The moment will come when you realise Stoned Weekend is so much more than some lame, one-dimensional spliff/ toke/ hemp gag. This is, in all seriousness, one of the most ambitious and engrossing releases of early 2022. Quite when “the moment” arrives will differ from listener to listener, but it WILL come.
Can something/ someone be playful and profound at the same time? Ask former Brooklyn now Vermont couple Becca and Miles Robinson. Not that they have all the answers, but they will lead you to the path of enlightenment via this musical barn trance, a Psych-Country trip with a properly gritty, Indie-Rock vibe. Ultimately, cumulatively, it’s a cautionary tale – The Weed-All And The Damage Done.
The burbling, discordant opening to the “mission-statement” title song – reprised at closing Track 10 as Still Stoned, a la Shakey’s bookending My My, Hey Hey/ Hey Hey, My My – helps set the tone before Missed Our Chance rocks out like Reckoning/ Fables REM.
The ballad-y, elegiac Lemon Trees highlights the contrast of the two voices as the drug theme holds centre-stage. Relatively low on euphoria, the lyrics throughout are full of downbeats – it’s more about the drudgery, the dread of it, a stubbed-out stogie remnant, hot knives a cold, cold memory: “Don’t wanna stay/ All used up and useless” … “We’ve been so bored and bummed” … “When I lay me down to sleep/ Made a promise I can’t keep” … “They know my name/ But they don’t know my hatred/ Man, I’m so ashamed.” These are songs as short stories, or poetry, if you accept “poetry” as the maximum meaning in the minimum words.
In the monomyth model of Joseph Campbell (see The Hero With A Thousand Faces) the hero returns from his challenging and mysterious adventures with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man. Miles’ world-weary but soulful and engaging voice convinces us he has been around a bit, off on adventures, returning with more than just the best of the local supply. The boons in this case are the songs, not simply fuel for the bongs. Stoned Weekend is produced by Miles himself and boasts superb guitar and drum sounds throughout – the drums are by Pastor Greg Faison, take a bow. Dual songwriters Becca and Miles deliver guitar, bass and harmonica, with Miles also on keyboards.
Linda’s Tripp brings the bass to the fore and if you haven’t had your “moment” yet, you must find it in this sublime rocker. Ben & Bongo is the closest to feelgood (still feel queasy?) before Our December riffs and rocks. The drums on Wyld Chyld are seriously elemental, with echoes of Indigenous rhythms and atmospheric, shamanic campfire theorising, fitfully illuminated by shooting stars on mind-blowing trajectories, arcing towards transcendence and/ or oblivion.
Stoned Weekend, by Drug Couple, is out on January 28, from PaperCup Music