Three-Quarters Of KYUSS Reunites At France's HELLFEST; Video Available

Three-quarters of KYUSS — the influential American stoner rock/metal band, originally from Palm Desert, California — reunited for an appearance at last weekend's Hellfest, which took place in Clisson, France. Bassist Nick Olivieri and drummer Brant Bjork joined singer John Garcia to perform the songs "Gardenia" and "Green Machine" during a headlining appearance by Garcia's GARCIA PLAYS KYUSS project.

Video footage of the performance can be viewed below.

Since KYUSS, Garcia's musical projects include SLOBURN, UNIDA and John's most recent band HERMANO, plus side projects with THE CRYSTAL METHOD, DANKO JONES and countless others who embraced the singer from the Southern California desert.

KYUSS, the inventors of Desert Rock, have been in the last ten years much more popular than when they were still around in the early Nineties. So, due to massive public demand over the years to play songs from his old cult band KYUSS, John finally made the decision to give the fans what they want. He is doing this unique project with a few hand-selected musicians.

The last couple of years John Garcia thought often about reviving his KYUSS legacy on stage. The more he thought about it, the more he really wanted to do this. John commented: "I don't want to do this just for myself, but especially for the fans. Both for the ones that have seen KYUSS live back in the days, and especially for the ones who haven't had that chance. This could be as close as they could get to the real thing. Please bear in mind that this could be a one-off unique opportunity!"

And thus the GARCIA PLAYS KYUSS project (alias GPK) was born.

John Garcia (born in San Manuel, Arizona, September 4, 1970) is a vocalist who has been a member of KYUSS, SLO BURN, UNIDA and HERMANO. His vocals have become synonymous with modern stoner rock and the desert rock sound. While still in high school, Garcia help start KYUSS (originally known as SONS OF KYUSS) in 1989 with guitarist Josh Homme. The band produced five albums in total, all of which featured Garcia on vocals.

In October 1995, just three months after releasing what could be argued as their breakthrough album "...And The Circus Leaves Town" (thanks to MTV airplay),KYUSS broke up. Their last recording was a 10" vinyl on the now-defunct label Man's Ruin Records, which was later re-released on a split CD with Homme's QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE. The band has been on an indefinite hiatus ever since and has reached a legendary status, influencing thousands of new young rock bands.

GARCIA PLAYS KYUSS is:

John Garcia - Vocals
Bruno Fevery - Guitar
Jacques de Haard - Bass
Rob Snijders - Drums

"Gardenia":

"Green Machine":