Legendary California-based singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and founding member of Kyuss, Brant Bjork, will release his fourteenth studio album “Bougainvillea Suite” this October 28th via Heavy Psych Sounds Records. Listen to the first single “Trip On The Wine” now at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7D6pII4Dyg&ab_channel=HEAVYPSYCHSOUNDSRECORDS
Brant Bjork has never missed a shot in the last 20 years. His entire discography is interconnected by an imaginary that draws inspiration from various genres and music eras, while still rocking with the same attitude. This fourteenth studio album — and the fourth on Italian powerhouse Heavy Psych Sounds — sees the desert rock legend wear his 60s rock and soul influences with pride, offering an unwaveringly smooth, heartfelt and intoxicating 8-tracker. Imagine the likes of Cream, Sly & The Family Stone and Steppenwolf jamming in the Mojave Desert with some fine wine and marijuana, and you’ll get the deal!
About “Bougainvillea Suite”, Brant Bjork says: “This is a bittersweet record for me. So much change in my life. Some stuff more positive than others. But it’s always a blessing to be able to make a record and get the music out to the fans. This is the last record to be recorded in my Joshua Tree studio. I’m saying goodbye to an era and looking down the road toward new beginnings.”
“Bougainvillea Suite” was produced by Yosef Sanborn and Brant Bjork. It was engineered and mixed by Yosef Sanborn at The Rad Cabin in Joshua Tree, CA. It features Ryan Güt on percussions and keys, and Nick Oliveri on backing vocals and lead guitar on “Bread For Butter”.The artwork was created by Brant Bjork and Mario Lalli. It will be issued in various vinyl formats, CD and digital on October 28th, with preorders available now from Heavy Psych Sounds.
Tracklist: 1. Trip On The Wine 2. Good Bones 3. So They Say 4. Broke That Spell 5. Bread For Butter 6. Ya’ Dig 7. Let’s Forget 8. Who Do You Love
Brant Bjork has spent over a quarter-century at the epicenter of Californian desert rock. From cutting his teeth alongside Fatso Jetson’s Mario Lalli in hardcore punkers De-Con to drumming and composing on Kyuss’ landmark early albums, to propelling the seminal fuzz of Fu Manchu from 1994-2001 while producing other bands, putting together offshoot projects like Ché, embarking on his solo career as a singer, guitarist and bandleader, founding his own record label and more, his history is a winding narrative of relentless, unflinching creativity.
For someone so outwardly laid back, he’s never really taken a break. And while Bjork has shown different sides of himself on albums like his funk-laden 1999 solo debut, Jalamanta, the mellow Local Angel (2004), 2007’s mostly-acoustic Tres Dias, and heavier rockers Somera Sól (2007), Gods & Goddesses (2010) and the two most recent outings with The Low Desert Punk Band, he’s maintained a natural representation of himself in his material, whether that’s coming across in the Thin Lizzy-isms of the faux-full-band 2002 release Brant Bjork and the Operators (actually just Bjork playing mostly by himself) or the weedy, in-the-jam-room spirit of “Dave’s War” from Tao of the Devil. When you’re listening to Brant Bjork, you know it, because there’s no one else who sounds quite like him.
That fact and years of hard touring have positioned Brant Bjork as an ambassador for the Southern California desert and the musical movement birthed there in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. As underground interest has surged in recent years, Bjork has been a pivotal figurehead, realigning with his former Kyuss bandmate John Garcia to drum and write in Kyuss Lives!/Vista Chino, celebrating and building on that legacy while giving a new generation of fans the chance to see it happen in real-time.
Having told his story in films like Kate McCabe’s Sabbia (2006) and the documentaries Such Hawks Such Hounds (2008) and Lo Sound Desert (2015), he’s represented desert rock at home and abroad with no less honesty than that which he poured into the music helping to create it. The same impulse led to the founding of his Desert Generator in 2016, an annual festival held in Pioneertown, CA, with an international reach capturing the intimacy and timeless aura of the desert culture, including music, a van show, the Stoned & Dusted pre-show in a secret desert location, and an evolution that looks to continue into the foreseeable future.
Bjork’s work, with any project, has always had a rebellious sensibility. He’s always walked his own path. But more, his career through Kyuss, Fu Manchu, Ché, Vista Chino, and his crucial solo work has been about freedom through rock and roll, attained by the truest representation of the person and the place as art. This, along with a whole lot of groove, has helped Brant Bjork define desert rock as a worldwide phenomenon, and whatever comes next, it will continue to make him its most indispensable practitioner. – JJ Koczan, The Obelisk