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Footage Of Early KYUSS Live Performance Featured In Clip From ‘Desert Age: A Rock And Roll Scene History – 10th Anniversary Special Edition’
A new clip from the tenth-anniversary edition of *Desert Age: A Rock And Roll Scene History* shows an early KYUSS performance and Josh Homme and Mario Lalli discussing the band’s sound. The re-release brings attention back to the California desert rock community and its influence on bands including KYUSS and Queens of the Stone Age.
The film will be available as a free stream on 20 November, following a Palm Springs anniversary screening on 7 November with a Q&A featuring musicians and filmmakers from the scene. Originally released in 2016, it had been unavailable for six years after its distribution deal expired in 2020. The special edition adds material about Black Flag’s 1981 Palm Springs show, which linked the Southern California punk scene with the emerging desert community.
In short
- New footage shows an early KYUSS performance.
- The film returns as a free stream on 20 November.
- The anniversary edition adds material on Black Flag’s 1981 Palm Springs show.
Explained simply
KYUSS emerged from the music community around Palm Desert in Southern California in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The area’s isolation and the musicians’ informal gatherings helped shape a heavy, distinctive sound often called desert rock.
Josh Homme was a guitarist in KYUSS before forming Queens of the Stone Age, while Mario Lalli was another musician in the local scene. The documentary looks at how musicians in the desert community influenced one another, and how a 1981 Black Flag show in nearby Palm Springs connected that community with Southern California punk.