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Slightly Stoopid’s Grass Roots

It’s a niche lifestyle, certainly, and there’s always the danger of exclusion when a band’s image so directly tied to something that’s marginally illegal. Surprisingly, Miles isn’t totally sure he’s still in favor of legalization despite the musicians’ status as spokesmen for the cause.

At this point, marijuana is so integrated into Slightly Stoopid—its lyrics, image and lifestyle—it’s nearly impossible to imagine its existence without it. “People assume we’re a stoner band—and we are—but they assume that’s all we do: smoke weed and that’s it,” Miles says somewhat dismissively. “[But] that’s our culture. We grew up around it and—to us—it’s fine.”

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The group’s last album, Slightly Not Stoned Enough To Eat Breakfast Yet Stoopid, which came out in mid 2008, featured 21 tracks, clocking in at more than a hour—something most artists shy away from as fans’ attention spans seemingly decrease by the day. It was a collection of new tunes and old B-sides, showcasing a range in sonic designs. The band’s upcoming new disc, which its hopes to release this fall, will apparently contain enough music to completely fill a CD (roughly 80 minutes).

“I think the problem with music today is people are worried about force-feeding a 10- to 12-song record in 30 minutes [in] someone’s face,” Miles says sitting in front of the mixing board in the band’s studio. The room is small, but precisely wired to the band’s taste and specifications. The new disc, yet to be named, will represent the first time that the group eschewed a major studio and did the recording itself, on its own timeline.

While you can certainly hear Sublime’s influence in Slightly Stoopid’s music, the band accesses styles and aesthetics that Sublime only had a short chance to touch on. Slightly Stoopid’s records draw from reggae, punk, acoustic rock, hip-hop (more so in recent years) and jam rock.

The power comes, in part, from the fusion of two songwriters who each have distinct tastes that complement the other’s. “You’ve got Miles who knows how to write a real pop hit and also can write down and dirty stuff too, don’t get me wrong,” G. Love says. “And you’ve got Kyle who writes a lot of really dark tunes. You’ve got these different voices coming out at different times on the record and that’s something I’ve always thought was a strong point. I think it’s just a matter of time before they crack one out of the ballpark and it explodes onto a huger level.”

Miles, for his part, doesn’t seem concerned with finding commercial success. “Most of the records have that hit song and that record sucks,” he says. “Ninety percent of them are like that and you’re like, ‘Fuck, man, give me some jams.’ On our records—what I think is cool about the way we record music is—we make the songs flow into each other, which is really one long jam. So it almost feels like [one song is] supposed to go into the next song, not necessarily losing someone’s attention; it flows together.”

Kyle says that every time the band goes into the studio, it’s never trying to record a specific album. Instead, the group cuts as many songs as it can and sifts through the material to find what merits inclusion on a particular project.

Moreover, owning their own studio has allowed for a certain amount of freedom for these childhood brothers in arms who are now both parents: Kyle has baby twin boys and Miles has a young daughter.

“There’s no structure, really,” says Kyle of Slightly Stoopid’s recording process. “When you’re doing something and you try to do it all at once, it’ll never get done. But if you just enjoy what you’re doing—little piece by piece—when it’s all said and done, you look back at it and you’re like, ‘Goddamn, I just built a house.’”

Or, in this case, a sweet place to hang out with your friends, smoke a little weed and skateboard to your heart’s content.