Desert Rock

Desert rock is the heavy rock style of California's Palm Desert scene, centred on Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage and Sky Valley from the late 1980s. Thrown together at generator parties in the desert outside town, bands such as *Yawning Man*, *Kyuss* and *Fatso Jetson* fused Black Sabbath riffing, punk speed and psychedelic repetition into a sun-baked, down-tuned sound — later widely labelled stoner rock. *Kyuss*'s albums "Blues for the Red Sun" (1992) and "Welcome to Sky Valley" (1994), produced by *Chris Goss* of *Masters of Reality*, fixed the style's canon and seeded *Queens of the Stone Age*.