page_title: Brant Bjork
section_title: Solo career
hierarchical_section_title: Brant Bjork / Musical career / Solo career
caption_attribution_description: Brant Bjork, taken by *smb (Simon Boyce) on July 19th 2006 at a concert in Exeter
context_page_description: Brant Bjork is an American musician, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer from Palm Desert, California. He is perhaps best known as the drummer and founder of the influential Californian stoner rock band Kyuss. Bjork played in Vista Chino, along with former Kyuss vocalist John Garcia, up until October 2014, at which point Nick Oliveri announced that there was a falling out and that Bjork and Garcia would continue working on their solo projects. He is one of the more notable figures in the stoner rock and Palm Desert scenes and maintains a prolific solo career with over a dozen released albums.
context_section_description: Bjork began recording his first solo album, 1999's Jalamanta, in February of that year. Bjork performed all instruments, including guitar and vocals. He would also perform guitar and vocals in the short-lived stoner rock band Ché – a side-project collaboration with former Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age drummer Alfredo Hernández. Ché released their only album, Sounds of Liberation, in October 2000. Bjork's next album, 2002's Brant Bjork & the Operators, named for Bjork's fictional backing band, 'the Operators', was recorded in November 2000 with Bjork again performing vocals and most instruments. He would continue to be the sole performer, except for a few guest spots, on 2003's Keep Your Cool and 2004's Local Angel.
  Bjork would form the band Brant Bjork and the Bros in 2003, featuring guitarist Mike Pygmie, bassist Dylan Roche, and drummer Michael Peffer, with Bjork performing vocals and additional guitar. They toured Europe in October 2003, performing a mixture of Bjork's solo material and Ché's Sounds of Liberation. Pygmie was replaced by Scott Cortez Silverman for further touring in Europe and North America in 2004. This line-up went on to record the 2005 double album Saved by Magic. The album featured a return to the sound of Bjork's earlier sound from his Jalamanta/Sounds of Liberation era.
  2006 saw the release of Sabbia, a feature film "visual soundtrack" by filmmaker Kate McCabe, featuring Bjork's music. Brant Bjork and the Bros would go on to record another album, 2007's Somera Sól, with Alfredo Hernández replacing Michael Peffer on drums. In the same year, Bjork released his fifth solo album, Tres Dias, an acoustic album featuring reinterpretations of older songs, as well as some new material. The title of the album (Three Days) comes from the purported amount of time that Bjork claimed it took to record it at producer Tony Mason's house in Joshua Tree, California.
  Bjork reported in 2007 that he had ended his label, Duna Records, citing that it took too much time and energy to run. Bjork soon created a new label, Low Desert Punk Recordings, and the Duna Records website now functions as a Brant Bjork community fansite and forum. The first release on the new label was Bjork's 2008 album, Punk Rock Guilt, made up of recordings from December 2005 referred to as the "New Jersey Sessions". This release was followed up with the 2010 album Gods & Goddesses. Recorded in LA in 2009, Gods & Goddesses was the first Brant Bjork solo album not to be primarily recorded by Bjork himself. Instead, Bjork recorded with a new line-up of musicians including guitarist Brandon Henderson, former Yawning Man bassist Billy Cordell, and former Mondo Generator drummer Giampaolo Farnedi.
  In March 2014, Bjork announced that he would tour Australia in May with his backing band, the 'Low Desert Punks', consisting of bassist Dave Dinsmore, guitarist Bubba Dupree, and Tony Tornay on drums. He would later announce a New Zealand tour with dates in June.
  In June, 2018, Brant Bjork announced his new album, Mankind Woman to be released on September 14, 2018, on Heavy Psych Sounds. Mankind Woman was noted for its "smoother and more laid back" style and psychedelic influences, compared to Bjork's previous work. The album was produced by Bubba Dupree, also serving as guitarist throughout. Another notable feature was the shared lead vocals between Bjork and long-time friend Sean Wheeler, who also performed as special guest on the subsequent Mankind Woman album tour in North America and Europe. Brant Bjork handpicked Danish The Sonic Dawn as his European tour support, echoing the psychedelic touches of Mankind Woman.
  In April 2019, a new solo record entitled Jacoozzi was released. Originally recorded in 2010 and then shelved, Jacoozzi is an instrumental album, featuring jazz and funk influences with break beats. Bjork explains the material was improvisation meant to lead up to a new solo record. But Visto Chino started up around that time and thus the album was shelved.  It was released on April 5, 2019 on Heavy Pysch Sounds.
  In May 2019, a re-mixed an
caption: Bjork playing live in Exeter, June 19, 2006
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