Yawning Balch Return to the Desert and Keep Getting Deeper

The origin story still gets better every time. In 2023, Fu Manchu and Big Scenic Nowhere guitarist Bob Balch drove out to the Joshua Tree desert and spent five hours jamming with Yawning Man — Gary Arce, Bill Stinson, and the legendary Mario Lalli of Fatso Jetson — and carved two full albums out of the session. Heavy Psych Sounds released them as Volume One and Volume Two, Classic Rock Magazine called it “a mesmeric aural experience,” and that was that. Yawning Balch was a band.

Volume Three followed in 2025, and now Volume Four arrives May 29 — same four players, same sky-opening riff and groove approach, still entirely instrumental, still completely locked in. The new excerpt, “Pyramid of Djoser,” is a trippy drift through the band’s dreamy, jam-driven psychedelic rock — the kind of music that erases the distinction between playing together and thinking together.

Four albums in two years from four musicians who clearly have no shortage of things to say to each other. If you’ve been sleeping on this project, Volume Four is a very good place to start. Pre-order it below.

Pre-order Volume Four ↗