KYUSS
„Blues for the red sun“
(Dali / Elektra, 1992)
I
remember clearly the moment, when a dear friend of mine passed the
earplugs of his walkman over to me during a boring lecture at university
(linguistics or something), to make me listen to some new, hot shit he had
taped from somewhere. As soon as the overpowering bass, pumping drums,
squealing guitars and the maniacal, late-70ies-metal singing, all
entangled in a driving, pulsing rhythm of sludge, fuzz and beat, hit my
eardrums, I knew I was onto something big. I mean BIG. Capital letters.
And I am not only talking about volume or sheer power of amplification, I
am talking about starting a whole new trend or lineage in musical history.
A wild, long-haired, beer- and drugdrenched lineage, full of heavy motors,
dancing girls in bikini-tops and sunshine. A wild rocker-party going on
for weeks in the middle of nowhere (but with steady supply of ice-cool
beer and gasoline). I guess, I was right.
This
record started “Stoner Rock”. If you want to know, what I think about
Stoner Rock nowadays, read here. In short: it was only a sideline of
musical history and it has dissolved somehow and meandered into various
directions, some still going strong, others withering away into the
underground where their roots came from. Let me recap a little bit: Out of
the wake of Kyuss started bands such as Fu Manchu or Queens of the Stone
Age. Whole cult-labels like Man’s Ruin started branding the style with
unique visuals that became an industry of themselves. There were hundreds
of bands imitating the style Kyuss put onto vinyl with “Blues for the
red sun” and its follow ups. Unida, Dozer, Nebula, Lowrider, and so on
and so on and so on. It shot Monster Magnet straight into super-stardom.
Others were heavier and discovered the doom-rock of earlier generations,
integrating every guitar-riff Tommi Iommi ever played. Which is not very
original but a good thing nevertheless, because it gave Scott Weinrich
some money to live on. One drug-addict away from the streets, that’s
more than worth the hassle, isn’t it?. Maybe it will do the same to
Chriss Goss as well.
But
the hype was short-lived, maybe a summer or two. Nowadays it is gone.
Especially in Vienna, grooving electronic music kicked out the rockers and
built up lounges everywhere. Life is a bitch, I know. But listening to
“Blues for the red sun” you will realise, this record still kicks
ass.
This
monumental bastard of distortion, overdrive and big-ass amps sure spewed
out a monolithic wall of noise, but a very dynamic and driving one. Simple
riffs, actually, but executed with fervour and an impeccable groove, that
makes you headbang no matter what. Long hair or not, all you do, is shake
your head along and watch that you’re not spilling your beer. Of course,
drugs played an important role. You will have to try and decide for
yourself, if the songs kick harder when doing drugs. I won’t tell you.
Maybe you can do some experimenting and write up your findings and we will
publish them on the page. (No, I won’t supply the drugs.) With songs
like “50 million year trip (down under)” the answer shouldn’t really
need support by any research. There are plenty of fine tunes on this
record: “Green Machine” (Does anybody remember the band by the same
name? They were great!) or “Caterpillar March” or “Mondo
Generator” (yeah, exactly like Nick Oliveri’s later project).
