Yawning Man - Historical Graffiti - CD DIGIPAK

Heavy Psych Sounds is reissiung the Yawning Man legendary album Historical Graffiti in brand new coloured vinyls.

Historical Graffiti is the band’s fourth full-length, out in 2016.

Gary Arce, the guitarist, seems comfortable sitting on a single vamp throughout the opener ‘The Wind Cries Edalyn’, allowing the additions of violin and bandoleon accordion (played by the tango musicians Sara Ryan and Adolfo Trepiana, respectively) to weave melodies in between. Despite the titular connection to the Jimi Hendrix song, it bears no discernible resemblance to ‘The Wind Cries Mary’ and it is a deceptive number; what seems such a simple, almost easy-listening song reveals more colour with every listen.

‘Her Phantom Finger of Copenhagen’ is slightly darker and almost sounds, with the slight distortion on Arce’s guitar, as if it could have come from Pot Head, the EP the band released in 2005. Mario Lalli, the bass player, begins the third song, ‘Naomi Crayola’ with a throbbing single note, aided by Bill Stimson’s metronomic drumming. Imagine if Can grew up near the beach, it’s that sort of vibe. The only problem with the song – and the album, as it happens – is that it is too short.

Ryan’s violin returns in ‘The Secret Language of Elephants’, this time playing the role of keeping the main vamp alive while Arce’s guitar generates an evocative soundscape that opens in your mind a wide, violet sky like that above a desert the moment after the sun disappears for the night.

The closing song and title track is the most free of the five on the album, with Stimson’s beat conjuring memories of Kyuss’s more mellow moments from Welcome to Sky Valley, Lalli’s bass marking the simplest of bottom ends and Arce having a ball over the top.
(taken from the band's Bandcamp)

Formed in the late 1980's, the lineup of Gary Arce, Mario Lalli, and Bill Stinson rounds out their yearlong active recording and touring schedule.

Arce and Lalli’s background together date back to the start ofYawning Man with Stinson’s background steeped in the SST Records world through performing and recording with Greg Ginn and Chuck Dukowski of Black Flag for several years.

Yawning Man is acknowledged and recognized throughout the underground heavy music community as a key piece in the developments of the desert/stoner rock subgenres. While their contemporaries gravitated toward the heavy riffs of grunge, and post punk, Yawning Man leaned in another direction with their unique and organic, cinematic compositions and psychedelic improvisations...the perfect soundtrack to encompass the spacious moonscape atmosphere of the well documented "generator parties" of their area in the late 1980's.

It was at these gatherings where they developed this distinctive style and sound by enchanting spectators with their seemingly endless free form instrumental sessions, which echoed through the beautiful deserts, mesas, and landscapes of the Coachella Valley. As time passed, their legend grew with notable names of the Palm Desert music scene paying homage to the group through mention and praise, notably with legendary desert band Kyuss (Joshua Homme, Brant Bjork, John Garcia, Scott Reeder) doing their own rendition of the Yawning Man track "Catamaran" on the 1995 Elektra release..And The Circus Leaves Town.

Festival appearances include Hellfest (FR), Azkena Fest (ES), Reverence Fest (ES) Desertfest London, Desertfest Berlin, Up in Smoke (CH), Psycho Las Vegas (US), Stoned & Dusted I & II (US), and various others.

The recent documentaries on the Deserts unique music scene Lo Sound Desert and Desert Age give light on Yawning Man’s influential impact on underground rock music.