The early 1990s brought a complete change in rock and metal music, moving further away from polished, sterile, overproduced “party anthems” of the previous era. One of the movements was the so-called “desert rock,” now popularly known as stoner rock.
With slow to steady-tempo minimalistic pentatonic and blues scale riffs as its foundation, it was Kyuss who started the whole thing back then. Sure, its roots could go back further, but it was this band, featuring now-famous Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, that made it a thing.
However, Kyuss is no more. In fact, its different offshoot projects aren’t allowed either if they’re carrying any form of the Kyuss moniker in the name. In 2011, former members John Garcia, Brant Bjork, and bassist Nick Oliveri did a partial reunion as Kyuss Lives! before getting sued by Josh Homme and band’s another ex-bassist Scott Reeder. In 2013, the newly formed group released an album as Vista Chino.
In a recent chat with Goetia Media, bassist Nick Oliveri looked back on Kyuss and how their fans supporting them is what kept the band relevant to this day. In fact, they even have a cult status among rock fans. Oliveri said (via Ultimate Guitar):
“It’s one of those things. I feel, personally, that it’s a fans’ band. When the band existed [from the late 1980s until] ’95, with a record company push and all behind it, as a band, it got to this height [raises his hand above the ground].”
“And the band broke up, and then years later, fans traded MP3s, CDs, cassettes, whatever, and it grew this big [raises his hand much higher] without any label push, without the band existing. So it’s a fans’ band; they took it further than we ever did.”
Regarding the whole legal action against Kyuss Lives! and the change of name to Vista Chino, Oliveri commented:
“[The fans] wanted us to play. I wish we were able to play. But I don’t have any ownership or stake in the name. Brant came up with the name; he didn’t have ownership in it. He left the band at one point. The existing members registered the name. So it’s just as simple as that. I kind of feel a lot of different ways about it.“
“I feel like, why do you wanna own the name if you wanna kill the band? Let us run with it and have a good time. We’re playing [the songs] with all respect to the music that we can, as close to it as we can. And the fans, we owe it to ’em.”
Photo: Mike.sprandel (QOTSA-StPaul-12-03-2017), Emma Farrer (Nick Oliveri performing as Kyuss Lives!)
