Stoner Rock 101

I had some spare time, and an ounce of diligence, to finally rummage through my piled junk down in our basement. I tried to do this last month but got distracted when I stumbled upon my collection of Natalie Portman films. Anyways, I was able to retrieve some things, such as unused kitchen utensils, that we might need later on. I also dug up a box full of CDs that I haven't digitized and listened to for a long time. These CDs, in particular, were my collection of stoner rock albums.

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, Stoner rock is a sub-genre of rock that surfaced around early to mid 90's. It's probably my favorite type of rock music. I even influenced my band to play stoner rock (or at least we tried to) and cover songs from stoner rock bands. I just love listening to its lazy, heavy and groovy sounds -a marriage of heavy blues and psychedelic rock elements- because it's the perfect music to listen to when you're drinking beer or smoking pot (that's why it's called stoner rock).

Anyways, for your listening pleasure, I made a list of stoner rock songs and albums that I love. So if you haven't heard of stoner rock before, then you beter listen to these bands.

Welcome to Sky Valley by Kyuss

Many fans will probably hang me for recommending Welcome to Sky Valley instead of Blues for the Red Sun. While the latter album put Kyuss' name out in the open air, it was the former that cemented their place in the annals of rock. It's the ultimate stoner rock album and one listent to it, with its bass groves and chill out guitar riffs, will definitely disable your neural functions even without the weed.

Dopes to Infinity by Monster Magnet

Dopes of Infinity is probably the most psyched-out and spaced-out stoner rock album. Loaded with swirling flanged guitars and crisp acidic vocals, its sounds will flung you off from this world and into the cosmos. Unlike most stoner bands, who never left the underground scene, this album's single also gave Monster Magnet a little bit of mainstream recognition.

Deliverance by Corrosion of Conformity

If I made a list of all my overplayed albums, Deliverance will be on that list. I just couldn't stop listening to this album with all its straight up groovy Black Sabbath-esque guitar riffs and Pepper Keenan's lazy vocals. If I was given the chance back then, I'd probably had my band cover all the songs in this album.

California Crossing by Fu Manchu

In all honesty, and in my opinion, California Crossing isn't Fu Manchu's best album. But I love it nonetheless. Because, while it's not tricked out with the fuzz, the groove and the sludgy quality of their older albums like King of the Road, it is their most refined and well polished work that anyone can easily appreciate and chill out to.

Coping with the Urban Coyote by Unida

After the disbandment of Kyuss, vocalist John Garcia got busy putting up other stoner rock bands. One of those bands is Unida. I haven't heard any other albums by Unida except Coping with the Urban Coyote. Unlike Kyuss, however, this band is much less artsier and a bit more aggressive. But the whole stoner rock groove isn't lost within this album.

There are many more bands that I want to list down in here, like Queens of the Stone Age. But I didn't want to continue on because the post will get too long and boring. Besides, listening to -and writing about- stoner rock makes me lazy.

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