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| Stöner consists of Nick Oliveri, Ryan Güt and Brant Bjork. |
Stöner is a new stoner rock outfit consisting of desert rock godfathers Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri. The two were formative members of the band Kyuss which released some pretty influential albums in the early half of the '90s before eventually disbanding in 1997.
As Kyuss split up, some of its former bandmates including Nick Oliveri, Josh Homme, and Brant Bjork formed Mondo Generator with a few others friends. It's a band Oliveri still keeps running to this day, albeit with a different lineup.
Around the same time (by the end of Kyuss), Josh Homme started making music under the name Gamma Ray which would later become Queens of the Stone Age. Oliveri joined Homme's band, while Brant Bjork would move on to drumming with Fu Manchu instead.
In this new band called Stöner, Bjork does a full Dave Grohl conversion, switching the drums to guitar and vocals. The drumming is instead done by Ryan Güt from the lesser-known metal band Hammerface.
A Rather Offputting Band Name in Swedish
Just a quick sidenote here. The dots above the 'O' in the band name is clearly there for stylistic and decorative purposes only and isn't intended to hold any linguistic value. In Swedish, Ö is its own character, however, and spelling words with Ö instead of O gives words entirely different meanings. And as a Swede, the name Stöner gives me some bit odd associations, since the word "stön" means moan in Swedish. To me at least, the thought of a group of full-grown, manly men moaning is just a tad unappealing, but each to their own.
Stöner is not the first English-speaking band to dabble with quasi-Nordic spelling to sound cool, though. There was a British heavy metal band in the '80s called Tröjan which directly translates to "the sweater" in Swedish. Not quite as raw and savage as the Trojan warriors that they were more likely alluding to.
Studio and Live Album
Stöner has released their first two albums in parallel, with both discs spanning the same seven tracks, clocking in at around 45 minutes. One is a studio recording, the other is a live one, appropriately enough recorded in the Mojave Desert.
Check out the studio album Stoners Rule and its live version Live in the Mojave Desert, Vol. 4 below and let me know in the comments what you think of the music!
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| Stoners Rule |
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| Live in the Mojave Desert |
A More Bluesy Take On the Desert Rock Sound
The band still has that thick, bass-heavy sound that can be expected from the old desert rockers. At times the guitar parts are so far back in the mix you almost wonder if it's just all bass and drums. Case and point the opening track Red Stays Red where the guitar feels a bit forgotten, apart from some noisy, subdued leads here and there.
I would say the sound of the band is most comparable with the desert rock of Kyuss and early QotSA, while Oliveri's and Bjork's other associated acts Mondo Generator and Fu Manchu are more punk oriented. Stöner is more mellow and bluesy than Kyuss and early QothSA, though, and has more of an old-school hard rock vibe to it. The blues influences are especially evident on the aptly titled Own Yer Blues, which you can see a live performance of below. The album has some rockier tunes as well, though, like Evel Never Dies, The Older Kids, and Nothin'.
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