Heavy Psych Meets Hi-Desert Magic at the Mojave Experience

The heavy psyche band, Earthless, has embarked on some amazing journeys during its 25-year career – sometimes without leaving its home Casbah nightclub in San Diego.

The mostly instrumental trio has performed at the Pulp Festival in the Swiss Alps and the Golden Plains Festival at the Supernatural Amphitheatre in the Australian bush. They’ve played the Mystic Fest in Poland, Hell Fest in France, and the Freak Valley Festival on the Sieg River in the ancient German town of Netphe.

Now they’re headlining the inaugural Mojave Experience festival March 20-21 in Joshua Tree, where the area’s famous energy vortex and esoteric fanbase may launch them into more long flights of improvisational fancy.

In September, Earthless played at the foot of the sacred Uluru/Ayers Rock in the Australian desert, completing an orbit begun in 2018 when they recorded an eerily inspirational 14-minute original called “Uluru Rock,” which is their most streamed song on Spotify.

“There’s something very special about playing music in remote places,” said Earthless guitarist Mike Eginton. “It might be that we’re more removed from modern amenities or there’s less distraction from the actual event, but those performances always seem more intimate. Playing in the middle of the Australian desert with Uluru in the background under a massive star-filled sky makes you feel very much connected to the people you’re sharing that experience with.”

Earthless has played under the high desert starry skies at Giant Rock near Landers, and the Joshua Tree Retreat Center. They kicked off the 2016 Desert Generator Party in Pioneertown before it morphed into three small desert rock-themed Stoned and Dusted festivals.

“We love the desert and I’m sure the Mojave Experience will be amazing,” Eginton said. “We frequently get booked at desert/stoner rock events because we share a common sound with those bands. We’ve become good friends with them over the years.”

Mojave Experience producer Patrick Brink attended those Stoned and Dusted festivals and was as inspired by Earthless’ Japanese and German rock influences as he was by desert rock. He got the desert rock godfather, veteran generator party producer Mario Lalli, to stage manage and play his festival, and also to endorse it. Lalli will play with the atmospheric instrumental band, Yawning Man, Saturday at the Joshua Tree Lake Campground, and the narrative-weaving Rubber Snake Charmers Friday at the Mojave Gold nightclub in Yucca Valley. The latter is a sold-out “warm-up party” to the main event at the site of the semi-annual Joshua Tree Music Festival.

“I’m excited to see this happening at the Joshua Tree festival grounds,” said Lalli, who rejoined Yawning Man for its November release of “Pavement Ends.” “Perfect spot. Great gathering of like-minded musicians. Going to be great.”

The top Mojave Experience acts may be more popular in Europe than in America. The co-headliner, Dead Meadows of Washington D.C., and San Francisco’s Acid King are both playing one of four Desertfests in Europe in May. Earthless is playing the London and Berlin Desertfests back-to-back. John Garcia, former lead singer of the desert rock cult favorites, Kyuss, is headlining those Desertfests with his band, Hermano. His solo act is third-billed at Mojave Experience.

Brink is hoping the Experience might shed a little attention on him so his band, Volume, can get invited to those distinctive international festivals.

“I was like, ‘I gotta do it myself if I want to get on a cool festival,” he said in a recent Zoom interview. “I started toying with the idea last April. When I got back from a tour in June, I started making a list of bands I’d like to see. During that process, I was like, ‘This is getting bigger than I thought. I don’t want to wear two hats.’ So I was like, ‘I’m gonna put everything into (producing) the festival and next year, we’ll play the festival.’”

Brinks has six acts playing Mojave Gold, including the Rubber Snake Charmers featuring Sean Wheeler and fellow desert rock pioneer Arthur Seay with the Riff Killers. Eight acts perform Saturday starting at 12:30 p.m.

But the Twentynine Palms native wants to showcase the high desert vibe all weekend.

“I think people should check out all the stuff that the Joshua Tree area has to offer,” Brink said. “It has the national park, it has Giant Rock, it has art installations all over the place. I thought it would be cool to put a festival out there, have it be more than just music and art.

“You get out in Joshua Tree, Wonder Valley, Twentynine Palms, and it’s quiet. All you hear is like birds and coyotes. You don’t hear sirens. It’s a totally different environment. There’s no other place in the world that you see stars the way you do up here.”

The Joshua Tree Music Festival is held at the Joshua Tree Lake Campground every May and October. But it features global music, funk and other hard-to categorize music. Brink is spotlighting harder sounds popular in the European underground inspired by the Coachella Valley’s desert rock.

“I want to showcase the desert scene,” he said. “I think the vibe is captured by those bands – Mario and all his bands, Kyuss. There’s just a sense of airiness, even into their heavy riffing. A lot of bands from all over the world try to capture it, and some do OK. But I just think that the grandfathers of it really got it right.”

The inclusion of those “grandfathers” inspired Garcia, of Morongo Valley, to give his first major show in Joshua Tree.

“We talked about it,” Garcia said of Brink’s theme. “A legal generator party, right? 2.0. A step up. Having some of the original players and having that stage and being more organized — catering, green room, assigned parking. I wanted to be a part of it.”

The Stoned and Dusted shows, directed by artist manager Ryan Jones and curated by Lalli and Kyuss co-founder Brant Bjork, attempted to replicate the low desert generator parties in the high desert. But earthy psychedelic rock has mixed with Joshua Tree like drum circles and sunsets for decades. The Cosmic American Music Festival first saluted Joshua Tree legend Gram Parsons 30 years ago. The Desert Stars Festival, which began life as the Clean Air, Clear Stars Festival in 2007, showcased psych rock through 2017 at Pappy & Harriets Pioneertown Palace before moving to Joshua Tree in 2019. Desert Daze featured Iggy Pop in 2017 at the Joshua Tree Retreat Center. Heavy Psych Sounds, which produces festivals throughout Europe and the United States, featured several Mojave Experience bands at the Joshua Tree Cultural Center in 2023.

But Garcia calls this “a big deal.

“It’s the experience,” he said in a phone interview. “I applauded (Brink) on the name because this is the gateway to the Mojave. It’s a gateway to Death Valley. It’s the environment. When you’re playing the Out Back in Australia, there’s a vibe to that. This is a testament to the vibe (of) going out to the desert.”

Garcia will play a 40-minute set including new material and classic songs from Kyuss, Hermano and his solo albums. But he’s also excited about watching his colleagues.

“I’ve been thinking about Nick,” he said of his old Kyuss bandmate. “Nick Oliveri’s acoustic set is a sight and sound one must hear under the stars in Joshua Tree in March. That alone is worth its weight in gold because he’s just so animated. He’s just so intense. His eyes, his feeling, his voice, his conviction.”

Garcia also touts Yawning Man, with guitarist Gary Arce piercing the dry air with Lalli laying the foundation on environmentally-inspired songs like “Rock Formations.”

“Gary Arce is just so psychedelic,” he said. “His style of guitar playing is methodical and, on the flip side, it’s not methodical. It’s this free-spring, free will — the epitome of the desert sound. You can’t mention all the desert acts and bands without mentioning Gary Arce.”

Brink is promoting this festival far beyond the desert with low-cost camping spaces available for Saturday night. But his long-term goals depend on booking bands with the Joshua Tree vibe.

“I’m trying to do it right so we can keep doing it,” he said. “I’ll always have some connection to the desert because that’s the whole point of the festival — to get people to check out not just the music, but the area. That’s a lot of the bond — the whole isolation. A lot of that’s gone. So I want to showcase the desert scene.”

Bruce Fessier is a veteran journalist who has covered arts and entertainment in the SoCal desert since 1979. Contact him at jbfess@gmail.com. Follow him at facebook.com/bruce.fessier

Mojave Experience tickets: Available for Saturday, March 21 at the Joshua Tree Lake RV & Campground for $79.80 at ticketstripe.com/mojaveexperience. Camping: joshuatreelake.com