"sidemousin' the bong"

   steve bloom, music editor at high times asked me to do a song for the compilation hempilation vol. 2 coming this fall on capricorn records. folks like willie nelson and cats like that are going to be on it. according to capricorn records, "hempilation vol. 2 aims to raise both public awareness and funds on behalf of the unfairly maligned hemp plant. a portion of the proceeds from hempilation vol. 2 will be donated to norml."

   I thought I could really get into this and wrote me up a tune for it. in my mind, I thought of an old friend as I was writing it. when I was done I called it "sidemousin' the bong" and wanted george hurley to play drums. it had been over four and half years since we last played and that was after fourteen years together in the minutemen and fIREHOSE. I was anxious to get it going. to give george enough room and to put a little twist on our usual power troika sarrangement, I tapped petra haden to play violin. she ended up singing it too, giving it a great feel. lastly, I had stephen perkins add some final garnishings. thomas johnson (teej) would be the engineer and we would use studio b at the complex in west los angeles, ca for the pad to record and mix it in. july 8 and 9, 1998 would be the two days in which we would do it. I would produce.

   it was a trip to play w/george again, I dug it. he was real tight w/a beat we kind of used for "max and wells" in the old days. he played both his premier acoustic trap set and his roland rv-7 sample and trigger set. they both played through the entire tune. I asked george to do a drum solo he was happy to whup it up! he really did hot on trading shots - he set the electric set right up in the control room and we played w/us right there, all of us talking and shit while it's going down. a trip. we mixed it a little down and got good beef w/the acoustic bam. he used like four splashes to ding it up all over the place too. he did great work. as did petra. I asked her for the "perry mason show theme" (my ma's favorite tv show ever) feel for some parts, a romp through the woods for others. this helped us all remember the parts and the feels too. it's a trip, not having a band and just coming together for these songs. a connection of the moment thing: the purpose, the people, the throw-down. I dig it.

   by the way, the moon bass was way girthed thickness. trippy machine.

   here's some shots taken during the recording:

   here's the lyrics:

   now there was this tough part near the end of the piece that requried some massive bong hits. perk stepped up and got to it. damn, this cat could suck-start a harley. teej said these were the best bong hits he ever recorded. he reckons the glass of the delivery machine added harmonic color. miraculously, perk did all the hits in one take, including the nine in a row for the finale. damn.

   the disc got released novemeber 3, 1998 and puffed up a big cloud. check out some reviews!

this page created 6 aug 98