Mellow Tunes for Stoned or Un-Stoned Ears

It’s been easy to lump together the cohort of stoner reggae bands both inspired by and left to stand on their own after the death of Sublime’s Bradley Nowell. While most were able to linger shortly on the fleeting coattails of Sublime’s popularity, a few such as Ocean Beach’s Slightly Stoopid have been able to transcend Nowell’s shadow and build their own momentum.Since signing with Nowell’s Skunk Records back in high school, Slightly Stoopid founding members Miles Doughty and Kyle McDonald have displayed a creativity and individual voice that’s kept them in the spotlight. While Slightly Not Stoned Enough to Eat Breakfast, Yet Stoopid is not a full LP but an older EP bolstered with outtakes, demos, and alternate versions, it remains an enjoyable display of the band’s creative juices.

“Circle House Blues” is a casual blues-reggae instrumental jam, perfect fuel for those secret daydreams of life as an undercover spy. “London Dub” offers memorable, catchy horn blasts over scattered percussion, and “Train 1” chugs along with an infectious beat invoking the vehicle it was named after. Some experiments don’t work: an updated “Sensimilia” casts one of the band’s best tracks in its own Crystal Light commercial, and snoozers “Know Your Rider” and “False Anthems” offer nothing worth coming back for.

Yet overall, the collection is interesting and worth hearing, especially for past fans of the California-based sextet. You’ll mostly get the expected modern reggae dubs and lyrics saturated with marijuana references, but the record’s creative swerves and sidetracks merit following.