#desertage

One of the major takeaways I get from the doc is the idea that the sound was not especially unified. While the idea of what this ‘genre’ of rock music has been somewhat retroactively codified (maybe just in my own head) by the band that made it big (Kyuss), at the time the scene where this music was getting made was pretty open. People were playing punk/ metal thudding groovy stuff, but there were all sorts of stuff being made, like a two man band with a drum + bass played over tape, accompanied just by singer and keyboard, or the more Jazz inspired stuff that cropped up later on in the scene ‘The Sort of Quartet’. Kids who were ~14 were welcomed up on to stage to play with there band after in the same generator party where a more established act had just preceded them.

In addition to this is the idea that this was an isolated community of kids that were bored with nothing to do. It’s reiterated with some gravity that ‘they didn’t know there was a world out there’. The scene served itself, and in participation of the scene and playing music, the goal was not generally making it big but a means of self-expression and having fun. This is kinda why it ties up skateboarding with this. Skateboarders who drained the holiday home kidney pools of out of towners (Sean Wheeler- Mutual hatred, Myke Bates- Target 13) would go on to play in the scene, after listening to punk rock while skateboarding.

Taking this community aspect of this scene further there’s a fair bit of emphasis placed on how there are certain people that really help to foster a scene. Specific individuals that really try to help put on shows, and support the sustained life and growth of the community which for the palm desert scene was Mario Lalli. 

Also worth noting the use of psychadelics and speed that were prevalent in this scene, although it’s worth noting that this can inspire the conflation of Stoner Rock + Desert Rock, which while sorta sharing overlap are exactly the same. A game I choose to make is going to require some constraining in scale so it may be worth focusing on the more Kyuss-esque and stoner rock comparison of this scene, as opposed to trying to think of incorporating a whole range of styles, but I would like the idea of creating some aspect of self-expression on the players end.

Got a pretty good inspiration for the setting of a game like this. ‘Generator Parties’ where at night in obscure places in the desert, powered by a gas generator, people would flock to watch lots of bands perform. Spread by diy posters, one of the first generator party called ‘Dust Fest’ because every time they went out to play there were winds kicking up a dust storm. By no means the only place where bands in this scene practised (also in meth houses, bars that wouldn’t kick people out).

The desert hills nudist ranch that was used later with a kidney pool that overlooked a big drop where people would gather round the band playing, while people skateboarded is pretty good as far as inspo.

[Skaters used the pool before it became the new site for parties]

Maps and directions to these generator parties could get pretty winding. [note dust fest is several years before the nudist colony kidney bowl shows]

Nice audio detail that the wind would carry the sound and make it swirl in a flangy way.

[Kind of view you might have in transit to one of these generator parties]

One other idea that I kinda like mentioned by Brant Bjork (drummer of Kyuss) is that the long jams that they would end up playing were the result of wanting to keep the party going, as opposed to pushing out a 2 minute punk song. Josh Homme remarks when staring up into the desert sky, with people lighting fires, drinking and having their headlights shining, they found it natural make play their songs in the way that they did. Dave Grohl notes that parts of their songs and grew bigger and bigger while they played in that jam context.

[Desert sky images shown at this point in the doc, probs not recorded from the same place and not at the same time, but trying to evoke this idea.]

[Shot nicely on long exposure to see streaks of car lights along the road]

[”The Desert is such a wide open bank canvas” - Brant Bjork]

[”There was no destination. We were just stoked to build something and get it out on the road. It was built to blast off. We were from the desert. Going nowhere at lightspeed.”]

Ultimately the scene sorta collapsed after it got big enough that people from out of town started fights with the local skateboarders during concerts, and fires during the concert that spread across the hills, or eventually had guns and knives being drawn at the parties. There’s a crazy story of the fire surrounding the whole ridgeline in the wake of the wind, and the band getting nervous but taking a little more time to play before stopping. While some the scene isn’t necessarily that unique compared to the spirit of any other scene of bored people looking for some way to express themselves, it’s still a pretty evocative space and I just love this music.

[New pool was dug out by skaters after the old one got filled in]