Stoners' Zone

[Lisnaholic]

... not the drugtakers, but the music, which is defined as:-

Stoner rock, also known as stoner metal or stoner doom, is a fusion genre of rock music that blends elements of doom metal, psychedelic rock, and acid rock. It's characterized by slow-to-mid tempo, a heavy and distorted sound, groove-laden bass, melodic vocals, and a retro production style. The genre is often associated with the use of cannabis and a focus on themes of cosmic exploration and the desert.

Here's a track from Norwegian band, Areknuteknyterne, to set the mood:-

 

(= 2025 remaster of an original 1986 recording)

Anyone else enjoy stoner rock, proto-stoner, or stoner-adjacent music ?

[Trollheart]

Stormbringer, man!

[Lisnaholic]

 ^ Well, that one was harder and heavier than I expected ! Is that down the "doom metal" end of the stoner spectrum, Trolls ?

One element of stoner rock is the way it often enhances/emulates the famous time-distorting effects of cannabis, and one band who are prepared to explore that zone are The Myrrors. ( https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=6983) Coming in at 14:37, this track, from their 2013 album Solar Collector is not their longest-ever excursion, but it does induce something that the stoner-rock listener should become used: the sequence of thoughts that goes, "...wow this is great...how long does it go on for...woooh, I'm really down in a sonic wormhole now....ok, who's going to crack first, me or the band?..."

[Lexi of the Dawn]

I love a lot of 70s proto-metal that has one foot in heavy and one in psychedelic. Here's a few faves in that ballpark:

And we can't have a stoner/doom thread without this anthem:

[Lisnaholic]

^ Thanks, Lexi ! Later today, I'll be giving those "a proper listen" 

[Trollheart]

@Lisnaholic yeah to be honest I don't know too much about stoner (except when I travel back in time to Judea and they're all shouting it for some reason at some woman - think John Cleese is there too. Weird. Or is that a dream?) and the only band I knew I had which were labelled as being "stoner metal" was Stormbringer.

Okay, how about some Electric Wizard? What happens if there's a power cut, I wonder?

Guess they go to Sleep. And smoke something, though I have no idea what.

[Lisnaholic]

^ I liked the Electric Wizard track, though I found myself more interested in that nightmarish old movie clip than in whatever it was that the EW guy was singing about.

Good choice with Dopesmoker ! Perhaps you know more about stoner rock than you are letting on, because this has been a Holy Grail for stoner fans for years (specifically from original recording date, 1996, to release date, 2003). The running time makes it a real challenge, doesn't it?
Here's my report on listening to it this morning: 10 mins of sole-focus listening, 15 mins of listening while typing a post on SCD, then I'd had enough, and paused it, which I suppose means 38 mins of resting my ears from stoner rock.

I love a lot of 70s proto-metal that has one foot in heavy and one in psychedelic. Here's a few faves in that ballpark:

^ As you can see, I got delayed in listening to your faves, Lexi. That Hawkwind track was so unlike anything around at the time, and can perhaps in retrospect be labelled the very birthplace of stoner rock.
As for Spooky Tooth, I thought it suffered a bit from being the cover of such a well-known classic: all the way through, I was kind of measuring it in my mind against the original, and it was really only with the guitar solo at the end that I thought that it out-shone The Beatles.
I'll listen to your other tracks, but to do them justice, I have to detox my ears for a while:


 

[Buckeye Randy]

I've always been intrigued by The Beatles cover by Spooky Tooth.  Mrs. Buckeye and myself have always speculated that the studio was pitch black when the vocals were recorded.

For me, the song by Spooky Tooth is in the genre 'head music'.  Maybe that's a dated term from back in the day or maybe it was regional or maybe...what was I saying, man? 

[Trollheart]

Dave's not here, man.

[Lisnaholic]

^ The perfect cultural reference!

I remember "He's a head" being used briefly to mean "he's a hippie", but pretty soon it needed a supplementary word to give it a more specific meaning, like "He's a metal head" or "He's a Dead head." So "head music" sounds familiar, but I wouldn't like to define the term: I'll leave that to Randy and Mrs. Buckeye to debate.

[Buckeye Randy]

Yeah...it's coming back to me in colors of quad.

Acid heads and pot heads listened to head music.

[Trollheart]

I never understood what enjoyment people found back then in collecting hazardous chemicals and kitchen utensils. Guess you had to be there.

[Buckeye Randy]

Quote
Stoner rock, also known as stoner metal or stoner doom, is a fusion genre of rock music that blends elements of doom metal, psychedelic rock, and acid rock. It's characterized by slow-to-mid tempo, a heavy and distorted sound, groove-laden bass, melodic vocals, and a retro production style. The genre is often associated with the use of cannabis and a focus on themes of cosmic exploration and the desert.

I've been known to listen to Clutch.

"I got your number. I steal your thunder.
I got your mother's maiden name tattooed on my arm."

[Oriphiel]

[Lisnaholic]

I got your mother's maiden name tattooed on my arm."

^  Such a great line when it comes up in the context of the song !

Thanks for all the worthy examples of Stoner Rock. I have a predeliction for long instrumentals, so I particularly liked the May Blitz song, although its long mid-section drifts away, interestingly, from true Stoner Rock, I suspect. Still, it's right on topic with its title, Smoking the Day Away !

If Smoking The Day Away, from 1970, is a slightly wayward proto-Stoner track, Mother Engine's Weltraumwolf, from about 45 years later, has a sound that is right in the mainstream of now-established Stoner orthodoxy - but don't let that description put you off: it's a great track:-