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loretranscripts · 6 years ago

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Lore Episode 6: Echoes (Transcript) - 18th May 2015

tw: mental illness, abuse, rape, death, mistreatment of mentally ill people, lobotomies, body horror, medical procedures, ableist language - generally, be very careful with this one

Disclaimer: This transcript is entirely non-profit and fan-made. All credit for this content goes to Aaron Mahnke, creator of Lore podcast. It is by a fan, for fans, and meant to make the content of the podcast more accessible to all. Also, there may be mistakes, despite rigorous re-reading on my part. Feel free to point them out, but please be nice!

The setting of a story is everything – it creates mood and atmosphere, it triggers memories, and helps our minds fill in the blanks, adding tension and suspense where there was only words and images. What would The Shining be like without the long hotel hallways of the Overlook, or The Legend of Hell House without the dusty bones of the old Belasco House, and how can anybody ever look at an old cabin in the woods without a chill running down their spine? Not me, that’s for sure. One of the most iconic and most visceral settings from any horror story, without a question, has always been the insane asylum. These days we refer to the institutions that treat mental disorders as psychiatric hospitals. They’re hard places to work – I know this first hand thanks to a colourful college internship that featured a double amputee who enjoyed streaking down the hallway on his knees. Mental health professionals do amazing work, but a lot more than just the name has changed than the name of these hospitals of the mind. In the late 1800s and through to the 1850s, asylums were a very different place. They were filled with sick people in need of help, but frequently they were only offered pain and suffering. When H. P. Lovecraft wrote The Thing on the Doorstep in 1933, he imagined a place that he called “Arkhum Sanitarium”. Arkhum is the seed, it’s the first of its kind; through it, Lovecraft brought the asylum into the horror genre, and others quickly caught on. The famous super-prison and mental hospital of the Batman universe, “Arkhum Asylum”, is a blatant and direct call-back to Lovecraft’s invention. Arkhum was a real place, though, known as the Danvers State Hospital. In fact, the remains of it stand just 8 miles from my front door, and even before construction began in 1874, the hospital’s story was already one of fear and suffering, a theme that continued unchecked well into the 20thcentury. I’m Aaron Mahnke, and the is Lore.

Before the days of institutional care for the mentally ill, the job was left largely to independent contractors – people who were hired by the state to look after others, but that was a system with far too many opportunities for failure. Patients were routinely placed in cages or stalls, and they were chained and beaten into submission. Violence, rape and death were everyday occurrences. Thankfully, people began to look for a better way, a more humane way of caring for these individuals, and those conversations led to the establishment of a new, state-of-the-art mental hospital. Plans started off on the wrong foot, though. The site that was chosen for the construction was the former homestead of John Hathorne, one of the nine magistrates who oversaw the witch trials of Salem in 1692. Hawthorne was known for his vicious, harsh attitude towards those who were accused of witchcraft, and he pushed hard for their execution. He was so well-known for his violent and hateful personality that his great-great-grandson, the author Nathaniel Hawthorne, changed the spelling of his last name, adding the “w”, to distance himself from that reputation. And it was there, on Hathorne Hill, that the foundations of the hospital were laid. The chances are pretty high that no one made the comparisons at the time, but hindsight is always 20/20, and looking back over the last century and a half, it’s clear that Hathorne’s legacy lived on atop that hill.

The Danvers State Hospital was actually intended to be a beacon of hope. There was a specific plan behind its design, one that was based on the work of Dr. Thomas Kirkbride. He designed the building with four radiating wings on each side of a central structure. His reason was simple: with more of the rooms exposed to sunlight and proper ventilation, more of the patients would experience recovery. All told, the hospital was designed to house 500 patients, covering a wide spectrum of mental illness, who were served by a team of roughly one dozen staff. When the doors finally opened in 1878, it was originally called the State Lunatic Hospital, and there was no other place like it in the country. It was set up to be a leader in the humane treatment of patients, and became the model for countless other facilities like it, and rightly so - this place was amazing. The ornate interiors, private rooms, sunny corridors, all connected to the central Kirkbride building. The patients were encouraged to exercise and participate in the community gardens outside. The small farm there even produced enough food for the hospital kitchen to feed the patients home-grown meals. Over time, though, the hospital expanded. There were separate Tuberculosis buildings, housing for staff, a machine shop, a medical building, and a pump house to pull water from the reservoir. All of these locations were connected underground by a network of dark, brick-lined tunnels, arranged in the shape of a wagon wheel to allow easy movement during the harsh New England winters. Bur the hospital campus wasn’t the only thing that was expanding.

As with all good things, the bright days of the Danvers State Hospital didn’t last long. More and more patients were admitted each year, and the staff continued to struggle with keeping up. In addition, decreased state funding prevented them from hiring more help. By the 1920s, the population had grown to almost 2000 patients, four times what the facility was designed to hold. One eyewitness reported that in November of 1945, the evening shift at the hospital consisted of nine people, and they were expected to care for the needs of nearly 2300 patients. You’ll have to pardon the expression, but things at the Danvers State Hospital had begun to get crazy. Patients were frequently sick and filthy. It was not uncommon for some to die unnoticed, only to be found days later. It was nearly impossible for the staff to manage so many patients, and so they turned to the acceptable tools of their time: straight jackets, solitary confinement, even restraints. However barbaric they may seem to us today, were mild compared to some of the other methods used by the staff. Patients were regularly subjected to hydrotherapy and electro-shock therapy, and yet it somehow still managed to get worse, and that’s where the lobotomy enters this story.

First pioneered by Dr. Walter Freeman in 1936, the lobotomy was a complicated procedure. The surgeon would literally cut the patient’s brain, severing the connection between the frontal lobes and the thalamus. The goal was to reduce symptoms and make patients more manageable. The results were mixed. Some patients died as a result of the procedure, while others would commit suicide later. Freeman, though, quickly grew tired of how long it took to complete the procedure. He heard of a doctor in Italy who had operated on his patients through their eye sockets. Working without drilling or cutting presented an opportunity that Freeman simply couldn’t pass up. He called his technique the “transorbital lobotomy”. It’s fairly easy to describe, but its not for the faint of heart. Freeman discovered that the only surgical tool he really needed was an ice-pick. According to his son, Franklin Freeman, in a PBS interview in 2008, those first ice-picks came right out of their kitchen icebox, and they worked like a charm. By inserting the ice-pick into the inner corner of a patient’s eye, Freeman could punch through the skull to reach the brain. Then he would essentially, um, stir the frontal lobe until it was no longer functional. Oh, and one more thing: he did all of this without anaesthetic.

And he got good at it, so good, in fact, that he took his show on the road. He literally toured the nation in a van that he called the “lobotomobile”, stopping at mental institutions, where he would educate and train the staff in his own technique. While he was there, he would perform as many lobotomies as they needed for the low, low cost of just $25 per patient. It sounds like Freeman was delivering the solution to a desperate industry, but that was pretty far from the truth. His patients often lost the ability to feed themselves or use the bathroom unassisted, and those skills would have to be retaught, if it was even possible. While many patients recovered, about 15% died from the procedure. Relapses were common, and sometimes the lobotomy would have to be reattempted. Once, in 1951, at Iowa’s Cherokee Mental Health Institute, Freeman stopped in the middle of a lobotomy, ice-pick clutched in his hand, so that he could pose for a photograph. The instrument penetrated a bit too far and the patient died. He never wore gloves or a mask, and he apparently had no limits. In fact, of the 3500 lobotomies that he performed in 23 states, 19 of those patients were minors - one of them, a four-year-old child. Ironically, some people still don’t believe in monsters.

The horror of institutional lobotomy ended in 1954 when a new drug was brought to the market. Thorazine was marketed as a chemical lobotomy, and the need for the surgical procedure dropped dramatically. But the nightmare never really stopped at Danvers State Hospital. During the 1980s, reports began to filter out about missing teenage patients. One account I managed to find said that upwards of 115 patients had disappeared in the space of about three months. The hospital never spoke about it publicly because their closure was already looming on the horizon. They knew that it was happening. When the staff was questioned they all pointed toward a new doctor on staff. In each case, they said these patients had been assigned to this new doctor upon admission, and then vanished. Scraps of paper were found in several of the patients’ rooms that mentioned a tall man in the woods. Some were drawings of the man, and some were simply too illegible to make out at all. As the pieces were slowly put together, it became clear that this doctor had been taking patients outside of the building, without permission, for unknown reasons. Eventually the police were called, and when they arrived to take the man into custody, they found that he, too, was gone, and his patients were never found.

But this was just one more tragedy in a long string of bad news that had wrapped itself around the Danvers State Hospital, beginning in the 1960s. Massive budget cuts, building closings and structural damage had all conspired to slowly push the doors closed. By 1985, nearly every building on campus was abandoned, and the Kirkbride administrative building itself even closed in 1989. The last remaining patients were moved to the medical building onsite, but were all eventually moved to other facilities with the help of the national guard and 80 ambulances. The hospital was officially abandoned in the summer of 1992, and stood vacant and derelict for nearly a decade. The rooms that once played host to mindless victims of Dr. Freeman and his ice-pick became the home of homeless squatters. They built their lives around the decaying medical equipment, the wheelchairs, the bedframes… It’s probably the healthiest inmate population the building had known for decades. In 2005, the property was bought by a developer, and much of the campus was demolished to make way for a sprawling apartment complex. But they left the front façade of the Kirkbride building, with its soaring Gothic towers and intricate brickwork. But the hospital, it didn’t go quietly. In April of 2007, four of the apartment buildings, as well as a handful of construction trailers, mysteriously burnt down. It was a fire so big that it was visible from Boston, 17 miles to the south. There was an investigation, but it turned up no evidence other than webcam footage from the construction site, which inexplicably cut out just before the fire began.

The image of an asylum will forever hold a place in our hearts as something to be feared and avoided. Whether new and sunny, or ancient and decaying, the asylum is a setting that causes people to back away, a ball of terror rising in their stomachs. But why? On a rational level, these were places of hope for many people. Still, the very concept of a residential hospital for the mentally ill, complete with 19th century décor and equipment, is the stuff of nightmares. Perhaps what we really fear is losing control over ourselves. Restraints, locked rooms, medication and irreversible medical procedures represent for many of us the opposite of freedom. We fear losing our dignity, losing our well-being, losing our very minds. Death, however, is chasing all of us. The curse of mortality is that we are already handing those things over, day by day, until the time when there’s nothing left to give. Perhaps the stereotypical asylum simply reminds us of the inevitable truth that is our own death.

The Danvers State Hospital is nearly gone today, but reminders still linger of its presence. Besides the brick façade of the Kirkbride building, one of the roads there is even called “Kirkbride Drive”. The reservoir that provided the facility with its water can be found behind the apartment buildings, and that vast network of ancient tunnels is still there as well, snaking its way beneath the modern structures, and the people who live inside them. One final reminder awaits people who come for a visit, though. The old asylum cemetery. Its where the staff buried patients who died and went unclaimed by family. There are no tall tombstones, though. Instead, each grave is marked by a small, square stone with a number engraved on it, and there are hundreds of them. Anyone looking for the cemetery will know that they’ve found it when they see a large boulder that marks the entrance. It was placed there in recent past to explain why all those small, square stones are there. But it’s the message engraved on it, and not the grave markers themselves, that communicates everything we need to know. It simply reads: “The echoes they left behind”.

Lore is a biweekly podcast and was produced by me, Aaron Mahnke. You can find out more about this episode, including the background music, at lorepodcast.com, and be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook at lorepodcast. Your ratings and reviews on ITunes make all the difference for this show, so please take a moment today to fill one out. You can find links to help you do that at lorepodcast.com/support. Oh, and if you enjoy scary stories, I happen to write them. You can find a full list of my supernatural thrillers, available in paperback and ebook formats, at aaronmahnke.com/novels. Thanks for listening.

Notes

1. I just wanted to note that the story of “the tall man in the woods” is in fact inaccurate, and based on an edit someone made to the Wikipedia page on Danvers State Hospital, which was based on a creepy pasta they had written. It was only up for a week, but that happened to be the week during which Aaron was researching.

#lore podcast #podcasts #aaron mahnke #danvers state hospital #asylum #asylum horror #h. p. lovecraft #lobotomy #icepick lobotomy #hauntings #transcripts #6

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stone-man-warrior · 6 years ago

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October 18, 2018: 12:04 pm:

October 17, 2018: 7:23 pm:<br><br>George W. Bush; Automaker bailout; Banking ... StoneMan .Warrior - 2018-10-17T23:30:12-0400 - Updated: 2018-10-17T23:30:12-0400

(4-6-2019: Authors Note: This entry is duplicated in the archive Google crafted together. Same information as the previous entry. There is a built in set of threats of physical harm whereby Google uses my own entry and that of a comment made at the end if the entry from another user. In the event Public Safety ever are interested, I will explain how these kinds of threats are made. One must have specific knowledge in order to threaten someone with other specific knowledge. All threats of violence are not created equal, many are mysterious and enigmatic.)

October 17, 2018: 7:23 pm: George W. Bush; Automaker bailout; Banking industry bailout; Digital bandwidth spectrum; Barack Obama; 2008. In 2008, the USA was raped and pillaged, crippled, broken and otherwise hijacked for all it was worth. That was ten years ago, and the raping and pillaging continues, and the terrorist bastards who set us up all are living large while the US American Citizens are being lined up for slaughter. 2008, George W. Bush was about to leave office of the President and make way for Barack Obama. The country, USA, had already been set up to fall by the Screen Actors Guild. The Bush's are puppets of the Guild, and they behaved badly, and did a good job doing it. Bush arranged with Warren Buffet to collapse the New York Stock Exchange. The collapse of the financial markets was the set-up for the pillaging, and caused a distraction away from the mass killings of large numbers of American Citizens that happened as Barack Obama (Barracks Bomber) took the stage to portray a calm and peaceful looking environment. Mr. Obama is a skilled actor who's demeanor lends itself nicely to a sleepy sort of peaceful feeling. Obama took the stage and the prize when he was able to miraculously track down and kill Osama Bin Laden. Mr. Bin Laden was a classic boogie man, the kind that never existed, but was always lurking directly under our beds... a product of the imagination of a Screen Actor Guild Screen Writer. As Mr. W. Bush left office, he made sure that hos terrorist friends were all set financially. The automaker bailout alone cost the USA eighty-billion dollars. Chrysler Corporation claimed they were too big to fail, desperately needed large sums of money, and were given very large sums of money. Then, they left the USA. Chrysler took billions of dollars of our wealth as a nation, and then moved there shop to Europe. They are Chrysler Daimler now. Chevrolet took billions also. We were told that Ford Motor Company refused to take the bailout money, that is what we were told. The banks themselves suddenly needed giant size sums of money, and were handed giant size sums of money. These are the people who are the inventors of profit making, they are the very people who make the rules associated with money, large, astronomical sums of money and how it is managed is written and approved by people who complained about not having enough money, so they were given giant sized sums of money, from people who are not professional money managers. If an adult were to ask a small child for help to build a rocket ship that can go to mars, and the adult was a rocket scientist, and the small child was a third grader who enjoys swimming, then, the adult rocket scientist is Goldman Sacks, and the child who enjoys swimming is George W. Bush. It does not make any sense. Bandwidth. All of that distraction in the news media about large sums of money, and the stock market collapsing, thereby seriously weakening some of our most influential American Citizens, and causing a lot of worry for everyone, pretty much made the digital transition from analog in the television broadcasting industry invisible. Had there been no bailouts or financial collapse, the digital transition of television and the disposal of the associated radio frequency bandwidth would have been huge news. The frequency bandwidth auction happened with nearly no one in the audience. I was in the audience. I saw what was going on. The bandwidth was essential for the Screen Actor Guild terrorists to manage the Seventh Day Adventist soldiers. The frequencies were purchased by some very strange entities. Also, those very strange frequency buyers quickly divided up and sold that bandwidth that they had acquired at the rigged FCC auctions. The scam produced lots of usable bandwidth, and the methods that were devised to purchase the bandwidth through FCC auctions has pretty much guaranteed that no one will ever be able to follow the breadcrumb evidence that leads to the people of the Screen Actor Guild as the end users of all of that bandwidth. Also, sometimes there are elements in this world that are so useful that everyone wants some of it and can use it. Some times, those useful elements are grabbed up, controlled, tucked away, hidden, made inaccessible... unobtainium. Frequency bandwidth is like that. With so many blu-tooth devices, drone technology, autonomous technologies and other wiz-bang futuristic developments occurring so quickly, at the same time, radio bandwidth is more valuable that air is to a scuba diver. The terrorists I write about on this page are dependent on bandwidth and lots of it. They need the bandwidth to power their communications. The screen Actors Guild are the masters of the available bandwidth, and there is a finite amount of usable bandwidth. The Screen Actors Guild have always been reliant on bandwidth. They have always understood the importance of the bandwidth regarding their livelihood. Without bandwidth, there would be no television, SAG understands bandwidth better than any other entity on the planet. SAG controls the bandwidth. All of that bailout, and the financial heartache that was absorbed by the US Citizens was all a scam. It was all by design, it all happened because there was a scripted screen play written and perfected by the very best writers of the Screen Actors Guild. The SAG had a lot of practice under their belts, they have been producing movie plots and screenplays of all kinds for a long, long time. They have had a lot of time to inspect the details of all of the movie plots they have created, and to analyze the believably and practicality of every kind of circumstance that has ever occurred. They have had a lot of time to analyze the practicality of every kind of circumstance that has not occurred also. They have mastered the Science of the Science fiction, and created a fiction that is real and tangible, in the form of a deception that continues daily. The collapse of the financial institutions, the "Too big to fail", and the boogie man, Osama Bin Laden are all part of the set-up that was created by the Screen Actors guild as a means to control the bandwidth, and use the bandwidth to command secret armies that are currently killing every US American Citizen on Earth. They are advancing for total, global domination through deception with the use of an invisible airborne poisonous gas called Nitrous Oxide, and they mix that with a powerful and extremely dangerous drug called Versed. The combination of Nitrous Oxide and Versed airborne gas is the single most dangerous substance ever created. This stuff is proving to be absolutely lethal on a global scale that such that the entire population of the Earth can, and will be, annihilated, with the exception of the few who carry the gas. The Nitrous Oxide/Versed gas, in the hands of the Seventh Day Adventist Vatican trained soldiers, under the direction of the Screen Actors Guild is so powerful that Victims of it actually will willingly walk directly into a cage of eternal captivity without even arguing against it, and they do it while being entertained by those who opened that cage door, performing. No one will fight back. I am fighting back.

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StoneMan .Warrior - 2018-10-18T00:56:38-0400 - Updated: 2018-10-18T00:57:23-0400

October 17, 2018: 9:13 pm: Meat-Head. One of the worlds most dangerous and offensive terrorist leaders has the code name: Meat-Head. You know who he is. You grew up watching him raid the refridgerator at his father-in-laws house. You were part of the charade, and a victim of the set-up, just like I was. You guessed it! It's Rob Reiner. Meat-Head, and his counter-part, Opie. Um. Ron Howard. These two are responsible for the killing of more human beings. than dollars that were reported to have been earned at the box office for the movie "The Terminator". Luc Besson Doug Liman James Cameron Have a look at the biographies of the leading contemporary movie directors. When I just take a glance at their Wiki pages, it looks as if many of them all attended the same Junior High School. Like they were all "cut from the same cloth". If I were in a position that enabled me to stop terrorism in such a way as to do it with an authority granted and vested in me, then, I would round up all of the information I could find of all of the movie directors and producers world wide, starting with the most successful and then downward from there. I would use process of elimination, and rid the world of about ninety percent of all of the terrorist activity world-wide. Terrorism is a scripted, directed, cast, rehearsed, staged, lit, scored, and presented affair, complete with popcorn, and an intermission. Many of our favorite, and most skilled guitar players were trained at the Vatican to p.lay guitar, but no one knows it... no one knows it until they begin to learn how to play guitar. Once a person becomes interested in playing an electric guitar, then, they also become interested in the equipment, and the history of the equipment is actually thrust at the individual who is interested in electric guitar playing. Even if a person who is interested in playing the guitar intentionally tries to not allow the history of the instrument and it's equipment into their lives, even then, the history of the instrument and equipment will still be thrust at them. There are Vatican soldiers who are installed at various retail outlets of guitars and related equipment. Their purpose for being there is to distract individuals from the notion that the most highly skilled guitar players, e.g.: Tony Iomi, Yngvie Malmstien, were trained by the Vatican, and are terrorist, Vatican soldiers. These installed Vatican operatives are so intrusive about learning what an individual who is interested in playing electric guitar knows about the Vatican and it's trained guitarist soldiers that they have given themselves away. I am certain the there are many thousands of people who have taken up the guitar as a hobbie, only to find that the people at the music store are extra nosy and ask a lot of personal questions, and many of the questions are about religion. I figured this out many years ago, that the people in the guitar stores are planted in there to provide cover for the notion that many of the most influential guitar players from all over the world are actually Vatican soldiers who trained for a global war, and their weapon is the guitar. This is a complicated subject. I am not suggesting that the guitar kills anyone on it's own, but rather, the music is so powerful that it captivates entire generations of people... and occupies them. This musical occupation lends itself to other, more physical injuries resultant of other, more recognizable weapons. In order to understand what this part of this entry is about, one may have to submerge themselves into the life of a guitar player. There are things in life that can only be learned by filling the space where the desired knowledge is located. To know a guitarist Vatican soldier, one must first play a guitar. After that, the enlightenment comes swiftly.

StoneMan .Warrior - 2018-10-18T02:23:09-0400

October 17, 2018: 11:01 pm: The sound of the gasoline powered electrical generator is stronger tonight. The thing is in motion, slowly moving around the neighborhood and staying at one house per night, as it seems anyway. Tonight, the sound of the generator is coming from what sounds like the Dietricks Screen Actor Guild heroin distributors at 601 :MyStreet". The sound of the generator is not the same as the previous week. Tonight, the thing is running on high RPM, and is louder, or stronger, or perhaps a bigger, more powerful generator. This sound from what seems to be a generator noise at nighttime has been going on for about ten to twelve days I guess, and started on Russel Road South of where I am, then, the next night I could hear the very same sound from a location closer, then closer, then a couple of nights ago the sound of the same generator was North of where I am on Russel Road. Last night the thing was distant, to the South again, but East in comparison to where it began it's journey. I think Donald Trump is angry with me and is doing this to scare me, he is Screen Actor Guild first, after that, he is President of the USA. I have called him and his Seventh Day Adventist soldiers out on their heroin, and he is pissed. That's what I think. Kim Jong Un provides the heroin for Mr. Trump and his Seventh Day Soldiers, but maybe that got shut down. Mike Pompeo went to visit Mr. Un in North Korea last week, to pick up heroin. I noticed that Mr. Pompeo's schedule of Eastern Asia was changed around a bit. Now, just today, Mr. Pompeo is in Honduras or somewhere in Cntral America working a new heroin deal... I hope they tell him to take his Cadet Bible and leave. Really, I am serious. So, I have an implant in my jaw that broadcasts everything I say to a number of radio receivers that are controlled by the terrorists I write about in my neighborhood. As I am walking around in my yard noticing the sound of the generator and how it has moved, and how the sound has changed to a more aggressive sound, I am also mumbling those very statements out load to myself. Somewhere, there will be a recording of my voice show up somewhere that says "bigger displacement... hmmm... higher RPM... sounds like it's over to the heroin dealers tonight" and on and on like that. For those of you reading this, pay attention to what you say out loud when there is no one around... like when you are online and read something or see something on the internet. Or, when you are looking at your bank statement, or perhaps are in the restroom, or talking to your cat or dog. You will be surprised at how often you talk to no one.

John Gray - 2018-10-19T06:39:22-0400

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plasmamagazine · 7 years ago

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DJ Discourse: A Conversation with Ernest Greene of ‘Washed Out’

Washed Out's Ernest Greene, recently played a packed out show at Midtown's trendy restaurant and bar Little Trouble on April 5th. Writer and staff member Jordan Neal got the opportunity to catch up with him before the show to talk about some recent changes in his life and some of his musical influences! Check out our full discussion below.

Plasma Magazine: I see that you are signed to Stones Throw, which is one of my favorite labels. Do you get to dive into more hip-hop influenced stuff?

Ernest Greene: Yea, I mean Stones Throw has definitely been my favorite label since I started making songs. When I was 18 or 19 years old all of the greatest hits from Stones Throw’s old school artists, like Madlib and J Dilla, kind of formed how I put my songs together. Stylistically, my stuff can be a lot different, but just the mindset of how they put their songs together, I was kind of mimicking that in a lot of ways.

So yeah, I’ve been a fan of that. Obviously, the label has grown and evolved over the years and put out a lot of different indie rock and R&B stuff. For the most part, even though it’s wide-ranging, it still encapsulates a lot of what I love. In a lot of ways, I wrote the album Mister Mellow like a love letter to Stones Throw. I've always dabbled in sampling but just had the background with stuff that I grew up listening to. I wanted to make a record that’s entirely sample-based like a Madlib record was. So Mister Mellow was about 90 percent samples. I hoped, and in the end, I felt like it fit pretty well in the Stones Throw world.

PM: It’s amazing man. I can definitely tell that you layered some of those, like you said, Madlib and Dilla, samples and techniques and it works out perfectly. One question: was Peanut Butter Wolf involved in any aspects of the album?

EG: Yeah, it’s kind of a long story, but I have a manager out in L.A. and he is in amatuer basketball leagues throughout the year. The team is mainly music industry type people. So, he was on a team with the General Manager of Stones Throw and he flowed the idea that I was a big fan and I was writing this (Mister Mellow) record. So he played it for everyone at Stones Throw including Peanut Butter Wolf. Of course, they are pretty tight-knit and they all have to sign off on everything. But, then I hung out with him a handful of times and we had a big party in LA the day before the record came out. We rented out this movie theater and played the visual album and there was an after party where I DJed back to back with Peanut Butter Wolf. That was an all-time-high because I was such a huge fan but also I was nervous because he was such a dope DJ. So, I was trying my best. Luckily, I managed to somewhat save face. He was so good and he’s like completely vinyl only. But, yeah it was cool. We email some.

PM: So by the time you got on Stones Throw the album was mostly done?

EG: Yeah, I had already finished it.

PM: Who’s your favorite hip-hop producer?

EG: Right now, especially on a stone throw tip, someone like Knowledge but I’m into a few people.

PM: Knowledge is crazy!

EG: Yeah, it’s just weird in the best ways - I like his stuff a lot.

PM: What about older producers?

EG: I mean, my all time favorite is DJ Shadow. Again, on the weird tip. I just love how psychedelic it is and it’s obviously rooted in Hip Hop beats. With sampling, he was just going at stuff that no one else had thought to touch. Again, I’m super into weird sounds and instruments. That’s the one person I’d point a finger at. I mentioned Dilla, Madlib, and Premier.

PM: What is it about their process, specifically, that you like the most? You know how like Dilla will sample a bunch of stuff and just take the baseline out of the song, remove the top end and use just that. Do you ever experiment with that kind of stuff?

EG: Oh yeah, sure. I mean it’s funny, different songs and different eras of what I’ve done, it’s like stealing from different people. I’ve always admired Dilla, but I never used any of his techniques until Mister Mellow. I feel like there are some things that I took directly from influence. I have a hard time doing the same thing over and over again. So, I’m just constantly trying to listen to new things and try different and new techniques.

PM: How do you feel about the differences between your DJ sets and your live performances with your band?

EG: It’s quite different. With the band side of things it’s just a lot more complicated, we’ve got a lot more gear. The shows we’ve been doing for Mister Mellow, we have a projector with visuals. So that’s really expensive and really complicated. The cool side of that is that it’s all-encompassing and such an experience for the viewers.

The DJ side of things is obviously way simpler. I just show up with a jump drive in some cases and I really enjoy it. The other thing with live shows is, for the most part, it’s the same show every night to make the visuals and stuff work. When I show up for DJ gigs, it’s just like whatever vibe is in the room and it can go any number of ways. So that’s super fun. I mostly play other peoples music when I DJ, and I obviously love that because I’m a huge collector of music.

PM: You get to experiment with other sounds...

EG: Yeah, it’s always interesting to hear what gets people going.

PM: Which one do you prefer?

EG: Uh..

PM: Is that a hard question?

EG: Yeah, it is. If I‘m touring with the band, I just want to DJ. And if I do too much DJ stuff, I just want to do the band.

Probably the DJ thing is the most fun because you never know what you’re getting into.

PM: Is that because of the instant gratification you get from the crowd?

EG: Yeah, because they are a foot away. So it’s easy to know if people are vibing on it. A lot of times with the live show we prefer to have the projector behind the screen but sometimes, if the stage isn’t deep enough the projection will be in front of me, so it’s blinding and I can’t really see. You don’t know what’s going on and can’t tell if people are into it or not.

PM: I read that you went to school in Athens, specifically UGA. How would you compare the music scene in Athens to what we have here in Atlanta?

EG: It’s quite different. I mean, I’m a bit older now so I don’t really get out much. But I lived here about 6 or 7 years ago, and at that point, I was going out to shows a lot. There was alway this kind of grimey vibe in Atlanta verus in Athens. Especially at that time - I’m sure it’s still the same.

PM: It’s still the same!

EG: Garage rock bands, like The Black Lips, were kind of in their heyday. So, that would be the first thing. The other thing is because Athens is so tied up with the University, which can be really cool for a music scene. Generally, students have a little more freedom and there is always a new year of kids moving to Athens which can breathe new life into the scene. I think that’s really cool. Maybe Athens is a little more close-knit because of that.

PM: Do you still have your studio space in Athens?

EG: No, I moved here a year and a half ago. I still have a home set up here.

PM: After traveling all over the world, what made you want to settle in Atlanta? I know you’re from Perry, GA. Is it because of family being close or do you just enjoy the south?

EG: Yeah, it’s both. I’ve bounced around a little bit but I couldn’t imagine not living in the south. I love it here. I lived here around the time Washed Out kicked off and I lived in EAV. I really liked it but I had this super small house. It’s the only thing I could afford which was a small studio space. My house was overflowing with gear - I needed a bigger space. Having gone to school in Athens, I know it was cool and a lot cheaper.

PM: It’s still commutable. You can drive back.

EG: Exactly, but the drive back and forth to the Airport was killing me. I realized how much of a city person I was. I realized after living in Athens for a while that I really enjoyed...more options. I really enjoy Atlanta. It’s only a couple hours from where I grew up and I have a lot of family there, so it works out.

PM: Are you thinking about permanently staying here?

EG: Yeah, of course!

PM: I read in an interview with the Guardian, I think it was before the release of your album ‘Within Without’, that you longed for a nine to five lifestyle. Do you still feel that way? Has your life become more normalized?

EG: Definitely. I feel like I’ve written some of my best music when I was working nine to five, when I was in school, working, and I was only doing music on the side. It has a lot to do with I was just starting out with music. Ideas came out easier then, like the longer you do it that harder it is to come up with new ideas. It becomes a challenge when you’re doing it full time. It’s just a different sensation. It can be harder at times. I think that’s what I meant but it’s definitely become more normalized. I mostly work on Washed Out 9 to 5 and I have a two year old son. So, I’m up pretty early because he gets up pretty early. I try, for the most part, to keep pretty normal hours. I was reading this book; I think it’s called ‘Daily Habits’ or something. It’s basically profiles all these famous artists, musicians, and writers and it talks about how they plan their day and their workstyles. It was really surprising how many of them worked normal nine to five hours. A lot of my friends think I’m just sitting around smoking weed all day and maybe working on music for a couple hours, but it really is, at least for me, showing up everyday and grinding through it. That’s how I work my way into ideas.

PM: Does it feel like work?

EG: At times. Finishing songs is the only time it feels like work for me and doing non-music related stuff.

PM: The beginning process, when you have that idea, is great because you’re excited but finishing it is another thing.

EG: I’m terrible at finishing ideas. I have so many songs in my Harddrive that are almost there. I don’t have the willpower to finish them. I’ve been trying to get better with that.

PM: I know that you also enjoy photography. Are you still shooting?

EG: Yeah, sadly it’s more often with my phone.

PM: They say whatever you have is the best camera.

EG: Exactly, the best camera is the one that you have with you. I used to be more into film stuff but it’s bulky carrying it around and it’s obviously a lot more expensive. So for the most part, I do stuff with my phone. You know, traveling is really great for photography because you’re in a new place. So most often when I’m shooting stuff is when I’m on a trip.

PM: Would you ever do anything with your photography work?

EG: I’ve gotten more into, just on pure creative levels, shooting weird videos on my phone and I have a couple of apps where you can layer them on top of each other. I’ve been thinking of more ways to sync it with music because the videos are so weird. I feel like I need to come out with some really weird music to pair with it. Maybe someday I’ll pursue it a little more seriously.

PM: Do you have any local bands that you’re into?

EG: The first things that come to mind are the massive hip-hop stars from here. But for the more underground stuff, I’m sadly out of the loop on that.

PM: Do you have any advice that you’d give to local musicians?

EG: Sure. I would say just make, write, and record as much as you can. That’s the way that I did it. I was much more of a producer first. I didn’t play any shows until I had a record out. For me, it was just trial and error of making a ton of really shitty songs for years until I figured out my own vibe. I would say just work as much as you can and not get bogged down in writing the perfect song. It takes the repetition of making a bunch of songs before you can do your own thing.

There are obviously idiot savants who can stumble into it and the first song that they write sound like them. But for me, I was emulating people for years until I gradually stumbled into my own style.

PM: What’s next for washed out?

EG: I’m doing a handful of DJ stuff here and there and band stuff throughout the summer, festival stuff. I’m starting to work on new stuff. I had a new song come out as part of this adult swim thing. It’s just back to the drawing board. Like I said earlier, I like each album to be different. So I’m actively trying to figure out what the next step should be.

I’ve been doing a lot of ambient music just as a hobby or for fun, so idk if that’s the direction or something I might leak out on the side. It’s just been super fun doing improvisation. Washed Out stuff generally takes forever. First I write the song. I figure out the sounds and production and it take a while. So this ambient stuff is cool. I just start looping stuff and I enjoy that because it’s so different.

Washed Out will tour throughout May and June to close out the remainder of the Mister Mellow tour. For now, you can follow Washed Out on Twitter and Instagram for updates.

#Ernest Greene #Mister Mellow #Music #Stone Throw #Peanut Butter Wolf #Madlib #J Dilla #Little Trouble #Washed Out #DJ

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shugarecords · 7 years ago

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Words and Photos By Alicia Maciel

Good ole’ fashioned rock n roll band American Grizzly performed in-store Friday, October 6. From sharing a few beers together to talking about shows going on the same night, the Southsiders put on a cozy show that drew a lot of people in. With Matt Ladd on vocals, Jack Doyle and Dennis Wilson on guitars, Marty Funk on bass, and Anthony Perez on drums, American Grizzly is a fantastic local act worth listening to.

While “Love Somebody Else” is my pick from their noise rock twist on American folk music, I chatted with Dennis, Marty, and Jack to learn some more about the band.

How did you choose your band name?

Marty: I was listening to a My Morning Jacket album I just picked up called It Still Moves right around the time we first started playing together 3 or 4 years ago. I was listening to the record and admiring the album art, which has this really groovy bear wrapped in tinsel with geometric patterns all around the front and back covers and the name “American Grizzly” came to mind. We were throwing around band names at that time and I suggested American Grizzly and it kinda just stuck.

Are you guys actually local? If so, what neighborhood are you from?

Dennis: We’re all local. We’re all originally from the Southwest Side and have been living in different neighborhoods throughout the city for a while. Our studio’s in Pilsen.

How did you guys get to know one another?

Dennis: We all met through a mutual friend group. Marty and I grew up down the street from each other and have been playing music together since 7th or 8th grade. Jack and I kind of knew each other from mutual friends then I saw him play some Black Keys songs at an open mic and called him up to jam a few days later (7 or so years ago). Jack knew Matt and Anthony from some other bands they played in. Once we all got together, we realized how many friends we all had in common. It felt very natural for us all to hang out.

What gear do you have? If any of you are gear heads, what does your gear mean to you?

Dennis: Marty plays an Epiphone Thunderbird bass that looks super cool and always gets compliments on how it sounds. He’s currently in the market for a Fender Mustang bass. Jack plays a Fender Stratocaster and, on special occasions, Telecaster and has a few different Fender amps he plays (shoutout to his Fender Champion 600 which is a small tube amp that’s too small to gig with but sounds amazing). He also has a Waterloo acoustic that you’ll hear a lot on the next EP. I play a Gibson ES 390 hollow body electric guitar through a Vox amp. I also have a Musicvox Space Cadet 12 string electric guitar that’s made its way onto a few recordings and a Gretsch lap steel for when a bit of twang is required. Anthony will use anything he can get his hands on for drums/percussion. He once recorded a steak knife on a metal mesh screen and it was exactly the sound we were looking for. Matt has the good fortune of his instrument being his voice – pure and simple. I look at a nice instrument like a work of art. They’re so cool looking and have such personality. At least with guitars, the way they look and feel definitely influence how you play them.

What do you think about Chicago’s music scene?

Marty: Chicago has a great scene and a lot of cool venues and house shows to either play or catch a show. Since we moved into our studio in Pilsen a couple years ago, we’ve been catching a lot of shows at Thalia Hall and have been itching to play there.

If you can describe your music (genre, tone, etc.), how would you describe it?

Jack: The American Grizzly sound in most simple terms is good old fashioned rock ‘n’ roll, which gives us the luxury of pulling from a lot of different genres. Some of our tunes have heavy blues roots and others have a southern rock and/or country vibe. American Grizzly changes shape from show to show and album to album . We play folk songs, noise rock and pop tunes. We don’t really have a predetermined sound, so we can pretty much explore any area of music we want at any given moment and regularly do.

What’s your favorite song you’ve composed so far?

Jack: Favorite song we’ve composed so far is probably “Big City” because we got to collaborate with some awesome horn players and a great keyboard player here in Chicago. The song has a lot of energy and we enjoy playing it and listening to it. Anthony crashed his van the first time he heard the recording. That being said, our first album was recorded in Nashville, so any one of those songs could also take this slot.

Are you working on new music or touring soon?

Jack: We are going into the studio October 22nd to record a new EP. We are very excited. We are going to practice restraint.

What are your favorite Chicago bands?

Marty: We’ve all been diggin’ Lucille Furs album they put out a few weeks ago.

What are your influences?

Petty, Neil, Hendrix, Dylan, The Band, Auerbach, Aretha, Jim James, Dylan, Garcia, Petty, Lennon, Mic, Keith, Ray Charles, Natural Child, Brian Wilson, Allman Bros.,Freddie King, Jeff Tweedy, Pete Townshend, Clarence Carter, Denney and the Jets, John Prine, Stevie Wonder.

With their upcoming shows consisting of Lincoln Hall on November 2 and opening for Third Eye Blind December 1 at 115 Bourbon Street, make sure to catch American Grizzly before they hibernate in the studio to work on another EP.

#gallery-0-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Alicia Maciel is a junior at DePaul University studying marketing, music business, public relations, and advertising. Immersing in photography, promotion, interviews, interning at Metro and Notion Presents, managing The Chicago Vibe, curating live music, and plenty more – she hopes to bring innovation to the music scene. “A Chicagoan gal making music personnel personal.” American Grizzly – Instore Insight Words and Photos By Alicia Maciel Good ole’ fashioned rock n roll band American Grizzly performed in-store Friday, October 6.

#American Grizzly #Chicago bands #chicago music #Chicago Scene #instore #Interviews #Local Music

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eliteweddingcoordination · 7 years ago

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Celebrate 420 With This Potent Playlist

Smoking weed will get you nowhere, except the Oval Office. YouTube

As of this writing, marijuana is still classified as a Schedule 1 Controlled Substance, which means that the federal government does not recognize the plant as having any legitimate medical use. But tell that to the 28 states, and D.C., where medical marijuana not only thrives, but helps a whole lot of people with everything from cancer to insomnia.

I used to joke that I could easily earn a prescription by telling the doctor that I was suffering from “Jewish Mother-Induced Neuroses,” but embedded in that self-deprecation was a large truth. Worries about finances and plans for the week often keep me up at night, while ADD keeps me all over the place during the day. A well-timed toking break has never slowed me down beyond function, it just puts stops me from feeling all over the place and allows me to enter a state of calm, focused intention.

So perhaps the word drug is outdated, and the word medicine isn’t just for hippies anymore. And maybe, on the national stoner holiday we’ve come to know as 4/20, it’s time to work on flipping the script for the remaining slice of the heartland that still feels threatened by racist, capitalist-fortified smears against the demon weed.

Let’s dispel some myths about the origin of 4/20—it’s not police radio code for a marijuana-related crime, does not refer to the number of psychoactive cannabinoids in the plant, was not the number for a California penal code about weed, and is not the best time of year to plant—and if you add up the two numbers of “Rainy Day Women” in that Bob Dylan song, the fact that you get 420 is pure coincidence.

The term originated as the time when a group of stoners who called themselves “The Waldos” (because they liked to hang out in front of a wall) would meet after school to get high. This was in San Rafael, which is in Marin County, where The Grateful Dead were born, and Deadheads helped spread the term as it grew in popularity to reference any pot-related activity.

Now, we here at Observer Music certainly don’t advocate any illegal activity, but we also think that our happiest readers are our mellowest readers, and as such, want you to relax by any means necessary. So we made you a nice playlist of 42 tracks that love Jah, plunder the depths of the human psyche, and promote general waviness (420 songs would have been too much).

And though we certainly don’t condone spending the near three hours vibing on this playlist in one sitting, a couple of hits are potent enough to let some calm wash over your day.

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, “4 + 20”

As an invocation to our playlist, this classic works perfectly. David Crosby’s actually just singing about being 24 here, though, not picking up a bong. Since this song is from 1970, and the term “420” didn’t come around until a year later, consider it prophecy if you want.

Derrick Harriott, “Let Me Down Easy/Version”

What sort of mellow fellows would we be if we didn’t share one of the greatest reggae songs of all time with you? Harriot’s cool sense of removal from being dumped here isn’t quite rude, but it is ambivalent, and a classic case of vulnerability turning into strength. I and I been in Babylon too long.

Quicksilver Messenger Service, “It’s Been Too Long”

A lost hippie classic about getting back into the game, this tune works equally well as a soundtrack to those moments when you resume something you really enjoy after having to take a long break for one reason or another (cough, cough). “Even the driving wheel must come to rest sometimes” is a great lyric that captures the songs longing perfectly.

Kendrick Lamar Ft. Dr. Dre, “The Recipe”

We wanted to share Lamar’s DAMN. jam “YAH.” with you, as its one of the best stoney baloney groovers we’ve heard in ages. But that’s not up on YouTube yet, so this b-side and live favorite from good kid, mA.A.d city will also do nicely. Dre and Dot state over again that people come to L.A. for a recipe of three W’s—women, weed and weather. The sample of Twin Sister’s “Meet the Frownies” that runs throughout is a nice touch, too.

Africa HiTech, “Light The Way”

If Sun Ra had lived an IDM project, it might sound like this. That’s because Africa Hitech’s Mark Pritchard and Steve Spacek sample Sun Ra’s “When There Is No Sun” off 1978’s New Steps here for maximum chill. More than any of their grime bangers, “Light The Way” hits a sweet spot with inspiration you can wiggle to.

Javelin, “We Ah Wi”

Providence production duo Javelin can vacillate between hip-hop, pop, and straight up cartoon nonsense, but this track off 2010’s warms in all the right places with its inviting loops and wordless wisdom.

Desmond Dekker, “Perseverance”

Dekker’s got bigger hits than “Perseverance,” but we’re not sure why—this track has everything the ska great is celebrated for. “I can’t believe in unity with our laws” is one of the greatest lines ever, as true today as when it was written.

Bonobo, “Flutter”

This is just a great groover from a great producer, with an apropos title that explains the state it induces succinctly.

Neil Young, “Homegrown”

Tacked on to the end of 1977’s , this Young track is hardly considered a classic, but like the other holdovers from the fabled, lost Chrome Dreams, “Homegrown” is a solid entry in Young’s catalog that doesn’t often get its due. “Plant that bell and let it ring,” indeed.

Black Mountain, “Angels”

A modern stoner classic that proved Black Mountain could pull back from the sludge of their first record and write a true ballad. “Lay your halo down?”“Kick your rollies round?” Is this a song about encouraging a sheltered person to toke for the first time?

Brazilian Girls, “Pussy”

O.K., so this one’s a classic, but with its chorus of “Pussy pussy pussy marijuana,” that’s a no-brainer. Put this on at a work function and watch sparks fly.

Gene Clark, “Life’s Greatest Fool”

The first of many “self-doubt” songs we’ve peppered throughout this playlist, the first track on former Byrd Gene Clark’s classic encapsulates regret and remorse with a traveler’s perspective on impermanence. Like a good Neil Young song, Clark’s a master at profound simple profundities here, especially with the closing verse: “Words can be empty though filled with sound/Stoned numb and drifting, hard to be profound/Formed out of pleasure/chiseled by pain/Never the highest and not the last one to gain.”

Ab-Soul, “Tree of Life”

This Top Dawg labelmate of Kendrick Lamar doesn’t ever get his due, and “Tree of Life” is one of his strongest tracks. Try and guess what’s it’s about, and be easy.

Thundercat. “Lotus and the Jondy”

Stephen Bruner, a.k.a. Thundercat, implied that former Mars Volta drummer Thomas Pridgen is the dude killing that drum solo on this track, but I haven’t been able to find out whether that’s true or not. Either way, this one’s on another level. Frightened and tripping in the forest, Thunder just grabs an ice cream and all is O.K…there’s a lesson here.

Beach House, “Apple Orchard”

When Beach House came through to Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts with The Clientele in 2007, my buddy and I thought it would be a good idea to eat some mushrooms and check them out. Beach House guitarist Alex Scally saw us walking into The Fenway with eyes like saucers before and shot us a knowing smirk, then proceeded to blow our minds with a set still heavy on tunes from the new classic, self-titled Beach House record.

This one always sticks out to me, maybe because of the shrooms, but more likely because its just paralyzingly beautiful, a celebration of slowing down—”Let’s lie down for a while, you can smile/Lay your head in the old, old fashion.”

Black Moth Super Rainbow, “Sun Lips”

BMSR have only gotten weirder over the years, but the grit and potency of this track off 2007’s merits revisiting, a simple song about watching the sun rise with someone and missing them during summertime.

Bob Marley, “High Tide or Low Tide”

More than any other of Marley’s classics, this “Catch a Fire” tune hits us right in the feels. It’s got that minor turn, that prayer in the middle, and isn’t afraid to be nuanced or complex.

Caribou, “Bowls”

Yeah, yeah, we know those are Tibetan prayer bowls being sampled throughout the track, not bowls of weed, but this is still still a heady groover nonetheless.

Real Estate, “Fake Blues”

A lot of Real Estate songs sound the same, but “Fake Blues,” off their first, self-titled record, has its own thing going on. Another song about self-doubt and the power of our minds to create our own sorrows, “Though it’s not as if I choose to be sad with these fake blues” rings with the clear conundrum mind-fuck of a Zen koan.

Witch, “Feeling High”

A great ’70s band from Zambia, Africa, all of Witch’s tunes are absolutely killer. Ride the Zam Wave, baby!

The Byrds, “Wild Mountain Thyme”

A rather gorgeous take on an old traditional from , which is The Byrd’s stab at a psych album.

Little Dragon, “Feather”

Little Dragon’s breathy vocals and evocation of natural imagery here make “Feather” a classic among LD tunes, mood music prime for floating around to.

Caetano Veloso, “Nine Out of Ten”

One of the Tropicalia legend’s English tunes, “Nine Out of Ten” tickles the cockles of the soul with the image of Veloso banging on his belly to the sound of reggae, crying while thinking about movie stars, then rapturously declaring “I’m alive!” over and over again throughout the song’s refrain.

Four Tet, “Aerial”

Like most of Kieran Hebden’s music, this instrumental has supernatural powers. Included not only for its title, but for its rude groove that pops up between breaks in arpeggiated synth leads.

Grateful Dead, “He’s Gone”

This tune was originally written about Dead drummer Mickey Hart’s father, then the band’s manager, running away with their money. But when Pigpen died in ’73, it took on a whole new meaning. He was already sitting out a ton of shows due to alcohol-related health problems, and missing from the Europe ’72 tour this recording was taken from. It’s on here instead of the more ubiquitous Dead hits because it explains what “steal your face” was all about, and because it fits the theme of people who are too gone to come back, which the Dead would revisit time and again.

White Williams, “Smoke”

Have any of you heard from this dude since he released the delicious synth-pop LP in 2007? This title track sums up everything great about that album, and if anyone knows what Joe Williams is up to now, please drop us a line.

Alexander “Skip” Spence, “Cripple Creek”

The former Moby Grape frontman (he played with Garcia and Jefferson Airplane at various points, too) was already starting to go mad when he made his ’69 masterpiece, , an acoustic prayer of Syd Barrett-level eccentricities, filtered through the American experience. “Cripple Creek” is our favorite track on the record for its climax, in which Spence intones, “He thought if they were gone, said he, and this cannot be true, ‘The search to find what wasn’t there has brought him back to you.'”

Jimmy Cliff, “Sooner or Later”

So yeah, of course Jimmy Cliff has more stoney baloney tunes and stone-cold classics then “Sooner or Later” off ’73’s , but this track both fits the playlists evergreen theme of wasting time and lifts some lyrics from the great Bob Dylan.

Rodriguez, “Like Janis”

Sixto Rodriguez taps into some gorgeousness here, with a Cold Fact classic that reads like a heady parable embedded in a nursery rhyme. That chorus soars with Aquarian longing as Rodriguez revisits this person’s doubt for him.

The Flaming Lips, “In The Morning of The Magicians”

has so many classics on it that this second album highlight tends to get overlooked. Filled with gorgeous, spacey platitudes (“Is it love or is it hate, and why does it matter?”), “In The Morning of The Magicians” is not only a testament to Steven Drozd’s skills as an arranger, but also to a golden age of The Lips, when they were still jubilantly tapping into brain stems all willy nilly.

Love, “Your Friend and Mine (Neil’s Song)”

Someone once told me that Love’s Arthur Lee would have been as big as Hendrix, but he never wanted to leave L.A. because he had all the women and all the heroin a man could want right there. Anyway, this song rules, ripe to soundtrack frolicking or frivolity despite some of its heavy themes. “Here’s a little something to relax your mind, now that we are two of a kind.”

Sly & The Family Stone, “Just Like A Baby”

Again, we know Sly’s got more classic tunes, but sometimes when your higher cognitive functions fail it’s O.K. to feel like a baby. “Everything is new” when you get that head change, too.

Devendra Banhart, “The Other Woman”

The Kinks, “Shangri-La”

This track off The Kink’s ’69 classic, finds bliss in staying home rather than joining the rat race. It’s got a good dash of reserved joy talking about conditioning and tea before kicking off into a groovy psychedelic banger of the times, punctuated by a warm blanket of La La La’s.

Olivia Tremor Control, “Jumping Fences”

Like other Elephant Six band Apples In Stereo, Olivia Tremor Control really, really fucking loved The Beatles. This highlight off their 2004 masterpiece, , arrives early and doesn’t overstay its welcome. A simple feel-good ditty only on the surface, “Jumping Fences” counters the theme of “Shangri-La” nicely when you look at its opening words: “Lazy man who can’t find his words, all caught up inside his head/He is there with you, he is there with you/ And when he can’t speak from too much wine, you’re always there with his line/When he wants to go home/ you know the jolly show must go on.”

John Phillips, “Mississippi”

Forget all the horrible shit you may have heard about former Papa from The Mamas & The Papas, John Phillips. It all may be true, as some of the bluer subjects and themes on his ’69 masterpiece suggest, but there are moments of frivolity to be found as well. “Mississippi,” with its swimming hole shenanigans, is enough to make you psyched for warmer weather. On a side note, why hasn’t anyone called out Father John Misty for totally ripping off this dude’s vibe?

Jerry Garcia and David Grisman, “I Truly Understand”

Taken from , a collection of standards released the year after Garcia died, “I Truly Understand” is a gorgeous bluegrass number about accepting loss and feeling alone, the commiserating ditty for after the comedown. Grisman had been playing with The Dead since , and listening to this record will hit you right in the feels.

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, “We Can’t Help You”

Post-Pavement, Stephen Malkmus and his Jicks have played around with many other song structure forms, but 2008’s is their stoner jam album, and it rules. “We Can’t Help You” serves as something of the comedown ballad, and fits well with our recurring theme on here of speaking to people who are just gone. “Well I wish for once, you would just stop copin’,” sings Malkmus.

The Yardbirds, “I Can’t Make Your Way”

Jeff Beck’s lead guitar effortlessly glides through this cut off The Yardbird’s ’66 record, . An ode to not giving a fuck about the grind of the world, “I Can’t Make Your Way” fits this playlist like a glove: “Silly men, they all get worried/Live their lives so worthlessly/Troubled, bothered, flustered, hurried/They should take a look at me.”

The Pretty Things, “The Sun”

Full of questionable Aquarian epiphany, The Pretty Things’’67 album contains this stellar track, “The Sun,” wherein our singer can’t touch the sun because it’s just too high. We’ve been there, man.

David Peel, “I Like Marijuana”

This list wouldn’t be complete without a track from the late, great David Peel, one of the city’s true Yippie weirdos before he passed away from a heart attack earlier this month. The great proto-punk was called “The King of The Lower East Side” for a reason.

Neil Young, “Roll Another Number (For The Road)”

Uncle Neil’s been closing many a tour with this number lately, but you’ll do well to remember that “number” also refers to a joint. An appropriate farewell song and an embrace of budding distance, Young’s leaving Woodstock and all the utopian dreams he promised to drive the road alone, that is, unless another cop pulls him over.

Source

http://observer.com/2017/04/420-stoner-music-playlist/

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stone-man-warrior · 6 years ago

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October 17, 2018: 8:30 pm:

October 17, 2018: 7:23 pm:<br><br>George W. Bush; Automaker bailout; Banking ... StoneMan .Warrior - 2018-10-17T23:30:12-0400 - Updated: 2018-10-17T23:30:12-0400

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StoneMan .Warrior - 2018-10-18T00:56:38-0400 - Updated: 2018-10-18T00:57:23-0400

StoneMan .Warrior - 2018-10-18T02:23:09-0400

John Gray - 2018-10-19T06:39:22-0400

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