew to an unmanageable number. Instead of 200 people, there were now more than 1500, which made the organization more and more difficult, while there was never a fixed event management. Due to the emergence of gang members, drug dealers and the provoked police operations, the last generator party took place in 1994 in the desert of Palm Desert. The line-up of Yawning Man took care of various side projects and put the band down for a while. Kyuss broke up in 1995 after her last album … And the Circus Leaves Town . Nevertheless, new bands developed in a short time. John Garcia founded the stoner rock bands Hermano and shortly afterwards Slo Burn , Josh Homme oriented himself after the Desert Sessions , with his resulting band Queens of the Stone Age , initially on stoner rock, but later on alternative rock .

With the commercial breakthrough of Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age and Monster Magnet, bands formed around the world, some of which were influenced by foreign influences from rock n roll , hard rock , southern rock , progressive rock , psychedelic, blues rock, metal on the stoner rock of the first bands oriented.

International advancement

In retrospect, many countries have developed their own stoner rock movement with its own bands. Bands around the globe, but mainly in Europe and America such as Truckfighters (Sweden), Sungrazer / The Machine (Netherlands), Color Haze , Kadavar (Germany), Stoned Jesus (Ukraine), serve stoner rock. Around the turn of the millennium, other groups and scenes established themselves internationally, as a result of which stoner rock developed into a renowned music style in the spectrum between rock and metal. With Lowrider 1998, Demon Cleaner 1999, Dozer , Greenleaf and Generous Marla 2000 as well as Backdraft , Black Debbath , El Caco , Elephant Bell , Blake and Freedom Bleeder 2001, a lively and multi-layered Scandinavian scene with a focus on Sweden emerged.

The Heads debuted in Great Britain in 1996, paralleling the Palm Dessert scene. In addition to the group Cathedral, which in a similar period of time immersed itself more and more in hard rock and stoner doom, there were hardly any British stoner bands that formed an independent scene as in the United States. Groups like The Last Drop which debuted in 2002 or the 2003 debut and fully instrumental band Gonga and the group The Kings of Frog Island , which focused on stoner rock in the course of the 2000s, were rather rare.

The Mammoth Mammoth, founded in 2007, combine stoner rock with elements of hard rock

In Australia and New Zealand some groups were formed which were particularly successful at national level. In addition to Daredevil , Dern Rutlidge and Datura, who all began to play Stoner Rock around the turn of the millennium, the Australian Mammoth Mammoth and the New Zealand Beastwars are among the regionally popular and successful representatives of the genre. The Australian and New Zealand groups often resorted to other influences beyond stoner rock. Beastwars, however, reached high chart positions in New Zealand with their first three albums.

With Duster 69, which debuted in 1999 with Interstellar Burst , and Calamus, which first appeared in 1998 with the EP Road Trax , the first stoner rock groups formed in Germany before the turn of the millennium. With groups appearing later such as Black Space Riders , Color Haze , The Ghost Rockets , Hainloose and especially Kadavar , groups emerged which mixed the stoner with other musical styles and were lively received. Kadavar hit the charts in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

New stoner rock bands from the Netherlands such as Candybar Planet, 7Zuma7 and Sungrazer quickly established themselves and were able to record their first successes on an international level early on. 7Zuma7 made its debut in 1997 with the EP of the same name. The band broke up after four years, after frontman Jerry van Eyck last left the band at the end of April 2000 and the bassist followed a short time later. The rest of the band continued to perform under a new name. In 2011 the band gave one last concert in the Effenaar in Eindhoven. In 1999 bands like Candybar Planet followed, which served stoner rock with the album 32 Bitch . The band Sungrazer, founded in 2009, disbanded in 2013 after the death of the singer Rutger Smeets, while the remaining members formed the band The Machine . Like many other formations from the Benelux countries, the band published their releases on the German stoner label Elektrohasch .

In the western Roman countries of Spain, France, Italy and Portugal, it was bands like Insider with Land of Crystals , Allhelluja and Low Vibes , who have recorded stoner rock as a common musical denominator up to the present day. The Italian band Allhelluja appeared for the first time with Inferno Museum and Low Vibes became known beyond national borders through contributions to samplers such as The Mighty Desert Rock Avengers .

The band Nebula , founded in the USA by former members of the stoner band Fu Manchu , achieved cross-scene success. They achieved notoriety outside of stoner rock, among other things, through contributions to the soundtracks of the computer games NHL 2K7, Tony Hawk's Underground 2 and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 . The popularity outside of the scene led to the fact that the band was invited to a John Peel Sessions, and yet the live set recorded there was only released in 2008. Nebula has always combined stoner rock with elements from hard rock, metal and psychedelic rock. The American stoner band Black Lung was also formed in the winter of 2013 from the former members of the psychedelic rock band Flying-Eyes . The self-titled debut album was released in summer 2014. The second album See the Enemy , released in 2016, was presented through performances in Europe, including at the Freak Valley Festival in Germany. The band White Nails brought with their EP First Trip one of the first releases from the North American area on the market.

Well-known representatives

literature

  • Garry Sharpe-Young: AZ of Doom, Goth & Stoner Metal . Rockdetector, 2003, ISBN 978-1-901447-14-9 (English).
  • Joel McIver: No One Knows . The Story of the Queens Of The Stone Age. Bosworth Musikverlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-86543-219-3 .

Documentaries

  • Joerg Steineck (Director): Lo Sound Desert CARGO Records GmbH 2016 ,.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Random House College Dictionary . Random House, New York 1988, p. 1294.
  2. ↑ a b Joel McIver: No One Knows . The Story of the Queens Of The Stone Age. Bosworth Musikverlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-86543-219-3 .
  3. ↑ a b Geoff Summers: What the Heck is Stoner Rock. Noise Creep, accessed May 13, 2017 .
  4. ↑ a b c d Stoner Rock. Metal Hammer. Retrieved May 13, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Joerg Steineck: Unsound. Joerg Steineck: Lo Sound Desert, accessed on May 13, 2017 .
  6. ↑ a b Biography. In: Yawning Man. Retrieved May 24, 2017 .
  7. ↑ a b c d e f Joerg Steineck: Lo Sound Desert: Bands. In: Joerg Steineck. Retrieved May 24, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Joerg Steineck: Dali's Llama. In: Joerg Steineck: Lo Sound Desert. Retrieved May 24, 2017 .
  9. ^ Joerg Steineck (director): Lo Sound Desert CARGO Records GmbH 2016 ,.
  10. ^ Joerg Steineck: Breed (the). Joerg Steineck: Lo Sound Desert, accessed on May 13, 2017 .
  11. ↑ Vince Meghrouni in Joerg Steineck (director): Lo Sound Desert CARGO Records GmbH 2016.
  12. ^ Joel McIver: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath . The unauthorized biography. Bosworth Musikverlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-86543-668-9 .
  13. ↑ Stoner Metal. AllMusic, accessed April 3, 2014 .
  14. ↑ Joshua Scott Hotchkin: High Heavy History Stoner Rock. (No longer available online.) Sprout News, archived from the original on May 22, 2017 ; accessed on May 13, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / sprout.news
  15. ↑ timcky: Truckfighters - Fuzzomentary: Interview & Review. (No longer available online.) Stonerrock.eu, archived from the original on October 28, 2016 ; accessed on May 13, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stonerrock.eu
  16. ↑ Vic du Monte's Persona Non Grata. (No longer available online.) In: Go Down Records. Archived from the original on July 25, 2017 ; accessed on May 24, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.godownrecords.com
  17. ↑ Stephen Thomas Erlewine: the Melvins. AllMusic, accessed April 5, 2014 .
  18. ^ Dopes to Infinity. Official charts, accessed May 13, 2017 .
  19. ↑ FEATURE: TWIST, PLUG & PLAY - THE GENERATOR PARTIES OF PALM DESERT. Rock and Roll Junkie, accessed May 13, 2017 .
  20. ↑ Jay Babcock: Larger Than Life: Fatso Jetson Finds a Place. In: LA Weekly. Retrieved June 12, 2002 .
  21. ↑ a b c Felix Zwinzscher: That is the right sound for the summer. Welt.de, accessed on May 13, 2017 .
  22. ↑ a b Masters of Reality. Laut.de, accessed on May 13, 2017 .
  23. ^ Queens of the Stone Age. Laut.de, accessed on May 13, 2017 .
  24. ↑ Garry Sharpe-Young: AZ of Doom, Goth & Stoner Metal . Rockdetector, 2003, ISBN 978-1-901447-14-9 , pp. 243 (English).
  25. ↑ Garry Sharpe-Young: AZ of Doom, Goth & Stoner Metal . Rockdetector, 2003, ISBN 978-1-901447-14-9 , pp. 123 (English).
  26. ↑ Garry Sharpe-Young: AZ of Doom, Goth & Stoner Metal . Rockdetector, 2003, ISBN 978-1-901447-14-9 , pp. 134 (English).
  27. ↑ Garry Sharpe-Young: AZ of Doom, Goth & Stoner Metal . Rockdetector, 2003, ISBN 978-1-901447-14-9 , pp. 180 (English).
  28. ↑ Garry Sharpe-Young: AZ of Doom, Goth & Stoner Metal . Rockdetector, 2003, ISBN 978-1-901447-14-9 , pp. 38 (English).
  29. ↑ Garry Sharpe-Young: AZ of Doom, Goth & Stoner Metal . Rockdetector, 2003, ISBN 978-1-901447-14-9 , pp. 40 (English).
  30. ↑ Garry Sharpe-Young: AZ of Doom, Goth & Stoner Metal . Rockdetector, 2003, ISBN 978-1-901447-14-9 , pp. 143 (English).
  31. ↑ Garry Sharpe-Young: AZ of Doom, Goth & Stoner Metal . Rockdetector, 2003, ISBN 978-1-901447-14-9 , pp. 146 (English).
  32. ↑ Garry Sharpe-Young: AZ of Doom, Goth & Stoner Metal . Rockdetector, 2003, ISBN 978-1-901447-14-9 , pp. 173 (English).
  33. ↑ Garry Sharpe-Young: AZ of Doom, Goth & Stoner Metal . Rockdetector, 2003, ISBN 978-1-901447-14-9 , pp. 195 (English).
  34. ↑ Garry Sharpe-Young: AZ of Doom, Goth & Stoner Metal . Rockdetector, 2003, ISBN 978-1-901447-14-9 , pp. 232 (English).
  35. ↑ Garry Sharpe-Young: AZ of Doom, Goth & Stoner Metal . Rockdetector, 2003, ISBN 978-1-901447-14-9 , pp. 111 (English).
  36. ↑ Garry Sharpe-Young: AZ of Doom, Goth & Stoner Metal . Rockdetector, 2003, ISBN 978-1-901447-14-9 , pp. 124 (English).
  37. ↑ Garry Sharpe-Young: AZ of Doom, Goth & Stoner Metal . Rockdetector, 2003, ISBN 978-1-901447-14-9 , pp. 231 (English).
  38. ↑ Beastwars Charts. Muzic.net.nz, accessed May 18, 2017 .
  39. ↑ Garry Sharpe-Young: AZ of Doom, Goth & Stoner Metal . Rockdetector, 2003, ISBN 978-1-901447-14-9 , pp. 139 f . (English).
  40. ↑ Garry Sharpe-Young: AZ of Doom, Goth & Stoner Metal . Rockdetector, 2003, ISBN 978-1-901447-14-9 , pp. 71 (English).
  41. ↑ Kadavar. In: official charts. Retrieved May 18, 2017 .
  42. ↑ Kadavar. In: austriancharts. Retrieved May 18, 2017 .
  43. ↑ Kadavar. In: hit parade. Retrieved May 18, 2017 .
  44. ↑ 7 ZUMA 7 have dissolved! vampster, May 25, 2000.
  45. ↑ Eindhoven's Dagblad edition of October 09, 2011 . Retrieved August 18, 2016
  46. ^ Nebula. laut.de , accessed on July 24, 2016 .
  47. ↑ Black Lung. laut.de , accessed on July 24, 2016 .
  48. ↑ MeteorJadd: White Nails: First Trip. In: the Ripple Effect. Retrieved May 24, 2017 .