The aural experience of Yawning Man summarizes as an intense yet graceful kaleidoscope of polyphonic musical textures. Their latest album Long Walk of the Navajo adds on to their growing catalog of recordings and reinforces their long-held status as in-demand name worldwide with 15 years of worldwide touring. Originally formed in the late 1980's with the lineup of Gary Arce, Mario Lalli, Alfredo Hernandez, and Larry Lalli. 2022 lineup included Gary Arce, Bill Stinson, and the return of Billy Cordell (Brant Bjork and Kyuss Lives) on bass and rounds out their yearlong active recording and touring schedule. Arce and Cordell’s background together dates to co-writing the 2005 Pothead EP and hitting the road for Yawning Man’s first European Tours of 2005 and 2006. In 2023 Greg Saenz (John Garcia, The Dwarves) replaced Bill Stinson on drums and began writing new material for their summer 2023 Australian and Fall European Tours. The three together have an approach that seems to flow within the songs and allow the reverberating tones to breathe into the atmospheric desert landscape we can visualize with each song. Yawning Man is acknowledged and recognized throughout the underground heavy music community as a key piece in the developments of the desert/stoner rock subgenres. While their contemporaries gravitated toward the heavy riffs of grunge, and post punk, Yawning Man leaned in another direction with their unique and organic, cinematic compositions and psychedelic improvisations...the perfect soundtrack to encompass the spacious moonscape atmosphere of the well documented "generator parties" of their area in the late 1980's. It was at these gatherings where they developed this distinctive style and sound by enchanting spectators with their seemingly endless free form instrumental sessions, which echoed through the beautiful deserts, mesas, and landscapes of the Coachella Valley. As time passed, their legend grew with notable names of the Palm Desert music scene paying homage to the group through mention and praise, notably with legendary desert band Kyuss (Joshua Homme, Brant Bjork, John Garcia, Scott Reeder) doing their own rendition of the Yawning Man track "Catamaran" on the 1995 Elektra release ...And The Circus Leaves Town. Festival appearances include Hellfest (FR), Azkena Fest (ES), Reverence Fest (ES) Desertfest London, Desertfest Berlin, Up in Smoke (CH), Psycho Las Vegas (US), Stoned & Dusted I & II (US), Monolith on the Mesa (US), and various others. The recent documentaries on the Deserts unique music scene Lo Sound Desert and Desert Age give light on Yawning Man’s influential impact on underground rock music. The new album “Long walk of the Navajo” heads into a more dark and sometimes heavy direction that has each song telling its own story with a haunting and heavy sound that settles into its own space of beauty.
