While the airwaves were awash in grunge, flannel, and Gen-X angst, the team of John Garcia, Josh Homme, Brant Bjork, and Scott Reeder were taking a select few listeners on amps-cranked, weed-fueled metal sagas that would do Black Sabbath, The Stooges, and Blue Cheer proud while still crafting their own signature sound.
“Welcome To Sky Valley”, the band's third release deserves to be regarded as a genre classic. While there's still plenty of woofer-crushing amplitude on this outing, the band were cranking down the heaviness a notch in favour of some rad psychedelic vibes (break out the wah-wah!). The whole album is basically a huge jam, divided arbitrarily into 3 tracks each about 14-18 minutes in length.
Garcia's gravelly vox, huge headbanging grooves, and a general loose, swingin' atmosphere prevail here. Imagine the band jamming out in the middle of the Mojave, amps plugged in, bowls loaded, a cooler full of six-packs.
I
1 Gardenia 6:53
2 Asteroid
3 Supa Scoopa And Mighty Scoop 6:03
II
4 100° 2:29
5 Space Cadet 7:02
6 Demon Cleaner 5:19
III
7 Odyssey 4:19
8 Conan Troutman 2:11
9 N.O.
10.1 Whitewater 7:50
10.2 (silence) 0:10
10.3 Lick Doo 0:58
