It’s a cross-continental collision of sounds, and aside from being into both the Aussie noisemaking brotherly duo Hotel Wrecking City Traders and the work of landmark desert guitarist Gary Arce of Yawning Man, what most drew me in to the idea of their collaborative studio project was how different the two sides are. Hotel Wrecking City Traders, who’ve been releasing music on drummer Ben Matthews’ Bro Fidelity Records since 2007, are a fittingly tight unit. The sounds on their Black Yolk full-length and follow-up Somer/Wantok 12” were rife with intensity and an impatient mathematical feel. By contrast, Gary Arce is considered one of the founding figures of desert rock. His laid back, airy tone and improvisatory will have been a key inspiration for bands literally all over the world, and when it comes to jams, there are few guitarists out there who can add as much personality to a piece of music as he can. It’s not like one’s playing polka and the other death metal (although I hear those go together nowadays too), but it’s a short list of commonalities between Arce and Hotel Wrecking City Traders. Apart from working instrumentally, they seem to be driven by completely different musical ideals.

And maybe that’s what makes their joint Hotel Wrecking City Traders and Gary Arce 12” (released on limited 180gram vinyl via Bro Fidelity and Cobraside Distribution, who also put out Yawning Man’s 2010 album, Nomadic Pursuits) so damned interesting. The two-song, 20-minute release combines the disparate elements at work in the total three players involved for a double-guitar brew that’s based as much on improvisational noodling as it is on noisy crunch. It works, too, which is the miracle of the thing. The first track, “Coventina’s Cascade” (10:19) is content to wander in its midsection, Ben providing pulsing bassdrum kicks while his brother Toby Matthews adds to the build on guitar and Arce spaces out for what’s probably the busiest payoff on the release. Hotel Wrecking City Traders showed off some atmospheric tendencies on Somer/Wantok, but Arce takes it to do a different level entirely. One can hear during a break about seven minutes in how the duo constructed the track before sending it to Arce to add his guitar lines, but that’s not at all to discount the flow of what the collective trio come out with as a result. As he does in Hotel Wrecking City Traders proper, Matthews proves capable of holding down a rhythm section, and Toby wisely leaves room to allow for interplay with Arce – who also contributes bass to both cuts, adding further dimensionality to both sides A and B.

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I noticed that I’ve picked up a couple records lately based on recommendations in the comments for this site, so this is the start of a new series of Buried Treasure posts about those albums. Hope you dig it.

A couple weeks ago when I did the Where to Start post on the Palm Desert scene, one of the responding comments was from Midwestern stoner rock luminary and all-around great guy Postman Dan (The Fallopian Dudes, Sow Belly, etc.), who said I should check out the album Gossamer by Solarfeast, which featured the guitar and vocals of Vic du Monte (AKA Chris Cockrell, Kyuss‘ first bassist), Tony Tornay (Fatso Jetson) on drums and was produced by Brant Bjork. Not the hard sell by any means, but it was enough.

There just happened to be a copy for sale on eBay at the time, so I nabbed that just before the auction ended an got the disc in the mail the other day. It’s dirty, it’s definitely of its era in the mid-’90s, and it’s plain to see why Brant Bjork didn’t make a career of producing bands, but what Solarfeast has in spades is charm. Gossamer has a lot more punk in it than I expected, but a song like “My Cradle, My Grave” goes a long way toward showing the influence the desert scene has had on the outside world.

I don’t know if I’d go as far as to pass the recommendation onto anyone just getting started with desert rock, but for those who’ve been around the music for a while, done the Kyuss thing, etc., Solarfeast‘s Gossamer is an interesting curio, and it’s cool to trace the links — Vic du Monte’s Idiot Prayer released two albums through Brant Bjork‘s Duna Records (now Low Desert Punk) and Cockrell‘s latest project, Vic du Monte’s Persona Non Grata, features Alfredo Hernandez (Yawning Man, ex-Kyuss) on drums — and see just how incestuous this scene is. Plus, it’s fun, and we all need that sometimes.

What a question. Understand, I’m not talking about a grouping based on sound. I mean bands from the desert in California. It’s a limited bunch of musicians, centered around a few interconnected acts that have had a tremendous impact on stoner rock the world over. Although I think they’ve made some of the most important contributions to the genre, I’m including no outside bands here. It’s all about location.

Five bands  you need to know, and which album to get. Here goes:

1. Yawning Man: Most often credited as originators of the desert scene, an instrumental trio with Gary Arce, Mario Lalli (also Fatso Jetson) and Alfredo Hernandez (also Kyuss). Their new album, Nomadic Pursuits (review here), is fantastic and a great display of the influence they’ve had on those who’ve followed them, but recommendations for 2005′s Rock Formations are valid.

2. Kyuss: They’re the hallmark act of stoner rock, with import not just limited to the bands former members have launched (Queens of the Stone Age, Unida, Slo Burn, Brant Bjork, Mondo Generator, etc.). Welcome to Sky Valley is an all-time classic. As necessary as oxygen.

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You just don’t get this kind of stuff in Jersey. Here’s the trio Yawning Man — Gary Arce on guitar, Mario Lalli (Fatso Jetson) on bass and Alfredo Hernandez (ex-Kyuss) on drums — playing in what looks like a parking lot but is actually The Constant Gallery in Los Angeles. Reportedly, the hearse behind them belongs to Lalli. Makes a great backdrop, in any case, though Arce‘s guitar could come in front of just about anything and still work.

Why these guys don’t have 16 live albums out is beyond me. Enjoy “Rock Formations” and check out the rest of the videos on the YuberTubes.