There is space in California's high desert... Visitors to Joshua Tree National Park step into another world, a barren zone where howling winds come in two-varieties: summer swelter and winter frost. Here, some of the oldest trees on Earth enjoy the company of huge and silent boulders, in a tableau both eerie and timeless. Only rarely is the ear assaulted by the screaming jets, rumbling tanks, droning helicopters, and booming munitions of the nearby Twenty-Nine Palms Marine Corps Combat Center. Those hardy humans who survive the desert's flash floods, earthquakes, and brushfires are rewarded with night skies full of shooting stars, the Milky Way stretching like a canopy overhead.

Out of this alien environment came... earthlings?

Originally hailing from Texas, Fred Drake played in the Los Angeles bands House of Love and Shy Party before fleeing LA's 1992 riots to vanish into the Mojave, where he lived until his death on June 20, 2002. At the Rancho De La Luna, his studio oasis, Fred recorded not only his own solo projects, but also a variety of artists -- among them Daniel Lanios, Vic Chestnut, Kyuss, Fu Manchu, and Mark Lanegan.

The early Memphis punk rock scene was musical home to Dave Catching before he set his sights on Los Angeles, where he has played in a number of bands: The Modifiers (with John Densmore of the Doors and Derf Scratch of Fear), Tex and the Horseheads, The Ringling Sisters, Honk If You're Horny, and Queens Of The Stone Age. He resides in New Orleans for part of each year, where he plays with The Gnarltones and practices his Cajun cooking.

Pete Stahl was born at the old Tacoma Park sanitarium outside Washington D.C. In the 80s, he and his brother Franz founded the legendary D.C. hardcore punk band Scream. After five classic albums and numerous tours, Scream was disbanded, and Pete and Franz moved to L.A. to start a new band, Wool. Before Wool called it quits, a 1994 demo session at the Rancho De La Luna led to the first earthlings? encounter. Pete also sings for the metal band Goatsnake.

Spontaneous, energetic, and even frivolous, this trio's songs seem to float to tape, with contributions from Victoria Williams, Dave Grohl, Scott Reeder, Adam Maples, Billy Bizeau, Martina, and many other lucky abductees. Most recently, Adam has joined earthlings? full-time, along with Wendy Rae Fowler, Mathias Schneeberger, and Allen Bloch. The result: a live show to equal the insane aural abundance of the band's recordings. In the middle of the night, in the midst of dreams, these earthlings? gather. Common ground for uncommon musical pairings, the Rancho is their landing site -- and these strange and beautiful soundscapes are the evidence left behind: crop circles for the ear, cattle mutilations for the mind.

You're next.

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