Source: Blabbermouth.net

VISTA CHINO, the group comprised of two founding members of the legendary rock band KYUSS — Brant Bjork and John Garcia — and guitarist Bruno Fevery, has tapped Mike Dean (CORROSION OF CONFORMITY) to play bass on the band’s upcoming European tour.

Dean handled bass duties for VISTA CHINO at their first North American performance, which took place at this year’s Orion Music + More festival — curated by METALLICA — in Detroit, Michigan (see video below).

VISTA CHINO will release its debut album, “Peace”, in the early fall via Napalm Records. The cover artwork for the CD was created by the renowned California art collective The Date Farmers.

Commented Bjork: “The Date Farmers are native to the desert where we are from. It is an honor to work together with such prolific artists!”

“Dargona, Dragona”, the first song from VISTA CHINO‘s highly anticipated first full-length album, is available for streaming at this location.

The final live appearances of KYUSS LIVES! — featuring the same lineup as VISTA CHINO — took place in early 2013 as part of Australia’s Soundwave Festival.

KYUSS LIVES! decided to change its name after a lawsuit launched by former KYUSS members Josh Homme and Scott Reeder prevented KYUSS LIVES! from recording and releasing any new material.

Commented Garcia: “KYUSS LIVES! is now VISTA CHINO!…it feels great just to write that….and to say it out loud, feels even better. Now that our relationship with Napalm Records is official; it’s time to forget about the past year, move forward, and execute our original plan, which was to make kick-ass music and tour the world!”

Speaking to Music Feeds, Brant was asked whether there was a slight sense of relief that the legal dispute over the KYUSS name is over. “Absolutely,” he replied. “There’s always relief when conflict is resolved and people can just let go and move forward. That’s where we’re at and we feel great. It’s always unfortunate to experience differences with specific people, but we feel great as a band. We’re really, really excited to move forward into the future and focus on what it is that we do, which is play music.”

Regarding whether the change of band’s name to VISTA CHINO would have happened had it not been for the lawsuit, Brant said: “That’s a good question. The answer to that question is: I don’t know. Possibly. We didn’t really think about it. We were really just looking at what was in front of us and making our decisions based on what our present situation was. But now we just came to a point where we felt that changing the name was appropriate and was the fastest way for us to get back to playing music.”