Welcome to Sky Valley is probably the most famous and popular desert rock album in existence. I have literally listened to this several thousand times. It’s that timeless.

Kyuss is a great band. They put out truly excellent albums. They founded an entire scene.
A good chunk of the reason they called it desert rock was that they got their start at desert parties.
Generators, kegs, and speaker stacks. Drunks stumbling into the cholla bushes and cactus.
Josh Homme said of the scene, “You have to be good out there, because people will come up and tell you if you aren’t.”

While this band is well known in our circles, the shards of this band were famous as well. Unida, Mondo Generator, Fu Manchu, Queens of the Stone Age.
They have tie-ins to the Seattle grunge scene. Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Mother Love Bone, Screaming Trees, Sunny Day Real Estate.

Last year I made the mistake of traveling to California while the Cochella show was letting out. The freeway was backed up for many, many miles.
To avoid it, I left the freeway and used the desert back roads.
I drove right past the Welcome to Sky Valley sign on the cover of this album.
Yes, I stopped. No, I did not take pictures. Yes, I did play Whitewater.

I could not provide a higher recommendation to any album. I know every note. Every random sound.
It’s in my brain. Its in my cells. I will listen to this in the grave.

Oh, and … Lick Doo!!!