‘In the desert you can’t remember your name, ‘cause there ain’t no one for to give you no pain.’ So says the song by ’70s AOR types America. It’s a feeling Josh Homme knows well. Having grown up in California’s Palm Desert, he’s familiar with the way the isolation and infinite expanse of the environment can get into your bones, can make your soul vibrate at a different rate than in the city. It’s why his first band, Kyuss, sounded like they did, why it seemed so obvious, so natural, that they would play shows in the desert that would become the stuff of legend. Thus, it’s also natural that Josh should want to bring in outsiders to jam way out in the hot, dusty middle of nowhere, to see what the environment does to them and their creative minds. Now in its 11th and 12th dispatch,...
