The tunes review of what’s new the MC Music Man takes on: Slightly Stoopid

By: Dustin Looney
Features Editor

One of my personal favorite bands of all time is the California based unique sounding Sublime. In my opinion, no band will ever be able to recreate the sound of Sublime, but Slightly Stoopid creates music that in many ways is equally excellent.

Slightly Stoopid started making music in 1995 when the bands two founders, Kyle McDonald and Miles Doughty, were still in high school in Ocean Beach, California. Their music caught the ear of Sublime’s lead singer, Bradley Nowell, and they were signed to Bradley’s record label, Skunk Records.

Slightly Stoopid’s first two CD’s featured a lot of punk songs, but their music has evolved into a distinctive sound. Slightly Stoopid describes their more recent music as “a fusion of acoustic rock and blues with reggae, hip-hop and punk.”

The band has added a few members from when they first started out, and they now feature McDonald and Doughty on bass, guitar and vocals, Ryan Moran on drums and Oguer Ocon on Congas, Percussion, Harp and Vocals.

All these types of music combine together on their most recent studio album, “Closer To The Sun.,” which was released in 2005.

The 20 track CD is Slightly Stoopid’s best to date in my opinion, and the following songs are some of my personal favorites:

After a brief intro song, the second track on the CD is called “Babylon Is Falling.” As indicated by the songs title, this song is about Babylon, which represents a rich and magnificent city believed to be a place of excessive luxury. In the song, Slightly Stoopid sings: “Babylon is falling down/Everybody’s losing control/People use and abuse this world/And now they just taking a stroll/These times have changed.”

The next track on the CD is one of my personal favorites, “Somebody.” This catchy song has a unique sound and a basic message: we all should just get up and be somebody.

The sixth track on “Closer To The Sun” is titled “See It No Other Way.” This song has a slow relaxed beat with a strong bass behind reggae style vocals.

Track nine is another good song, titled “Older.” This song also features a unique sound and it stays with the reggae theme.

Immedieately following “older” is another catchy tune, “Ain’t Got A Lot Of Money.” This catchy tune has witty lyrics that are about how the green pieces of paper that drive this world into chaos is not the most important thing to life. “I ain’t got a lot of money/all I got is time and a reason to rhyme/I don’t need a lot of money/ all I need is you.”

The 15th track on the CD is another good song, called “Up On A Plane.” This song has some impressive guitar riffs and some creative lyrics about Slightly Stoopid going on the road and leaving their girlfriends behind.

Track 17 is titled the same as the CD and it is a fan favorite. This short song has catchy music and some clever metaphors. “Stealing from the rich and then give it to the poor/Telling everbody it don’t matter anymore, she said/All I really needed was a friend like you/Help me through and together we can change, but/If I was to stay it wasn’t for too long/People sing the same song everywhere I’m going/Closer to the sun and far from the moon/People screaming out they gonna see me real soon.”

Overall I think the CD is really great. As they claim to do, they successfully combine several different styles of music together. In addition to the 20 tracks on “Closer To The Sun,” the CD also came with a bonus CD which has four tracks on it. The bonus CD displays the reggae style of the band and it has some great tunes, too.

As I said, the exceptional music of Sublime will never be recreated, but Slightly Stoopid might be the closest thing…after all, they were recognized by Bradley himself.

I have seen Slightly Stoopid in concert twice, and their talents are displayed even more live, as they performed many improvisational songs that featured Doughty and McDonald freestyles over tunes that were made up on the spot.

Other Slightly Stoopid albums include “Slightly Stoopid,” “The Longest Barrel Ride,” “Everything You Need” and “Live and Direct Acoustic Roots.”

“Live and Direct Acoustic Roots” is a live CD of Doughty and McDonald playing the acoustic guitar on the radio, with no edits or dubs. It displays their true talents and it is one of my favorite CD’s ever made.