Enigmatic singer-songwriter Lee Baggett invites listeners into the haze of forgotten memories in his cannabis-inspired mixtape.
A true musical wanderer, Lee Baggett's timeless sound weaves a mysterious tapestry of ethereal melodies and introspective lyrics. A constant presence in the underground music scene, Baggett’s latest album Echo Me On delves into new emotional depths, creating an evocative journey where the sun never sets and the songs linger on.
A true musical wanderer, Lee Baggett's timeless sound weaves a mysterious tapestry of ethereal melodies and introspective lyrics. A constant presence in the underground music scene, Baggett’s latest album Echo Me On delves into new emotional depths, creating an evocative journey where the sun never sets and the songs linger on.
Heads Lifestyle: Hey, Lee, where are you now?
Lee Baggett: The far south end of Puget Sound.
HL: What do you do with your time?
LB: I horticulture, climb trees, surf, play guitar or piano (when no one is around), draw, feed my worms, and watch British mystery dramas on TV with my family.
HL: Do you get high when listening to music?
LB: The traditional ceremony of a bowl with the vinyl record will always be best.
HL: Describe a typical music-weed session?
LB: The answer to the question is in the song selection. This list, by the way, is mostly stuff that blew me away from way back. I do love being at some friend of a friend’s house while travelling, say after a show, and we’re sitting around a hazy room listening to someone’s selection from a nice record collection. That’s the best. I’m taking steps to have that kind of collection, and space for space.
HL: What is your earliest memory of connecting the dots between music and cannabis?
LB: My best friend had two super cool older brothers, who were into taking us to see the movies like The Warriors, going to the fair, playing Led Zeppelin for us (sounding like a swirling wash of colour that I didn’t understand, I didn’t even hear the beat, which is strange because they have the biggest beat in the history of rock), black lights, a giant Wings poster. Then I was hit with three massive torpedoes right before high school: going to see Rush, Van Halen, and Ozzy (with Randy Rhoads), one after another. Cruiser hit and sunk! Not that we totally indulged then but there was something in the air.
In Memory of Elizabeth Reed
I like the radio. I used to tape-record songs off the radio. Once a week, our local station had midnight records when they played a whole vinyl record non-stop. I had my sister drive me the half-hour into town to pick up some yellow blank cassettes at Tower Records. Of course, there was a little detour to meet our little friend. I got back just in time, flat on my back, completely floored but entirely awake. The emotion and tone of Duane and Dicky’s guitars were so gripping. It set up a new chapter for me.
One of These Things First
After playing a show in New England a long time ago with Little Wings, we got a ride back to where we were staying in a black sedan, which got all smoky inside. With the windows down, driving quickly on a winding, empty road under big black trees through the chilly midnight moonlight, this tape was put on. It sounded so good, like quicksilver in my ears, almost too good for my senses to handle. I was afraid of going back to listen to it. I can now, I think.
Where
I played this song at a gig with Kyle in an elfin-woods kind of place, just winging it. Later, when I got the chords down, I said we should put it on the list. He just looked far away and never said anything. I want to go where this song goes.
Dogs
My brother, his best friend, my best friend, and I were caravanning up for a Tahoe ski trip with a church group. We had the station wagon to ourselves, which filled with a light blue mist. Time on the freeway slowed to another dimension, turned to stone, as the church van pulled alongside us. We smiled and the dogs in the speakers barked in a faraway English countryside.
Time of the Preacher
I first heard this song while travelling with my buddy Kyle. Looping back from west to east to west across the country, we arrived in Texas with our brand new cowboy boots and a cassette tape of Red Headed Stranger. Slow down, take it way back, we were transformed. It felt good. Under a starry night, we got pulled over by a sheriff way out in the vast no man’s land of West Texas. After looking around and finding nothing incriminating, the sheriff asked if I was still growing. Taken aback, I replied, What?! It was just a couple of plants in my backyard over a decade ago. My punishment was tea and acupuncture once a week for a month or two. I never heard or talked about it until then.
A Passage to Bangkok
The Moving Pictures Tour was my first real concert, and the first time a doobie was passed to me (not sure if I inhaled). Rush became my favourite band for years afterwards, and I still play back the concert in the smoky arena of my skull. 2112 was our key to ascension. Exit Stage Left was the live record from The Moving Pictures Tour. I think A Passage to Bangkok is better than the 2112 one; the guitar solo is a smoker!
Oh Lonesome Me
After the Goldrush was the only Neil Young record I had for a long time. When I first moved to SLO, I’d come back in the wee hours after running around in the night, and put this on my little record player on the floor of the patio that was my room. It was a little fire in the darkness.
(Editor's Note: Neil hates Spotify and who can blame him. As a result, this tune does not appear on the playlist.)
How Blue Can You Get?
There’s something so sunny and stony in B.B.’s guitar tone and the way it communicates with a live audience. It’s a trip, like when you come face-to-face with a big animal at the zoo and you’re sure they know way deeper things than you do.
All The Things You Are
If a serious instrument note can make me laugh, that's a good note, and there are a few somewhere in here, I think.
It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
Bob is raging full on.
Holding
I first discovered John Hartford at the High Sierra Music Festival when I heard Yonder Mountain String Band play this song on the little mountain stage under the high-elevation sun. Aereo-Plain is the great ‘70s huckleberry riverboat string band album. For the recording, John said they could play anything or any lick, anytime, regardless of whether they knew the song. They were virtuosos, smoking and keeping it loose. It’s a masterpiece!
BIO
Lee Baggett, also known as Lee Gull, is the enigmatic singer-songwriter from the West Coast who has carved a niche for himself in the indie rock world with his ethereal melodies and introspective lyrics. He's a constant presence in the underground music scene, and at times, serves as a guitarist for Little Wings. Baggett's captivating tunes echo with the warmth of Pacific sunsets and the haze of forgotten memories.
A true musical wanderer, Lee Baggett's elusive persona and timeless sound weave a mysterious tapestry that keeps audiences enthralled, leaving them longing for more. With each note, Baggett's music whispers of a hidden world, where the sun never sets and the melodies linger on, transcending time and space.
On his latest album Echo Me On, Lee delves into new emotional depths, creating an extraordinary musical experience. Backed by a full band, backup singers, and a rich string section perfectly arranged with sympathetic violins and cellos, along with honky-tonk piano and a swelling mid-60s country choir, Baggett's reedy vocals are masterfully accompanied, adding an ethereal quality to his poetic lyrics. Released in December 2023 via Perpetual Doom, the album showcases Baggett's unique artistry, and promises to be an evocative journey into his distinctive sound and a must-listen for discerning music aficionados.
Previous releases, including Just A Minute, Anyway, and Strings Across the Water, his collaborative album with Blind Dead Timmy, are all available via Perpetual Doom. His previous works include the Burn’r albums as Lee Gull and his collaborative album with Graves, titled Lee Gull and The Graves.
Album Info:
On his latest album Echo Me On, Lee Baggett, the enigmatic singer-songwriter, delves into new emotional depths, creating an extraordinary musical experience. Backed by a full band, backup singers, and a rich string section perfectly arranged with sympathetic violins and cellos, along with honky-tonk piano and a swelling mid-60s country choir, Baggett's reedy vocals are masterfully accompanied, adding an ethereal quality to his poetic lyrics. Released in December 2023 via Perpetual Doom, the album showcases Baggett's unique artistry, and promises to be an evocative journey into his distinctive sound and a must-listen for discerning music aficionados.
Listen to first single, All Star Day Here
Watch All Star Day Video Here
Order Echo Me On: Official Store or Bandcamp
Follow Lee Baggett on Instagram
]]>To celebrate all the great musical artists we’ve had the pleasure of discovering over the course of 2023, Heads’ music editor has handpicked some of our favourite tracks and compiled them into the Heads Lifestyle’s 2023 Mixtape. Now get comfortable, fire one up and press play.
“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.”
~ Plato
What a crackerjack of a year 2023 turned out to be! To celebrate all the great artists we had the pleasure of showcasing, Heads’ music guru has handpicked some of our favourite tracks from the guest-curated playlists on our Spotify channel and album reviews, and compiled them into Heads Lifestyle’s 2023 Mixtape. Thank you to the Heads Lifestyle community including Bobby Lee, Ripley Johnson, Rosali, Jeffrey Alexander, Tarotplane, Circle Around the Sun, and all those who inspired us.
Find your happy spot, take a hit and enjoy some of the best music of the year.
If you dig these artists, show them some respect by purchasing their music directly from them or on Bandcamp.
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Day-tripper Tarotplane compels listeners to get out of their heads and into the sonic groove with his stoner mix of cosmic soundscapes.
Guitarist P.J. Dorsey, who professionally goes by the name Tarotplane, seeks to explore serene, trance-like soundscapes on his psychedelic excursions. His mental voyages vagabond from cosmic abstraction to ambient techno. His latest creation, Murmuration is a hypnotic journey through live instrumentation and spacey interceptions of synth, bubbling electronics, and heavy bass tones.
Guitarist P.J. Dorsey, who professionally goes by the name Tarotplane, seeks to explore serene, trance-like soundscapes on his psychedelic excursions. His mental voyages vagabond from cosmic abstraction to ambient techno. His latest creation, Murmuration is a hypnotic journey through live instrumentation and spacey interceptions of synth, bubbling electronics, and heavy bass tones.
Heads Lifestyle: Hey, P.J., where are you now?
Tarotplane: At work in Washington, DC (non-politics).
HL: What do you do with your time?
T: When I’m not making music, I’m walking along the Baltimore waterfront or selling furniture at my day job.
HL: Do you get high when listening to music?
T: Well, considering I listen to music almost constantly, it would be a little awkward being high that often. If I’m walking around the city, I’m almost certainly stoned. Also, if I’m working on a mix of my own personal music, I would be remiss if I wasn’t. I like to make sure the sounds are balanced and that a person’s listening experience is pleasant and not jarring in any way. The staging of music when listening is very crucial in my mind and being stoned helps you be tuned into things that can disrupt your experience.
HL: Describe a typical music-weed session?
T: 99% of the time I am walking and listening so that means headphones. I have a nice stereo, but I love to be moving in the outdoors. I feel like walking allows you to relax a bit more. I have had a medical card for a while, so I am able to get a lot of different styles. At this point, I am 100% vaporizer and I tend to do 50/50 CBD/THC blend. During COVID, I moved to a more CBD heavy blend and I’m not sure I’m going back to the more intense strains any time soon.
HL: What is your earliest memory of connecting the dots between music and cannabis?
T: I’m a little unusual in that I didn’t get high in my teens or 20s. I tried it, but I didn’t like it. I found that I got way too paranoid. I don’t drink and haven’t since my mid-20s. I was involved in selling music most of my adult life, but when I started working in a non-music-related field, I began to find life a bit dreary. When I turned 40, I decided to try some new things. I figured that maybe the adult me might enjoy smoking weed. Turns out I was very much correct! I was always very interested in “psychedelic” music for lack of a better term. I was and still am, a huge Pink Floyd fan. Once I started getting stoned and listening to the music I had grown up with, it was a bit like being colorblind and then being able to see the full spectrum. All the details were more defined, and they became more purposeful. I also picked up the guitar and started making music again. I had put it down around 12 years ago, but smoking gave me new purpose and understanding of not just music, but my creative process. I owe a lot to the decision to start using weed.
This playlist represents the sort of music I most enjoy when stoned. Even though I enjoy lots of different styles, this is my go-to in that headspace.
Jay Guru Dev
This track was my introduction to one of the great German guitarists, Achim Reichel. The “machines” in the name represent the reel-to-reel unit he used to create this leisurely echo masterpiece. Reichel became famous making pop music and pretty much disavowed his early experimental work so it’s only starting to become better known.
A Meditation Mass Part 1
One of the great lesser-known Krautrock bands, Yatha Sidhra only did one album in 1974, but it’s among some of the best cosmic music out there.
Krishna Eating Fish and Chips
Another under the radar Krautrock masterworks. Deuter became one of the earliest artists to embrace the new age sound, but this album is entirely different—a total head record and one of the deepest. Lots of what we would now call field recordings, Indian instrumentation, trippy synths, etc. Can’t recommend highly enough!
Sequenze e Frequenze
Battiato is called “Il Maestro” in his home country of Italy because he is well loved for his popular songs. He was one of the first well-known artists to go into an experimental phase while he was a pop star, and he did this for a number of albums. There is no one like him. He takes you to new places.
Movements of a Visionary
This track shows the absolute greatness and innovation of Tangerine Dream and why they are so well regarded. It must have blown some minds in the 70s when it was slapped on Hi-Fis all over the globe. Psychedelia incarnate.
Puls
Günter Schickert is another great German cosmic guitarist. After hearing the sequenced synth sound of Tangerine Dream, Schickert tried to emulate something similar on the guitar.
Echo Waves
Another amazingly complex guitar album that’s become renowned because of the trance-like atmospheres it creates. The sound was pioneered by Günter Schickert but perfected by Göttsching. For everyone who enjoys stoned listening, this should be an excursion you take at least once.
A Sprinkling of Clouds
Another record that was exploding the minds of young people in bedsits all over Europe in the 70s. I would venture to say that if back then, you were putting on a pair of headphones and taking a little trip, this was one of the ultimate stoner classics.
Weird Ceremony
A French group that was also aligned somewhat in the Gong universe. This track showcases some of the trippy goings on in that country at the time. Beautiful floating sounds.
Entering/Times
These guys were sometimes thought of as the Japanese Pink Floyd, which is fair enough. They go to places Pink Floyd went to but camped out there for longer and made that their whole sound. The synths and drums are fantastic. The cover lets you know what to expect.
Voices of Where
The German synthesist, Michael Hoenig made his name playing for the amazing Berlin band, Agitation Free. This track has a somber mysterious quality I really respond to.
14:31
Most all of this list is music from the 70s because when I’m really stoned, that’s my typical go-to. There are a few contemporary artists that do an excellent job and Global Communication is one of the best. The album 76:14, from which this track is taken, is perhaps one of the top five ambient techno sound that started in the early 90s. It learned from its predecessors but used new technology to create something that is both of its time and timeless.
Obverse
This is another somewhat recent group that does it for me. O Yuki Conjugate started in the industrial era, but went on to pioneer an organic environmental ambient sound in the mid- to late-90s. This 2021 release is built on the different styles OYC have embraced over the years. I highly recommend both volumes of A Tension Of Opposites.
Aguirre II
For me, Popol Vuh is like holy music. It has a deep mystical quality that few others possess. They have done many film soundtracks, principally for German director Werner Hertzog. Their sound matches perfectly with the weighty subjects of his films. That being said, at moments they have a guitar sound that can be reminiscent of the Grateful Dead or The Allman Brothers, which is very surprising and uplifting. I would encourage you to check out their deep catalogue.
Sound, Mother Earth
Another absolutely individual artist that I have trouble comparing to anyone else. I guess the easiest way to put it is that he is going places that are not super well-trodden. Typically, when I’m stoned, I want something that is sonically challenging but not jarring. His work gets right up on the line between those two ideas. It’s very personal music that goes with its own flow, and I really dig it.
Program Ten - Part 3
This is one of the great American underground albums made in the mid-70s by Bill Holt from Delaware. He was a man in his mid-30s who had a straight job as an executive working for 3M. He decided to buy a synth and proceeded to tape record snippets of news reports and things he saw on television and incorporate them into his music. Sampling now is just part of the typical musical landscape but with this album, he stumbled onto something—while not completely new—far from ordinary. There are few albums like it and a particular inspiration to me both sonically and in terms of what you can do as you grow older. A mid-life crisis masterpiece!
Orguitar Soir
Another amazing French artist. Ariel Kalma’s music wasn’t particularly well known when it came out in the late-70s, but he is now getting the notoriety he deserves. Fantastic, organic ambient music.
Saturnus Ringar
Now we are getting into the heavier portion of our programming. Älgarnas Trädgård is one of my favourite groups. Mystical, medieval, psychedelic rock from Sweden.
Back to Heldon
One of the great tracks from the first album by French guitarist Richard Pinhas. Fripp-style guitar married to primal synth.
Maggot Brain
Greatest guitar solo of all time? Lots of debate on the subject but for me this is it. Eddie Hazel pulls out all the stops and delivers one of the most emotional and transcendent moments in six string history. I love Hendrix, but the sheer passion displayed here gets me every time.
BIO
Tarotplane is the project name Baltimore-based guitarist PJ Dorsey has been working under since 2015 when his debut album First came out on Belgian label Aguirre Records. Since then he has racked up releases on a variety of labels such as Lullabies For Insomniacs, 12th Isle, Constellation Tatsu, Patience/Impatience, Noir Age, and several others. His sound has been dubbed "new school kosmische" because he utilizes newer technologies and processes with the styles and techniques of the 70s greats. His most recent album is called Murmuration on the NPM label London. A new release entitled Improvisations For Echo Guitar will be on the Island House label from NYC in December.
Along with his music, he has done a series of mixes for the substack he authors called Zik Zak. They are overviews of specific genres that go from ambient techno to British Folk. All of his releases and mixes are available on Bandcamp.
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In honour of the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop, we revisit our 2001 exclusive interview with Micael Franti of Spearhead, in which he discusses his role as activist, how his music enrages and enlightens, and standing up to the powers that be.
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By Brother Shine
He’s a rare bird among modern popular musicians, with songs that proudly proclaim a progressive, almost communal message. Michael Franti has always been a pioneer. His first group, back in the late 80s, was the Beatnigs, which had an industrial sound featuring the voice of Malcolm X. Later he challenged Hip Hop’s sexist and gangsta imagery with the Disposable Heroes of Hiphopricy. In recent years, his vehicle is Spearhead, whose music is uncompromising in its lyrics and leftist political stand as it echoes the political R&B crooners of the 60s.
Franti is still on the barricades, having protested the Word Trade Organization in Seattle and both the Republican and Democratic conventions where hundreds were arrested in sometimes violent confrontations. He’s also been in the studio working on his latest release, a tribute to community radio such as the Bay Area’s KPFA and New York City’s WBAI. He’s also got another album in the works for next year. He took time out to speak with Heads Magazine about pot, politics and music with a positive message.
Brother Shine: I received a CD release this spring called Stay Human and the best part about it is the gentleman who I consider my brother and a friend, Michael Franti. How’ya doing my brother?
Michael Franti: I’m doing great, man.
BS: I’ve been listening to you intently since Positive and what I’m finding is that all of your CDs are extremely political. I look at you as more of a historian. What’s your take on music and politics?
MF: The main message that I’ve had in my music is in a word: compassion. Recently, [death-row journalist] Mumia Abu-Jamal wrote an open letter to artists saying the main goal of an artist in our time is to try and enrage, enlighten and inspire people, and that’s what I try and do through my music.
BS: You certainly have been enraging and enlightening people. Is that a risk for you in terms of sales and notoriety?
MF: I don’t look at it like it’s a risk. I don’t have any illusion that I’m going to go on and sell multi-millions of records like I was Snoop Dog or Dr. Dre, but that’s not why I got into it. I didn’t get into it to get rich and retire; I got into it because I wanted a vehicle for my voice. Being an artist of a political nature, sometimes it’s hard to make ends meet, but as a band we try and put on great shows that are full of life and partying and fun. That’s what makes the difficult times be so worthwhile. We find joy in what we do and satisfaction beyond just commercial success.
BS: You have interrupted tours just so you can go to a particular demonstration. You were at the protests against the World Trade Organization in Seattle and the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. What did you get from that?
MF: The most amazing thing in Seattle was all kinds of different people coming together. It was great to see radical lesbian feminists next to airline pilots, and steelworkers right next to hardcore environmentalists. Also seeing the lengths that this system will take to silence dissent by the protestors was an eye-opener. People making puppets for the protests were locked up before the conventions even and had their puppets destroyed because the authorities didn’t want these voices heard in the streets.
BS: How did you become a radical musician?
MF: I was a student and basketball player at San Francisco University and I got involved in the campus anti-apartheid movement, but the coaches discouraged players from getting involved in political things. I started writing poetry about the issue and working with a group of musicians off-campus in putting that poetry to music. My first son was born around then so I took a little time off school. I was twenty and had to make decisions because when you have a kid your spare time goes away. So I decided to make music.
BS: The song Stay Human is title track of the new CD. In that song you’re saying that people have to work to stay human. I get the feeling that you work at getting into what the everyday person is into.
MF: I really enjoy it. In Philadelphia, we played a show and this group of people were holding a vigil outside of the jail where all these protestors were being held. I stayed out there until six in the morning just talking, playing songs and sharing poetry with people who were there. I got a lot of satisfaction out of that and a lot of satisfaction talking to people at our shows. Spending time with people afterwards and before the show is a part of my life that I really want to take advantage of. Right now I have the opportunity to do music, travel foreign countries; visit a lot of cities. When I was growing up, I never imagined I would have that opportunity.
BS: On Stay Human you do these radio cuts between the songs. Where did that concept come from?
MF: It came from the reality of our times. Last year radio station KPFA in Berkeley, California was going under some very intense times, with DJs and other people who worked at the station being locked out by the [Pacifica] foundation, which owns the station. I wanted to write a story that was about micro radio and was also about the death penalty. In between all the tracks of the songs are callers into this little station talking about the impending execution of this woman named Sister Fatima and the governor, not unlike George W., who is trying the execute her. It’s a very emotional story told through the voices of people calling into the station.
BS: Doing the voice of the governor on the CD is Woody Harrelson?
MF: Yeah.
BS: How did you get him to work with you on this?
MF: I went on this trip to Cuba with a number of musicians from America and we collaborated with a bunch of Cuban artists to put on a concert, and Woody happened to be one of the people who was invited along—the only non-musician, although he does write songs and sing his own songs from time to time. Since that time, I’ve been involved with him in a number of other things. We did the Spitfire Tour, which is musicians and actors and activists speaking out on global affairs. Woody has been a strong advocate for marijuana reform. He had recently been busted in Kentucky for planting industrial hemp.
BS: They dropped all the charges, didn’t they?
MF: Yeah, the jury acquitted him. Woody’s been on the front lines of social activism from the Hollywood side and I really loved getting him involved. He came in and did a great job of playing the governor.
BS: A close friend of Woody’s as well as yours is Todd McCormick, and if I’m not mistaken he’s in lockdown right now.
MF: He’s not in lockdown, but he has been. I just spoke to him on the phone. He’s serving a five-year term for growing medical marijuana in a state where that’s supposed to be legal. The federal government came in and prosecuted Todd to make an example of anyone who tries to test the law. So he’s doing five years and he has cancer, but he’s standing firm. It infuriates me to think that he’s just one of millions of people in this country who are locked up for marijuana and other petty drug offenses.
BS: When is Todd up for parole?
MF: Actually, he’s not really eligible for parole because of the mandatory minimum sentencing policy. He has to do the five years. He could get a little bit off for good time. Todd does have an appeal pending soon so we’re hoping that with his appeal he’ll have a chance to get out.
BS: Has Todd been getting enough support?
MF: Woody Harrelson initially bailed him out with half a million bucks. He’s got a lot of people behind him who are working to keep his spirits high and make sure he has a little bit of money while he’s in jail. Mostly it’s emotional support, spiritual support.
BS: Marijuana has been used to keep Todd alive since he was 12 years old, am I correct?
MF: He started smoking marijuana at age nine; he was diagnosed with cancer at age six. His mother tried every possible cure and was reading Family Circle magazine—of all magazines—and it said that smoking marijuana may help, and it did. Not only did it help him deal with the pain of going through his various bouts with cancer but it also kept his particular kind of cancer at bay. Now that he’s in jail a lot of us are concerned for his health.
BS: In a lot of your songs you talk about marijuana and police harassment of people who smoke or telling stories about then parties where smoke is. Does your interest come from Todd or have you been dealing with this for quite a while?
MF: It’s an issue I’ve been dealing with for a long time. Just like with gay and lesbian rights, it’s important for people to come out and be counted. The same thing goes for marijuana. Because this is something that’s part of my life, not something that’s evil or makes me a bad person, and something I’m willing to stand up and be counted for.
BS: Let’s return to the music for a moment. On your CD Chocolate Supa Highway is a cut called U Can’t Sing R Song, and on your latest CD the tune Thank You. It seems like every CD you do touches on the music of the 60s and 70s. The song Thank You especially pays homage to the musicians who came before you. Why?
MF: It’s soul music and I don’t use that term lightly. What I mean by soul music is that it’s music that inspires the soul; it’s music that brings out emotions that have been trapped away inside our souls that don’t always have a chance to have a voice or breathe. There were a lot of artists when I was a very young kid like Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley who were creating soul music, R&B music, but it was about real things. It wasn’t just about I want to lick you up and down and I’m such a great lover. They were songs about heartache and power, longing and the struggle. They were about the environment and about the world, about plans. You would never see a record like Stevie’s Secret Life of Plants being recorded today. The artists that I admire were able to take all the pain that was going on in the world around them and create beauty by creating music that was able to uplift people. On every record that I do I usually try to pay some homage in song to those artists.
BS: I don’t have a favourite on Stay Human because all the songs are so powerful. But I think I’d play We Don’t Mind because it’s such a pretty song. Where did that come from?
MF: It came from when I was going through a lot of these protests and events that I’ve been involved in. It’s just reflecting on what our communities have been facing, out here in the San Francisco Bay area, the diverse and politically aware community that listens to KPFA radio. Community radio isn’t something we can take for granted anymore, KPFA was taken over last year and there was a struggle we all went through. The song came out of that, “We don’t mind, we’ve been doing it all the time, but if you want us to sacrifice you won’t get it without a price.” It’s kind of an anthem of liberation. Saying to the powers that be out there that you can push us, beat us down, lock us out, but there is going to be a price you will have to pay at some point. You are going to have to be responsible for giving something back to life. If you don’t, there will be an even higher price to pay.
Listen on Spotify
More about Michael Franti here
This article first appeared in Heads Vol.1 Issue 04 - July 2001
Editor’s note: CD is short for Compact Disk, a diminutive Frisbee-like thingie that came in a jewel case and was the cutting edge of audio technology in the day. CDs usually ended up scratched, stored in the wrong jewel case or lost underneath your car seats. Community radio was a broadcasting vehicle with the aim of serving the social and cultural needs of a specific community. Today its role as a community organizer has largely been replaced with social media.
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Inspired by the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop, Heads went digging in the vault and unearthed this interview with Jurassic 5 on the release of their album Feedback.
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For over 10 years, “from the metal monkey bars to concrete schoolyards,” Jurassic 5 has been carrying the torch for independent, Los Angeles-based Hip Hop. Through their fondness for the simpler days of street corner battling and party-emceeing, the prehistoric crew has been responsible for introducing a whole new generation to the way Hip Hop was, while at the same time influencing the direction the urban art-form is headed. By calling in some big name producers and slipping in one genre-jolting collaboration on their latest album, Feedback, J5 has set their sights even higher. Zaakir aka Soup talked to us about getting panned, getting down in the club, and getting the group together to do what they love.
Heads Lifestyle: It’s been a long time since Power In Numbers. How has the group been keeping busy?
Zaakir: We steady tour. You’re going to find something to keep you busy, whether it’s staying in the studio or out on the road touring, and we’ve happened to do both. It just took us a little longer than it takes the average Hip Hop cat now.
HL: J5 is actually five members finally, with the departure of Cut Chemist. Was everything cool with that?
Z: You know, as cool as it can be. Nobody came to fisticuffs, or said bad words to each other. It was one person deciding they wanted to do their thing, and the other people were like, Go on and do your thing. You can’t hold a grown man back from what he wants to do. You have to let that person go out the door and do their thing. I wasn’t mad at all.
HL: So does Nu-Mark handle the beats now, solely?
Z: Nah. He did a lot of production on this particular record, but we’re going to also go out and find other people to do what we need to do. We worked with Salaam Remy, Scott Storch, this cat named Exile, another cat named Bean One. So Nu-Mark isn’t going to do just every beat we got, but we’re definitely going to look at what he’s doing, and see where he’s at, when it’s time to make music.
HL: Seeing J5 in concert, I get the impression that you step up as the statesman and father figure of the group.
Z: (laughing) I never heard anybody say that.
HL: I don’t mean it in a condescending way. I just feel that you put your presence in front, and everyone feeds off you lots of times.
Z: Well, thank you. I didn’t take it in a condescending way. I mean I don’t look at it like that, because I tell people, everybody plays that role. Sometimes I’m not strong on certain situations that another person is strong on, but then they step up and do what they have to do. I don’t ever want to make it seem like I’m the one going, We need to do this, or Hey, don’t say that, but at the same time, I know what I won’t do, and when I don’t want to do it, I’m not doing it. I’ve always been this way as far as knowing what I want to do, and I don’t really like to bullshit myself. Not so much other people. I don’t like to bullshit myself—because if I’m not bullshitting myself, I can’t bullshit you.
HL: Talking about the new album, it seems that in a way you’ve gone more old school, but you’ve also beefed up your sound. What would you say about the album?
Z: You know, I just read an album review that said Jurassic 5, “they stayed with the same prehistoric flow, and they are alienating a huge chunk of the younger listeners.” They [the reviewer] basically said we’re stuck. You are who you are, man! But at the same time, it’s hard to swallow shit like that. When I listen to the quote on quote new shit, all the new shit is the same. All that the new shit talks about is candy paint on the car, spinning wheels, bitches, guns. And this particular conversation about the content of Hip Hop has been going on for years. And it’s just funny to me how we could do what we do, and after three albums nobody’s tired of the shit they keep forcing down your throat, but you tired of what we do. Nobody said we have a song with Dave Matthews—ain’t nothing old school about that!
HL: How did the collaboration with Dave Matthews come about?
Z: Dave always liked what we’ve done, and he invited us to come on tour with him, and it kind of just blossomed from there…we decided it would be cool if we kick off and do a song, and you know, you do what you do. If we don’t have Dave Matthews we get panned, and if we do have Dave Matthews, I’ve heard people pan us, like, Aw man, why are they doing that? It’s like Hip Hop is so terrible…(pauses) Aw man, it’s just some terrible shit right now.
HL: Is there anything in Hip Hop right now that is inspiring you?
Z: (pauses) No, no. There’s nothing out there, man. There’s nothing out there because I just don’t feel that the artists…(pauses). The only person I feel that’s doing something cool, and it’s not even fucking creative, it just sounds good to me, is Kanye West. I like what Cee-lo does, and people are like, Oh that Gnarls Barkley shit is so creative. It’s just those people doing what they like doing, and it sounds cool. Creative? Like what Outkast was doing was so creative? I don’t know—that shit still sounds like Hip Hop to me. I don’t know what’s super different about it. And I think it’s not the artists, it’s these so-called radio cats, they are the confused ones…they aren’t hearing the other shit that they are bumping nine times out of a thousand times a day, and I just sit back and go, So that’s creative? It’s like the mentality of the consumer is tore up, man. The shit is tore up. And it got me thinking we’re crazy.
HL: I’ve heard that during performances of Hey, you actually encourage the crowd to light up, saying, If you’re going to do it, do it now. Do you feel heat ever for fostering a ganja-friendly environment?
Z: You know what? The thing is that we’re at a club, man. If I don’t tell you to light up, you’re still going to be intoxicated. They’re selling drinks there. And it’s funny, if I tell you, Everybody throw up your drink, you wouldn’t even trip, because that’s what they do there. I wouldn’t go in a church, or a mosque, talking about light up, we’re gonna do this little show. I wouldn’t be in a daycare saying shit like that, but I mean in a club—man, you’re in a club. And light up your weed, trust me, when we say that, people don’t go off, Oh what the fuck? When we say, Light up your weed, they holler. And they already be lighting that. They had that shit lit before we even went on (laughs).
HL: Since you are coming out with a new album, how do you think it’s going to affect J5’s success in the future?
Z: How do I look at it, as far as helping J5? It’s more catalogue, man. It’s more opportunity, to where every time we put something out, the opportunities open up for us. It’s more catalogue, it’s more visibility for J5. The motivation was to get something out because it was time. It’s been time; it was overdue.
HL: That’s all that you can really hope for.
Z: That’s all, man. You’re right. All you can hope for is the best, for what the situation entails.
HL: You guys always make a strong effort to come out and talk to everybody in the crowd. You feel a need to give back to your fans?
Z: Yeah, man, yeah—because you don’t have to come. There’s a whole lot of stuff you could be doing. Anytime somebody spends their money on us, I appreciate that. The least I could do is come out and talk to you, and not make you feel like I’m brushing you off. We could sign autographs, we could do an interview, take pictures. I love doing that. If I could do more, like come over to your house and eat up your food, to show my gratification, I would do that. But I don’t think you would invite me.
HL: Oh, you’re always welcome.
Z: (laughs) So until then we’re going to sign autographs and take pictures.
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Jurassic 5 knows its natural history. Moonlighting as paleontologists with a microphone, the group has brought to life the long-extinct Hip Hop land-before-time, embracing the best aspects of an era when crews of eager rhyme-spitters ruled the block with a carnivorous braggadocio and an untainted adoration for making rap music.
For the dinosaurs, however, who too once reigned, it was three and out. After nearly 200 million years of earthly domination, they disappeared, an inadaptable casualty of a rapidly changing world. The members of J5 must be all too conscious of this prehistoric parable, as evidenced by their third full-length album, Feedback.
With no desire to become another glorified relic of a time far removed, the group has made a forward-minded record that, in many ways, is befitting of its 2006 release date. But with the current state of Hip Hop being what it is, that isn’t necessarily a positive attribute. Even with lyrical skills fully intact, the group’s earnest approach at emceeing is sometimes lost in the over-buffed, synth-heavy soundscapes provided by guest producers Scott Storch and Salaam Remi.
But when the Mesozoic dust resettles and in-house DJ Nu-Mark takes charge on gritty, pulsating tracks like Back 4 You, Red Hot, and Where We At, J5 deftly demonstrates that it still knows what’s golden. More importantly, the group shows that a band steeped in history is not always doomed to repeat it.
Listen on Spotify
More about Jurassic 5 here
This article first appeared in Heads Vol.6 Issue 08 - October 2006
]]>Soundmaker Jeffrey Alexander guides listeners through sonic worlds in his genre-bending forays from the depths of the weird zone to the far reaches of the cosmos.
Jeffrey Alexander’s prolific soundmaking has created an expansive collective of musical projects including Dire Wolves Band, The Heavy Lidders and a who’s who of the most original innovators. His mind-expanding sonic landscapes trip through laidback psychedelic to experimental folk with a nod to cosmic rock and old-timer classics. His profound love of artistic exploration takes him to where happiness thrives, and he wants to share it all with you, every trippy vibe, each ecstatic beat.
Jeffrey Alexander’s prolific soundmaking has created an expansive collective of musical projects including Dire Wolves Band, The Heavy Lidders and a who’s who of original innovators. His mind-expanding sonic landscapes trip through laidback psychedelic to experimental folk with a nod to cosmic rock and old-timer classics. His profound love of artistic exploration takes him to where happiness thrives, and he wants to share it all with you, every trippy vibe, each ecstatic beat.
Heads Lifestyle: Hey, Jeffrey, where are you now?
Jeffrey Alexander: West Mount Airy, Northwest Philadelphia.
HL: What do you do with your time?
JA: For many years, I worked in museums and art spaces. I was the Program Director of AS220 in Providence, Rhode Island. I managed the theatre at The Exploratorium in San Francisco. I also ran the A/V department at SFMOMA. But since relocating back to Philly from the East Coast in 2018, I haven’t had a day job at all. I cook, hike, clean, camp, and look after my two small kiddos. And I tinker with quite a lot of musical projects: The Heavy Lidders, DWLVS (Dire Wolves Band), solo recordings under my own name, and I DJ a show called Pome Pome Tones on Camp Radio/France and Electromagnetic Radio/USA.
HL: Do you get high when listening to music?
JA: To be quite honest, I stopped using marijuana decades ago. When I was in high school and university, I got high daily, usually starting after breakfast. But I needed to drastically change my lifestyle after ingesting several hundred doses of LSD. I was completely sober throughout the 90s and early 2000s, after which I started enjoying a bit of alcohol again. But that’s it. I do not disparage weed whatsoever—I love the smell and miss it a great deal, but it's just not a good fit for me anymore. I still have intense trails 24/7 and enjoy deep listening and body vibrations constantly. I no longer need to get high to expand my consciousness.
HL: Describe a typical music-weed session?
JA: It used to be bong hits and headphones, for sure. LPs mostly. At least the vinyl and the headphones haven’t changed.
HL: What is your earliest memory of connecting the dots between music and cannabis?
JA: Oh, yeah, the very first time I encountered weed was at a Black Sabbath/Blue Oyster Cult concert in 1980. I remember when the house lights came up during intermission. There was this sweet-smelling purplish/pink cloud over the floor seats below (me and my middle-school friend were parked way, way up in the cheap seats). We were asking each other what it was and some adult heads nearby heard us and laughed: “You’ll figure it out soon enough kids.” (It’s still amazing to me, after all these years, that my father (a church minister) dropped us off—a couple of 12-year-olds—to the Black and Blue tour in Landover and picked us up later.) Well, sure enough, I figured it out around 1982 when I was attending Old Mill Senior High in Millersville Maryland, thanks to some redneck classmates who were really into Molly Hatchet. But thankfully, I took my first eighth bag of self-purchased weed to a sci-fi fantasy convention in Baltimore where I stayed at the Marriott Inner Harbor for a few days and was turned on to heady jazz, classical and prog rock. A proper, welcoming, connecting of dots, even though I was dressed up as Adam Ant.
I Shall Not Care
I first stumbled on Tom Rapp’s music when I was in college. I had One Nation Underground and Balaklava on an Adelphi double-LP, which I also duped onto two sides of a cassette tape for my car. Simply the best ecstatic amalgamation of trippy vibes and killer folk music and weird zones. I was all-in; this was my vibe. Many years later, I curated three volumes of Pearls Before Swine cover songs, which are all free on my Bandcamp page. I was also extremely honoured to play in Tom’s PBS band a few times in the 90s and 00s. What a legend!
Yeah We Know
In the 80s, my absolute favourite label was SST; so many of those records informed my brain from Meat Puppets to Saccharine Trust to Tom Troccoli's Dog. But this Dinosaur LP was probably played more than anything else. For a long time I had a tape dub of this with Dylan’s New Morning on the flip side in one of my old VW beetles.
Dark Star live at the Fillmore West San Francisco 1969
One of my first cannabis/music/headphone experiences. Wow! This put me on the bus, literally. I jumped in a friend’s Westfalia campervan and travelled back and forth across the country for the second half of the 80s. Every Dead show, every JGB show, many rainbow gatherings, several old time music and bluegrass festivals, so much camping.
No Fate
Perhaps the greatest band of the last 20 years. (Hmm, maybe a tie with Bardo Pond.) Spires inspires me so, so much! I was honoured to publish many of their albums—and a few of Ka Baird’s solo discs as well—on my old record label Secret Eye. My favourite album of theirs is Four Winds The Walker. This track is from their 2003 debut. I’m also incredibly honoured that Taralie (Tekla Peterson) from Spires has occasionally been a member of my DWLVS (Dire Wolves Band).
Something About John Coltrane
This is another all-timer recording that I was lucky enough to be turned onto very early in my weed-smoking days (much like most of this playlist). She is simply one of the greatest musicians and her work truly resonates with me. I even named my youngest child after her. And Pharaoh is just too much. Just the best vibes! This record and most of Alice and Pharoah’s catalogues are truly eternal. There is an incredible episode of Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz from 1981 featuring Alice Coltrane that I wholeheartedly recommend.
What’s The Most Exciting Thing
What’s the most exciting thing about life? It's L-O-V-E, it's love, I’m incoherent my dear, Oh happy happiness.
Love Is Peace
Speaking of love, love is peace, freedom is harmony. Another one of my all-time favourites! I discovered Amon Düül and Amon Düül II while working at Baltimore record stores in the early 90s. I’m partial to I over II, but they both have some burning trails.
Pony
Amazing, slow, funky, bluesy, Avant-Garde anthem from her debut 1972 album. She used to hang out with Timothy Leary and Ram Dass, toured with Albert Ayler and was given early analog synth prototypes from Robert Moog. And she appeared on Johnny Carson, too!? Yowsa!
Third Stone From The Sun
What can I say? Sometimes you just have to bow down to the classics. Stone-cold classics. Doesn’t get any better than this.
Introducing The Colours
Fit & Limo were a fantastic free-folk, experimental, free-jazz duo based in Altdorf Germany, outside of Nuremberg. Their work traversed bedroom synth pop to The Incredible String Band-inspired quirks to droned-out spacious vistas. I had the privilege of staying at their home in the 90s and again in the mid-2000s, and collaborating with them on a few recordings. My absolute favourites are The Serpent Unrolled and (especially) Ginnistan (holy moly, what a record!). Please search them out.
Jack Orion
Speaking of free-folk, I went down a very deep rabbit hole of out-folk and trad zones in the 80s, somewhat related to old-timey music exploration as part of my Cold Rain and Snow Grateful Dead travels. Collections from Folkways, Harry Smith, Alan Lomax, Shirley Collins, turned me on to the British folk revival of course, and how folks like all-timer faves Fairport interpreted those vibes through the lens of West Coast Avalon ballroom Airplane jams kind of blew my teenage mind. And this was all way before the Internet. I just had weed and a good record store to show me the way. So yeah, it’s too hard to pick a favourite but I always go back to Pentangle more than any other, and have continued to do so for nearly forty years now. Jacqui’s vocals are perfect. Bert and John’s interplay, the fusion of folk and jazz, impeccable rhythm section from Danny and Terry—it’s all just so great! I don’t even mind some of the New Age 80s stuff when everyone in the band played a DX-7.
Satisfaction
One of my biggest all-time influences. I was super psyched to play a few shows with them in the early 2000s. This live Stones cover from the legendary Gardet festival in Stockholm is just so raw and moving. I can somehow smell the weed coming from the speakers every time I listen to it. The best. Miss you Torbjörn.
Cello Sonata No.5 In D Major, Op.102 No.2: Adagio Con Molto Sentimento D'affetto
Ultimate deep listening, recorded in Vienna in 1963. Headphones required, lying in a hammock if possible.
BIO
Jeffrey Alexander is a full-time papa and some-time soundmaker in the psychonaut groups DWLVS and Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders. He also occasionally creates homespun fake-jazz solo recordings. According to Aquarium Drunkard, "for decades now, Alexander has been a fixture in the psychedelic mutant underground." That's true, especially when you consider his previous work with the likes of Black Forest/Black Sea, The Iditarod, Jackie-O Motherfucker, and even the Finnish freaks Avarus, to name a few. He has performed live in over 20 countries, curated several international music festivals, been a carpenter, booking agent, commercial FM disc jockey, espresso bar cafe owner, record label owner, driven an Amish farm truck, worked in record stores in three states, and lived in a van on tour with the Grateful Dead for several years.
Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders / Bhajan Bhoy (Amsterdam Netherlands) - October tour
Wed 10/4 - New London CT - 33 Golden St with Slyne Family Stoned, More Klementines
Jeffrey Alexander (solo)
Sat 10/7 - North Adams MA - Belltower Records anniv party
---- RECORDS ----
Jeffrey Alexander
- NEW LP on Feeding Tube / Ramble Records October 2023
DWLVS / Dire Wolves Band
- NEW LP on Centripetal Force / Cardinal Fuzz / Ramble Records October 2023
Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders
- NEW cassette on Arrowhawk Records June 2023
- NEW LP on Arrowhawk Records September 2023
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Musician Rosali Middleman transports in her elevated playlist of transcendent chillers perfect for deep listening, healing and creativity.
Singer/songwriter Rosali Middleman is known for her introspective compositions that meander and build as they explore the spheres of possibilities with rich and alluring melodies. When not free-floating in the sonic universe, she spends her time taking long walks with her dog and cultivating her passion pursuits.
Singer/songwriter Rosali Middleman is known for her introspective compositions that meander and build as they explore the spheres of possibilities with rich and alluring melodies. When not free-floating in the sonic universe, she spends her time taking long walks with her dog and cultivating her passion pursuits.
Heads Lifestyle: Hey, Rosali, where are you now?
Rosali Middleman: I’m at home in North Carolina.
HL: What do you do with your time?
RM: Take long walks with my dog, Foxy, draw, take care of my indoor plants (not cannabis, just my beautiful jungle), cook, and of course, make music.
HL: Do you get high when listening to music?
RM: I used to a lot, but not so much anymore. I enjoy it mostly at night when I’m winding down before bed. Which is why my playlist is for transcendent chillers. My relationship with cannabis is mostly for deep listening, healing my body, and for creative inspiration.
HL: Describe a typical music-weed session?
RM: Edibles all the way. I used to be a spliff smoker, but I like the way edibles make me feel in my body. I’ll either play guitar, do a lot of stretching (so good when you’re high), or I’ll draw and listen to records too.
HL: What is your earliest memory of connecting the dots between music and cannabis?
RM: Conceptually that came pretty early for me. My parents had a rock and roll band growing up and being hippies with seven kids, they didn’t really shelter us from anything. We’d go to their band practices and so witnessed a lot of adult activities. I thought smoking weed was a completely normal thing grown-ups did (it was way more taboo back then). I got a little older and learned it was illegal and not so common in my conservative small town. I have a strong memory from sometime when I was in elementary school while watching the evening news: They were reporting that two of my parents' good friends who ran an organic vegetable farm were being arrested for growing marijuana in their fields and we watched on the grainy screen as they were handcuffed in their field and led to police cars. There were helicopters involved, all very dramatic. I remember it terrifying me. Marijuana is now legal in Michigan where I grew up, so thankfully things have changed a lot since the early 90s.
As far as connecting the dots and actually experiencing being high and making music is a little fuzzier. I think on a profound level it happened sometime in college when I started making experimental and improvisational music and getting into deep listening. Being stoned really helps drop that inner critic and be 100% in the moment, and allows the sounds and momentum to just move you. I also hear music differently; you know how some music just makes more sense when you're blazed.
Der Große Krieger
Experimental pioneers Popol Vuh have been a major influence on my work. I think it's seeking transcendence while being very rooted in humanness, if that makes any sense. Big sucker for intricate heavy grooves and uplifting guitar.
Evening Star
One of my favourite pair of collaborators of all time. I initially wanted to add a track from the first side of No Pussyfooting, but it's really one long extended track for all of side A, which isn't friendly for a playlist. But Evening Star has been a companion on many nights. I love the gentle repetitive swaying chords and the chiming arpeggios with the unhinged soaring guitar that comes in and out of exploration and rides the air currents of the stratosphere.
World B. Free
Thankful to live in the same timeline as Bitchin Bajas. I've seen them live a handful of times and it's been different each time. But they always transport and envelop the entire room with their impeccable vibes. Magical sounds and grooves. I love how slowly this track builds, taking time to allow the journey to unfold.
Deep Distance
Manuel Göttsching was a genius, and Ashra (and Ashra Tempel) always does the trick as mood enhancers. This song feels like a joyful party in the microcosmos that sublimates out into your cells.
Calamus
I love Chuck's work; it's so in tune with the heart. I have a funny stoner story about the first time I heard this record. Years ago, I was hanging with my friend Kryssi Battalene (of Headroom/Mountain Movers) in her room in New Haven. We got super high and she went to take a shower and told me to feel free to put on a record. I selected this album—reminder I was VERY stoned—and Kryssi had a DJ-style turntable with reverse play and speed variable options at the ready. I think I hit some extra buttons when I went to play it. In my haze, I didn't notice that I was listening to the album in reverse AND half speed until she came back in and laughed at me while setting it right. But the thing is, I was completely transfixed—the music really worked that way, so otherworldly.
Nummer 2
I recently discovered Berlin-based composer and cellist Anne Müller's music, and I am in love! I've always been a fan of the cello, the timbre so close to that of a human's. I love the repetitive circular build-up of this track—it's hypnotic, and the percussion comes in at the perfect moment.
Nähe
Being a longtime fan of Roedelius and their work in Cluster and Harmonia, I recently came across this collaboration album with saxophonist Alexander Czjzek, whom I hadn't heard before. It has such a sweet, free, organic sound to it.
Who Does She Hope to Be?
Sonny Sharock's guitar playing is some of my favourite. It's so poetic and I feel a unity with his melodic lines and pacing. It sounds like singing to me. I love the sound of this recording—it's natural, real and I just want to listen to it over and over, somehow seeming like the beginning and ending of a story.
Sacrificial Code 1
Breathy organ tones and modulating lines on this track return me to a centered place. There's something ancient Kali is tapping into here, like the sound of stones respirating.
Rothko Chapel 5
A long-term boyfriend introduced me to American composer Morton Feldman many years ago (we even had a cat named Morton Feldman/Uncle Morty). He always liked to listen to music while sleeping and one night I awoke sometime in the late hours to a Feldman piece that sounded like spirits were in the room. I wasn't sure what was even going on, but it left a deep impression on me. The majority of his works are very, very long, unfolding with patience and a lot of space and silence, and a great deal of dissonance. This excerpt from one of his most famous, Rothko Chapel, is a sweet reprieve of moving cello and piano.
Wisdom Eye
The brilliantly wise Alice Coltrane, the greatest. It starts off simple and then almost has a glitchy contemporary digital effect with cascading layered sweeps. Listening to this on some good headphones, the panning will rearrange your brain and scrub your aura.
Melancholia II
Experimental composer William Basinski's work is that of angels and beauty, playing with impermanence and memory, like dreaming an eternal dream. This track comes and goes in a repetitive loop with ghostly artefacts shaping change and creating little worlds behind the stasis of the melody. The perfect meditative music.
BIO
Rosali is the solo incarnation of Philadelphia-based musician, Rosali Middleman. Through songwriting and performances, Rosali shares resonant emotions and the authenticity of being, unveiling herself to connect with broad audiences. Taking her first steps in a musical family, Rosali’s sonic explorations have led to four albums and several creative collaborations including Long Hots and Monocot. Her latest record, Variable Happiness under the moniker Edsel Axle comes out August 11th. It will be available to purchase on the Rosali website and Bandcamp.
Rosali Fall tour dates here
Rosali Socials here
Photos by Asia Harman
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Howlin' Rain sonic messenger Ethan Miller shares his definitive stoner playlist
Aquarium Drunkard's Jason Woodbury smokes a bowl and shares his ultimate stoner playlist
Curation Record’s Brent Rademaker eats an edible and lets the gummies do the DJing
]]>Our 2004 exclusive interview with Drive-by Truckers' Patterson Hood touches on his love of writing, the cinematic feel to his storytelling, and illegal weed and the myth of stoner stereotypes. The rerelease of the expanded The Complete Dirty South is as insightful today as it was 19 years ago. Take a fresh listen.
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Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood quickly puts little doubt as to whether he's a mellow fellow within the first five seconds of our phone call. Before our introductions have even settled, Hood coughs up, "Man, do I ever need a joint!" It seems that this man in-need-of-weed is caught without his stash—he has just flown into Chicago from Athens, Ga. and with the paranoia fallout from the Bush Administration's reelection, Hood has been forced to cancel his membership with the real mile high club—and hence is still jonesing for his morning joint. If anybody deserves a joint it's this guy. Hood and his merry band of Truckers average at least 200 shows a year.
When not onstage, he spends all of his off time writing fiction, screenplays and helping run the business side of things for the Truckers without the help of a deep-pocketed record label. When it comes to records, his load doesn't get any lighter either as he definitely travels the long road through his fervent imagination as opposed to just hobbling together releases for the Christmas rush. People are still reeling from his adventurous Southern Rock Opera and if that showed the Truckers at full throttle than their new southern fried The Dirty South has them once again spittin' dust while taking even more turns down back roads that don't appear on any map.
Heads Lifestyle: It's funny because people have this misconception about stoners being these lazy, flaky people and everybody I know who smokes are always people with iron clad work ethics. You obviously are no exception judging by the massive workload you take on.
Patterson Hood: Yeah, it's like people have this Hollywood concept of people who smoke pot. They all think it's like these Cheech and Chong kind of characters. What a lot of people don't realize is that even Cheech and Chong worked their asses off before they got any kind of success. Before they were putting out records and way before they started doing movies, those guys were touring comedy clubs for years.
HL: It seems movies like Dazed and Confused and those other rash of stoner Hollywood movies didn't really help.
PH: Yeah, exactly and then there's the alcohol thing and that's accepted. It's like Bill Hicks (comedian) when he says, If there is a fight at a baseball game is it alcohol or pot? Alcohol is just way more destructive.
HL: You are quite a cinephile and that influence really shines through in your songs. Tell us about that?
PH: I really like to study films. I like a lot of the same filmmakers that a lot of people like, you know Kubrick and people like that, but I've really been getting into John Huston a lot now. I just really liked that he never had a signature style but he just chose to do whatever style he was into at that time. Some of his quintessential films were totally different. Whether it was the noire style of The Maltese Falcon or Ashphalt Jungle to the whimsical style of the original Moulin Rouge film. I would really like to be able to take that reinvention that Huston does and apply it to my music.
HL: Your songs definitely have that storyteller cinematic feel especially when you tackle projects with such a panoramic scope like on A Southern Rock Opera. This time around you tell the story of Walking Tall on The Dirty South and it's hardly from Hollywood's angle. Would you ever consider directing?
PH: I would love to! I always wanted to take some of the songs on The Dirty South and remake the Walking Tall film with a different point-of-view.
HL: Both versions are a bit hard to take. The rock version is just ridiculous. What was your attraction to tackling Walking Tall?
PH: I'm always way more fascinated by the bad guys. I think why I like Huston's film Treasure of the Sierra Madre so much and why I study that film so much is that the good guys turn into the bad guys. It's like if you don't take care of that badness inside of you it can take you over and sometimes even a person with the best intentions can do the most terrible things. The real Walking Tall story, I think, is full of that. It's about a sheriff named Sheriff Buford that happened about 30 miles from where I grew up in the late sixties. In my songs about it, I transferred it to the early seventies. He was a sheriff working in a dry county and he was in a war against the bootleggers who would bring in liquor, gambling and prostitution. He eventually ended up dying over some mysterious circumstances but not before some incidents that involved the killing of his wife and blowing up his house. A lot of people that I grew up with are pretty close friends with the people that he was fighting and there is definitely another side of the story that said he was just a sadistic guy. To me I just imagine driving in my car and some guy is pulling me over with a big stick and that's the kind of angle I came at it with.
HL: Writing just seems so natural for you. Did you start at a young age?
PH: I guess I started when I was around eight years old. If you look at my report card you can pinpoint the month I started writing because my grades really dropped. I was writing both fiction and songs back then. With songs I didn't know how to write the music but if I read the words I could hear the music in my head and that's still how I do it. I picked up guitar O.K. but it took me a really long time to be able to play what I heard in my head. It was hard because by the time I started playing guitar I had been writing so long that it was far more advanced than my ability of what I could play musically. I always wanted somebody else to sing this stuff but nobody would so it's been a never-ending attempt at satisfying what I hear in my head. It gets a little closer each year but I still haven't hit it yet.
HL: It seems like America has never been in more of a domestic crisis and the Bush Administration is making it even harder for the legalization of pot. Are you feeling legalization keeps getting swept even further under the rug as the years go on?
PH: Oh yeah, I mean obesity is killing more people than cigarettes and they haven't really tried to do anything about that yet. My only fear is that if it did get legalized, like Camel Cannabis or something, they would just put so many additives in it, it would just be really unhealthy for you as opposed to the weed itself. All of this talk about weed is making me want to go to the show early to see if anybody has a joint (laughs).
HL: Well, Heads would never get in the way of a friend in need. Good luck on the search!
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Some of you may or may not have heard about the Muscle Shoals sound but anybody who has a pair of functioning ears has heard the Muscle Shoals sound. Bordered by four small towns and sandwiched 20 miles from the Mississippi River and 10 miles from Tennessee, the sound emanating from Fame Studios would be like a shot heard around the world. Back in the sixties and seventies, as you drove into Muscle Shoals, you would be greeted by a rickety unassuming sign that said, “Muscle Shoals: The Hit Capital of the World.” Despite not even being able to boast a small airstrip, this truly was ground zero for the southern soul sound.
Patterson Hood got a front row ticket to this magic factory as his father Dave Hood was the bass player for such classics like Aretha Franklin’s Respect, I Never Love A Man and Do Right Woman, and Wilson Pickett’s Mustang Sally and Land Of A Thousand Dances—just to name a few. Dave Hood played around town and got the reputation of being the best four-string slinger in town and through constant pestering of the studio owners became one of the architects of the southern soul sound.
Oddly enough Dave Hood’s first studio session at Fame Studios would not be as a bassist but as a trombonist on James and Bobby Purify’s I’m Your Puppet. This slathered in southern soul classic would catch the ear of industry bigwig Jerry Wexler at Atlantic Records and turn the song into a national smash and hence took the small studio and its inhabitants out from under radar. Wexler was no Johnny-come-lately and quickly recognized that there was gold in them thar hills and started getting his A list talent down to the rural area—the hits just kept on coming. Word quickly got out and Wexler’s little secret spread to people like The Rolling Stones (Wild Horses, Brown Sugar), Bob Seger, Rod Stewart, Etta James, Carlos Santana, Paul Simon, and more, all of whom were trying to glean the signature Muscle Shoals soul sound.
The first time Hood became aware of what Daddy did between 9 and 5 was when he was three years old and driving in the car with his mother. The radio was on and his mother pointed out that his father was playing on the song they were listening to. Patterson, in his infant mind, was convinced that his father was actually at the radio station playing the song. You would think that a gifted songwriter like Patterson was just a product of living in a musical house, but he insists that once his father came home, the guitars barely left their cases as he was never fond of “bringing the office home.” The next recollection Patterson had of the magnitude of his father’s bass playing was when he was around eight, again driving around in a car, and a new band called Lynyrd Skynyrd was playing a three-cord ditty called Sweet Home Alabama. It included the lines: “The Muscle Shoals got the swampers/They’ve been known to pick a song or two” and this would seal the deal as his dad really being the bees’ knees.
More about Drive-By Truckers here
Listen on Spotify
The ‘Director’s Cut’ of the Drive-By Truckers' 2004 release what would become the best selling album in their illustrious catalog. A concept album that examines the state of the South, and unveils the hypocrisy, irony, and tragedy that continues to exist.
This article first appeared in Heads Vol.56 Issue 01 - February 2005
]]>Keyboardist Adam MacDougall opens up about the creation of Circles Around The Sun, the legacy of Neal Casal, his early musical influences and the albums he goes back to time and time again, plus the perfect smoke session vibe.
By Keith Hadad
Circles Around The Sun is one of the most electrifying and accessible jam bands on the scene today. If you’re having a bad day and just need to get up and dance, or take a few hits and zone out to a beautiful sunset, this is the music.
The group began as a Neal Casal side-project that was originally intended to create some incidental music for the Grateful Dead’s Fare Thee Well concerts in 2015. It quickly took on a life of its own. Since then, the band has cut a handful of killer records and become a big hit on the festival circuit as their popularity has grown.
Even after Casal’s tragic suicide in 2019, the remaining members of the band, Dan Horne (bass), Adam MacDougall (keys) and Mark Levy (drums) pressed on, wowing audiences with a series of different replacement guitarists until they found a permanent axe slinger in John Lee Shannon.
With their new LP, the prog-funk epic Language finally in shops everywhere, it was an opportune time to sit down with MacDougall to discuss the history of the band, their latest recordings and what he would define as the perfect smoke session music.
Heads Lifestyle: The band initially formed as a result of Justin Kreutzmann asking Neal Casal to create interlude music for set breaks at the Grateful Dead’s Fare Thee Well shows. Do you know why Justin felt the need for new music when most people would have just thrown on some Dead album cuts?
Adam MacDougall: I can't speak for him, but it's way cooler to curate your own thing. I think that was basically it. It was a perfect idea. I don't think it had really been done before. He called Neal because he had used him on some of his movies. He made a documentary about Bob Weir, and Neal scored that. So I think Neal was just a first call because he worked with him before and Neal's awesome.
To be fair, the band was created after the shows were played. We had no idea that anyone was going like the music. It was not a band; it was just a two-day studio session. Neal got the call from Kreutzmann, and he called me and said, I got this call to do this. Why don't you and I do it? And I said, Great! Then he said, Cool, I'm gonna call this dude Dan. From there, I said, Great, I'm gonna call this dude Mark. We got in the studio and that was it. We didn't think anything more of it. We just recorded for two days straight. We never even listened back to it; there was no time.
I think they played it a bit loud. Neal and I were at the Levi Stadium shows—the two California shows before the Chicago ones—and I remember we were going, It's too loud! People are really gonna hear this! We didn't think it was that great. We had just been in the studio playing with whatever we could. We were running out of ideas. It was six hours of instrumental music, and we were scraping the bottom of the barrel by the second day. We weren’t expecting it to be something that anyone would pay attention to. It was just the music for when you go to get beer. You don't pay attention to it, but everybody paid attention.
I remember looking around Levi Stadium and there were 70,000 people and everybody was dancing. At that point, Neal and I were like, Wait a minute, this might turn into something. Then all of these people started talking online: Who is this? They were trying to guess who the artist was, and everyone thought they knew. Oh, these are lost Jerry tapes with this other keyboard player that nobody knows, etc. Everyone had their ideas, and we were sitting there laughing because we're like, No, it's just us!
By the time we got to Chicago, we were like, We could actually put a band together. So there wasn't a band until there was a need for one. Then we just threw something together.
HL: With the Dead being so connected to the band’s origins, does it ever feel like there is some sort of continuation of their spirit in CATS?
AM: Only in the way of trying to keep the music fresh. I think that is, from what I can tell, a primary goal of the Grateful Dead scene. To try every time you perform a song that you might have played many times before, to throw something in there or approach it from a different angle. I think the Grateful Dead catalogue—and this is going to come out weird maybe—but it's the closest that a bunch of white dudes can get to having their own sort of jazz movement, you know what I mean?
It's music that can be interpreted in different ways, which I think can be said of a lot of the standard jazz catalogue. The thing about jazz music is that you can play a standard song in so many different ways, yet the soul of the song is still there. You can interpret it in different time signatures and different keys with different instrumentation, with different whatever, but the song is still there. I think Grateful Dead music is like that. It's the one American songbook that different bands can make their own. A Latin band can do a cover of a Dead song. A polka band can do it. Because it's so heavily improvised on by the band itself, the Grateful Dead catalogue is open for interpretation. In that way, I think that's the spirit. That's the key that unites all of the bands involved in this jam scene—the willingness to interpret their material and have the material interpreted in other ways than originally intended on the albums.
HL: How did you initially get into playing keys and what were some of your early influences?
AM: When I was about five or six, my grandfather sent my mother an upright piano that he couldn't play anymore because he had scoliosis. So we had a piano in the house and she got me lessons. And that was it! So as far back as I can really remember.
I think probably one of my biggest influences was my piano teacher, Joe Kerr. He was a jazz guy and my mom would take me to see him. He was great at classical too. He studied in France, so he could teach all that. He invited me to play one of my dumb classical pieces when I was 10 at one of his shows. Somebody gave me a tip—like $10, I think—which was, in the mid-eighties, a lot of money. So that was cool! It became a no-brainer to me. It was like, Well, that's what I wanna do. He does it. He gets paid. I got paid. Cool!
My mom would listen to a lot of jazz people like Fats Waller and Oscar Peterson—that kind of stride piano, real flowery. You hear it and go, It's impossible that only one person is playing that! Herbie Hancock is such an unbelievable case. From the minute he first got on a record, he just sounded like that, you know? I saw him play the Hollywood Bowl, and he was incredible. He is in his eighties, but he plays piano like he doesn't have a lick of arthritis, and there's no way that he doesn't have some finger pain at this point. I have always taken a real shine to Hancock and Thelonious Monk. Then as I got into my own stuff, I got turned onto Hancock, McCoy Tyner and other modal stuff, and later I really got into Keith Jarrett.
When I heard Funkadelic—then it was Bernie Worrell—that got me into the funk and rock world. I got really into Pink Floyd. My perfect keyboard mix is Richard Wright and Bernie Worrell.
"I think the Grateful Dead catalogue—and this is going to come out weird maybe—but it's the closest that a bunch of white dudes can get to having their own sort of jazz movement, you know what I mean?"
HL: Initially, how did you get to know Neal, and what was it about him and CATS that made you want to be a member of the band?
AM: I started playing with The Black Crows in 2007, and spent a lot of time with Chris Robinson. Then Chris started the Chris Robinson Brotherhood band, which I was in, and that's how I met Neal. It took us a few months to figure each other out before being able to hang and stuff. Then we became super fast friends. We did a lot of touring and a lot of writing.
Neal was such a Rolling Stones guy, and The Rolling Stones have this beautiful tapestry between the guitar players. That's the sauce in that band. It's between Keith and whoever is the other guitar player. That's the way Neal was used to playing. He had played with the Cardinals, and Ryan Adams is a great guitar player, and I think they had come up with a real cool way to mesh those guitars in a Stones-y way or a Faces way. You know, that cool talking thing that those bands did?
Since Chris was just starting to play guitar in the CRB, he wasn't really adept yet at weaving between guitars. He got better at it. So Neal looked at me and was like, Well, now we have to do the same thing I'm used to doing with guitars, but with keyboard and guitar. We ended up writing this whole language that we used to play together. CATS was pretty easy because by the time we went to record, we were already so good at just musically tossing the ball back and forth to each other. We could do that for hours.
CATS already had a voice because Neal and I had been working on that voice with the CRB—two sets a night, five nights a week—so we had a complete language. That's what made CATS.
HL: After Neal's tragic passing, was it hard to start again with other guitarists, including John Lee Shannon?
AM: It was hard because of Neal's passing. But it's never hard to play with great players.
We had a memorial show at the Capitol Theater in September, which was a month after he had passed, and we played some songs with Eric Krasno. It was cool, so we ended up doing a little more with him. Then we did some shows with Scott Metzger. Both guys are really great players, and know what they're doing. They have their own vocabulary already. So all we had to do was adapt to somebody who's really great.
It was interesting to take a rhythm section and a keyboard player that had been playing for a while, and see how another great guitar player drops into the band and makes the other three people change. It's pretty amazing how different a band we were from Neal to Krasno to Metzger to Shannon. It's a terrible reason to do that, but the study itself was interesting.
"CATS already had a voice because Neal and I had been working on that voice with the CRB—two sets a night, five nights a week—so we had a complete language. That's what made CATS."
HL: Right, absolutely. That leads right into my next question. Over the years, you have incorporated everything from the Dead to funk and disco and even spacey ambient music into your sound, and the latest record has a strong prog Pink Floyd/Hawkwind vibe going on. What led you down that particular musical path?
AM: I don't think it was that much of a conscious decision. There's always a bit of Floyd in the music because I'm so obsessed with Richard Wright's synth and organ playing, even though we don't use much organ anymore. Third Sunrise Over Gliese 667 was definitely me being like, How close to the prize can I get without being burned by the Pink Floyd sun?
That was an experiment and I didn't know if the band was going to even want to do the song because it's not a four-on-the-floor banger. It's a completely different vibe. But they were cool with it. We definitely needed material, because we didn't have a lot, so we gave it a shot.
This record probably came out exactly the opposite of what we had discussed. I think the initial goal was to try and do something that was way more free and less screwed down into song structure. To be more open like the first record. That first record has no overdubs, no anything. Like I said, we didn't even listen to it. It was just us in a room and that’s it. We were thinking it might be fun to get back to that.
There's boogie in all of the music that you're talking about. Even Floyd boogies. They have their own weird boogie, but all prog music like that boogies. With all this music we love, I think it's important to remember that through the 60s, 70s and on into the 80s, there was this need to have a little bit of some sauce. Even if it was a ballad, even if it was a waltz, there's just a little stank on it. I think that's why we can be Floyd-y and Funkadelic-y and sort of Dead-like. There’s a bit of funk in everything.
HL: That mix of styles makes for a damn fine smoking experience. And that makes me curious about what music do you prefer to smoke to?
AM: It really changes all the time. I have a lot of records and they're not in any particular order, so oftentimes it'll just be what I pull out. They're all good. So if I just walk up to a wall of records and pull something out, it'll be that. Recently, though, as cliché as it is, I'm a big Miles Davis head. He's kind of my guy. I have a lot of his records, a couple of cubes of him. One of my favourite Miles Davis records—even though it's the one that everyone loves—is Kind of Blue.
HL: You can't go wrong there!
AM: I love the way it sounds. It was when modal music started to really come into play and these songs are so simple. They're just sketches. They're just little ideas, and it's really about how Miles and the band transform these tiny melodic phrases into epic modal pieces. It's super great to smoke to, because it has so much space in it. You can hear when the drums switch from brushes to sticks, and you can hear how he's picking up one stick with his right hand first and the brush is still in play in the left. You can hear all of that in the recording because there's so much space in there.
A big part of the smoking experience for me is the Miles catalogue—all the stuff from ‘68 to until he quit. Some Bitches Brew, In a Silent Way, On the Corner, into his early 70s stuff. Man, even when he came back with The Man With The Horn. He was having fun. Then he did that tour with the crazy guitar player, Mike Stern, and Marcus Miller and Al Foster. That record is sick!
Another record I love listening to while stoned is Hymns and Spheres by Keith Jarrett from the mid-70s. You can really hear all the space in it.
HL: I love that record. It’s like acoustic ambient music.
AM: He's playing on some of the oldest pipe organs in Europe and getting sounds out of them that no one's ever gotten out of a pipe organ, because he’s putting all the stops at halfway positions and making that instrument do sounds it has never done in 500 years.
What I love about that record is that you hear the room. That's the beautiful thing about pipe organs—it's not just the organ, most of the sound that’s cool is the room. It's the shape of it. So when he's doing his crazy sounds, he's using the actual physical space as an effects pedal. It's a big stoner record for me because you can really get lost in all the sonic textures.
Then, you know, Floyd's always a great one. If I want a dramatically stoned record, I go for Atom Heart Mother. The second side is really beautiful.
Do you really want to know what I do when I smoke a big joint? Do you know Jan Hammer? He was the first keyboard player for Mahavishnu Orchestra. He became really famous for the Miami Vice theme song in the 80s. He also played with Jeff Beck on that album, Jeff Beck with the Jan Hammer Group Live. I love this dude. He's an insane synth player and a great pianist. He's insane. The record is called The First Seven Days and he plays everything—all the synths, all the keys, and he’s the drummer too. That is a really good weed record.
HL: What is your ideal setting for getting high?
AM: Well, I'm an Indica guy, I think. I was a Sativa guy early on. I've always smoked it ever since I was about 15. I was really, really pro-weed because I would see my older friends getting drunk and I was like, You guys are idiots! I don't want anything to do with alcohol. So I was just a pothead and felt that was the way to go. Then I got drunk one day and realized that it was also fun, and then spent way too much time doing that. I don't do that anymore, though. Weed—I guess it's like the Snoop Dogg thing. I like a blanket, a cozy, cozy space to view the world with a bit of humour in your own bubble.
HL: So what's the perfect session for you?
AM: There are a couple of scenarios I really enjoy. It depends on the venue, but some clubs have really great backstages that are super vibey and they don't mind if you smoke weed. There's a venue called The Pour House, which is a little club in Charleston, and they have an old school bus as their backstage. It's super vibey. I like sitting on their little couches in the school bus and just smoking a giant joint before going on stage. That's a good place for me in everyday life.
Another great time is on a tour bus when everyone's gone to sleep and it's just you and the driver cruising at four in the morning right before the sun rises. There's not a lot of traffic. You put on your favourite music and sit in the front lounge with a big joint and watch the road. That's a nice one.
HL: That sounds like a cool vibe for sure.
AM: Yeah, you’ve got to have a tour bus for that. We don't have one of those right now. We're still in a van, so that fantasy is gone. I used to get to do that with The Crows and CRB, and other bands that had a little more budget. Once everyone has gone to their bunks, everything’s quiet and it's just you and the driver, and you smoke a joint ‘til you start to see the sun rising. Then you go to bed, and it's really peaceful.
Being in nature is great, too. California is beautiful. I take drives out to places in the mountains and bring a joint. You just park off the side of the road and scramble down some rocks and find a little place to sit and watch the sun go down. I watch the hawks fly around and stuff. It's pretty neat.
HL: Thanks for the chat. It’s been inspiring!
Circles Around the Sun's latest Album Language finds them oscillating through hybrid strains of disco-funk, soul jazz, and psychedelic rock, harnessing their stylistic lanes into a singular, intoxicating brew. Available for purchase here
More about Circles Around the Sun here
Follow Circles Around the Sun on Instagram at: @circlesaroundthesunofficial
See Circles Around the Sun live on tour.
6/29 - Quincy, CA - High Sierra Festival
7/1 - Scranton, PA - Peach Fest
7/28 - Charleston, SC - The Charleston Pour House
7/29 - Charleston, SC - The Charleston Pour House
7/30 - Charleston, SC - The Charleston Pour House
8/13 - Richmond, VA - JamPacked Craft Beer & Music Festival
8/18 - Wellston, MI - Hoxeyville Festival
A 26 track collection of outer-spacial dance grooves that influenced the creation of the Language LP. All with a little stank on it! Check out the 'Language of the Sun" Mix on Spotify.
About the Author
Keith Hadad is the creator and author of the Record Crates United blog. His work has appeared in The Terrascopædia, Elmore Magazine, TheWaster.com, and a multitude of other web and print publications. He hosts RCU’s webradio show, The Record Crates United Mixtape, on EM-Radio.com every Wednesday evening. You can follow him on Instagram @Recordcratesunited, on Twitter @RecordcratesUTD and on Facebook at @RecordCratesUnited. He lives in New Jersey with his wife Sarah and dog Miles.
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Ripley Johnson is a most prolific artist. Singer, songwriter and musician of not one but three different bands—Wooden Shjips, Moon Duo and his solo project Rose City Band. When not creating his unique genre of psychedelia, you can find him among his plants. Join the garden party with this mixtape of some of his favourites.
Heads Lifestyle: Hey Ripley, where are you now?
Ripley Johnson: I am at home in Portland, Oregon.
HL: What do you do with your time?
RJ: I work and garden and play music and watch movies and read books.
HL: Do you get high when listening to music?
RJ: Sometimes but not specifically.
HL: Describe a typical music-weed session?
RJ: I don't really have typical sessions. If I smoke, it's usually homegrown, unless someone else is passing something around. Sometimes I vape because it's a mellower experience. I usually play records on a turntable.
HL: What is your earliest memory of connecting the dots between music and cannabis?
RJ: Probably the cover photo of Peter Tosh's Legalize It LP. That got my attention early on. I still always think of that when we grow in our backyard. The plants are just beautiful to be around and they smell amazing. I probably enjoy growing more than smoking.
Sleep Song
The intersection of country and rock in 70s music is a big inspiration for the Rose City Band, and I'm always listening to tunes in that vein, with that particular vibe. There are a number of British bands on this list who were clearly influenced by American country-rock, or The Band or the Grateful Dead—that kind of back-to-the-land, rural, hippie thing. I like the country-ish breakdown in this Unicorn song.
Devil's Whisper
I first heard of Mighty Baby being called "the British Grateful Dead," but they don't really sound like the Dead; they jam though and have their own unique sound. This is one of my favourite tracks by them.
Glad and Sorry
I've been a big fan of the Faces, and Rod Stewart's early solo albums, since high school. I could have picked any number of tracks by them. I especially like their melancholy songs. And they're not afraid to incorporate traditional country sounds—mandolin, honky tonky piano, etc. Ian McLagan was a true keyboard maestro.
A Way to Settle Down
I think I bought this record just based on the title and cover. They're not a very funky band but it's a great record.
Chant to Mother Earth
I responded strongly to this track the first time I heard it. BLO has some great songs, but this one is my jam. I like the spacey, laid-back vibe.
It's Not Easy
I came across Ofege after I was in a big Zamrock phase, though they’re from Lagos, like BLO. I love how this kind of sounds like Loaded-era Velvet Underground. The guitar playing is amazing.
Little Ole Country Boy
Parliament/Funkadelic have been with me from the beginning, when I first discovered psychedelics. I don't think their very early stuff gets enough love.
Changes, Circles Spinning
I think this is an unheralded Grape album. Love the production on this, and the lyrics and theme are right up my alley.
It's a Way to Pass the Time
Another British country jam. I don't really know anything about High Broom but I dig the vibe of this song. Love how they rhyme food with good.
I'm Over
I went deep on Judee Sill when her albums were first reissued a while back. This song is from a planned third album, recorded at Mike Nesmith's studio, finally released in 2005.
Willie and the Hand Jive
Good jam by the Bay Area country rockers.
Alone at Last
I like the disco element on this one while it still sounds very much like Tony Joe. I enjoy when genres collide or are simply ignored, and artists just do what they will.
Wasted Days and Wasted Nights
Closing it out with Freddy Fender because I've been on a Freddy kick as of late, and the whole Tejano musical melting pot is my kind of stew. This whole album Before the Next Teardrop Falls is fantastic.
BIO
Ripley Johnson is a singer, songwriter and musician. He fronts Wooden Shjips, Moon Duo and his solo project Rose City Band. Based in Portland, Oregon, the prolific Johnson is best known for his signature country cosmic jam style, integrating rock, psychedelia and country into music of epic journeys. Rose City Band’s latest offering, Garden Party (left) is a celebration of summer and all it brings: communal gatherings, the respites offered by nature, and an appreciation for even the simplest beauty.
May 31 - Middelkerke, BE - De Zwerver * [tickets]
Jun. 1 - London, UK - Scala * [tickets]
Jun. 2 - Manchester, UK - YES * [tickets]
Jun. 3 - York, UK - The Crescent * [tickets]
Jun. 4 - Brighton, UK - Patterns * [tickets]
June 6 - Schorndorf, DE - Manufaktur [tickets]
Jun. 7 - Zürich, CH - Bogen F * [tickets]
Jun. 8 - Ravenna, IT - Beaches Brew
Jun. 9 - Milano, IT - Arci Bellezza * [tickets]
Jul. 21 - Nelsonville, OH - Nelsonville Music Festival [tickets]
Jul. 22 - Nelsonville, OH - Nelsonville Music Festival [tickets]
Jul. 23 - Kingston, NY - Tubby's [tickets]
Jul. 24 - New York, NY - Mercury Lounge [tickets]
Jul. 25 - Brooklyn, NY - Union Pool [tickets]
Jul. 26 - Washington, DC - Union Stage [tickets]
Jul. 27 - Detroit, MI - Magic Bag [tickets]
Jul. 28 - Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle [tickets]
Sep. 8 - Raleigh, NC - Hopscotch Music Festival [tickets]
Sep. 22 - Redmond, OR - Cascade Equinox Festival
Nov. 9-12 - Utrecht, NL - Le Guess Who Festival (exact date TBC)
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Howlin' Rain sonic messenger Ethan Miller shares his definitive stoner playlist
Aquarium Drunkard's Jason Woodbury smokes a bowl and shares his ultimate stoner playlist
Curation Record’s Brent Rademaker eats an edible and lets the gummies do the DJing
Raised in a hippy era soup of 60s music documentaries and unreined access to his parents’ record collection, English DJ and musician Bobby Lee would go on to embrace Americana, psychedelic and shoegaze. Tune in to this exclusive soul-affirming mixtape for when the world gets too heavy.
Raised in a hippy era soup of 60s music documentaries and unreined access to his parents’ record collection, English DJ and musician Bobby Lee would go on to embrace Americana, psychedelic and shoegaze. Tune in to this exclusive soul-affirming mixtape for when the world gets too heavy.
Heads Lifestyle: Hey Bobby, where are you now?
Bobby Lee: Lost in the Ozone. Sheffield, UK.
HL: What do you do with your time?
BL: I’m a father, husband, musician, dusty fingered DJ, promoter (Heretics’ Folk Club), graphic designer, occasional writer and art technician.
HL: Do you get high when listening to music?
BL: I guess my answer is slightly different to your State-side brothers and sisters. Weed is still illegal over here—potentially being upgraded to Class A, the same as heroin, by our shit-show of a government—so let’s just say it’s been known.
HL: Describe a typical music-weed session?
BL: I don’t smoke cigarettes so rolling joints with tobacco just gets me buzzed off the nicotine—not what I’m looking for. The quality of the grass over here is pretty mixed so I find a vaporizer works for me. (I’d love gummies to be available in the UK as I feel a bit of a dweeb vaping.)
Deep listening sessions are a rare treat for me these days, but I’ve got my stereo set up in the lounge, with most of my records within arm’s reach and an easy chair for near horizontal enjoyment. During more casual listening, I’m prone to flipping records halfway through a song, but when I’m settling in for the evening, it’s a start to finish situation. One of the reasons I love DJing so much is that it allows for a solid stretch of uninterrupted listening and thinking about music. During the first UK lockdown, I was making mixtapes for friends, which was a way I found to get my DJing fix, stay connected to people and spend time with some of the neglected corners of my record collection.
HL: What is your earliest memory of connecting the dots between music and cannabis?
BL: I remember asking my mum when I was a young teenager if she’d ever smoked weed. (Despite his waist-length hair and Zappa LPs, my Dad was more of a few pints of mild and football on a Saturday afternoon man.) She told me “only once” (which I’m sure is a lie…) at a party with the band Lindisfarne. Go find a picture or video of Lindisfarne. Those lads knew their way around a Rizla. She insisted on calling it “wacky baccy” which, even at 12 or 13, made me cringe so hard my knees buckled.
My parents were exactly the right age for the hippy boom, and I lapped up their occasional reminiscences about those times. Watching The Stones In The Park (1969) or Behind The Music-type documentaries about Carole King, Joni Mitchell or Woodstock with them always elicited a few nuggets about their pasts, and awkward seat shuffling when the joints got passed in the film.
I was given relatively free rein with my parents’ modest record collection (Byrds, Edgar Broughton, Santana, Songs In The Key of Life, Let It Bleed, a fuckload of England Dan and John Ford Coley, an entirely incongruous copy of Hatful of Hollow…). I was always drawn to the loose, freewheeling, consciousness-expanding sounds that I found there.
Smoke Signals
A beautiful spiralling melody and simple wordless vocal coalesce into an overwhelming nebula of sound. Total sensory overload. And I always enjoy when jazz players lose themselves in echo and delay.
Astral Traveling
Another heady zoner, sitting midway between spiritual jazz and jazz funk. I love feeling entirely enveloped by this; the deep groove and free floating electric piano melodies, with waves of tabla and saxophone carrying me out into the cosmic ocean. I’m not religious and I don’t know music theory, so songs like this feel as close to that unknowable, ineffable, universal oneness/OM/Brahman/great spirit as I’m ever likely to get.
Yuba Source Part 1
For years I’ve been chasing the dragon of music that hits like Brightblack Morning Light’s debut and Date Palms are as close as I’ve come. They share those tectonic chord changes and organic desert drone with BML but with a touch of Earth’s western gothic ambience.
Fazon
Mellower-than-thou, impossible to pigeonhole, West Coast groover. One of my most played songs over the last decade. This invariably gets an airing at every party, DJ set, BBQ, road trip and long drive home. I love Jonathan Wilson’s version too, but I’m sticking to the original here.
The Sun Comes Up A Purple Diamond
I was a Hiss Golden Messenger and Steve Gunn fan before this record came out, but the syrupy JJ Cale worship and dubbed out folk funk really connected. I’d be lying if I said its minimal drum machine and heavily phased guitar slo-mo choogle hadn’t been an influence on my own music. A real head-nodder for the heads.
Too much so-called “psychedelic” music is just too busy, too cluttered, too interested in showing off its own musical chops to really lose itself in a solid groove. Flex sounds like The Happy Monday if they swapped the crack for mushrooms and really leaned into a Guru Guru thing. Props to SHotM for still turning out balearic-psych-synth-chuggers like this more than 20 years in.
Push Thru The Veil
Sounding like all your favourite German/Swedish/Nigerian/Japanese underground heroes of yore jamming at Black Ark. Expertly toasted 21st century Kosmiche. This was my gateway into the world of Herbcraft/Matt LaJoie/ML Wah/Starbirthed/Flower Room. I try to keep up with all of Matt’s releases but he’s so prolific. I’m sure I’ll be discovering hidden gems of his for decades to come.
Buffalo (Version 1)
Doomy, droney, mellotron-heavy yet surprisingly funky madrigal from Scottish proto-metal nearly-rans. Sounds a little like Free after an argument in the van and too many Newcastle Browns the night before.
Life Child
Hometown weirdo Ramases was an army PT instructor/gas fitter who, in a vision, was told he was the reincarnation of the 19th dynasty Egyptian king. This being the late 60s, he released several psych pop singles before a 1971 album on Vertigo backed by an embryonic 10cc. I used to live close to his suburban pharaonic home and he has become something of a talisman to those working on the fringes of Sheffield music. Life Child is a classic wah-driven, fuzzy prog-folk tune which would perfectly soundtrack reading Tolkein in a dimly lit bedroom, surrounded by velvet blacklight posters, thick with bong smoke.
Devil Weed and Me
I love how Area Code 615 used the vocabulary of country music to make incredibly forward-thinking and often deeply odd music. Playing on Conway Twitty or Connie Smith sessions in the daytime (no shade on Conway or Connie, by the way) then turning out cuts like this in the evening? They’d clearly been listening to the Mothers of Invention and Led Zeppelin when they were writing this.
Me and Mr. Hohner
I have a real soft spot for “square” artists making desperate lurches for hip credibility and I don’t think many did it better than Bobby Darin with the bunch of LPs he made at the tail end of the 60s. I guess this is just a novelty Dylan/Townes-style talking blues song about longhairs getting a hard time from meathead cops, but it’s funky as hell and the production and arrangement are just perfect.
Cannibal Forest
Backed up by Little Feat, Kathy Dalton (formerly of Daughters of Albion) lays down some slippery, spooky, sticky-icky swamp-funk which sounds right at home between voodoo era Dr. John and Cher’s 3614 Jackson Highway. I pick up every copy I see of this in the bargain bins to gift to friends.
Turritella Flats
Recently unearthed private press rural psychedelia with a too good to be true back story. (Recorded on a reel-to-reel in Roswell? Get outta here!) Elsewhere on the LP, Carl takes excursions down raga and guitar soli backroads but Turritella Flats is a fine slice of sunbaked instrumental folk rock just begging to be used on the soundtrack to some Edward Abbey adaptation.
Mountain Range
Some real punk-purist, snob-bothering soft southern rock here. My definition of balearic is perhaps a little broader than most, but this is A-grade golden hour dream music. I’m a real evangelist of The Ozark Mountain Daredevils. For every AM radio staple or goofball hillbilly jam, there’s moments of total bliss like this tucked away. Pretty sure that’s a goddamn cor anglais in the mix too.
Upon Reflection
“Sitting in your mother’s garden, smoking Lebanese, beneath the privet hedge.” The sound of a stoned afternoon spent cloud watching in an English country garden after a gentle hike to Avebury or the Uffington White Horse. This is the dreamy summer precursor to Nick Drake’s autumnal melancholy.
Prayer to Aphrodite
Whilst I’m on a pastoral tip, this proto-new age flute’n’strings Windham Hill/Robert Kirby-like really hits the spot. I can’t help but imagine it as the theme from some heartbreaking 70s kids TV show about woodland creatures fighting a dastardly property developer with nothing but teeth and claws and a little earth magic. This was a big influence on a record my wife and I made together in a caravan on Anglesey.
Peace Begins Within
Early roots reggae cut with an otherworldly vocal and mantra-like chorus. Put on repeat when the world gets too heavy.
Down By The River
There’s no shortage of killer versions of Down By The River, but this is the one I’ve been turning to recently. With its super relaxed tempo, delicious phasing and gospel backing vocals, it’s looking towards the beach rather than Canada’s snow-clad peaks. Willie Lindo’s gnarly lead guitar is the real star here, though. Drifting between the fuzzed out licks of Neil’s original and some Frampton-esque talk-box action, it’s the lime in your margarita.
Space Movement Section 2
Adrian Sherwood is really letting loose here. Drifting free from his craft into endless space, his umbilical cable severed, eyes closed, fingers feeling the faders, navigating by touch. I’ve heard this record compared to The Grateful Dead, which is perhaps a bit of a stretch, but I’m sure Mickey would dig its drums and space.
Devotion
Somewhat unfairly pinned as Krautrock, Between are closer to Oregon, Quintessence or Alice Coltrane than Neu or Can. Elements of jazz, classical, ambient and Pan-Asian traditions seep into the heady mix, which is far more enjoyable than that overly academic description suggests. Glorious repetition and ritualistic chants guide you through the six bardos.
BIO
Bobby Lee is a musician and DJ based in Sheffield, England, “standing at that interstellar crossroads between Americana, American primitive, psychedelic and shoegaze” (Petal Motel). His third album, Endless Skyways, is due spring 2023 via Tompkins Square. He has previously played in Brent Rademaker’s Country Rock/Power Pop group GospelbeacH.
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Howlin' Rain sonic messenger Ethan Miller shares his definitive stoner playlist
Aquarium Drunkard's Jason Woodbury smokes a bowl and shares his ultimate stoner playlist
Curation Record’s Brent Rademaker eats an edible and lets the gummies do the DJing
]]>To celebrate all the great musical artists we’ve had the pleasure of discovering over the course of 2022, Heads’ music editor has handpicked some of our favourite tracks and compiled them into the Heads Lifestyle’s 2022 Mixtape. Now get comfortable, fire one up and press play.
"One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain."
~ Bob Marley
Our relationship to music is both deeply personal and collectively unifying. What captivates one person’s musical taste is as varied as the people who create and enjoy it. One of the amazing things about music is that it transcends language, borders, cultures and traditions. It brings together diversity in a most wonderful and spectacular way! We love discovering what people are listening to and sharing it far and wide.
To celebrate all the great artists we’ve had the pleasure of featuring over the course of 2022, Heads’ music editor has handpicked some of our favourite tracks from the guest-curated playlists on our Spotify channel and new albums we reviewed, and compiled them into the Heads Lifestyle’s 2022 Mixtape. Thank you to the Heads Lifestyle community including Shalaco and Phoenix from SF in Bloom, Record Crates United's Keith Hadad, Corey and Noah from Color Green, Curation Record's Brent Rademaker, Raven Sings the Blues' Andy French, Lara Bennett of Petal Motel and all those who inspired us.
Get comfortable, fire one up and enjoy!
If you dig these artists, show your support by purchasing their music from them directly or on Bandcamp.
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So it’s Halloween and you feel like letting loose. Embrace the horror as it worms its way up your spine, flooding your mind with the sounds of terrors unseen. A witches' brew of odd and eerie tunes—this is your All Hallows Eve soundtrack.
So it’s Halloween and you feel like letting loose. A head full of tricks and treats, you see trouble on the way. Scary monsters and super creeps keep you running, running scared. From the shadows an eerie trill—this is your All Hallows Eve soundtrack. Embrace the horror as it worms its way up your spine, flooding your mind with the sounds of terrors unseen. Demonic rumblings and high-pitched howls, snarling hellhounds and wailing banshees, warning of never-ending doom. Light a bowl, carve a Jack-o’-lantern, and make merry with the mischievous spirits of Halloween.
Listen to Heads Lifestyle’s Something Wicked: All Hallows Eve Mix
]]>Stoner doom band Witch has managed to turn quite a few heads. Their Sabbath styled sludge is top shelf and served up thick as molasses. Featuring members of psyche band Feathers and legendary Dinosaur Jr. guitarist J. Mascis behind the traps. Their star-studded pedigree only enhances the 70s riffing that marks their self-titled debut.
Stoner doom band Witch has managed to turn quite a few heads. Their Sabbath styled sludge is top shelf and served up thick as molasses. Featuring members of psyche band Feathers and legendary Dinosaur Jr. guitarist J. Mascis behind the traps. Their star-studded pedigree only enhances the 70s riffing that marks their self-titled debut. Songs like Black Saint and Rip Van Winkle present like arrows directed between the frontal lobes for the bong bubblin’ set. Witch is no super group side project, but a really fucking good band. Heads Lifestyle talked to bassist Dave Sweetapple back in 2006 shortly after the launch of their first album.
Heads Lifestyle: Does it bother you guys that a lot of people look at Witch as the J. Mascis side project band?
Dave Sweetapple: I think it does kind of overshadow what we do to a certain degree. On the other hand, I guess it helps sell the record but none of us really wanted to have to sell records. We have a sticker on the record that has J’s name as big as Witch and that’s kind of weird, but I can understand how that would help out the record company. We could try and put all of our names on that sticker but it would take up a quarter of the cover. We are becoming less known as “the J. Mascis side project” band now because the record is starting to get out there and we are getting reactions from people that are more from the stoner rock kind of thing then Dinosaur Jr. There are people on the Dinsosaur Jr. forums that really have a vendetta towards us. There are these people that treat J like a rock star at our shows and it’s really weird.
HL: But you can’t say you were surprised that your famous drummer would be garnering interest in the band?
DS: Actually, we were because Dinosaur Jr. had yet to begin phase two of their career when we started, so we really didn’t think it was going to be a big deal. J has done a lot of other projects that never really got this attention and we just thought this would be looked upon the same way. Now that the record is out, though, and we have been doing some shows, it’s becoming less of “the J. Mascis side project” and more just Witch. I guess for some people we will always be the former. It definitely helped get the record further at a quicker pace but it’s nice to see stoner rock people and doom metal people coming out to the shows.
HL: A lot of people were shocked that J was playing drums instead of guitar.
DS: Well, J’s first instrument is drums. He played drums in the school band and in Deep Wound. He still has a house full of guitars and amps but his first love is drums, and he’s really getting back into it. His drum collection is starting to take over space from his guitar collection. Anything J does is a 110% so he has really dived into drumming again.
When we were 20 and 21 we were really into loud aggressive bands and I think that rock music just has an energy to it that is meant for young people. We were really freaked out that there weren’t that many loud rock bands around.
HL: How did the band start?
DS: Well, me and J used to go to shows all of the time—shows like Feathers, which is a really mellow kind of psych folk band. We love that band but J and I were really freaked out how a lot of kids were getting into this kind of music. We were going to all of these quiet venues, and as cool as it was, we were really missing just seeing loud rock bands. When we were 20 and 21 we were really into loud aggressive bands (J’s first band was the hyper speed hardcore band Deep Wound) and I think that rock music just has an energy to it that is meant for young people. We were really freaked out that there weren’t that many loud rock bands around. We almost started it as a joke. We said to each other, Wouldn’t it be cool if we started a loud rock band and played at some of these shows?
HL: With members of Feathers, as well as, J in the band, it was surprising to hear the strong Sabbath influence. Can you explain it?
DS: Our guitarist came up with four different riffs that we could kind of flesh out. We starting doing stuff and that sound is really just what came out. Our sound is pretty natural and it just happened to turn out that way. We didn’t set out to sound like Sabbath but I guess a lot of people have compared us to them.
HL: You have only done 16 shows (five of which were at SXSW and three at CMJ) so far. A lot of people are tagging you guys as a side project, what with no tour under your belt and your record having been out for only a couple of months.
DS: Well, the Dinosaur Jr. tour really took up almost a year so we had to wait for that to end. Our record company knew there was Feathers stuff and Dinosaur stuff coming up but they wanted to get it out soon. We really want to start touring and everybody is really into the band. We are working on Japan and Europe as well. It’s not a one-off kind of thing; it’s really a project that is intertwined with other projects so there are definite time constraints that we have to work around.
HL: Have the shows been going well?
DS: Yeah, we played three shows in New York and they all went really cool. The only weird show was this showcase at CMJ. We performed on this boat that circled the Statue of Liberty. The boat just kept rocking from side to side and we couldn’t hear anything. We were all playing different parts of songs at different times and getting thrown all over the deck. So people who saw that show must’ve thought we were complete shit. Stephen O’Malley from Sunn O))) was at that show and he thought we sounded like an eastern block metal band from the early seventies. He said it was great (laughs).
HL: Has becoming a live band after the record helped galvanized your sound?
DS: I would say it has got us more comfortable with our sound. We’re working on new stuff already and it’s a little bit more drawn out and psychedelic.
HL: How was it working with John Agnello (Chavez, Dinosaur Jr.)?
DS: John is great and really easy to work with. We get asked all of the time how we got such a huge guitar sound. The bass and all of the guitars went through a 5-watt Fender Champ. We had this wall of Marshalls in the studio and never even switched them on.
Some old hippie who imported Acapulco Gold in the early 70s created Gold. He planted some seeds that he had and this strain eventually became twice as potent as the original Mexican counterpart.
HL: What kind of weed are you guys getting in Vermont?
DS: Well, we get some BC bud and stuff from Montreal, but there are a lot of growers here too with some really good local stuff. July is a bad month for growers in Vermont so it’s a bit dry but the local pot is usually pretty good. There are two strains of local bud at the farmers market—Gold and Blank Stare. Some old hippie who imported Acapulco Gold in the early 70s created Gold. He planted some seeds that he had and this strain eventually became twice as potent as the original Mexican counterpart. Now people come from all over the northeast to buy his bud at the local farmers market. Blank Stare is an indoor that has a coma-inducing effect.
HL: Have you ever had any problems with Vermont’s finest over possessing pot?
DS: Not really. I was only busted once when I was living in St. John’s Newfoundland. I was in the 8th grade and I bought a joint from a guy on the street and smoked it outside my school on graduation day. The principal’s name was Mr. Leonard and he looked exactly like the guy in the Twisted Sister video and in Animal House. He smelled it on me and screamed, Boy, you’ve been smoking pot! and phoned my parents. I actually had to miss my own graduation. What a dick!
Listen on Spotify
Witch's 2006 self titled album
This interview was originally published in Heads Magazine Vol.6 Issue 8, 2006
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Lara Bennett of Petal Motel, a blog dedicated to cosmic American music, has created a most serene psychedelic experience starting with an ambient entrance into soothing sounds, followed by an ascent of rollicking peaks, before touching down gently. Featuring local discoveries and old favourites, our guest trip master is here to guide you.
Lara Bennett of Petal Motel, a blog dedicated to cosmic American music, has created a most serene psychedelic experience starting with an ambient entrance into soothing sounds, followed by an ascent of rollicking peaks, before touching down gently. Featuring local discoveries and old favourites, our guest trip master is here to guide you.
Heads Lifestyle: Hi Lara, where are you now?
Lara Bennett: Mojave Desert, California.
HL: What do you do with your time?
LB: Write, swim, take photographs, play music in a local band called Daytime Moon, paint, travel. I also run a blog called Petal Motel that highlights cosmic American music.
HL: Do you get high when listening to music?
LB: Full disclosure—I no longer get high. Though I do use weed medically for all sorts of things. I interchange gummies and tinctures with THC & CBN for sleep most nights. I grease up daily with salves, muscle freezes, and apply transdermal patches for aches and pains (shout-out to Mary’s Medicinals). These days, I let the music get me high. Unless I accidentally wake up in the middle of the night or wait too long to go to sleep after popping a gummy, then I like to put on something soothing and float into slumber.
HL: Describe a typical music-weed session?
LB: I’m constantly seeking “pretty” and calming sounds when I’m not at peak energy levels (which is often), especially before or after playing a show when I’m feeling extremely sensitive and/or drained. That’s what this playlist is—music that just sounds lovely and comforting and makes me feel the calm, chill mood that Indica used to.
HL: What is your earliest memory of connecting the dots between music and cannabis?
LB: Ooh, I wish I could remember just one! I recall making a playlist for a full on psychedelic session as a teenager filled with CSNY, Donovan, Joni, Jefferson Airplane, Cat Stevens, all the classic Laurel Canyon/acid rock of the era. Very odd that I skipped over the Grateful Dead until much later in life. I also remember this beautiful year I lived in a beautiful house smoking weed morning till night listening to lots of freak folk, so I associate that with weed as well. I’ve gone through lots of shoegaze, acid rock, and electronic phases but at the end of the day, “wooden” music, or singer-songwriter stuff, feels the closest to my heart and therefore the most comforting.
A Sunken Moon Is A Crescent Still
Is there anything more ethereal and heavenly than the sound of a harp? It’s no coincidence that angels are always depicted with them. Cassie’s music is so healing and truly celestial.
what’s on the inside
marine eyes’ debut album idyll found me right when I needed it and was first getting into ambient music. Cynthia’s music is the way ambient should be—it can only be paralleled by Enya in my mind in terms of calmness. It’s like a shower of soothing, and her newest album Chamomile is no different.
Health C
Imka is a producer, musician and label owner who uses plant biodata to craft these gorgeous, tranquil sounds. He’s super prolific but this collection of sounds is extra special. Get into the plant mindset and ideally listen while in water.
Helplessly Hoping
I’ve been listening to this album from birth and this song still induces chills. I love the story behind it: Stephen Stills said he had a high school English teacher who was, basically, really hot, and he was thinking about her and her legs when he wrote the alliterative language. But is there any sound more angelic than their harmonies?
Space Wheel
This is the band Neal Casal sort of accidentally formed when he gathered Mark Levy, Adam MacDougall and Dan Horne to quickly record seven hours of music to be played at the Grateful Dead’s Fare Thee Well tour intermissions. This is one of the most psychedelic ambient tracks I’ve ever heard. Can’t recommend getting the full five hours on Bandcamp enough. Load your bong and fall in.
Franklin’s Tower
I listened to a LOT of Devendra in my weed smoking days and he’s still making great music. I love a Dead cover and usually when musicians cover the Dead they tend to be a little bit on the, how do I say, silly side, but this one is particularly striking. He made it his own.
Rounder
The guitar and steel at the end of this epic track just completely take me out of my body. Personally, this whole album is so important, and this song is just a journey from beginning to end.
Follow What You Are
This is what I mean when I say music gets you high. All of the songs listed so far really could add to any trip, but this one truly takes you on one. It’s like feeling something bloom inside.
Way Out Weather
It’s no secret that Steve Gunn is very high on my list of favourite guitarists, and all of the elements in the intro to Way Out Weather make it one of his most psychedelic songs. I remember seeing him in Brooklyn and the wind rustling through the trees added yet another layer, and James Elkington went absolutely ham on the pedal steel during an extended jam version. It was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.
Obsidian Dust
Herb is a local artist from the Joshua Tree area and this whole album has a cosmic country-tinged grunge vibe that creates the perfect soundtrack for our space-like landscape.
Depanneur
This is the band I play in—full disclosure—but this song was written long before I knew ‘em. One of my favourite songs live, our frontman uses a bevy of pedals to weave what’s really a fairly simple song into something fantastical and electrifying.
Mulholland Drive
Strange’s guitar playing on this song is the perfect groove, and although it’s pretty sad, sometimes it’s good to listen to music that takes you right to a place you’ve been. Plus I can never get enough songs referencing my first love, Los Angeles. Who hasn’t been “there”?
Esta Vez No
Another local musician, I just recently heard David live at a local pizza and wine place and I was really excited by his playing and song writing.
Moog Raga
I mean, is there a better psych band in the world than mid-late Byrds stuff? Even though they’ve been one of my favourite bands for many years, I still feel like there’s so much mystery left in their enormous catalogue. The older I get, the more I appreciate their later, underrated and overlooked work.
Til Stone Day Comes
The Skiffle Players, if you don’t already know, is a supergroup made up of Cass McCombs, Farmer Dave Scher, Aaron Sperske, Dan Horne and Neal Casal. This is one of their most beautiful songs and it really showcases Neal’s acoustic guitar virtuosity—the solo was a first take.
Nature’s Light
Impossible to pick a favourite Beachwood Sparks song, as they all share this stoney, hazy, nature-y element I seek in music, but this one’s understatedness complements the “come down” at this point in the playlist.
Walking with Trees
A dream collab, this song blows me away every time I listen. The birdsong of Mia’s voice mirrored by Bobby’s cosmic playing shocked me upon first listen. I was expecting greatness but hearing it was above and beyond. Vibes for days.
Lost in Your Eyes
I remember the day this album came out: November 2nd, 2019. I was in Joshua Tree hiking the Hidden Valley loop under the bluest sky listening to this album for the first time and it’s just pure “wooden music” at its best. Andy’s voice is gorgeous and fragile, and the gentle guitar strums echo the simple wonder of the landscape in which it was recorded (also in Joshua Tree). I also used to listen to so much Vetiver when I was a baby stoner and he gets better and better with each recording.
Singin’ Call
This is just the prettiest Stills song. He can do it all—blues, funk, groove, lead the shit out of an epic band, but his loner folk days on his first and second are so sensitive and pure. Late night magic.
St. Cloud
I remember the first time I took mushrooms, I put Neal’s music on after the trip was over but I was still a little starry-eyed and it was just pure light. This song is so pretty and Neal’s young voice brings tears to my eyes.
BIO
Lara Bennett is a writer, artist, and creative director living in the Mojave Desert. She is the founder of Petal Motel, a music blog documenting the Californiana and Cosmic American (and world) music genres; and a co-host of the Highway Butterfly: Stories of Neal Casal podcast series, benefitting the Neal Casal Music Foundation, which provides music lessons and instruments to students, and supports healthcare initiatives for musicians like Backline.
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Howlin' Rain sonic messenger Ethan Miller shares his definitive stoner playlist
Aquarium Drunkard's Jason Woodbury smokes a bowl and shares his ultimate stoner playlist
Curation Record’s Brent Rademaker eats an edible and lets the gummies do the DJing
]]>In 1976 London, Don Letts changed the course of music history by single-handedly merging punk rock and reggae. Discover how these strange bedfellows came to be and why we gratefully never looked back.
Stay with us now ‘cause we're going to backtrack to 1976 London and straight to the man who single-handedly merged punk rock and reggae, Mr. Don Letts. The meeting of the two rebel cultures in the UK was really just a matter of time, but Letts definitely sped up the process. Jamaican reggae artists sang about the rough life in the tenement yards while the punks in East London listened thousand of miles away sitting in council housing stewing in the frustration of the day. With the large West Indian population in London at the time, coupled with some of England's most dreary economic days, punks and Rastas quickly found themselves shoulder to shoulder in government-funded flats or in the dole queue.
Cultures soon began to meld further when these black and white young people faced with “no future” started loitering on the same Kings Road. Record stalls on Kings Road would blast out the latest from Lee Scratch Perry and Bob Marley while punk rockers would line up to buy punk rock duds at Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s Sex boutique. Down the street in the basement of a pinball repair shop cum clothing store called Acme, a young reggae-infatuated clerk named Don Letts was soaking in this clash of cultures.
Opening its doors in 1976 in East London, The Roxy can easily boast being the first punk club in the UK. Manning the helm behind the club’s single turntable was none other than Mr. Letts. Having attracted all of his friends who were mainly reggae fans, as well as, his new pals from Kings Road like Johnny Rotten and the rest of the ne’er do wells, he played the latest reggae singles from Jamaica. His choice of material was more out of necessity as there weren’t any punk records around at the time. The seed was planted and all of the bands that showed up at The Roxy in those early days began to incorporate reggae grooves into their amphetamine-fuelled take on rock and roll. Even reggae's greatest ambassador, Bob Marley would make appearances at The Roxy and was so bowled over by the safety pin set that he wrote a song called Punky Reggae Party in which he gave shout-outs to the punk bands of the day like The Damned, The Jam and The Clash.
Hugely influential BBC D.J. John Peel was only too eager to grab the baton from Letts by adding reggae songs by Augustus Pablo and Lee Scratch Perry to his set list alongside the early Sex Pistols singles and The Damned. Mr. Letts would later manage minimalist dub/punk all-girl band The Slits until moving on to play in The Clash’s Mick Jones’ Big Audio Dynamite. If you want to dig a little deeper into Letts, search out some of his movies like Legend, his biography on Bob Marley, or Punk Rock Movie, or pick up his amazing compilation records that are culled from his actual set lists back at The Roxy.
Listen on Spotify
A 21-track playlist including Don Letts’ 1976 The Roxy club cuts plus a selection of reggae-influenced punk tunes.
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Andy French, founder of the music website Raven Sings the Blues, has made it his life’s mission to mine rare musical gems. He’s especially roused by indie, psych, garage and experimental music. As a writer and promoter, he’s steeped in music from sunup to sundown, and knows just how to attain the perfect state of mind for concentrated listening.
Andy French, founder of the music website Raven Sings the Blues, has made it his life’s mission to mine rare musical gems. He’s especially roused by indie, psych, garage and experimental music. As a writer and promoter, he’s steeped in music from sunup to sundown, and knows just how to attain the perfect state of mind for concentrated listening.
Heads Lifestyle: Hi Andy, where are you now?
Andy French: Hudson, New York.
HL: What do you do with your time?
AF: I operate the blog Raven Sings the Blues (est. 2006), curate and host the monthly radio show Crawl Out From The Fallout on Hudson freeform station WGXC, and up until the pandemic, I’d been booking a series of shows at local venues in Hudson, Kingston, and surrounding areas, which I hope to pick back up soon.
HL: Do you get high when listening to music?
AF: Well, I have two little ones right now, so to be honest, not as often as I’d like, because they never let me rest. I wouldn’t say that music is specifically reserved for me in that capacity— dedicated listening, which lends itself to getting high. With the site and my day job, I’m often listening to music the whole day through, but it is nice to be able to set aside some time when things calm down at the house for some focused listening to let things sink much deeper.
HL: Describe a typical music-weed session?
AF: Our area is just starting to get dispensaries, and given the chance, my wife will hop to one nearby. I’ll snag an edible from her, turntable and speakers for some more concentrated listening. With the monthly radio show, it’s been nice in the summer to set up the speakers on the porch and listen outside. That in itself is a Zen experience up here in the greener parts of New York. I record the show ahead of time and set it up like a mixtape, which has been a nice way to sink into music as well.
HL: What is your earliest memory of connecting the dots between music and cannabis?
AF: It seems like, for my generation, there was always a discourse between The Beatles and The Stones. But to be purely fair, I grew up in a house filled with Moody Blues and Emerson Lake and Palmer LPs at the forefront. The realization that these records went hand in hand with my parents being high in college came pretty early. It’s hard to look at the cover of Tarkus and imagine any other outcome. As a result, the tumble down the rabbit hole of 60s psychedelia and prog came pretty early on in my teens, though I wouldn’t make the personal connection with music and cannabis until college, when the two halves clicked.
Saturday Drive
Stoned listening, especially in a playlist or mixtape, is all about the flow. The list here moves from sunshine to darker corners, mixing quite a few new gems in with the old. Right now there aren’t a lot of labels embracing the West Coast psych sound better than Curation Records. Their upcoming release from Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears is a cosmic Americana classic in the making, full of country-fried twang and sunshine strums. Sean’s a Nashville session stalwart who’s shown up on records from Spencer Cullum, Eric Slick, Curtis Harding, Pujol and more, but his Weird Ears is poised to be one to watch in 2022.
Ode To The Road
Speaking of cosmic Americana stalwarts, Horne has made time in bands like Circles Around the Sun, The Skiffle Players and the widely loved Grateful Shred. Behind the boards, Dan is a key producer for the new wave of cosmic artists, having helmed releases by Mapache, Pacific Range, and Allah-Lahs. Following up an EP last year, this new single is a blissed ode to van life in the style of Beachwood Sparks.
Sister Rose
Naturally, this leads me to follow with a tune from Beachwood Sparks themselves. The band kept the cosmic flame lit in the early aughts, and while the smeared strains of Once We Were Trees is a constant favourite, the more twanged moments on their debut pair well with stoned listening on a sunny day.
High and Low
Another new band on the rise is the West Coast duo Color Green. They started out with a more homespun EP a few years back, but on this pre-album single, they give hints of funk-scraped JJ Cale, digging into the motor oil choogle before going full Gimme Shelter with the background vocals. Their debut LP is one of the best of 2022, and likely this song will wind up on every mixtape I make for the next couple of years.
Goldmine
The Nashville band have remained underdogs of the cosmic country scene, but with members of The Paperhead, Natural Child, and Sean Thompson himself sitting in, they’ve got the fried country credentials on lock. The band’s debut EP has long been a favourite around here and Goldmine gets the Parsons meets Purple Sage vibes just right.
Studio Walk
Next I’ve headed back into the West Coast charms of Curation Records for one of their earliest releases. I’m always a bit surprised that Pacific Range hasn’t been held up higher in the new jam pantheon. The band nails nimble jazz touches that work best in sun-soaked West Coast psych, all filtered down from the Dead lineage. Studio Walk percolates with an ease tossed with some salt air breeze. The whole album is perfect, but this one’s a standout every time.
Morning Light
Perhaps the only band outdoing Pacific Range and Garcia Peoples as heads of the new psych wave is Rose City Band. The unassuming moniker graces Ripley Johnson’s (Moon Duo, Wooden Shjips) country-psych persona and he’s worked up a trio of essential releases over the past few years. The sun-baked strums of Morning Light whisper California more than his Pacific Northwest environs, but every time this one plays on the stereo, I’m transfixed until the last notes fade into the air.
Really My Friend
It’s easy to slip into tried-and-true—and honestly overdone—territory with 70s picks, but Country Funk is a glossed over gem that always deserves a shout. While leaning a bit further into the country than the funk aspect, Country Funk rolls dusted twang and Byrdsian harmonies into a heat-quivered bliss on Really My Friend.
Jag Älskar Sommaren
Kosmiche and German progressive often get the heavy share of praise for the early 70s but the Swedish psych scene holds a lot of weight in my heart. Kebnekajse’s debut on the venerable Silence label is one of the best of the era, and this 10-minute psych workout is the highlight of the record. Featuring members of Baby Grandmothers and Mecki Mark Men, the band rolls laid-back riffs and a feel that’s somewhere between Santana and surf into a monster jam that was sure to have expanded into a burner on stage. Love this one!
Nickel & Dimin’
Dipping into the new bin once again, this gem from a few years back has a low and dirty sway to it. JMVII is a Canadian crooner with a power pop past and a present spent playing Matthew ‘Doc’ Dunn and Young Guv. While a lot of his record Stoned When I Pray can swerve into a Beachwood downline, this track has a strange funk to it that’s perfect for stoned listening.
Hallelujah I
I’ve been digging back into this one hard; the band never really got their due. Featuring a pre-Hiss Golden Messenger M.C. Taylor, the band worked through glossed indie rock and country swagger long before the combination was finding a new heyday. There’s a bit of a smoked haze on this song that billows out of the speakers with a JJ Cale-tipped cool.
No No
The other songwriter in The Court & Spark was Hirsch, and if his Cale-shades came out on Hallelujah I, they glow in blacklight brilliance on No No. Few songs from the past few years have achieved this kind of effortless baked-in feeling. No No drives slow around the mind—seat reclined, hand atop the wheel, streetlights blurring out the windows.
かくれんぼ
70s Japan is packed with perfect psych gems, to the point that many comps have already tackled it. Happy End is one of the best, and honestly, any of their songs could probably fit this list, but I like the restrained, narcotic feel of かくれんぼ (Hide and Seek). The guitars slink on the song, offsetting the strum in the right ear with snaking, oiled leads in the left.
Wasted Time
There are few bands to have picked up the 70s rock mantle and really made it work. Garcia Peoples has done just that. Obvious name references aside, the band skirt prog and psych like seasoned pros despite their median age skewing fairly young. The band’s fourth album saw them come into their own with psych-folk touches and dips through German progressive. This one, laced with flute from the excellent P.G. Six and a heady swirl, is always a favourite.
Laila, Part 2
One of the influences on the Garcia Peoples' album Nightcap At Wits' End that seemed to surface the most was this Agitation Free album, which can often get lost in a sea of lists full of CAN and Ash Ra Tempel. The taut playing and jazz interplay between members of the band gives this song a nicely tensile feeling, moving like honed musical muscles. I highly recommend this whole album!
Heywood Floyd
Possum is one of the new bands I’ll shout out each and every time. These Canadian artists just aren’t getting enough coverage outside of their bubble. Their first album had a lot of promise but they topped it and then some with last year’s Lunar Gardens. Psych-jazz touches, scorched guitars that leave charcoal residue on the speakers, and a dry ice darkness to the whole song.
Light Up
Al Doum & The Faryds is yet another band that should have praise heaped on them. The Italian band has a new record out that plays more into psych-folk territory, but their 2018 album is pure psych-funk odyssey. I’m a sucker for flute in a psych jam and this one barrels out of the gate with overblown intensity atop a tumble of rhythm. The whole album is a scorcher, but Light Up is a highlight.
Zealous Child
Jazz flute over the top of psych grooves gets me every time and Badge is one of the best bands out of Canada these days. Slim Twig anchors the bunch with plenty of players falling in on their last couple of records. This one has a cold humidity about it that I always love in a song, plus it’s hard to beat Dorothea Paas’ vocal turn on this one.
Stanley Stood Still
Stanley Stood Still is off of Rhyton’s most recent album, and it is midnight psych at its best. A gnarled, greasy blues riff that’s all pelvis and leering eyes. In the right state of mind, this cut tears through the listener, rattling them to the marrow.
Tetuzi Akiyama
Speaking of unsanded blues riffs, I’d be remiss not to follow up with a hackled cut from 75 Dollar Bill. It’s hard to pass up a junkyard beaten boogie like this, dedicated to one of the best guitarists around. The rhythmic slap, chewed iron guitars, and 100-degree sax line burn this song into the back of the skull.
To See Darkness
To conclude my playlist, I’ve got to cool it off—but just a little bit. Elkhorn is one of the best trips to the inner mind around. The band’s psych-folk reverberates to every point in the body. Liquid mercury guitars and dusted acoustic strum before the song burns up in the desert sun. This song is off their excellent Sun Cycle record from a few years back.
Editorial note from Andy: I've been a pretty ardent proponent of not using Spotify on my site, just because the pay structure and politics are so abusive. Mixcloud at least pays radio rates, which isn't perfect, but it’s better than the meagre pieces of pennies from the alternatives. Plus, for a mix, I always like the idea of letting the songs bleed into one another rather than the hard stops on a Spotify list. For something like this, that feels key.
For readers who prefer Spotify, here's the Playlist with a couple of the more rare and hard to find tracks missing.
BIO
Andy French is the owner and curator of the site Raven Sings the Blues, a daily music review website in operation since 2006. He is the host of Crawl Out From The Fallout on Hudson, New York's independent, freeform station WGXC. The show can be heard every 2nd Tuesday of the month from 8-10 PM. Andy has been helping keep the Upstate music scene vital, booking shows in Hudson and Kingston, New York at venues like BSP, The Half Moon, and Tubby's. He's the founder of the upcoming Deep In The Valley Festival, which brings together cosmic Americana, psych, jazz, and folk at the scenic farm brewery From The Ground on August 20th in Red Hook, New York. He lives in Hudson with his wife, Dani, and their two daughters, Florence and Mae.
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Howlin' Rain sonic messenger Ethan Miller shares his definitive stoner playlist
Aquarium Drunkard's Jason Woodbury smokes a bowl and shares his ultimate stoner playlist
Curation Record’s Brent Rademaker eats an edible and lets the gummies do the DJing
]]>Heads Lifestyle is stoked to present the video premiere of GospelbeacH’s latest single: It’s too late. The effervescent LSD-like trip through the ‘80s music video scene is captured beautifully in this cautionary tale about lost love, remorse and new beginnings.
GospelbeacH’s latest release It’s too late is a sneaker set of a tune about behaving badly and reaping the consequences of one’s actions. Singer/songwriter Brent Rademaker sings, “I’m the guy who made you cry/I made my bed and now I lie without you.” Karma’s a bitch—but it’s never too late to learn this lesson and make amends. The sunshine effervescence of the music carries along the melancholic remorse of the lyrics. In the video premiere of the single, director Fred Joseph of Expo Aktuell Films pays homage to the height of MTV’s influence. Claustrophobic, heavily scripted and awkwardly shot, the rise and dominance of music videos in the ‘80s became a pivotal divergent point in pop culture. In It’s too late, Rademaker dons Robert Smith-like smoky eyes and confesses to the camera that “time doesn’t make things better all the time” as he contemplates an hourglass and other curios laid out before him. Companionably sharing his chagrin are two Marie Antoinettesque figures giggling and dancing without a care in the world as time marches towards their eventual beheading. Sometimes love is like that too. Take love for granted and you may end up alone at your keyboard singing songs about the one that got away. With a whimsical LSD trip undercurrent, It’s too late is a cautionary tale about life’s sorrows and the promise of new beginnings—wipe the slate clean and face a fresh day. Alas, sometimes it is just too late for past regrets but that doesn’t mean the rest of the journey isn’t full of promise. GospelbeacH’s styles and influences are so far-reaching that you can always count on them to amaze and delight. In It’s too late they’ve done it again—you still make us laugh and cry.
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Curation Record's Brent Rademaker eats an edible and lets the gummies do the DJing
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Brent Rademaker knows about harmonic pairings: weed and music go great together. As a West Coast musician, he’s tripped through psychedelic country, California folk-rock and sunshine pop. As a seasoned wake-and-baker, he’s puffed and passed backstage with the greats. Here he shares his passion for pot and positive vibes with his take on the most synergetic stoner mixtape.
Brent Rademaker knows about harmonic pairings: weed and music go great together. As a West Coast musician, he’s tripped through psychedelic country, California folk-rock and sunshine pop. As a seasoned wake-and-baker, he’s puffed and passed backstage with the greats. Here he shares his passion for pot and positive vibes with his take on the most synergetic stoner mixtape.
Heads Lifestyle: Hi Brent, where are you now?
Brent Rademaker: California.
HL: What do you do with your time?
BR: Lend it out to people.
HL: Do you get high when listening to music?
BR: Music gets me high and I’ve been known to get real high and let the music take me on a trip… not while driving.
HL: Describe a typical music-weed session?
BR: Gummy & vinyl. Rinse & repeat.
HL: What is your earliest memory of connecting the dots between music and cannabis?
BR: My best friend Sleigher (Pete Kinne RIP) got stoned with me and mimed Funeral For A Friend from Goodbye Yellow Brick Road at 3 am in Tampa sitting on the tailgate of my first truck.
I Still Wonder
When you think of references to the Los Angeles music scene of the 60s in movies or documentaries, you always seem to hear The Doors or The Byrds or possibly Forever Changes by Arthur Lee and Love—and that's totally cool, but just as the Summer of Love was about to fade into the swinging 70s, Arthur's retooled version of Love recorded a batch of songs and released 10 of them on a wonderfully trippy album called Out Here. I was just six years old and AM radio and The Beatles was all I knew. I doubt Hollywood will ever turn to this album as a touchstone of a generation but cut to the mid-90s when our most psychedelic brother Tartarex from The Summer Hits handed me a cassette (a Rextape as they came to be known) appropriately titled Find The Sun. It was a collection of lost hippy nuggets of mostly obscure bands from the 60s doing their best golden sunshine West Coast folk-rock, some laid back and mellow, some choogle, some pristine pop and this epic journey of what it feels like to "take too much" of anything that sends your mind out there or in this case Out Here…certainly not down there! I think the edible craze really brought on pot O.D. syndrome—just listen to the 911 calls on YouTube. I’ve personally had to pull bandmates out from under the van after too many edibles. So the next time you bite off too much brownie or pop four too many gummies, put on this song and quit wondering if it'll be alright because it will! I love every Love album but this one is dear and this song is special. Nightmare daydream? C'mon, that's Shakespeare!
Roll Your Own
The first set of rolling papers I ever bought were strawberry EZ Widers. We smoked before a Blue Oyster Cult/Reo Speedwagon/Black Oak Arkansas concert and got busted by some Lakeland Florida cops who were real aggressive dicks. But thankfully, in a life-saving gesture, the cops only confiscated my nickel bag and papers, and let us go free, thereby saving the impoundment of our stepmother's Grand Prix and a trip to juvenile detention. With me was my brother, of course, because he had his license and was driving, and fellow skateboarder Johnny Lee Middleton who went on to play bass for Tampa Bay metal gods Savatage and the world-renowned arena act Trans Siberian Orchestra. We parted ways after that experience. D-Rad and me, along with skate buddy Kevin Peterson cut our hair and started listening to more Punk, Power Pop and New Wave including the Fab Poodles from the UK, a Kinks-loving band with a skillful knack for a tune and super funny lyrics. This one is always in my head when I'm passed a joint that's either rolled perfectly or shitty. Even when I smoked tobacco, I rolled my own. Twist up for a great time and check out Mirror Stars the debut LP from Fabulous Poodles and the follow up Think Pink.
High Is Not the Top
Chris Robinson smokes a lot of weed, except when he's on tour. Gotta protect that incredible soulful voice! We want to hear him hit all the notes and every rock’n’roll howl. In my opinion, Chris is one of the very last of the true rock’n’roll soul singers—it never sounds forced or like he's putting us on when he sings. It's real! Take a little detour and listen to him and his brother Neal Casal harmonize a simple country tune. Back in 2000, CR showed up at a Beachwood Sparks gig at the Mercury Lounge in NYC with a true bomber, full-on Up In Smoke-style joint. We puffed and passed backstage until it was showtime and, although we were all seasoned wake-and-bakers, we could barely find the stage that night. We were high! Too high? Nah, just a different version of what the audience got the night before or the night after. That's the beauty of having heady friends and putting "exotic mood modifiers" on your backstage rider along with new socks.
Fools Gold
I'm not one to use the term "stony jam" but this is one in its truest form. Heck, they couldn't even get decent weed at the studio where this was recorded—I was there and God knows we tried! Hash was the only thing back in the 80s UK.
Shake Dog Shake
What do you call the stuff at the bottom of your bag of weed? Shake Dog Shake is a wake-and-bake classic in my household. The Cure is a really psychedelic band despite the goth image they can't seem to shake.
Getting’ High
Just like an old bag of swag, this track is dry and will do in a pinch. Gettin’ High belongs on every stoner playlist.
Alcoholiday
Nothing tastes better than a cold beer when you are stoned. One of the B-sides from this era of the Fannies was called Weed Break, but it's this song that is the true weed break. It's not promoting alcoholism or addiction, but it has that slacker feeling of staying in the moment to get out of the moment and the pressure of everyday life and love. The members of Teenage Fanclub are approaching their 60s and still making awesome records. They are one of my favourite groups of all time. (Side note: Check out Lightships’ Sweetness In Her Spark.)
My Friend Jack
For my friend Kellie—The Smoke was her favourite band!
Shine a Light
Turn down the lights, spark up, lay back and let this one flow into your very marrow. It's musicianship, production craftsmanship and pure lazer-guided melody. I used to not be able to listen to J. Spaceman and co. unless I was utterly loaded but now I let the music get me high.
Higher Than The Sun
Ever wonder what Merle would sound like doing Primal Scream? Eric Shea and company have created something special with this cover."My soul's an oasis"—what a lyric! Check out the Jah Wobble remixes of the original Screamadelica classic.
Do It Again
Ever wonder what Waylon would sound like doing Steely Dan?
Thanks for listening. Let's do it again sometime. I love you!
BIO
Brent Rademaker is a founding member of the California psychedelic country band Beachwood Sparks. His musical résumé also includes the West Coast 90s indie innovators Further. He currently tours and records with GospelbeacH who have just released the new single It's Too Late. As a writer, Brent has penned articles and reviews for music mags, blogs and bios for fellow musicians. His record label Curation Records was established in 2019 with releases from Pacific Range, Uni Boys, Triptides, Those Pretty Wrongs and many more.
Main photo: Sally Peterson Photography
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Howlin' Rain sonic messenger Ethan Miller shares his definitive stoner playlist
Aquarium Drunkard's Jason Woodbury smokes a bowl and shares his ultimate stoner playlist
Record Crates United’s Keith Hadad takes the lead on a highly meditative sonic journey
]]>There can never be too much musical mind expansion, so if you dig clamping the headphones on and letting music take you on a little trip, then check out psychedelic band Oneida’s album The Wedding. From the Heads Vault, here is our 2005 interview with Fat Bobby, in which he shares his recipe for Albõndigas, retells the story of his most mind-altering acid trip, and praises the preeminence of Canadian weed.
There can never be too much musical mind expansion, so if you dig clamping the headphones on and letting music take you on a little trip after a good blast from the bong then you must check out Oneida’s The Wedding. With psychedelic bands constantly re-inventing the word, Oneida proves to be one of the trippiest bands out there. Heads talked to singer/organist/guitarist Fat Bobby while he was cooking up a batch of Albõndigas.
Heads Lifestyle: Do you think it’s short-sighted when people describe Oneida as a psychedelic band?
Fat Bobby: My take on that is this: Oneida as individuals and as a band don’t condone drug use nor do we despise those who chose to explore their consciousness through drugs. When people describe us as psychedelic it depends on how people mean it and how they use it. We’re making music that is supposed to give you a slightly different version of things with a different outlook. We like to pry into the thing that you want to write music about, lever it apart and see what it feels like to be in there and then replicating that feeling and make music. In the broad sense that is psychedelic in the sense that it requires a translocation of your consciousness. If people call us psychedelic in the right spirit because we embrace what a lot of people may consider insanity then that’s okay. To me the psychedelic approach to making music is about going into a song without any scripture.
HL: On The Wedding you seem to have songs that are very specifically written while others seem to develop organically. Do you have different approaches to the writing?
FB: Some songs I will just write like August Morning Haze and just go in and record it, while others I will ask the other guys to help out and contribute. On songs like The Beginning Is Nigh we were just playing and it all came together after a lunch break in the studio. There is really a wide array of approaches that includes radically changing things right up until we record it.
HL: You guys seem to be really prolific, producing a remarkable catalogue of work.
FB: We move pretty fast. Sometimes we will be touring for a record and only play three songs off of it, and even they don’t sound anything like they do on the record anymore.
HL: Is it hard to keep up the discipline of releasing so much stuff?
FB: Well it’s a particular kind of discipline we have. You have to be in a band with people who want to get together and want to play as much as possible. Because we have such a collective creation process, we always have something to work on, as there is no primary songwriter in the band. We also don’t like to tour more than two months a year and that really frees us up to keep being creative. I think it’s a real albatross for a band to tour like eight months a year so they can pay their bills and when we got together we just said, Fuck that, we’ll choose day jobs to pay our bills and that way we can keep ourselves inspired.
HL: With such a psychedelic edge, are people surprised to see what you look like in real life? Not your typical psych band?
FB: Oh yeah, and when they see us, people are just freaked out about us being these clean-cut, glasses-wearing nerdy guys. We’re absurdly square looking guys, which I guess makes sense because we’re pretty square guys.
HL: Tell me about your most mind-altering drug experience?
FB: Okay when I was in high school I had what some would say is the misfortune of a bad trip, the likes of which I am really not capable of accurately describing. I had taken a bunch of acid that I thought was not as powerful as it turned out to be. In an ill-advised decision about an hour after taking the acid, I was convinced it was really weak and took a bunch more. I ended up breaking my personality down to being just a nub of consciousness. I was just utterly insane and unable to deal. When I do hallucinogenic drugs I accept the fact that I am a fucking weird person with crazy hang-ups that will be difficult to get through, which I don’t really want to translate as bad—it’s just my consciousness. I was about 17 at the time and was with another person who made the same decision but stuck around so nothing really regrettable would happen. I wish to fucking God that never happens again but it was the most powerful enlightening experience of my life. I felt like I tasted life. I said it was a “bad trip” but it wasn’t just fear, it was way beyond that. It was like I was completely taken apart and I had to re-assemble myself and it’s not like you get a lot of opportunities in life to do that. I still would never want to go through that again but that would probably be one of my most positive drug experiences I have ever had. I don’t think acid is the only way to achieve that either. I would think, with a lot of emotional and psychological discipline, there are a lot of approaches through meditative or religious ways to get to that level.
HL: So you still carry around that experience?
FB: Oh my God, I would say that it allowed me to be who I am.
HL: After listening to the record The Wedding I have to ask if you’re smoking the cheeba?
FB: (laughs) Well, if I wasn’t a touring musician who crosses international borders I might say I occasionally do (wink! wink!). You Canadians have the best pot in the world. I have spent time in Amsterdam and Gronigen but I think the pot from Canada far exceeds anything they have over there.
HL: So you don’t get “the fear” or anything from Canadian pot?
FB: Well, I never get put into the mythological wheelchair. I get really energetic but maybe that’s because I’m in Canada. It’s okay to get the fear as long as you have the energy. I live to dive into the eye of the fear because that’s when you start a band that sounds like Oneida. We live for the fear.
While talking to Oneida’s Fat Bobby, each sentence was punctuated with a chop. In between the chopping of celery and cilantro, Bobby eschews on the virtues of plunging into the eye of fear, and the brilliance of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and their self-titled record. Bobby seems almost as passionate about cooking as he does about making music and has kindly shared his recipe for Albõndigas.
Ingredients
1 pound ground beef (lean)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 red onion, finely chopped
1 cup crushed tortilla chips
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon oregano
2 X 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
A whole bunch of aromatic vegetables (2 to 3 carrots, 2 to 3 celery stalks, a fennel bulb, an onion or whatever you’re into)
6-8 cups of stock or broth (chicken stock works well)
1 can peeled whole tomatoes
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 bay leaves
Preparation
Step 1. Combine beef, eggs, red onion, tortilla chips, cilantro, oregano, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, salt and pepper. Cover bowl and refrigerate for an hour or more.
Step 2. In a big pot or Dutch oven, sauté aromatic vegetables in olive oil. After 3-4 minutes, add 1 teaspoon sugar, remaining 1/2 teaspoon cumin and red pepper. Continue to cook, stirring continually, for a minute or two until you can smell the sugar start to caramelize.
Step 3. Add stock/broth, tomatoes, remaining teaspoon of sugar, and bay leaves. Crush tomatoes a little bit with a wooden spoon or whatever implements you happen to be brandishing.
Step 4. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a simmer.
Step 5. Grab the meat mixture out of the refrigerator and start forming balls about 1 inch in diameter (or bigger is fine if that’s your pleasure). As you form each one, slip it into the simmering soup.
Step 6. Cover and simmer until the meatballs are cooked, approximately 15 to 20 minutes, maybe a little longer. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serve with corn tortillas and a little cilantro sprinkled on top of each bowl of soup.
Listen on Spotify
Oneida's 2005 album "The Wedding"
This interview was originally published in Heads Magazine Vol.5 Issue 7, 2005
]]>Color Green’s deeply mellow vibe embodies the very essence of Stoned Americana music. With influences ranging from JJ Cale, the Allman Brothers Band and the Grateful Dead to extended instrumental covers of 60s songs and hours-long recordings of thunder and rain on a tin roof, band mates Noah Kohll and Corey Madden are into some crazy shit. Keith Hadad of Record Crates United sat down with the boys for a rambling, wide-ranging, far-out chat.
By Keith Hadad
Color Green’s deeply mellow vibe embodies the very essence of Stoned Americana music. With influences ranging from JJ Cale, the Allman Brothers Band and the Grateful Dead to extended instrumental covers of 60s songs and hours-long recordings of thunder and rain on a tin roof, band mates Noah Kohll and Corey Madden are into some crazy shit. Keith Hadad of Record Crates United sat down with the boys for a rambling, wide-ranging, far-out chat.
Keith Hadad: So first things first, what's your musical background? How long have you been playing and how did Color Green get started?
Corey Madden: We met in New York. We came from different worlds, but we met at a job and just vibed out on this band Acetone from the nineties. They're very, very, very mellow. I was playing in a straight-up rock band and Noah was in a bunch of indie bands. We both were into a mix of that stuff. We were like, It'd be cool to do that. Talked about it and just got into a room and were like, This works [mixing these two styles].
Noah Kohll: I started playing music when I was six. I'm from Omaha; there's a small music community there. So I got to be surrounded by a lot of cool bands coming through and playing with them. There was a local record store and I befriended all the guys and that really shaped and informed my musical taste. For a while, I was playing in a lot of indie-ish bands. I still am, but... I love rock and roll! I'm kind of obsessed with it. I think it’s really great to have Color Green. The way Corey and I work together, it's a really special harmonious thing, you know? It's great!
CM: Both of us definitely came from DIY worlds in our own way. I started playing guitar as a kid and spent my entire teenage life in New Brunswick in my basement with my brother. Noah and I both have an understanding of the deep shit. I feel like that always has been a thing between us—we know the real world kind of shit.
NK: Yeah. We're dorks. We like records and—
CM: We just connect. We send music to each other all the time.
NK: What's the thing we're into right now, uh, the Balkan guitarist dude? [Branko Mataja].
NK: I just ordered it on Numero Group record. It's this guitar instrumental, kind of Ennio Morricone stuff. It's really, really good.
CM: Honestly, the most insane. It's amazing.
KH: Oh man, that's so cool. I'm gonna have to look that up afterwards.
NK: We have this deep understanding for music and especially in the sense of the atmosphere. Because we work in a lot of different projects, it’s cool having Color Green as an umbrella so we can create this atmosphere around it. The vibe is always the first thing we go to. Like, that song that just came out, So Far Behind, I wrote it in a couple of different locations. When we were demo-ing it together, I was having trouble with the vocal take. I was like, What, what is this? How do I do this? Corey was like, Do the Color Green thing. When he said that, I was like, Oh yeah, that makes sense.
KH: On that note, you formed in 2018, how did your sound evolve from your inception to what we can hear on your first EP, which came out in 2020?
NK: Well, the EP that came out was recorded in 2018. We were in these transit periods—both living in New York. Corey was about to move to LA and we were, like, Let's do this before you leave. Then we just sat on it for a little bit, not necessarily knowing what to do with it. Then the pandemic hit while I was on tour with Young Guv, and we were driving from Dallas to Omaha. On that drive, I played them the EP and they were like, What are you doing with this? Tony wanted to put it out on the label. So that's when everything kind of clicked, and Corey and I were like, Oh shit, this should be an actual, real thing.
CM: Once we got into a room, Noah was sitting on drums and I was playing guitar, and we fleshed out the song Night. Within three hours, we were like, Alright, this is a fucking thing. Then we jammed maybe just two times. Noah was living in a house that was around the corner from my house, and it had kind of a makeshift basement studio. We just fleshed out the EP. It kind of just happened—I had a song, he had a song. We just jammed shit out.
NK: I remember too, when we were making it, we recorded on a Tascam PortaStudio. I've had that thing since I was like a freshman in high school, and it's a bit of a process to use. I think we were both going through breakups at the time, and I was just not down to be thinking about it. So I was in the studio, trying to make stuff, you know? And I remember we were trying to get the right drum sound.
CM: That was a thing...
NK: It took a second and then when we got it. Corey was like, Don't touch anything! I like how those drums sound.
CM: I love how the drums sound.
NK: The drums on the EP are two mics, you know? I think it's actually just one overhead mic.
CM: I mean, the whole EP is a tiny Fender amp, the drum rig that Noah put up.
NK: Direct in. I was sitting cross-legged with a phaser pedal plugged directly into the tape, the headphones on and just playing the bass cross-legged. I think we were doing some sort of substances as well. I remember I had a sad corner and the sad corner had like—
CM: The sad corner was this weird outside little alley... I don't even, what was it? It was like a backyard?
NK: It was a New York backyard, but there was, like, weed, whiskey and other stuff. I was like, This is where we go when we're sad.
KH: [laughs] Everybody needs a sad corner.
NK: That's right.
KH: The warm kind of lo-fi analogue sound and the roughened aesthetic of the cover of the release together make the record feel like a sought-after private press cosmic American music LP from the 70s. Was that the intention, or did it just turn out sounding that way and you're like, Hey, let's go with it?
NK: I think we like that kind of music, and it's definitely an influence, but the sound of it is just how it was. We weren't trying to go for that [sound] necessarily. We never really talked about how it was gonna sound, it just ended up sounding like that. That's what our song writing sounds like. It just kind of naturally happened to be like that. I remember I was working with the designer for the tape, and I wanted the album cover to look like what the music sounded like. I remember describing it to him. I was like, Let's make it look worn. Like you found this in your dad's attic, you know?
CM: The EP was definitely not a thought out thing. I mean, we had what we had and we did what we did. But I think the record captures where we both were at that moment. And everything else just fell in line, if that makes sense? It was very natural. It's not all overthinking, you know? We just did it.
KH: That's the best. That's how music should be. So from out of that world of private press cosmic American music, who do you love and who would you call an influence?
CM: The list is, like, forever. The list is so long.
NK: Do you know that compilation, Fading Yellow at all?
KH: Actually, I don't think I know that one.
NK: It's not cosmic American music. It's, like, late sixties psych music, private press. And there's this song by this guy, John Williams called Flowers in Your Hair. I remember when I was out in New Mexico, I was listening to that a bunch. Obviously there’s more. I don't even know where to begin with all that stuff.
CM: Honestly, for me, for stripped down stuff, wouldn't even be that kind of country stuff. It's like the 39 Clocks, kinda like... so fucking stripped down barbaric kind of shit.
NK: We also vibe super hard on the basic things—we both love Pink Floyd. We love JJ Cale. We love the Allman Brothers. I love the Grateful Dead, The Byrds, Gene Clark. Like all that kind of stuff is what we are all obsessed with. The cool thing about those bands is that they're kind of endless in supply of new shit you can listen to, from live records to demos. It's funny that the EP has this cosmic American feel to it. But I only think that it sounds like cosmic American music because our friend Catfish played pedal steel on it.
I think that ultimately Color Green is infinite in what we can sound like. Stuff that we're working on now and the stuff that's on the LP... it's just a rock and roll band. We can be whatever we want to be within that. Like, even that newest song, High and Low, sounds like nothing compared to what the EP sounded like. Writing that song was crazy and recording it, too. Our friends, Gracie Jackson and Shelby Jacobson, and Corey's girlfriend, Sophia [Arreguin], sang on it. When we were in the studio having them sing, I felt like I was in Stax Records or something like that. I think I shed a tear [laughs].
CM: The band can change. For me at least, and I think for Noah too, it's gotta be open. We can change everything. The core is always a guitar band that grooves, you know?
KH: Yeah you definitely never want to pigeonhole yourself and just be stuck in the same sound for too long. I really appreciate that. So you mentioned the Grateful Dead and it's no secret that Jerry Garcia and the Dead were big influences, so I want to talk real quick about your history with their music.
CM: Before anything is said, I will bow out from this conversation. I'm Skydog, and Noah is with Jerry.
NK: The way we talk about it is, Corey's the Allman Brothers guy, and I bring the Dead influence.
CM: I will say before Noah goes on with whatever he is about to say, I literally fucking hated this band for so long. The only person who actually could get me into some of their stuff was Noah. I have made a turn. There are songs that I like. I don't hate the band, but this is a Noah question for sure.
NK: So when I was growing up, my mom's ex-husband, Bob, was a huge Deadhead, and he ran an underground newspaper in Berkeley. He was a really interesting guy, and he would listen to American Beauty all the time. I grew really attached to it. When I started playing guitar, my biggest influences were Angus Young and Jerry Garcia. They were my main influences when I was six. I'm still the same. I love Hendrix. I love the Dead. I love Bob Marley. I haven't changed a bit. Once I started getting into punk music and stuff in high school, I was like, Fuck the Dead! I was in this kind of classic reversal, teenage angst sort of thing. Then I went to the New School in New York City and I studied ethnomusicology, and I started getting really into all the Lomax archive stuff. I was specifically focusing on banjo music. I started getting obsessed with 60s subculture. Then I realized that the Grateful Dead were like the ethnomusicologist's wet dream. They're literally a survey of American music, and I'm obsessed with American music. So I dove back in super hard. I think for three years straight, I listened to a live show every day. I got to understand the language of it. I can literally now hear a show and be like, That's from 1978 in the spring. I got really tapped into it. I still listen to the Dead a lot, for sure, but I'm not quite as insane about it as I was. It’s definitely a huge part of my musical identity.
KH: Wow! That's cool. I kind of went through a similar trajectory. I really loved them in high school. Once I went to college, though, I actually went to Ithaca for College, which would've been the best place to listen to them, but by that point I started to go more towards music like The Stooges and Krautrock and Hawkwind, and I was like, Oh yeah, the Dead are okay.
[editor’s note: fear not dear reader, Keith got back onto the Dead bus again after college]
CM: Right on! You made the right call. You know, all that shit, like The Stooges, is in there when we play. All that shit you don't think you would hear. You'd never be like, Oh, these fools are into The Stooges or anything like that. But that's all in there. It's under that shit.
NK: Love that! I just got this. [holds up Träd Gräs och Stenar's Mors Mors LP]
KH: Oh, I love that album!
NK: It's so fucking so good. I saw them live once in New York. Oh, and Homeboy, the lead guitarist. I think he's in that—what's that other band out of Sweden?
KH: Oh yeah, Dungen.
NK: Yeah, that guy. [Reine Fiske] I've never seen a person play guitar like that guy. That guy is...
CM: He's off his rocker. He is amazing!
KH: That guy is wild. If only every jam band could sound like that, you know?
NK: On this one, they do a Rolling Stones cover into a Knocking on Heaven's Door instrumental. It is so cool. I fuck with this really hard.
KH: That's so cool. I got that whole box set. Now, I don't own many box sets, but once that came out, I was like, I need this. I may not be able to eat for a month, but hey, it's worth it.
CM: [laughs] Yeah.
KH: I had a few more questions involving the Dead, but I think you kind of answered them. So I'll just skip those.
CM: I can go to the bathroom if you guys wanna talk about it.
KH: [laughs] Understandable! Do you listen to any of their shows on the Relisten app at all? Out of curiosity.
NK: I got it right here, man! [lifts up his phone with the Relisten app open]
KH: There we go!
CM: Noah actually put me onto that and I went down the k-hole with all the Warren Zevon stuff, which was really cool.
NK: They have a bunch of Little Feat live shows too. I mostly use it for the Dead, but you know, I'll spiral.
CM: I think Noah and I were driving around. I was trying to buy a fucking car or something in New York and Noah was nice enough to drive me around in his van. He was doing the Relisten '74. At a certain point, I was like, Anything fucking else, dude? I can't listen to another ‘73 Althea or whatever.
NK: Then we listened to James Brown.
CM: But there's like, what? Like one million Dead shows on that thing?
KH: You literally have it all. It's wild. Garcia Peoples are on that app now, too. So that's been one of my favourite things to dig through. Hopefully Ryley Walker will be on there soon.
NK: Maybe Color Green will be on there.
KH: That would be great! Do you encourage taping?
NK: Yeah!
CM: Hell yeah, dude! Honestly, side note on being into that—every show we play is always different. It'll have a song list, obviously, but... I think Noah and I are on the same page. I personally love that every show is different. I hate stale, you know? To be totally honest with you, I saw ZZ Top in the desert two nights ago, and I've seen them play the same set for like five years. I still love it, but you're like, Alright, dude, the same is a little tired after a while. So the Relisten thing is sick because you always can get into a rabbit hole of different shit.
NK: Improvisation is a huge part of playing music for both of us. We also love jazz music. It's once again the whole thought of doing this band as a continuation of American music and exploring those realms. We literally are listening to everything, and pulling from everything, from like Furry Lewis all the way back to like—I was just listening to some weird Tin Pan Alley stuff from the twenties, you know? It's weird. I got this tape from my friend Adam in Academy Records recently, of some Moroccan Sufi mystical music group. And I've just been driving around listening to that. That’s in there. It’s everything.
KH: I love that kinda stuff. That's awesome. I know you travelled around while the EP was being recorded. Do you feel that the nomadic spirit helped to shape the mood of the music? I know you were saying that things like breakups kind of peppered themselves in there.
NK: Absolutely!
CM: Noah is always on the road, but [listening to] music for me, it's gotta be driving music. It's shit that bumps at fucking 1:00 AM wherever the fuck you are in the city. It's gotta be driving music because that is where I truly latch on to music. And I feel like the travelling spirit is what this fucking band is.
NK: It's not inauthentic at all. I literally am only home maybe like a hundred days out of the year or less. I think that it’s undeniably unavoidable to have that spirit in the music that we're making because the music we're making is a genuine, true reflection of who we are. You know what I mean?
Obviously we have our own facades and we have our own defence mechanisms and stuff like that, but the cool thing about music and making music is being able to communicate your true self within it. You know, whatever your true self is.
CM: It's gotta be an extension of you, right? Honestly, I think we never actually talked about this, but I feel like between Noah and I, it has to be natural. It's gotta be real or it's not an extension of who you are and the life you're living. It'll just naturally show like anything else you do in your life, you know? The song you wrote in a fucking van on the side of the road is the one, you know?
NK: Yeah. I think people who know about the band and the music, they can see that and they can tell. I really believe in Color Green, and I know Corey does too. It's really cool that you are interested in it, because there isn't any… I’m not seeing this as like a stars-in-the-eyes opportunity. I'm seeing it as a real way of communicating the artistic expression of myself and the artistic expression of Corey, you know?
KH: That’s great. While writing these questions, I really wanted to ask about this music being the perfect driving music, because it truly is. And I was like, Am I projecting, is that just my own perception, though? Every single song you guys have recorded is like, I could just picture myself driving through a desert to this.
CM: That's the thing. That just made my entire day, dude. That's literally the fucking goal of anything with music. I think if that's not in the back of your head when you're writing tunes and shit, then, I dunno, man. That's the vibe, man.
NK: That's the vibe!
CM: You got it. It's gotta be cruising.
KH: I could even picture the dirt on the windshield when I listen to this stuff.
CM: Dude!
NK: That's deep.
CM: Yes. Hell yeah, man. Thank you.
KH: Hell yeah. Some weed ash on the dashboard.
CM: Twenty tickets on your windshield. [laughs]
NK: You've got 20 tickets on your windshield and you're looking for a spot to buy a little thing of propane to fill up your little camper stove.
KH: That's exactly it.
NK: And you're lost.
CM: And you're lost on top of that.
KH: [laughs] That's right! So your most recent releases, the two singles So Far Behind and High and Low are a bit more polished with a more fleshed-out sound. Especially High and Low with that skyrocketing backing vocals. You were kind of touching on this before, but what led you to go in that specific direction?
NK: I think it was just the natural progression of things. We want to make stuff that sounds good. I love good production and stuff like that. Moving out to LA, we have some good friends that are incredible engineers, total heads that really know how to do this. It wasn't necessarily like we were thinking, Oh, we gotta make these recordings sound different or sound better. I think it was just like, Let's do these songs with our friends. We know it's gonna sound good. It's all about utilizing and working with people that we are close to you. That's always been the Color Green thing. The EP features really close friends of ours, and the LP that's coming out features a lot of close friends. So do those two new singles. It's just a continuation. It's like breathing fresh air into it, while still having at the core of it, the base of the band. There's still an atmospheric roomy vibe that exists, you know, it's just a little bit more.
KH: Hearing High and Low, you're reminded of Little Feat, JJ Cale and even Skynyrd’s backup singers. This deeply mellow vibe fits within the realm of what I’d call Stoned Americana music. So I’m just curious, what specific bands do you prefer to listen to the most while smoking? Like, if you're just gonna hang out at home and light up, who would be some of your go-to bands?
NK: Corey's got playlists for when we're getting fucked up. He plays some crazy shit, but lately, I like getting stoned at night in my bed and just kind of chilling out. I've been listening to this live Herbie Hancock record of solo piano in Japan. I think it's called Heritage or something like that. The guitarist of Acetone had this little weird instrumental side project after Acetone broke up called the Dick Slessig Combo and they did these instrumental songs of songs that we've known. The one that I've been really digging lately is a cover of Wichita Lineman, that is 40 minutes long, and it is a beautiful piece. Then after finding that, there's this guy on Bandcamp out of London that I've been really digging lately: Tuluum Shimmering.
KH: Oh yeah! That guy is amazing!
NK: He does crazy things! The most recent one he put out was him doing Cinnamon Girl that's 30 minutes long. There's one where he plays a Byrds song for like an hour. Lately, I've been really into this kind of atmospheric, played-out long kind of repetitive, but trance-y tunes. Plus solo piano music and Träd Gräs, that kind of very vibe-y, wild, slow, but long things, you know?
Obviously another band I listen to stoned is the Grateful Dead. Listening to a live Grateful Dead set in headphones stoned is like some of the most insane shit ever. Especially when you're in that period when you're stoned and about to fall asleep. There's this weird moment that happens where you're in this weird kind of limbo zone of lucidness. I've had experiences where I'm like passing out on a 1973 Playing in the Band, and I'm like 24 minutes into it and I don't know what the fuck is going on. I'm just hearing the craziest shit. Then I pass out. That's where the real magic is right there.
KH: I hear that. I do the same.
CM: For me, the sweet spot of late nights is to smoke something and maybe take some mushrooms or some shit. I’ll ride out a bunch of Kevin Ayers that is wacky and shit. Then you segue that into like three John Fahey records. Then you segue that into YouTube, black video with thunder and rain sounds. You make that all one motion. So when you’re in that lucid state, it transfers over to just rain. And that, my friend, is how I get high.
NK: Dude, I didn't know you did that!
CM: Dude, if you go on my YouTube on the TV at my house, all the recommended videos are like 15 hours of thunder and rain. Thunder and rain on a tin roof, specifically.
KH: Hey, that sounds great!
CM: That is my shit.
NK: That's fucking amazing!
KH: So it sounds like one of your albums should end with, like, 10 minutes of just field recordings.
CM: I would love it. Yeah, I would love the rain, dude. The rain is the best thing.
NK: We're right in the process of talking about and demo-ing the second record. So there's a lot of ideas floating around, but I think it's gonna be really cool.
KH: That leads us to the next record, your first full-length. What were some of the biggest challenges and highlights for you during the recording process?
NK: When we were making the record, I was sober and—
CM: Oh yeah, that whole week, Noah was sober.
NK: I was sober for like three months. I was also in a weird transition period during that time. I had just moved to LA from New Mexico and was settling in. Honestly, the hardest part about recording the record was getting up to record it because we kept having dates and then someone would get COVID. Then we'd have to cancel it. We wanted to do it live with the band. So we had to reschedule and push it and push it. For a second, it felt like it wasn't gonna happen. Eventually, we got to it and there were some road bumps on the way. When we actually got to the studio, we worked with our friend, Johnny Cosmo, who's an amazing songwriter and engineer, and has an amazing…
CM: He's playing in the band now.
NK: Yeah. He's in our band now. He plays keyboards in our band. That was the highlight, just being able to be there and have people come in. I think my biggest highlight during those recording sessions was Tim Ramsey. He's the pedal steel player from Vetiver. I remember I sent him the songs like a day or two before he came in. I had the chord charts and I remember sitting with him and we had our headphones in. I was in a live room with him, and I was conducting him through the song. That was so cool. To be able to communicate with this pedal steel player to conduct him through this piece of music that Corey and I wrote. Those kind of moments, doing that kind of work, it makes me feel I'm in the same zone and headspace as people that I look up to. My idols, you know? It feels like I'm an actualized version of myself. Being in the studio is, I think, just as good as playing a live show, but the feeling is all day, versus just 30 minutes.
CM: The point [when you’re] in a studio when you're at an eight-hour day and you're hitting a moment where your brain is kind of gone. So the moments where you bring in, like, Tim playing steel or our buddy Gabe who played saxophone on a song, somebody who's adding some texture to the record. Then you're like, Oh, a new sound, a new person, a new thing that kind of breaks this moment where you're about to be, like, Maybe we need to go home. Then it opens up a whole new door, going down a whole new road. Otherwise the studio, making the whole [record] was just beautiful.
CM: I'd actually say the biggest nightmare at Johnny's studio is a thing called The Hole.
NK: Oh, The Hole. I had to go back into The Hole sometimes. And it wasn't good.
CM: The Hole is...The Hole is not where you wanna be ever. Yeah. [laughs]
KH: What exactly was it? Was it like a vocal booth?
NK: It's The Hole! It's behind the recording console and sometimes we had to go back there to do some stuff, and it was just scary back there. We hated going back there.
CM: It's not where you wanna be.
NK: No, it’s not where you wanna be. [laughs]
CM: You come out of The Hole very different.
KH: Oh God! Wow! Yeah, it sounds like somewhere Captain Beefheart would have sent his band members when they didn't play what he wanted.
CM: Yes. Actually one of the songs on the playlist we're gonna send you is, I think, a Mississippi Fred McDowell song, but it was hipped to me because that's what it was. Beefheart had locked one of the guitar players in a closet and was like, Listen! And I think he forced him to listen to this song, Red Cross Store. He forced the guitar player to be locked in a closet. It was like, This is how I want the guitar to be. And made this guy listen to this one song for hours in a closet. Like psychotic shit.
KH: Oh God! Yeah. I love Beefheart, but… holy shit [laughs]!
CM: He's a trip.
KH: That's crazy. So did you guys get to play much live as a band before the pandemic?
NK: We played one show under a different name in Joshua Tree, on Halloween in 2019. It was weird.
CM: It was weird. It was a Joshua Tree show.
NK: Yeah. But other than that, no.
KH: What's the ratio of songs to jams?
CM: There's a set, you know? Then there are moments that are like eye contact that are just, like, go off until you're ready to come out. There's mostly structure, but there are moments that we both need it to be, like, Fuck structure right now. Like, yeah go off, but it’s all under the umbrella of a structure.
NK: I think that's how it kind of works, you know? It would be further down the line as we get more comfortable with playing live, like having more jammy things within it. There are jam parts written in the songs themselves. We have these inner instrumental sections that we're always like, Let's elongate this live. Another cool thing about our live set is that I feel like every time we play live, we always have new ideas for the next set. I think me and Corey were talking about doing this thing where there's that song Ain't it Sad, on the LP that we kind of borrowed the Going Down line from JJ Cale, and we were talking about actually just going into that song, while doing it live. Fun stuff like that.
CM: You know, playing music is supposed to be fucking fun. You need to have the room to do what you wanna do. Hit a wrong note. Or, I mean, don't hit a wrong note, but go off and have fun. We've been doing this thing with the song Night, where we kind of... I feel like that song will always end differently. It can be distortion feedback, with a wild delay pedal, or it could be mellow and really beautiful. That song specifically will always be different every time.
NK: Night is cool because we always have different ideas of how we can go about it. We're about to go on tour for four days with Young Guv. So it's gonna be cool to test out all the different ideas.
KH: I was about to ask if you had any tours coming up that you could talk about.
NK: We have this small run that's like three or four days. Then we're gonna take some time off and start working on the second LP. Hopefully, we'll have that finished by May. At the end of May, we're booking a very DIY-like West Coast two-week run. Then we'll probably do another run in July when the record comes out.
KH: Awesome! With this new record, you have so many other instruments involved, like at one point there's a saxophone in there. Will the live band feature these other instruments, or is it gonna be more slimmed down?
NK: I would like it to, but, you know, it's one of those things where that song with the saxophone, I can really see us jamming out that ending.
CM: I think with that kind of stuff, it'll be like hometown shows. We can really bring on a bunch of stuff that we can have fun with, you know? It could be a nightmare. I mean, we're already like a six-person band...
NK: That's another interesting and, I think, cool thing about Color Green—it's literally just me and Corey. Sometimes it feels like a less pretentious Becker/Fagan duo or something like that. There are definitely rotating members. I myself like that because I feel different people breathe fresh air into the music.
CM: It's cool because there's the band when we're in LA and we’ve got the sax, we’ve got the pedal steel, or we can be in a bar and it's just Noah and me playing acoustic guitars. It could be anything, which is truly the freedom that every musician wants.
More about Color Green here
Follow Color Green on Instagram at: @colorgreen
Lost on a desert highway, weed ash on the dashboard, 20 tickets on the windshield. Listen to our Color Green-curated "How I get High" Mix on Spotify.
About the Author
Keith Hadad is the creator and author of the Record Crates United blog. His work has appeared in The Terrascopædia, Elmore Magazine, TheWaster.com, and a multitude of other web and print publications. He hosts RCU’s webradio show, The Record Crates United Mixtape, on Dunebuggyradio.com every other Thursday evening. You can follow him on Instagram @Recordcratesunited, on Twitter @RecordcratesUTD and on Facebook at @RecordCratesUnited. He lives in New Jersey with his wife Sarah and dog Miles.
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]]>As the radio show host and music writer for Record Crates United, music soundtracks pretty much every moment of Keith Hadad's day. But his favourite smoking activity is slipping on a pair of big headphones and listening to a stack of records with a mellow bowl. Join him as he drifts high above the soundscapes in this highly meditative sonic journey.
As the radio show host and music writer for Record Crates United, music soundtracks pretty much every moment of Keith Hadad's day. But his favourite smoking activity is slipping on a pair of big headphones and listening to a stack of records with a mellow bowl. Join him as he drifts high above the soundscapes in this highly meditative sonic journey.
Heads Lifestyle: Hi Keith, where are you now?
Keith Hadad: I’m in the small town of Cranford, New Jersey, which is about 20 miles outside of NYC.
HL: What do you do with your time?
KH: I write and manage a music blog called Record Crates United (www.recordcratesunited.com), which focuses on independent and underground esoteric sounds. I’m also a freelance writer and I contribute music reviews and features for the likes of Phil McMullen’s continuation of his legendary Ptolemaic Terrascope zine, The Terrascopaedia, and a German newspaper called Blicker Magazine. As an extension to RCU, I host a web radio show on Dunebuggyradio.com called The Record Crates United Mixtape, which features a great deal of the music that I cover on my site, plus interviews with the likes of Josh Kimbrough and Buck Curran.
HL: Do you get high when listening to music?
KH: Music soundtracks pretty much every moment of my day. But my favourite smoking activity is listening to my records, so I save that righteous combination for when I can sit down and fully immerse myself into the experience.
HL: Describe a typical music-weed session?
KH: As I was saying, I prefer to make listening to music while high a full experience. It’s a total event for me! I gather up a stack of records or recent finds on the Bandcamp app that take your mind on a journey, so usually something performed or mixed from a psychedelic frame of mind. I then light up a bowl of a particularly mellow Indica and slip on a pair of big headphones and lay back on the pillowy soft couch in my writing room. The headphones are key, as I like to close my eyes and focus on the sounds. This helps make the stereo spectrum feel incredibly immersive, like the instruments and vocals are passing all around my entire body. I love the feeling that I have sunk into a song as deeply as I have sunk into my couch.
HL: What is your earliest memory of connecting the dots between music and cannabis?
KH: I started listening to acid rock at a fairly young age and had watched both the Monterey Pop and Woodstock documentaries by the time I was 11, so that clued me in quite early on. Plus, my mom constantly told me at that age that she didn’t approve of me listening to bands like the Grateful Dead or Country Joe and The Fish, as they would absolutely lead me to smoking, so that helped (sorry, Mom).
Tall Bearded Iris Speckled
Ryan Jewell is not only one of the best drummers of our time—he’s also an expert sculptor of psychedelic soundscapes when playing under the moniker Mosses. I enjoy music that takes me on a journey, to totally envelop me, and Mosses’ collage-styled acid pop record TV Sun does that in spades. I want this entire playlist to take the listener on a voyage, so Tall Bearded Iris Speckled is the perfect intro, as it feels like you’re opening a door to a Wonderland-like universe of sunny sonic curiosities.
Boat Ride II
Talk about going on a trip! Kendra Amalie is one of the most inventive and wild guitarists out there right now, and this hurricane of a jam proves it. A whirlwind of shredding 12-string acoustic guitars slingshots you across the galaxy and leaves you feeling dizzy and gasping for air by the end. A total showstopper!
Black Iris
Reverb-drenched sitars swirl from ear to ear as you nod along to the funky laid-back grooves on this one. The whole Eastern Flowers album feels like homage to the period in the early ’70s when “world music” began to hybridize with prog and psychedelia, but on this particular track, Wunder seems to be specifically conjuring the vibe of Ananda Shankar’s classic work.
International Feel
If you want to feel like you’re whipping down an empty highway without leaving your chair, Wizard Todd’s got you covered. Even Daft Punk realized this, as they used International Feel to soundtrack such a drive in their movie Electroma (it’s the only part worth watching).
On the Corner – Take 4
This whole playlist could easily have been made up of tracks from the On The Corner Sessions, but Take 4 of the title cut from Miles Davis’ infamous acid-influenced 1972 LP is pure gold. A (nearly) motorik beat guides John McLaughlin’s writhing wah-wah guitar through a murky backdrop of sitar, spooky organ and Davis’ trumpet war cries. Spacey and compact at the same time, this is a song you’ll gladly get lost in.
Spirits of the Ancestors
For a more modern take on spiritual jazz, check out Josef Leimberg’s Astral Progressions. The whole record is a brilliant fusion of many different genres, including hip-hop and funk, that never loses its peacefully cosmic vibe. This track will make you feel as though you’re drifting through shimmering waves of the aurora borealis. How can you not love that?
Kollektiv
Primal, thunderous acid rock and celestial sitar ragas together in one song? Yes please!
Chismiten
Some of the most exciting music being made today is coming from the Tuareg guitarists of the Sahara. One of the artists taking this already hypnotic art form into new mesmerizing places is the electrifying Mdou Moctar. His latest album, Afrique Victime, finds the Nigerian musician taking guitar lines that wander like climbing ivy and distorting them with a Hendrixian ferociousness. Prepare for your ears to be scorched.
Anemometer
The New Age/ECM Records-influenced Bitchin Bajas and Joshua Abrams’ experimental jazz outfit, the Natural Information Society, are a match made in improvisational music heaven. Automaginary is a gorgeously meditative record that brings out the strengths of both groups, but Anemometer is where the two become truly transcendent. If this tune doesn’t make you feel like you’re floating, then nothing will.
Springtime Again
This is the quintessential song of rebirth and renewal. If you ever start to feel lost, confused or paranoid, dear reader, this track will ground you and wash your worries away like a cascade of spring rain.
Goin
Matt Valentine and Pat Gubler have a knack for summoning the atmospheres of the cosmos and a forested mountain at the same time. This is especially true on the beautifully ethereal Goin.
Looking for Pine and Obsidian
Speaking of combining the rural with the celestial, Bobby Lee can easily shift from sounding like Ash Ra Temple (as he does here) to Bruce Langhorne within the span of just two songs. It takes a great ear and a great deal of talent to be able to find sounds that overlap between the worlds of Kosmische and country music.
Lady Magnolia
A damn fine example of great Italian space-age jazz-funk from famed exploitation/porn/library music composer, Piero Umiliani. This track is the essence of mid-century modern cool. You can immediately imagine yourself sitting in an egg-shaped chair and hearing this through a nearby spherical 8-track player the moment the flute kicks in.
Addis Black Widow
The velvety grooves of famed Ethio-Jazz pioneer Mulatu Astatke meld perfectly with the acid funk breakbeats of The Heliocentrics on the wild Inspiration Information 3. This kaleidoscope of hot brass, fuzz guitars and kinetic drumming unfolds and runs circles around your head. To call Addis Black Widow exhilarating would be an understatement.
Yegle Nesh
Jailu Mergia, another Ethiopian jazz giant, cools things down here with the breezy yet danceable Yegle Nesh. This snaky instrumental coils around you and forces you to sway to its sauntering rhythm, no matter where you are or what you’re doing. You’ve been warned!
Feedback 66
Kosmische legends Dieter Moebius and Conny Plank lock into a dub groove here that is as mechanical as it is primordial. On top of a bed of squealing guitars and manipulated voices, you have this thick, thumping troglodyte rhythm provided by a fuzzy synthesizer and drum playing in tandem, and it is the definition of infectious.
Mother Seletta
Karl Hector is known for perfectly replicating the vibe of classic ’70s Afrobeat records, but here, he leans further into space rock and heady library music territory. Mother Seletta is a psychedelic juggernaut that glows with iridescent organ work and blistering guitar solos. Make sure your headphones aren’t shooting off sparks when you listen to this song.
Dallas
Keeping with the vibe of the Karl Hector tune, L’éclair’s Dallas is a funky gem with ricocheting beats and jagged guitar solos that slash through vaporous waves of warm synths. This is one criminally underrated band.
In and Out of den Gärten He Goes
Listening to this track is like gazing up at a sky full of stars, far away from the glare of city lights. You feel caught up in a great cosmic sea and relaxed by the sheer peaceful beauty of it all.
Galaxy in Turiya
If the Dire Wolves track feels like you’re looking up at the night sky, then Alice Coltrane’s Galaxy in Turiya is like you’re becoming one with the night sky. The overwhelming divine grace of this song swells within your heart, lifts you up and rests you high above the clouds. This is the perfect track to keep you glowing with positivity for the rest of the day.
BIO
Keith Hadad is the creator and author of the Record Crates United blog. His work has appeared in The Terrascopædia, Elmore Magazine, TheWaster.com, and a multitude of other web and print publications. He hosts RCU’s webradio show, The Record Crates United Mixtape, on Dunebuggyradio.com every other Thursday evening. You can follow him on Instagram @Recordcratesunited, on Twitter @RecordcratesUTD and on Facebook at @RecordCratesUnited. He lives in New Jersey with his wife Sarah and dog Miles.
Main photo: James Blank
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Howlin' Rain sonic messenger Ethan Miller shares his definitive stoner playlist
Aquarium Drunkard's Jason Woodbury smokes a bowl and shares his ultimate stoner playlist
A compilation of our favourite tracks from our guest-curated playlists
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Beats and buds. Tunes and terpenes. Melodies and mezz. Riffs and reefer. Music and cannabis meld into the perfect pairing—uplifting each other to sublime heights. And what an exceptional year of musical offerings! To celebrate all the great artists we’ve had the pleasure of discovering over the course of 2021, Heads’ music editor has hand-picked some of our favourite tracks from the guest-curated playlists featured on our Spotify channel and new albums we reviewed, and compiled them into the Heads Lifestyle’s 2021 Mixtape. Thank you to the Heads Lifestyle community including Steven Bernstein, Chef Sebastian Carosi, Rippley Johnson of Rose City Band, Howlin Rain’s Ethan Miller, Jeffrey Silverstein, Silver Synthetic, Jason P. Woodbury and all those who inspired us.
Get yourself good and blazed and enjoy!
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Jason Woodbury understood from a young age that music and cannabis shared the same zone. Immersed in music all day every day, he has just the right stoner playlist for late night sessions and lazy weekend afternoons. Light a bowl, grab a Topo Chico and buzzily spend some time discovering his favourite tunes.
Heads Lifestyle: Hi Jason, where are you now?
JPW: Phoenix, Arizona.
Heads Lifestyle: What do you do with your time?
JPW: I edit Aquarium Drunkard and also produce AD’s weekly talk show podcast Transmissions. I’m the creative director at Hello Merch where I’m working on all sorts of forthcoming projects, including an A/V channel called WASTOIDS. I host a radio show called Range and Basin as part of the Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard broadcast on dublab, which airs every third Sunday of the month from 4-8 PM Pacific.
Heads Lifestyle: Do you get high when listening to music?
JPW: I listen to music all day most of the week, but reserve stoned listening sessions for the nighttime and lazy weekend afternoons. But the short answer is, yeah.
Heads Lifestyle: Describe a typical music-weed session?
JPW: I like to smoke a bowl out back and then I’ll head in and put a record on the turntable. I’m more inclined toward Sativa strains—I like the energy—but I’m happy with Indica too. My primary hi-fi setup is in the front room. I love the natural light there. I’ll grab a Topo Chico and buzzily spend time with my LPs, petting the dogs, and flipping through comic books.
Heads Lifestyle: What is your earliest memory of connecting the dots between music and cannabis?
JPW: I likely connected those dots long before I personally understood the relationship. There was probably a moment I had at the Casa Grande mall as a kid, definitely in my pre-teen years, noting a pot leaf flag in the CD store and just sort of innately understanding that music and weed shared the same zone.
Caught Behind the Hours
Jeffrey Silverstein makes layered and hypnotic tunes. He also writes about music with deep sensitivity. This one feels like it could go on for hours, even though it’s only a little more than four minutes long.Por Perido Amor
Most of this record leans into an almost chicken scratch direction, but the tale of love gone wrong is all brown-eyed soul.
Wrong Space, Wrong Time
Far out synthesized bedroom R&B from 1985 recorded on a Tascam Portastudio 244. I first heard his song Excerpts from Autumn, which served as my radio show introduction for its first year, on the great and sadly out of print Personal Space: Electronic Soul 1974-1984 compilation. But as this song suggests, the entirety of Phelps’ Magnetic Eyes LP is fantastic.
Mindtrain
Like a barrelling locomotive right through the centre of my brain. Yoko is an absolute hero—then and now.
Sorriso Dela
Romantic Technicolor dream pop circa Brazil, 1972. Carlos is a huge star in Brazil, known for his pop records and work with Tim Maia. But this song and the album it comes from, Sonhos e Memorias (which translates to Dreams and Memories) represents a bit of a departure, soaking in hippie golden hour haziness. The backing band would go on to form the jazz rock outfit Azymuth—also worth checking out.
Corporeal
One of my favourite effects of cannabis is the way it can get you out of your head and into your body, a sensation that I experience acutely listening to the incredible voice of the late Trish Keenan.
First of Equals
Okay, stop what you’re doing and watch the 1996 Space Ghost Coast to Coast episode Sharrock. And welcome back. From wild solos on Herbie Mann records to the Pharoah Sanders-assisted classic Ask the Ages, you can’t go wrong with Sonny—even when he’s in kind of a schlocky blues rock mode—and I especially enjoy the interplay between him and Skopelitis on this tender composition.
Memphis, Tennessee
A Chuck Berry standard stretches out into a 10-minute surf drone guitar soli epic. I used to do a regular DJ gig at a Tempe dive called the Yucca Tap Room and I’d always play this one when I needed to take a break, grab another drink, or hit the bathroom. You walk into a room and this is playing and it’s an immediate vibe enhancer.
Damba Pa Ti
Like Sharrock, it’s all about Carlos’ phrasing. The band cooks too. You know that feeling of first hearing a song and knowing innately it’s one of your favourite songs? That’s how it was hearing this one as a kid. It always struck me as just the most beautiful, soul-level kind of expression and it still feels that way.
Smokey
Another bedroom blessing from Hadley, Lee, and Lightcap, who comprised Acetone, one of the best bands ever to come out of Los Angeles. They were grouped with other slowcore groups, like Low, Mazzy Star, and Mercury Rev, but there’s a particularly oceanic feel to their sounds. Also worth digging up, any of the hard-to-track-down-but-worth-it recordings by the Dick Slessig Combo, which presaged Acetone and resumed after Lee took his life. Lightcap is one of the great underrecognized guitarists—a master of mood and slow blooming reverie.
Dreaming Casually
A lowrider soul-die that begins with its wheels on the road but soon departs for distant galaxies of reverb and blissful flute like a half-remembered dream.
When Your Lonely Heart Breaks
I’m a huge fan of Neil Young and Tom Scharpling’s The Best Show. I first heard this one on The Best Show spin-off in which Scharpling, Jason Gore, Pat Byrne, and Mike Lisk make their way chronologically through the CSNY discography (both solo and supergroup incarnations—so you know there’s some dreck). I’d missed this selection from Neil’s 1987 album Life. It doesn’t quite work—producer David Briggs famously was dissatisfied with Crazy Horse’s clunky and emotionless take —but there’s a haunting proto-Twin Peaks/Lynchian quality to it I can’t shake. You can hear the glorious composition struggling to get out. Under the right circumstances I can hear it in my head.
Jason P. Woodbury is the host of Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. He is the creative director at Hello Merch, overseeing projects like WASTOIDS. His work has appeared in Pitchfork, Stereogum, Relix, and many other outlets. His radio show Range and Basin airs every third Sunday on dublab. He plays music in the group Kitimoto and as JPW. He lives in Arizona with his wife Becky and their dogs, Watson and Dinah.
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Pacific Range rides the wave of cosmic Rock 'n' Roll
Howlin' Rain sonic messenger Ethan Miller shares his definitive stoner playlist
Rose City Band's Ripley Johnson let's us in on his Earth Trip
Listen in as musicians Ethan Miller, frontman of Howlin Rain, and James Toth, member of One Eleven Heavy, discuss The Dharma Wheel, Howlin Rain’s latest pandemic album. They swap views on writing techniques, playing hide-and-seek with their muse, putting in the time, overcoming roadblocks, finding their authentic voice, and when the ideal time to light up is.
By James Toth
Listen in as musicians Ethan Miller, frontman of Howlin Rain, and James Toth, member of One Eleven Heavy, discuss The Dharma Wheel, Howlin Rain’s latest pandemic album. They swap views on writing techniques, playing hide-and-seek with their muse, putting in the time, overcoming roadblocks, finding their authentic voice, and when the ideal time to light up is.
James Toth: Congrats on the new record, Ethan. I love it!
Ethan Miller: Thank you!
JT: The press kit says that The Dharma Wheel is about “a WWI soldier passing from this world back into matter.” Do you consider this a concept album? It does have a prelude, after all!
EM: The story’s a little convoluted. Before COVID, the material we’d tracked for this record was, in theory, gonna be a crazy triple album—like two-plus hours of music. So we tracked stuff for all of that, and we were out there touring, which was both allowing us to perform in the studio at a high level—nice and well oiled—and also funding constant studio work to make a triple album. But then COVID shut down everything right after the session where we’d finished everything you hear on this record.
JT: How much was left unfinished?
EM: About half of the record or more still needed overdubs, and I wanted to re-record one of the songs, and have vocals of all kinds put on. But without that touring funding, and with the band being estranged all of a sudden, you know, all that stopped. Especially since I’m the record label, the idea of doing a triple album… I couldn’t just dump another ten grand or something into this thing when I basically had a finished record right there, you know?
JT: For what it’s worth—and to your credit—the album doesn’t sound to me like it’s missing anything. As for the concept being convoluted, well, like me, you’re something of a student of rock and roll history, so you know all concept albums are convoluted! The epic title track certainly sounds like the end of something. In fact, the second half of that track is one of my favourite things on the record.
EM: Well, there’s a “suite of the underworld,” an epic, 25-minute prog jam that was supposed to end the whole thing, which you’ll someday hear, but it doesn’t end this one! [Closing track] Dharma Wheel was supposed to be a halfway point.
JT: You’re working again with Tim Green, who previously collaborated with the group on Magnificent Fiend (2008) and The Russian Wilds (2012).
EM: Tim tracked part of it, and then a lot of the stuff that was tracked for the other half, that you’ll hear on Volume 2 or whatever, was tracked by Andrew Bush down in Chatsworth, in LA. But I was still living in the Bay Area at the time so it was easy for me to drive out to Tim’s studio in the remote foothills of the Sierra Nevadas, and I could stay with him. During the pandemic he and I could get together in an isolated way and keep working on the record.
JT: You guys have a shared history, which of course has its advantages.
EM: Yeah there’s almost no discussion about anything. It’s nice to have that relationship where no one is tiptoeing around. After 20, 25 years, I pretty much know what he’s thinking, and he knows what I’m thinking, and so we know what to do.
JT: I’m of the opinion that every session needs a bullshit detector: one person who’s not afraid to shake their head and go, Nope, that’s not the take.
EM: Yeah, but sometimes it’s also nice to have fresh “un-familiars” around, if you’re really throwing caution to the wind, unrehearsed, just going and just lighting it up, and seeing what comes out of a session. They don’t know what you’re thinking or what you’re trying to do, and you don’t really know, either, and then anything can happen, rather than that pre-knowledge of methodology with one another. In this case, though, it was the perfect thing: Tim’s sound, his science, his creative side, his long-time production with me; it was perfect.
JT: Speaking of un-familiars, you got Scarlet Rivera on this. I love what she does on Annabelle, which is another one of my favourite songs on the record. How did that connection come about?
EM: We had tracked a song that had the Isis chords off Dylan’s Desire, and it was a song that wasn’t originally like that, but that Rolling Thunder movie had just come out, and I was like, Let’s get inspired about this track. There were so many amazing scenes; sweat dripping down Dylan’s white makeup and shit, all those close ups. And everyone went in and we kinda nailed the tune in that feel that we’d been working on for a few years, trying to find the right arrangement and feel for it, and we just ripped through it, Rolling Thunder-style, and it was perfect. So we recorded it, and [drummer] Justin [Smith] and I were talking and I said, “You know what would really top that off? If we had a violinist. Someone like Scarlet Rivera.” And he said that his wife, who’s a publicist, had rubbed elbows with Scarlet at gigs in LA, and he’d ask if maybe she has her number. And she did! So I dropped her a line and said, “Scarlet, here are the tracks, here's what we are, and here’s my ethos, and I’d just love it if you could come in and play some tunes.”
JT: I find that a lot of times when you reach out to those lifers you get unexpectedly good results. My friend Jerry DeCicca, who I think you probably know, is a pro at this. He’ll just cold-call Spooner Oldham, or Augie Meyers, guys like that, and ask them to play on a record, and they’re almost always amenable.
EM: Yeah, a lot of these cats—especially the ones who’ve been doing this for all their life—are essentially session musicians. So if you give them a call and say, “I’ve got a gig. What’s the cost? Can we get you in?” The answer is usually yes, if their schedules are free, because that’s what they do all week: they tour, or they go to the studio for a few hours multiple times a day and play on different records. It’s probably a little harder to try to get Joe Perry or somebody to just waltz in, but for these cats who’ve been lifers playing on session stuff, that’s their thing. And it’s a bonus, I think, if they hear what you’re doing and they’re like, Hey, I love this music. This is the music I love, too.
JT: I’m now going to throw some of your words back at you. You told Rock Cellar: “I like to think that Howlin Rain is an expression of my own and our own musical voice. I don’t know of any group or composer or artist that doesn’t interact with the history of music and wasn’t gravitating towards things that they love. And kind of mutate them and bring them into their voice.” I related to this quote because I often say that my band speaks in a vocabulary of “records,” which I distinguish from a vocabulary of music. It’s always so helpful when you can use the records you dig as shorthand. Do you find this to be true?
EM: Yeah, I think so. But I think it’s inevitable. It just happens. It’s pretty rare that you’re in a band where nobody has any crossover with music they love. Even what we think of as the most original voices in music, be it Mozart, Beethoven, or King Crimson, or the Beatles or whatever, they were referencing other things. It’s just that their voices were so authentic and just so fearsomely, daringly, honestly interpreted. And they left the portal open. Nobody on Earth is like, Oh, the first Beatles record is just an Everly Brothers rip-off, all those harmonies…it’s just used-up old trash that they ripped off somebody else. But in [the Beatles’] minds, it was simple; they didn’t have to discuss it all day, they just looked at their favourite record they had on the record player, and did it like that. You just leave the window open so the ghosts can fly in and out. It’s just energy and matter getting passed on.
JT: But sometimes it’s easier to explain something by referencing something someone else has already done.
EM: Yeah, more directly, when you’re having a tough time and hitting a roadblock, sometimes just referencing something can be really helpful. When everyone’s like, What do we do right here? and somebody says, What about when this band does it this way, on this record? and it’s like, Ah, ok. Thank you. Roadblock removed. And you’re right: you can talk about time signatures and music theory all day and you’re not gonna budge that roadblock.
JT: You told No Depression, “I try to practice for an hour or two every day but a lot of times, in the depths of practice, I end up writing instead.” I’m so glad you said this because I often have the same experience: I’ll sit down to practice scales or whatever, and I end up writing something. And when I say it, it always sounds like a humblebrag, but the truth is, sometimes I really just want to practice, and the song gets in the way! Is there a way to turn off that voice when you’re practicing that’s like, Oh, wait, that’s a riff!
EM: Part of why I write is I kinda hate practicing by myself. But I love practicing with a band, of course.
JT: Of course. Same here, on both counts.
EM: I just hate sitting there practicing, but I love the results of it. You have a lot more at your hands and mind when you do it. It must be done. Sometimes it’s just necessity. If we have a tour coming up and we have to get a new set together, or we have to rehearse songs for a record, and I gotta get my parts together and stuff, then, yeah, I make sure I’m not writing music. If something happens, I get it on the voice memo and then put it aside. I gotta keep focused.
JT: Silver Current is your own label. You and I share what I think is a relatively uncommon experience of having released records on indie labels, major labels, and our own labels. We won’t get into the advantages and disadvantages of all of these because that would take hours, but what are the challenges of running your own label in 2021, pandemic aside?
EM: I don’t know, I love it. It really works well for me. Now’s a great time to be putting out records.
JT: That’s reassuring to hear. I think you may be one of the only label owners I’ve heard say that!
EM: The demand during the COVID year has been bananas. It’s a great time to be a record label. I can’t complain, because it’s been so fruitful for the last year and half, even the last five years. I don’t really give a shit if it takes nine months to press a record; we’ll just be on a new schedule. It’s not like we’re rushing for tour right now! Everything’s on quicksand. But yeah, I love it. My only complaint is just that you spend a little more time at a computer than at a guitar or piano. Actually, a lot more time. And a lot more time on social media. When you’re running a band and a record label, you’re on social media a lot. And I don’t want computers or social media to just eat my life alive, you know? The more I do of either, the worse I physically and mentally feel. But the more you do, the more successful you are. You can live just cranking it out on your ten, 12-hour work day at the computer and the socials and stuff, then you sell more records, get more gigs, get more done, but it just starts to thrash your body and mind.
JT: It's exhausting. And I don’t think every artist has the stomach for it. And like you said, it gives you so much less time to actually create things. Imagine if the E. Street Band, instead of jamming after school or whatever, were like, Let’s Instagram!
EM: [Laughs]. Yeah. It’s just part of the contemporary world. And things like social media and Bandcamp are what’s made running a record label so fruitful right now. You can just reach out and touch the fans within seconds. You can release an album on a pre-order, in literally a fraction of a second, and have people respond.
JT: Yeah, I’ve enjoyed the live releases you’ve put up on Bandcamp, which seems like an extension of when you used to sell live CD-Rs at Comets on Fire shows.
EM: That’s the beauty of that stuff: being able to just cut out four, six months of interacting with people. You still have distro, you still have retail, but all of that used to be so cloudy. And if you didn’t have a good distro company, maybe you never got a check, and you didn’t know where everything was at.
JT: Is Silver Current a one-man operation?
EM: To a degree. I do the basic label-running myself, but it’s distributed through Revolver, and I often go to [Revolver owner] Gary [Held] for bigger questions about things, and he will advise or help me make a decision. We’re old friends. And then, Howlin Rain’s manager and agent Jared [Flamm], anything to do with that side of things, he’ll help me; Kevin Calabro does PR, Tim Daly does fulfilment. So, there’s a team. I’m not just having to figure out everything on my own, or do everything. I know, at least, PR is taken care of; the mechanics of retail are in place. I can always ask distro about distro things. And you just feel more solid, like, Cool, at least three out of four people in my circle have said this is great, this is the way to go, so you’re feeling good about it.
JT: I’m curious about your relationship with cannabis in your creative process.
EM: I don’t really use it in the writing process. I have the Hemingway work ethic: you kinda get up in your undies, and from 7am till 10am you stand in the corner, kinda shivering, typing against the wall, you know? Like: Get it done! We’ve got work to do here! This is how you write the novel, you know? I just find putting in the time is important.
JT: And cannabis can compromise that time, yeah. I find it doesn’t really work for me when I’m writing or recording, but if I’m listening back or mixing, I think it’s a good tool as a sort of lie-detector test.
EM: Yeah, I have a lot of friends that compartmentalize certain aspects, and I like that. One of my friends will get stoned for writing the guitar parts for overdubs, just working out all these fun guitar lines. And I like the idea of it, but honestly, I guess just wearing so many hats and having such long days to try to do all this stuff, for better or worse, I fear the loss of minutes. Will I get stoned, get off course, and lose a few hours? I mean, honestly, that’s probably one of the best things that can happen to you, creatively: just losing yourself, and losing some time to it. But [for me], it’s been a while.
JT: I admire your approach to writing, the way you treat it as a craft. I actually don’t relate to it in practice, but I envy anyone who works this way. I have to wait for the muse to knock. Any time I’ve sat down with a blank piece of paper and some allotted time to write, I come up with bullshit. Is there a way to reconcile this discipline with, say, the notion of the lightning bolt moment, where you’re suddenly struck by an idea when you’re driving or trying to sleep?
EM: I mean, sometimes things don’t come. But there’s something interesting that happens when you put the hours in. Sometimes things come to you in the shower too, but they’re not really sneaking in the back door that way; you recognize them. Otherwise you wouldn’t have jumped out of the shower and grabbed the voice memo and thought, I got it! The name for the song! I got the thing! I like working within those hours of regimented work every day, where I’m gonna be spending two to six hours a day with my notebooks, just trying out new chords, different things, working through things, writing down silly words, whatever. If nothing’s happening, then I’ll just write a bunch of bullshit down on the page, play a bunch of weird shit, play some funny chords or whatever. And then, two days later, I’ll see the book, and maybe it’s upside down, and I see the inversion of the chord or something. Something happened when that time was spent. And maybe you’re listening back and you start [the recording] at a weird place, and, all of a sudden, you hear something. I like the way that things can sneak in the back door, accidentally, when you put that kind of work in. Sometimes they say if nothing’s coming, open up somebody else’s book and just start re-typing their book. See what it feels like to type someone else’s novel, what it feels like for those letters to hit the page, what that stuff looks like as a hieroglyph, even if it’s not coming from you. All of that is of value because you’re constantly creating these little windows for things to sneak in and happen accidentally, like birds that fly in and get caught in there.
JT: I really like that perspective. In fact, that may be the best argument I’ve heard for the quotidian “craft” approach to writing. The idea of keeping the portal open, and only recognizing the inspiration after the fact. Like, this bridge I wrote is now the chorus, and suddenly the song’s awesome.
EM: It’s a creative writing technique. You just need to write something. Write about breakfast for four pages. See how long you can go. Same with painting: just paint that same fuckin’ piece of wood or whatever, nine times. You’re not working on a masterpiece; you’re just putting in the work.
This tuneage is a collection of songs that influenced the making of The Dharma Wheel album—in spirit, reference, vibe and heavy rotation. Sometimes in the van driving at dawn on misty winter mountain roads, or playing at the table over wine while the band broke late night for dinner after a long studio session at the Louder Studios band apartment. The shared music becomes a band's travel companion, the friendly ghost in the van, and a portrait of musical family. Includes Italian Giallo-Prog, French spiritual jazz, African neo-classical piano majesty, super-lost psych jams and a bunch of other spirit healers. Dig it!
Howlin Rain - The Dharma Wheel is available October 8th on Silver Current Records.
About the author:
James Toth plays in the transatlantic rock band One Eleven Heavy, hosts the podcast The Toth Zone, and has written about music and culture for NPR, The Quietus, Aquarium Drunkard, Stereogum, and The Wire, among others. He lives in Wisconsin with his wife Leah and Old English Sheepdog Virgil Caine.
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Pacific Range rides the wave of cosmic Rock 'n' Roll
Howlin' Rain sonic messenger Ethan Miller shares his definitive stoner playlist
Rose City Band's Ripley Johnson let's us in on his Earth Trip
]]>Steven Bernstein’s latest creative gift, Tinctures in Time, is a powerful expression of friendship and music making. Inspired by life and loss, Tinctures is the first of a four-record project of community music and offers a sense of otherworldliness. Backed by the Millennial Territory Orchestra, Tinctures’ influences include Jazz, funk, African traditions and Minimalism—all rolled up into what Bernstein calls cannabis music.
Steven Bernstein’s latest creative gift, Tinctures in Time, is a powerful expression of friendship and music-making. Inspired by life and loss, Tinctures is the first of a four-record project of community music and offers a sense of melodic otherworldliness. Backed by the Millennial Territory Orchestra, Tinctures’ influences include Jazz, funk, African traditions and Minimalism—all rolled up into what Bernstein calls cannabis music.
Heads Lifestyle: You have played with some great musicians both in the Jazz world and beyond. How do you incorporate their influences and pay respect to their legacies through the music you create?
Steven Bernstein: Before Hal Willner died, we were talking about all our heroes that were no longer here. Hal said to me, “It’s up to us to make our art with the same intent as our heroes now.” So I keep that spirit in everything I do, whether it’s playing, practicing, writing, cooking, leading bands and rehearsals, all of it. I carry this all with me now.
HL: You have a long history with the musicians you’ve chosen to surround yourself with. Can you tell us about this?
SB: I’ve been very lucky to work both with musicians whose work I admire, as well as musicians I refer to as my “heroes.” When I started playing, hanging and listening in the Lower East Side in the early ‘80s, Hal Willner and John Lurie were making music that inspired me, and I noticed that neither of them worked with trumpeters that much. I ended up working closely with both of them. In high school, some of my favourite musicians/music were Sam Rivers, Roswell Rudd, Bernie Worrell on the Parliament records, Howard Johnson’s music with Taj Mahal, and Allen Toussaint’s arrangements for The Band’s Rock of Ages. I ended up making a lot of music with all of these musicians, spending hours on the road and on stage, and having them as friends and mentors.
HL: Can you explain the concept of trust and what it means to Jazz musicians?
SB: In Jazz, we are always listening and reacting. Clark Terry once said to me, “Jazz is about digging yourself into a hole, and figuring how the hell you’re going to get out!” The moments when we collectively find the way out—that’s the magic of Jazz!
HL: What does “Community Music” refer to?
SB: It refers to the human process of these four records. The band has been together 20 years. I met Peter Apfelbaum in the 6th grade. Ben Perowsky was still in high school when I met him. Ben Allison was in college when we met. I turned 22 on the road with Doug Wieselman. I replaced Curtis Fowlkes in the Lounge Lizards. Erik Lawrence and I spent eight years with Levon Helm and three years with Little Feat. We’ve been through so much life and loss and music and midnight shows and international festivals and Thanksgivings and memorial services. I also have history with our guests. I met Catherine Russell through Levon. She recorded with Sexmob 12 years ago. Medeski and I go back to the first MMW record and the first Sexmob record. (Well we actually go back before that to the Lounge Lizards.) I was in a band with Arturo in the early ‘80s. But it’s not just the band—Andy Taub has recorded and mixed every MTO record for 15 years. I met Kevin Calabro—who runs Royal Potato Family and came up with the idea of releasing four records—when he was working for Joel Dorn 20 plus years ago. Joel was Hal Willner’s mentor. I met Gene Paul, who mastered the records, through Hal Willner. He was a house engineer at Atlantic Records recording the albums that Joel Dorn produced. And Victor Melamed, who created the series of album covers, is part of our extended family. He lives in Moscow and has created incredible artwork for many of our records. The whole project is the meeting of a large community doing what they do, and we do it for the community of music lovers. They are an essential part of this community
HL: Can you explain the process of transforming personal trauma into creativity?
SB: Everything inspires everything. We are the sum of our experiences. And maybe even the experiences we haven’t experienced yet—if we’re lucky. We are who we are. There is no process for me other than the process of living a creative life, staying in the moment, and trying to be nice to people.
HL: What's the story behind the album title Tinctures in Time?
SB: My dad is a doctor and he always uses the phrase tincture of time. It’s a medical expression and can refer to healing a broken rib or a broken heart. Sometimes there’s no western medicine to remedy the situation, hence a tincture of time. I love wordplay. This just came to me—another “gift.”
HL: What will your musical legacy be?
SB: No need for a legacy; just make music while I’m here. So far that plan has brought me to some wild water!
HL: Jazz and cannabis have been intertwined since the early days. According to legend, Louis Armstong wouldn’t allow anyone on a recording session unless they shared his passion for getting high while playing music. Does your concept of “Community Music” include a similar unwritten code?
SB: No, we don’t need codes. Just be here now!
HL: It’s said that you lay out a nice spread of food for your musicians to enjoy before recording sessions. Do these spreads include a selection of cannabis?
SB: My feeling is that a good recording session should have whatever people need to make the process as fruitful and fulfilling and easy as possible, and there are certainly some cannabis smokers in the ensemble, therefore…
HL: We love your philosophy that music can be a transformative experience without resorting to psychedelic sound effects and layers of reverb in order to achieve a trance like state. How do you create this vibe?
SB: It's really about connecting with the audience. You can’t make the audience go there. It’s a collective endeavour; everyone has to be relaxed and comfortable and ready to travel. Some of my earliest shows were The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Cecil Taylor. I was a teenager and those events were very transformative. I realized that music had that power. And then in NYC in the early ‘80s—P Funk, King Sunny Ade, Franco TPOK Jazz (African band with three electric guitars), Don Cherry, Pandit Pran Nath, Phillip Glass (loud as hell!) at the Ritz! So I felt firsthand how beautiful this type of musical experience can be.
HL: You curated an incredible six-part “Jazz for Cannabis Lovers” playlist for us. Can you explain your selection process?
SB: I know that many people have no relationship to Jazz. I’ve heard people say, “Well, I don’t really like Jazz.” And I wonder, Do they not like Count Basie, Cannonball Adderley, Gil Evans, Louis Armstrong, Herbie Hancock, or Bill Frisell? What is it that they don’t like? They haven’t been exposed to enough music to know what they “don’t like.” I mean everybody likes my shows. So I made a semi-chronological playlist broken into sections of great Jazz music that I think will appeal to cannabis lovers. If you don’t dig a song, skip to the next and keep going until you find something that grooves you and moves you.
HL: Can you describe an ideal day in the life of Steven Bernstein?
SB: Coffee. Practice. Have a puff. Some delicious homemade food. Write some music or record some music (and get paid). Walk the dog. Have dinner with my wife. Play some music at a sweet concert/gig (and get paid). Get home safe.
I hope people aren’t offended by my desire to get paid, but without income I can buy no food, and then I can’t eat, which means I won’t have the strength to play trumpet!
HL: How were you first introduced to music? Why did you choose the trumpet?
SB: My folks always had good records around the house—Ellington, Basie, the Beatles, Big Brother and Holding Company. They took me to see Ellington in third grade! Preservation Hall Jazz Band in the fifth grade. I started trumpet in fourth grade. I was obsessed with Louis Armstrong. When I moved back to Berkeley, there was a jazz program in the fifth grade run by Phil Hardymon, Dick Whittington and Herb Wong. At the end of sixth grade, I joined Peter Apfelbaum’s band, and played in his various groups all through high school.
HL: Who is your greatest inspiration?
SB: I have so many—all my teachers, all the arrangers, all the brass players, all the bands I’ve heard, and the bands I haven’t heard, all my amazing meals in Italy, Ken Kesey and Wavy Gravy and all the psychedelic warriors, all the oceans and trees, and the buildings and beautiful cities, and, of course, Sun Ra and Pythagoras.
Master trumpeter, Steven Bernstein has created a semi-chronological playlist divided into sections of great Jazz music that he feels will appeal to cannabis lovers. If you don’t dig a song, skip to the next and keep going until you find something that grooves you and moves you.
Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra - Tinctures In Time (Community Music, Vol.1) is available now on Royal Potato Family
Main Photo: Jacob Blickenstaff
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Lee “Scratch” Perry is a genius. The legendary mind behind a boundless catalogue of incredible records released throughout reggae’s history, Scratch needs really no introduction once you’ve heard a record like Superape. His dub experiments from the 1970s sound like music from an era we still are far from reaching. Thing is, a guy that can make music simultaneously sound like it’s coming from underwater and outer space at the same time is probably a little odd.
By Erin MacLeod
Lee “Scratch” Perry is a genius. The legendary mind behind a boundless catalogue of incredible records released throughout reggae’s history, Scratch needs really no introduction once you’ve heard a record like Superape. His dub experiments from the 1970s sound like music from an era we still are far from reaching. Thing is, a guy that can make music simultaneously sound like it’s coming from underwater and outer space at the same time is probably a little odd.
Perry is most certainly a character—some might say eccentric, some might say insane. David Katz’s fascinating biography, People Funny Boy: The Genius of Lee “Scratch” Perry, allows you to make your own decision. Whatever the nature of his much-discussed madness, the reality is that he’s still an engrossing character. Even though his most recent work pales in comparison to earlier masterpieces—like the incredibly gorgeous Congos’ Heart of the Congos—he’s still making music. His latest record, Panic in Babylon, is an acceptable, if somewhat bizarre, outing. It’s tough to know how to take lines like “I am Lee Scratch Perry the cocky man, I'm Doctor Dick, I'm Doctor Quick, I'm Doctor Tree, I'm Doctor Lee, I'm Doctor Me.” More antics than anything else. To discover his genius watch The Upsetter—said to be the definitive feature-length film about his life story by filmmakers Ethan Higbee and Adam Bhala Lough.
Perry spoke to Heads Lifestyle from Switzerland, where the conversation shifted from a state of normalcy to what you’d probably expect from a man who famously wandered around Kingston backwards, hitting the ground with a hammer and also claimed that he could get a good bass beat from sticking cables into a palm tree.
Lee Perry: Scratch here on the wire. What can I do for you?
Heads Lifestyle: I wanted to ask you about your record, Panic in Babylon (2004). Lots of reviewers are saying that it seems to be a return to form for you.
LP: It’s part of the first sort of record that I used to do with a collie vibration, things I’ve gone through. It’s like Panic in Babylon is a new version of People Funny Boy. It’s another version of my sound.
HL: And how is working with the White Belly Rats band in Switzerland?
LP: We’ve been working together before I did the record. We made a version of War Inna Babylon, though we call it Pussy Man, it’s on the album. We did it here in Switzerland and I listened to it and said there was some more that we should do. And that we would finish all the tracks. Some of them are designed by them and some of them are my mixover.
HL: You have some interesting remixes by Dave Sitek from the band TV on the Radio and DJ Spooky. How did you get involved with them?
LP: The group in America, know ya mean? What did you say about them?
HL: The Bonus Remixes.
LP: I think they just invited them and got involved with them. But I don’t know them, (laughs) I don’t know who they are! But I’m confident that it’s okay.
HL: When Jamaica E.T. won the Grammy for best reggae album in 2003, newspapers and radio call-in shows in Jamaica were all talking about how people weren’t familiar with your music.
LP: Who dem don’t know who Lee Perry is? When you go to Jamaica, you learn that they are jealous. Because I am not from Kingston, I am from the country. When I come from the country to Kingston, Coxsone [Dodd] was making some music over the American Jazz. And then reggae music came and it was my type of music because I am a spiritual being. You have human beings and just beings and spiritual beings, and I am more of a spiritual being. My type of music was like folk songs, spiritual music and I would go to Coxsone and tell him, Do you like my type of music? And he wouldn’t record me; he just took my songs. He would take it and just change a chord, but it’s the same. He didn’t want to let me into the business. But my music, which is now reaching the mass market, is recreating this because them not like me too much because I do some things that dem cannot do so dem jealous and want to take it over. You understand? They have a grudge.
HL: There are lots of new talents in Jamaica that come from the country: Warrior King, Gyptian… Do you think that there is something about the country that makes good music?
LP: Yes. As I say, my vibes are from the country. This is what I’m telling you. Because I am from the country, the Kingston people they don’t like me much, but the country people, they understand me very well. And country people are blessed. It is better to come from the country because God is from the country. People in the city are not so much with God.
HL: I hear that a film is being made about you. Can you tell me about it?
LP: It’s about the weather, but not only the weather. It is about the people that were here before human beings, from the Ice Age. In order to keep fresh, you have to have 100% communication with the Ice Age. I am sent from there, that’s why I don’t have any wrinkles. I am 70 and I don’t have any wrinkles, no wrinkle at all.
HL: Since so many Jamaican musicians have such long careers, it’s as if there are no “oldies” tunes. Sugar Minott once said to me that all musicians, even the older ones in Jamaica make new tunes, so there are no oldies.
LP: We can take things from the graveyard to support us. But, after a while, the people will dies, but I am keeping cool, in the Ice Age, with no wrinkles. The people from the Ice Age can do this, from the kingdom of the Eskimo. We live longer than all of them. The people from the Ice Age have all the economic books, the trust fund, and everything. I am the controller of the money, the IMF, here I am in Switzerland. I am unaged, and I believe in ice. And the sunshine is coming from the Ice Age. And the sunshine is the father and is the colour of gold, the golden lion. I am the inheritor of the International Monetary Foundation. I am the only man who can bring the healing to the United States of America. And if any youths want to get back their money, they need to ask me because I am the controller of the U.S. assets.
HL: Maybe you should speak to the U.N.
LP: Well, if the Jamaicans had known that I was the director of the International Monetary Foundation I would have given a chance to Jamaica (laughs). You understand?
HL: Are you Rasta?
LP: I would want them to know that one time, I had locks and I wrote a song. And I made locks so famous, golden locks and silver locks, and then my locks don’t grow. I am not of the Rastafari; I am of the Son of God. And the Son of God must shave the locks because the sun is shining without any locks. And I discover I am a fish being, I’m not a human being. I am a fish being and water is my god. And I am sure that ganja is good for healing and ganja is good for smoking. I am not a natty dread. I am a spiritual being, a physical being, I have super strength, I feel no pain, I have no wrinkles. I see Rastafari and they have all sorts of wrinkles so I don’t want anything like that. I discover a way out.
HL: Ice and sun and water, is this all part of maintaining a connection with the countryside?
LP: I believe in water, I believe in nature—they are through God. But when people take cocaine they don’t respect God. To be with God, don’t do any cocaine, don’t smoke any cigarettes, don’t eat any meat. But if you do cocaine, smoke cigarettes and eat meat you will see Bob. Mr. Bob Marley.
HL: You mention the water and fish. I’m thinking of Row Fisherman, Row by the Congos, which was just released as a riddim with a bunch of new versions. What do you think of reggae today?
LP: It’s not among water, it’s among corruption and cocaine and drugs. There is nothing holy about it anymore. But if you stick to musical righteousness like you mention—the Congos. That was created by water, and talking about the Ark of the Covenant and righteousness. With righteousness nothing is impossible.
This interview was originally published in Heads Magazine Vol.6 Issue 10, 2006
Listen on Spotify
1976's "Super Ape" by Lee "Scratch" Perry and the Upsetters is considered by many to be his finest work.
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Roots & culture reggae artists, by default, have one of the strongest “political” campaigns of musically advocating legalization of the weed. With the accuracy and frequency of a rub a dub missile, the genre has repeatedly produced a highly potent strain of talented musicians, singers and songwriters gifted with the ability to mobilize the masses locally and internationally to join in the march against the oppression of ganga. Operation Free de Herb has been led by many reggae front men. Lincoln “Sugar” Minott is one of the genres long-standing generals.
By Prymtym
Roots & culture reggae artists, by default, have one of the strongest “political” campaigns of musically advocating legalization of the weed. With the accuracy and frequency of a rub a dub missile, the genre has repeatedly produced a highly potent strain of talented musicians, singers and songwriters gifted with the ability to mobilize the masses locally and internationally to join in the march against the oppression of ganga. Operation Free de Herb has been led by many reggae front men. Lincoln “Sugar” Minott is one of the genres long-standing generals.
Heads Lifestyle: How does the herb impact your music?
Sugar Minott: Well, it keeps you in a meditation, you understand, first thing. Keep calm and hold a medi(tation) to get certain lyrics and all those things. So I build up a nice spliff of the good Indica, of the good sensi. Thoughts just flow and you have no time to think about negative things. Just think positive you know, so it goes. For the younger ones… they might not be able to manage it too much, but I and I from dem time till now know it’s the healing of the nation (laughs). We endorse it and we pass it and we say legalize it (laughs). Straight man, it’s for real, serious.
Sugar Minott’s Herbman Hustling and Oh Mr. D.C. (Deputy Constable) reminds society that definitions and values may change depending on which side of the tracks you reside. The songs paint the picture for listeners in Minott’s classic Studio One/Sir Coxson Dodd-produced tracks, which depict any given herb hustler’s daily routine intended to provide life’s necessities for self and family.
SM: 'Cause it’s like the people are depending on this to send their children to school. A lot of those youths have grown into good adults now, you know? Just out of that, you know?
HL: A song like D.C.…
SM: It’s reality. I grew up in a ghetto named Maxfield Park. There was a man named Bufu; he used to go for herb every weekend. On Fridays, if we don’t see him by 7 o’clock, we knew (laughs). Later we would get a call from some (police) station down in Westmoreland saying that they’ve held Bufu, and we have to go for him. So, out of all those things those songs come forward, you see it? Same “fifty cents a stick & a dollar a quarter” (citing lyrics from his song Oh Mr. D.C.). So the song comes from a thing that really happened. It’s not fiction, the real thing.
HL: Any DJ with a decent knowledge of reggae knows that most ganga tunes will get a good response from a (reggae) crowd, two of which are your own classic titles. Any new herb songs to release?
SM: We have a new herb song titled Wan me wan me sensi.
HL: And it goes like…
SM:
“Wan me wan me wan me
Wan me wan me wan me
Wan me high grade tonight
Everybody’s smoking it
I don’t care what they say
Most people need de high grade everyday
The officers stop and stare
I can see their faces
I’ll smoke my high grade
I’ll smoke it anywhere
Let me take it from the top again…I say…”
(Stops to relight his spliff while humming the lyrics)
HL: What part of Jamaica has the strongest herb?
SM: Westmoreland, man! Orange Hill, man! Westmoreland thing! Don’t care where you go all over the world, over the whole world! Westmoreland, trust me, high grade. This don’t taste bad still… it’s a Canadian thing, but (laughs) you know how it goes. It’s been a long time that I’ve wanted to light up my spliff. All the time they're telling me to put away my spliff, but we nah mass it, we pass it and endorse it! Seen, and we floss it, every time. We are the original herbalist, Herbman Hustling, you understand?
(Re-lights his slow burning spliff one more time.)
Ganga, regarded as a holy sacrament to Rastafarians has not gone untouched throughout the times. “Seasoned spliffs” began taking a toll as crack spread throughout North American inner cities as well as the Caribbean. A few reggae artists have been broken by the effects of the drug, receiving their fair share of public ridicule and derailed careers. Musically inspired by the topic, soldier Minott gleefully stages another musical attack:
“Coming from the country, I man no deal wid de coke
Strictly sensi weh me smoke
You know seh; I man nuh deal wid de coke, no!
Rasta nuh run dem deh joke, hea!
If you see me wid cocaine
It will damage fi me brain
You must be feeling insane
I won’t be going down the drain
Heah, I man nuh deal wid de coke
Ah strictly sensimillia me ah smoke”
(Takes another puff.)
SM: This thing makes clothes and medicine, you understand? It’s the healing of the nation. This thing sends all the people in countries they call third world countries, the first world countries to me, you know… sends their kids to school and all those things. So anytime we sing about it in the music, it’s not like we’re promoting drugs ‘cause we don’t call this drugs. This is natural plant without any addition to it. Just like JAH grew it, you done know. Seen? Yeah man, you know Sugar Minott is an herbalist.
Sugar Minott has stayed the course trailblazed by other soldiers of the reggae army fighting in the name of love for the most high, justice, equality, world peace, and of course the weed. Notables like Peter Tosh, Jacob Miller, and Culture have all potted potent hits with songs singing praises of the good all spice such as Legalize it, Tired fi lick weed (inna bush) and International herb. Music is Sugar Minott's weapon of choice. Backstage there are no weapons of destruction to be found, only a cloud of smoke, literally speaking… rather smoking.
SM: You understand me? That’s how it goes! Bob Marley used to tell you about it, now I’m telling you ‘bout it. High grade, straight.
Listen on Spotify
Beat the heat. Listen to a selection of favourite Sugar Minott tracks hand picked by Heads Lifestyle. Check out Herbman Hustling Mix on Spotify.
Herbman Hustling was originally published in Heads Magazine Vol.5 Issue 3, 2005
]]>Silver Synthetic is a self-described straight-up rock and roll band based in New Orleans. Their laissez-faire, effortless sound transcends categorization, blending elements of surf and glam rock, folk, some Laurel Canyon haze with country licks and a no-bullshit attitude. Originally recorded in 2019, the band finally released Silver Synthetic this April after delays caused by the pandemic. Fortunately for us, it arrives just in time to be the soundtrack to our summer of renewal.
By Lara Bennett
Silver Synthetic is a self-described straight-up rock and roll band based in New Orleans. Their laissez-faire, effortless sound transcends categorization, blending elements of surf and glam rock, folk, some Laurel Canyon haze with country licks and a no-bullshit attitude. Originally recorded in 2019, the band finally released Silver Synthetic this April after delays caused by the pandemic. Fortunately for us, it arrives just in time to be the soundtrack to our summer of renewal.
Roving music contributor Lara Bennett interviewed singer, songwriter and guitarist Chris Lyons and lead guitarist Kunal Prakash about finding their sound, looking for weed on the road, and the unofficial band mantra, What Would Neil Young Do?
Lara Bennett: Chris, you found yourself with songs that didn’t quite fit the aesthetic of your previous band, the more noise-punk-garage rock band, Bottomfeeders. What do you attribute the transition to the more retro, drawl-y Silver Synthetic sound to?
Chris Lyons: I just started writing songs that naturally came out sounding a certain kind of way. It definitely had to do with the music that I’ve listened to over the years. Eventually, the songs started piling up and I decided it would probably be a good idea to try and start a new band because the songs didn't sound like my old band. The need to flesh out these new ideas inspired me to call up some friends. We started playing and it all came together.
LB: So you and [drummer] Lucas Bogner from Bottomfeeders started things off. Kunal, how did you and [bassist] Pete Campanelli come to join the band?
Kunal Prakash: Chris told me he had a bunch of what he described as pop songs, and I was curious as to what his definition of a pop song might be. After talking about it probably too many times, I had a short break from my work with Jeff the Brotherhood. Bottomfeeders also had some free time, so we decided to go to the rehearsal space and work on the songs and see if there was anything there.
LB: There’s a focus on simplicity with Silver Synthetic—it’s a traditional 4-piece rock and roll band. You don’t rely on a lot of fancy pedals or exotic instruments; it’s just a groove. Was this straightforward approach discussed?
CL: It happened pretty naturally. The songs that I had brought to the table were already pretty simple. I think that it was obvious what would need to happen to make them sound good with the full band. We'd start playing and everyone would start working on their parts of the song. Nice to not have to talk about it very much, that's usually when things work out the best.
KP: The things that were missing felt fairly obvious. Once we landed on the right thing to add, we weren’t like, Let's add a crazy effected guitar thing too. It was all about good melodic parts. During recording, we did talk about not cluttering the recordings and not putting a ton of reverb on everything so you can't hear anything. We wanted to minimize the use of extraneous shit.
LB: What was recording the album like?
CL: Our friend, Ross Farbe, of another New Orleans band called Video Age, has a mobile studio setup that really works very well. So we set that up in my house and recorded it on tape in seven days. We didn't have any money, and this was the cheapest option. We did drums first and started layering on top of that. It ended up being a pretty laid back recording experience—cooking at the house, watching football after, no time limit really. Well, except for those last few days. I had to record all the vocals in one day. That was kind of brutal, but it happened.
It ended up being a pretty laid back recording experience—cooking at the house, watching football after, no time limit really.
LB: There are some more obvious influences apparent in your sound—Television, The Velvet Underground, etc. Are there any more surprising influences or inspiration you pulled from when you were writing and recording?
CL: Coney Island Baby was a big one during the forming of the band, which is Lou Reed, but not Velvet Underground. I was listening to a lot of New Morning by Bob Dylan, that's a good record. I think I was listening to a lot of Harry Nilsson, which doesn't sound anything like us, but…
LB: You know what? I actually did hear some Nilsson in there. Kunal, did you have something in mind when you were coming up with guitar parts?
KP: Well, Chris was listening to Coney Island Baby a lot at that time, so I got on that trip for a minute. There’s a lot of really cool lead guitar work in there. The dude is playing a solo the whole time, or in between every vocal phrase, but it's not distracting. It's just nice decoration.
But as far as coming up with parts, Chris will bring a song and I might hear a certain influence of mine in it. And then I think, All right, what would Neil Young do if he had to come up with a part for this song right now? What would George Harrison do here? Jimi Hendrix?
It's like having one of those “What Would Jesus Do?” wristbands on, but you have a different one for each guitar player, for each song. And I would put on that wristband and try to play that way.
LB: Asking myself “What would Neil Young do” is something I always try to keep in mind.
CL: I think that's the unspoken band mantra.
KP: Yeah, those wristbands will be at the merch table, when we can tour again.
LB: It’d be easy to lump you guys into the cosmic country category, but I hear so much more here—glam rock, Brit pop, a very laid back NYC thing. Your music seems to really blur the lines of genre. What are your thoughts on genre in general and where does Silver Synthetic land?
CL: I think of us as a stripped down rock and roll band. I don't really like getting deeper into it than that. You might just have to listen to it. It’s like if someone who has never had pizza before asks you to describe what pizza tastes like. They’re just going to have to try it.
KP: Exactly, it tastes good! I think we’re often described as garage rock. And what that category means to me is that the recording quality is a little sketchier, but we were trying to be as hi-fi as we could afford. We want our stuff to sound as clear and precise and good as we can. So I feel like there's certain genre labels that get thrown around sometimes that aren’t exactly right. Especially some label like “modern psych garage.” No one's yelling into a reverb pedal here.
LB: There is a very laid-back, coastal vibe to this music. Upon first listen and before reading about you, I definitely imagined you were a California band. How does location influence you?
CL: New Orleans is pretty laid back. And with the climate, in summertime, you really can’t do much more than sit down, cool off, and chill out. Maybe that has something to do with it.
KP: We can't really lay claim to being part of New Orleans jazz tradition or something like that. We all just happen to live here. We’re basically all from the Northeast, Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
LB: What is the music scene in NOLA like, from an insider’s perspective?
KP: The main scene here is the jazz stuff, but I'd say there's a pretty healthy underground for rock and roll. There’s a punk scene, a huge metal scene. There's an Americana/Stetson hat-wearing scene. Since it's a small city, those things can overlap fairly easily. We put together a show a few years ago with our friend Esther Rose, an Americana singer-songwriter, and another band called Lawn, who do more of an indie rock thing. And all of those respective crowds came out to the show. New Orleans is small enough that you can cross-pollinate a bit because there's not that much going on here. The scenes interact more than you would think.
For most people who live in states where weed is legal, think back 15 years. I buy weed from coworkers or fellow musicians. It’s overpriced and you can't always get the type of weed you want.
LB: What’s cannabis culture like in NOLA? I know it’s still illegal statewide, although it’s decriminalized in the bigger cities.
CL: It's pretty underground. For most people who live in states where weed is legal, think back 15 years. I buy weed from coworkers or fellow musicians. It’s overpriced and you can't always get the type of weed you want. I hate that aspect. I would smoke more pot if I was able to get what I wanted all the time.
KP: I remember flying to LA for a rehearsal a couple summers ago and the weed store there looked like an Apple store. I mean, people definitely smoke mad weed down here, but it’s different.
LB: I think some older folks would say that there’s a little intrigue and excitement missing from buying from the Apple-like store rather than sliding into a backseat to make your transaction.
KP: Well, they can come down and visit. We’re not nerds; we know how to break the law. But the whole legal aspect is scarier in the Deep South, in the most heavily incarcerated state in the country. It's scarier to be like, Yeah, it's cool. I'll ride dirty and bring a bunch of weed to the beach. Especially when you’re a brown dude with long hair.
LB: What is the weirdest way you’ve found weed?
KP: Well, with Pete in the band it's pretty easy.
CL: Our bass player, Pete, is definitely the dude with the pot in the band. He rolls around with a ton of rolling papers, weed and tobacco and is constantly rolling spliffs all day long. So when you have him around, you don't really have to go very far to find weed.
KP: I remember a weird experience in Vancouver when I was like 19 years old. There's that weed smoking cafe, the New Amsterdam Cafe. You can't buy weed from them, but there's a place right next door where you can. My friends and I went upstairs and there was this big empty room, with a dude sitting at a desk with a scale. And he also had these two big glass aquarium things with huge fucking snakes in them. You approached him and said, I got 50 bucks, and he would weigh it out. And then another big dude in the corner. It was really weird and intimidating, especially when you're a kid and go buy weed from the guy with the huge, scary snakes. That was a strange one.
LB: We talked about Pete, how about your drummer Lucas?
CL: Well, Lucas is the man. He's really good at drums. He enjoys smoking weed. Probably the first time I ever smoked weed in my life was with Lucas. We were 15 and got lost as hell in the woods. We walked literally 10 miles until we found our way back out. Classic shit!
KP: And then you looked at each other and said, Yeah, let’s do that again, for the rest of our lives!
LB: Concert plans seem to cautiously be rolling out. Any plans for future shows or tours?
CL: Everything's very tentative right now, but we're hoping to do something in the fall of 2021.
Silver Synthetic's self titled album is available on Third Man Records
More about Silver Synthetic here
Follow Silver Synthetic on Instagram at: @silver.synthetic
Listen on Spotify
Hooky melodies, old favourites, guitar inspirations and badass vibes. A heady collection of tunes in heavy rotation during the creation of Silver Synthetic's debut album. Listen to our custom-curated Silver Synthetic Mix on Spotify.
About the author:
Lara Bennett is a writer living somewhere between New York City and the Mojave Desert. She is the founder of Petal Motel, a music blog documenting the Californiana and Cosmic American (and world) music genres; and she also hosts the Petal Motel podcast and interviews musicians like Sarah Louise, Buck Curran, and Dave Bixby. When she’s not writing about music, she’s writing about sexual health and wellness or AI and retail technology. But she prefers the music.
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Rose City Band's Ripley Johnson let's us in on his Earth Trip
]]>Rose City Band’s third release, Earth Trip, is an ode to the fundamental need for human connection and undeniable interdependence with the natural world. In his signature country cosmic jam style, frontman Ripley Johnson took all the love, pain, fear and joy of the last year and poured it into a cathartic reckoning.
By Brent Rademaker
Rose City Band’s third release, Earth Trip, is an ode to the fundamental need for human connection and undeniable interdependence with the natural world. In his signature country cosmic jam style, frontman Ripley Johnson took all the love, pain, fear and joy of the last year and poured it into a cathartic reckoning.
In this exclusive Heads Lifestyle interview, fellow musician and head of Curation Records, Brent Rademaker delved into Earth Trip, song by song, asking just the right questions to unearth Johnson’s inspiration, many influences, and how the album came together as a collaborative effort during the pandemic. Enjoy the trip.
Brent Rademaker: Rose City Band gets referenced often as part of the new Grateful Dead/Jam Band scene. I love the minimalism and the simple approach, and people don't realize just how difficult it really is to make this kind of music, but after three records you've clearly created something unique, your own signature. Is there an era that most influenced you?
Ripley Johnson: I guess the era would be my own formative musical years in high school, when I discovered mind-altering substances and a lot of classic rock. The Dead would be one part of that—especially the bootleg tapes. I also had access to a lot of Neil Young bootlegs, and there were the albums too. So at the same time that I was experimenting with psychedelics and such, I was fully absorbing that kind of music. My first trips, I remember vividly being out in the woods with a boombox, dancing around to The Basement Tapes and Johnny Cash’s Original Golden Hits, Volumes 1 & 2 (dubbed from my Dad’s LPs). In a way, that’s at the root of all of my music, it’s just become more direct lately.
BR: Aside from the name Rose City Band, how much do you identify with Portland as a city? I have always equated your vocals and the way they are recorded as a reflection of the rain and fog—but not in a gloomy way.
RJ: We’ve been in Portland for almost 10 years now. I don’t know that I really identify with the city, but the environment and landscape always have a big effect on me. It does wherever I’m living. I’m very attuned to sunlight or lack thereof. The Pacific Northwest definitely has a strong vibe. With the band name, I just liked how obvious and banal it was—specific and vague at the same time. And the name Oregon was already taken. That's a pretty good one. But yeah, music press especially like to talk about where you’re from, probably because it’s really hard to write about music. I thought I’d just put it right out there: Hey, we’re from Oregon! Also, I’m kind of obsessed with roses since moving here. They’re everywhere and it’s beautiful.
BR: I love The Velvets feel and Loaded is one of my top records. I adore when your songs chug along. It always brings a smile but there's a restraint that I also respect. Who plays the drums for RCB and how do you go about the recording process?
RJ: Cool. I’m a big Velvet Underground fan—another high school favourite—and Moe Tucker has always been one of my favourite drummers, because she only plays what’s necessary for the groove. The drummer on all three RCB albums is John Jeffrey, who also plays in Moon Duo. The process has been that I lay down some basic tracks then he records the drum up in British Columbia. For the second album, Summerlong, I went up to Vancouver and sat in and played some guitar along with the drums. We couldn’t do that for Earth Trip because of Covid, so he tracked on Vancouver Island with his buddy Colin Stewart at The Hive. JJ just has a great feel, and great taste, so I don’t really give him much direction. He knows to keep it classy.
BR: Such a lovely feel. Few artists master this vibe. I think of Harold Budd and Jason Pierce among others. More importantly, what is love to you?
RJ: Tough question. Someone just asked me this the other day. I can say that I’ve been feeling a lot of things, very deeply, since this pandemic shut everything down. A lot of emotions went into this record, including love that maybe had nowhere else to go. We (Moon Duo) had to rush home last March, in the middle of a European tour, as the borders were closing. Then there were all kinds of climate and weather disasters going on last summer, forest fires, so it was a heavy time. That all fed into the record and the title. Hopefully, some of that comes through—the love, pain, joy, fear.
BR: Tell us about the musicians who contributed to Earth Trip? How long did the outro go on after the fade?
RJ: It probably goes on for a while. I love a fade out. That’s me on the guitars and Barry Walker on the pedal steel. My friend John Whitson, who runs the Holy Mountain record label, introduced me to Barry initially. And then I met him again at a Mouth Painter show, one of his bands, of whom I’m a fan. I was planning to put together a proper touring outfit for the release of Summerlong last spring, but since that didn’t happen, I thought it would be cool to get some other people to play on the new album. Open it up a bit. I thought of Barry right away for some pedal steel. I also got my partner, Sanae Yamada, to play some piano. And Ryan Jewell to play some percussion; I just saw a post on Instagram that said he was available for hire, so I took a punt.
BR: Again, I applaud the laid-back nature of this one. It's pretty easy to let a song like this get away from you. Can you tell us how this was recorded, especially the guitars in the outro?
RJ: This is a bit of a nostalgia track, a nod to my youth, trippin' around with a good pal of mine. It's all there in the lyrics. It’s about good times, so going for that good time vibe. The guitars were all recorded very simply at home—mic on an amp. One thing I did on this album, because I knew I wouldn’t be attending the mix, was split the signal for a lot of the lead guitar takes, with one going through my effects and one direct or clean. That way, Cooper (Crain, the mix engineer), could either use the effects or not. Or blend them as he saw fit. I think you can hear it best with some of the envelope filter stuff, where it sounds like two different instruments but the performances are identical. Cooper mixed the last Wooden Shjips album. We go way back, so I gave him a lot of leeway and trusted him to just make it sound good.
BR: Can you recommend some musical, spiritual, conspiracy or other rabbit holes we can go down on YouTube?
RJ: Ah, yes, I did a lot of this in 2020.
This four-part Derek Bailey documentary on improvisation, called On The Edge, is really great, and was new to me in 2020. It’s on UbuWeb and YouTube.
Herbie Hancock Headhunters, Live 1974. Good for jamming along or just watching in awe.
I’ve been enjoying Les Blank’s docs on Cajun and blues music, which are magical. There are various clips on YouTube but the Criterion Channel has the full movies.
I actually just discovered this one the other day. This guy Otis Gibbs tells stories about country music legends. I don’t know how legit he is, but I watched this one because I’m a big Jerry Reed fan (the guitar solo in East Bound and Down is one of my all-time favs, and I watched Smokey and the Bandit a million times as a kid). It’s a pretty good yarn. You Tube
BR: My favourite song on the album! Remember when If I Could Only Remember My Name was $1.00 at the local thrift shop? This song teleports me to the days when the indie scene was just turning on to that record and others. The wooden cover art and design of Earth Trip reminds me of many private press and other singer/songwriter and C&W compilations that I have found in the used bins over the years. Do you see the RCB records as future record store finds? Keeping in that spirit, can you recommend a few obscure treasures that are still under $10.00 in the used record bins or Discogs?
RJ: That’s funny! In a way, I see everything I do as future record bin finds. I love private press records—the handmade quality of the art, the DIY recording techniques, the unorthodox mixes, everything. That Crosby record is amazing, such an unusual gathering of musicians. Much credit to Paul Kantner and the Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra (PERRO).
For cheap record recommendations, and on that note, the three PERRO-related Kantner/Slick/Airplane albums are all great—and realistic—thrift store finds: Blows Against the Empire, Sunfighter, and Baron von Tollbooth & the Chrome Nun.
The Earth Trip cover art was inspired by a Bill Monroe record, part of an MCA Records country series that I did find in the bins for cheap. But for a country pick, I’ll go with Merle Haggard’s Back to the Barrooms album from 1980. It has three of my favourite Merle tracks: Misery and Gin, Back to the Barrooms, and I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink. The production is really cool too. It’s like an edge-of-80s sound, crisp and clear but without any cheesy studio effects.
And there are a couple of oldies series that I love to pick up when I see them for cheap. One is called Oldies But Goodies, of which there are about 15 volumes. The original pressings have a vibey, dark quality that I like. The other is called Cruisin’ and each volume is a different year, I think starting in 1955. The covers look a bit like Archie comics, and as the years progress the characters age, the clothes get groovier, and they become more socially conscious. The really cool thing is that each record plays like a radio show, with banter from actual DJs and period commercials. So you can pretend you’re hanging out in Buffalo in 1960, listening to Dick Biondi on WKBW. Super fun and good tune selections, especially in the earlier years.
BR: Here are a few rapid-fire questions that Earth Trip brings to mind:
Who is your favourite member of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young?
RJ: Neil, for sure. I’m actually not much of a CSN fan!
When was your last psychedelic experience?
RJ: I took a mushroom trip in the fall thinking I would write a bunch of lyrics for this album. Of course, I didn’t end up writing anything. Go figure! But it helped in a way that I did not expect. So that was very cool.
What is your studio vocal microphone of choice?
RJ: Recently, I’ve been using the Shure SM7, which is the classic broadcast mic. I like that it has a built-in windscreen. I’ve used a Mojave MA-300 a bunch. But I really have no idea what I’m doing in the studio. I just wing it. I bought that vintage Sennheiser 421, but mostly for guitar.
What's your go-to Grateful Dead record?
RJ: For studio albums, probably Wake of the Flood. That’s my spring jam.
What's your favourite way to get stoned?
RJ: I think joints are the most fun because they’re communal. I’ve come around on vape pens a bit and get these high-CBD ones that are nice just before sleep. Mostly though, I’m a one-hitter, flower guy. I’m a lightweight.
BR: Many thanks for taking us down the rabbit hole and back.
Rose City Band's new album Earth Trip comes out June 25, 2021 on Thrill Jockey Records.
More about Rose City Band here
Follow Rose City Band on Instagram at: @rosecityband
Listen on Spotify
A multitude of influences went into the creation of Earth Trip. On this custom mix, Ripley Johnson offers up a handpicked selection of tunes that influenced and inspired the album. Listen to our custom Ripley Johnson-curated Rose City Band "Earth Trip" Mix on Spotify.
Brent Rademaker is a founding member of the California psychedelic country band Beachwood Sparks. His musical resume also includes the West Coast 90s indie innovators Further. He currently tours and records with GospelbeacH who will release their new Jam Jam EP on April 15, 2021. As a writer, Brent has penned articles and reviews for music mags, blogs and bios for fellow musicians. His record label Curation Records was established in 2019 with releases from Pacific Range, Farmer Dave & the Wizards of the West, Trevor Beld Jimenez and more.
Find him on Instagram: @brent_rademaker
Find him on facebook: Brent Rademaker (bee rad)
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