HW: OFF: Debut Earthlings? Album Blooms In Desert Studio

[Karen Kusic]

Interesting article:

http://features.yahoo.com/sonicnet/storyid/19981012105.html

Bands mentioned:

Kyuss
Queens of the Stone Age
Monster Magnet


10/12/98

Debut Earthlings? Album Blooms In Desert Studio


SonicNet Daily Music News Reports: The ethereal, spacey earthlings? are
not so much a band as they are a collective,
recording material with friends and musicians who happen to stop by at
their desert recording-studio, Rancho de la Luna.

That's where the bonds are formed, and where the music is born.

"I'm always amazed, staying at the ranch, how many people just stop
through to say 'Hi' and then end up on tape." said
earthlings? lead singer Pete Stahl, formerly the vocalist for the
legendary D.C. punk-band Scream.

Some of those musicians -- including Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl
(who played with Stahl in Scream), folk-rocker
Victoria Williams and ex-Kyuss guitarist Josh Homme -- have ended up on
earthlings? self-titled, desert-born, debut LP,
which was released over the summer by the German label Crippled Dick Hot
Wax.

The album, which is heavy on eerie, trance-inducing rock, as well as
some psychedelic melodies reminiscent of German
avant-rock pioneers Can, veers between distorted Hendrix-like
guitar-work and spaced-out jams full of interplanetary
imagery and futuristic metaphors.

Some of the band's sonic experiments add to the impromptu feel of the
dreamy album.

On the song "Happiest Day Of My Life" (RealAudio except) Stahl phoned
his vocal parts into the studio from the
market down the street; on "Reaper (Don't Fear This Child)" (RealAudio
excerpt) Stahl preferred to sing his vocals
through an old Navy-intercom unit.

Two years ago, when earthlings? percussionist Fred Drake was squatting
inside an empty hot-tub recording drum tracks,
he never dreamed the result would end up on the band's debut album.

"Pete [Stahl] was out on the front patio and he had headphones on so he
could hear the drums that were being played
from the hot tub," Drake said. "This tub ... the acoustics were just
really scary in there."

The groundwork for the band was laid when Drake (who played in various
L.A.-based bands, including House of Love
and Code Blue) stumbled on a property in the desert near Joshua Tree,
Calif., five years ago. After setting up a studio,
dubbed Rancho de la Luna, he and the rest of earthlings? began recording
their music. But in the process, the area's
unique landscape began to lure a slew of well-known musicians to the
ranch to record material of their own.

"Right now, Rancho's going through a transition where they got rid of
some gear and they're going to pull in some new
gear," said Homme, whose new band, Queens of the Stone Age, has done
some recording at the ranch. "Normally, we
just ping-pong back and forth. We recorded one track [for Queens of the
Stone Age] at Rancho, but we wanted that
tight, dry sound. Rancho's more like, 'Set it up and go' and track
vocals in the kitchen and stuff."

The earthlings? are eager to turn just about anything they can find into
a musical instrument. One of Drake's favorite's is an
old metal-detector wired up to a theramin, which triggers odd-sounding
keyboard-effects. "I hope they don't give me
hassles when I try to take it to Europe; it looks a bit like a bomb," he
said.

Currently the earthlings? are shooting a video for their first single,
"Saving Up For My Spaceship," and gearing up for a
two-week tour of Europe in mid-November, opening for Queens of the Stone
Age. Since the band has played only a
handful of live dates -- one of which was a barbecue at Stahl's house in
Los Angeles -- no two shows are expected to be
quite the same.

In addition to the earthlings? debut album, the musical atmosphere of
Rancho de la Luna has been the subject of a series
of 10-inch records released on Man's Ruin Records and dubbed the Desert
Sessions.

Volumes one and two have recently been combined into a single CD and the
series features an army of guest musicians,
including Monster Magnet guitarist John McBain, ex-Soundgarden bassist
Ben Shepherd, Homme and other ex-members
of Kyuss.

So many musicians are flocking to Rancho de la Luna (18 albums have been
recorded there so far) that Drake and
company are being credited with the creation of a "desert sound"
comparable to the Seattle sound of the early '90s or the
San Francisco sound of the '60s.

However, Drake credits the landscape itself.

"I think it's the desert that sneaks onto the magnetic tape," he said,
"and just affects everybody's mood and they start
playing better and really cool things happen."

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