This weekend brings Hempfest, the world's largest annual gathering of hemp advocates, marijuana-decriminalization activists, and potheads that will take over three Seattle waterfront parks (Myrtle Edwards Park, Elliot Bay Park, and the Olympic Sculpture Park) both Saturday and Sunday. In advance of the grassy bash, I present you with a long-yet-kinda-arbitrary-and-far-from-conclusive list and ask:

What is the best record to listen to while stoned?

Berate me about the 1,001 crucial options I neglected to mention in the comments.

Sky Saxon, AKA Richard Marsh, began in the late '50s as Little Ritchie Marsh w/a handful of teener/R&B sides that effectively went nowhere, but his forming of The Seeds in 1965, with Jan Savage (guitar), Daryl Hooper (bitchin' hair, keyboards) and Rick Andridge (drums) changed his fortunes, so to speak...and ours also as the Seeds' attitude and style of playing were one cornerstone of '70s punk. They were an American archetype '60s garage/punk band, full on...white middle class kids gone bad, growing their hair out, (maybe) taking drugs, chasing girls...and really digging that Super Fuzz pedal, kinda band. PERFECT for blowing summer of 1966 UP. And there was no other band that sounded quite like the Seeds. If you've ever heard 'em they obviously cannibalized their own riffs, but it doesn't serve as off-putting redundancy. Instead, like Bo Diddley's beat, it only reinforced their intent and presence.

As the '60s wore on they dipped into the sike side of 1967 (Saxon has been said to be first to use the term "Flower Power") and succeeded in producing a GENIUS sike LP, Future, that still sounded like the Seeds chugga-chug while getting quite dreamy and delicate. Their next LP, not officially a Seeds LP, is the only spoiler in their cannon is a "blues" LP...said to be a contract breaker...um, but the less said regarding THAT the better. Finally, in '68, a live LP was issued "Raw and Alive: Merlin's Music Box"...it's one of the few really good live LPs, ever. By '71 the teen scene had changed and new tracks dried up, so what was left of the band split. Sky moved to Hawaii, and eventually became, Sunlight, a member of the Source Family.

He recorded and performed randomly in the '80s and '90s, but swung back into reality in 2002 with a reformed Seeds...which until this morning were still going strong. In fact, they played in Texas just this past Saturday night...at the moment I've not heard what caused his death.

I think Sky was a bit over 70 years old...

Pushin Too Hard

Tripmaker

This year marks her fourth centennial. Being four hundred years old, she is celebrating at The Crescent Tavern (1413 East Olive Way), which is singularly appropriate, and still smells like total ass. (Take care of it people—the charm is GONE!) Not that I'd ever insinuate that Jackie smells like ass, of course. Especially not on her birthday.

There's a Jackie Hell look-alike contest at midnight! The event goes from 9 PM-till-2 fucking AM!

Won't you join her?

Oh, and, um, Jackie Hell is totally completely biographied here, by the way. Ahem. Order it gift-wrapped!

Happy birthday, you hideous, glorious freak!

via LiveLeak