FESTIVAL REVIEW: All Points West @ Liberty State Park - August 8-10

by Bean, Wed Aug 13, 2008

For once, we pot smokers had the last laugh…

Want to drink beer at the inaugural All Points West festival, held on the grounds of a New Jersey State Park with an amazing view of the Manhattan skyline and the ass of the Statue of Liberty (more on that later)? Well, first get to the back of an endless line, then surrender your driver’s license to be run through a machine (praying you have no outstanding warrants), then get in another line to buy your overpriced suds (maximum 5 cups per person, per day), and then stay cooped up in a little “beer drinking pen,” far from the action, with all the other drunks, until you’re finished drinking.

Meanwhile, want to get baked off your ass while watching Radiohead, Underworld, Jack Johnson, The Roots, Trey Anastasio, Michael Franti, Animal Collective, Cat Power, Ben Harper and the other 40+ acts on the APW line-up? Simply shove a pipe and some weed down the …READ MORE

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CONCERT REVIEW: The Heavy Pets, Rocks Off Boat Cruise – NYC July 30, 2008

by Bean, Thu Jul 31, 2008

What’s better than catching a great set from a quickly rising young band in an intimate venue? When that intimate venue pulls away from the dock and starts circling the island of Manhattan, of course.

Cast in the role of on-deck entertainment, South Florida’s The Heavy Pets took a joyride around the big city on a cloudy Wednesday night, headlining a night of the legendary Rocks Off concert series (basically, the Circle Line with a full bar and a couple bands). And so, with cold beer on board, and hot jams from the Pets, plus all the fresh air you could ever hope to make fragrant, amazing views of the New York skyline and the temporary waterfalls recently installed up and down the East River—well, let’s just say that if you didn’t have fun, you must have gotten seasick.

Meanwhile, the rest of us swayed our way through a high-energy set of foot-tapping grooves from a talented young …READ MORE

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CONCERT REVIEW: Modey Lemon @ Mercury Lounge, NYC - July 29th

by Bean, Tue Jul 29, 2008

Do you like your rock bands loud as fuck, and totally relentless? If not, stay far away from Modey Lemon, or at the very least try to stand as far back from the speakers as humanly possible. For the rest of us, set your feet wide apart, so you don’t get blown over backwards, and prepare yourself for a non-stop-psychedelic-rock-meets-Sabbath-without-losing-its-soul thrill ride. 

Pittsburgh’s ever ambitious trio took their traveling road show to New York for two dates in the past two nights, opening for !!! at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on Sunday followed up with an intimate Monday night gig at Mercury Lounge, with the later venue proving just barely large enough to withhold the ever escalating sonic vibrations of an hour long set that not only never stopped, but accelerated through every turn.

Did we mention they’re pretty damn groovy too? Three years after their critically acclaimed breakthrough The …READ MORE

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FESTIVAL GALLERY: Rothbury, Michigan, July 3rd – 6th, 2008

by Bean, Thu Jul 10, 2008

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MUSIC REVIEW - ROTHBURY FESTIVAL- Rothbury, Michigan, July 3rd – 6th, 2008

by Bean, Tue Jul 8, 2008

By David Bienenstock

Trey Anastasio emerged from exile with nothing but an acoustic guitar to hide behind. The once (and future?) Phish frontman returned to action at the inaugural Rothbury Festival to play a set mainly stocked with old, familiar songs, thrilling the huge crowd that gathered to witness the resurfacing of one of the jam scene’s biggest names.

Largely invisible since a December 2006 drug arrest in upstate New York, Anastasio opened his first true public performance in well over a year with a shy smile and a string of Phish songs, including “Sample in a Jar,” “Farmhouse,” and “Waste.” Coming on the heels of increasingly credible hints and rumors about a reunion of the venerable Vermont quartet, the previously unannounced arrival of bassist Mike Gordon, midway through …READ MORE

tags: concert review, phish, rothbury, bonnaroo, music 1    « add a comment

BLACK TUNA: OUT OF THE CAN

by Bean, Tue Jul 1, 2008

Attention all stoners: Please take a moment to pause, reflect, and then burn a joint for Robert Platshorn, formerly America’s longest serving marijuana prisoner, and now a free man after nearly three decades behind bars. Convicted in 1980 as leader of the notorious Black Tuna Gang, this non-violent, first time offender fell victim to the first-ever DEA/FBI joint investigation of the marijuana trade.

Smuggling multi-ton shipments of Colombian marijuana into Miami at a time when the United States seemed on the verge of nationwide decriminalization, Platshorn knew he was taking risks, but never expected anything like the 64-year prison sentence thrown down after a tumultuous federal trial.

“I think it was the atmosphere of the 70’s. It seemed it was almost legal,” Platshorn told HIGH TIMES in 2005, while still an inmate at the Maxwell Air Force Base Federal Prison …READ MORE

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CONCERT REVIEW: MY MORNING JACKET

by Bean, Mon Jun 23, 2008

Give Jim James a stage with wings, and he’s going to fly. Taking off in the middle of one of his innumerous, crescendo-filled guitar solos, My Morning Jacket’s mercurial frontman not only explored the spacious sides of Radio City Music Hall’s suitably outsized performance space, he overflowed its boundaries entirely, soaring up the venerable venue’s side stairways while simultaneously rocking his instrument, stopping short only when confronted by the first row of fans in the lowest balcony—an easy metaphor for a musician clearly on the ascendant.

Taking to the road after a year spent largely in the recording studio, MMJ returns stronger on both fronts, with Evil Urges as their most mature, most confounding, and ultimately most rewarding album, and with a new urgency added to their live performance that consistently flabbergasted even longtime fans of the notorious road warriors.

From …READ MORE

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FESTIVAL REVIEW - BONNAROO 2008

by Bean, Tue Jun 17, 2008

Here’s a few interesting things that happened on stage at the seventh annual Bonnaroo in rural Manchester, Tennessee: My Morning Jacket controlled the weather, Eddie Vedder tripped on acid (allegedly), Chris Rock cracked wise, Metallica scared the shit out of a field of fucked up hippies, M.I.A. retired from the music biz (maybe), and Kanye West showed up at 4:30 in the morning to play a set originally scheduled for 8:15 PM.

To make matters worse for Mr. West (soon known as “Kanye Worst” to Bonnaroo Nation), his just-post 4:20 arrival time removed the dark from of his “glow in the dark” stage show, and, unfortunately, “glow in the dawn” just doesn’t work as well. Also, the handful of brave souls who actually stuck around ended up throwing their …READ MORE

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RIDE, CAPTAIN, RIDE

by Bean, Sun May 18, 2008

Captain Zero wants to be your leisure consultant. But first you have to make your own way down to Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica, because this travel package includes neither flight nor accommodations. Once you arrive, however, the Captain will be more than happy to help you find a nice place to stay, in any price range, not to mention a secluded beach, gnarly waves, hiking trails deep into the jungle, the best cheap eats, and an out-of-the-way seaside cantina where you can sip a rum and puff a fat joint at sunset, while a reggae band plays to a packed house of irie locals.

By the way, there’s no need for advance reservations. You can locate the Captain almost any time of day or night in this small surfer hideaway, whether he’s taking his coffee and scouting out the breaks first thing in the morning from the shade of the lifeguard stand, coasting through the two-street town on his iconic yellow bicycle (conveniently outfitted with a machete holder), or …READ MORE

tags: july 2008, smuggling 17    « add a comment

CONCERT REVIEW: THE JAMMY AWARDS

by Bean, Mon May 12, 2008

 The first time Phish reunited following an extended hiatus, they chose New York’s Madison Square Garden for a venue, returning for a New Year’s Eve performance that ushered in 2003 with a triumphant re-launch of the legendary quintet’s unique style of improvisational jambandary. Less than two years later, they’d call it quits again, this time ostensibly for good, with a massive farewell concert in their home state of Vermont.

Last night’s 7th Annual Jammy Awards brought the band back together onstage for the first time since that emotional ending, once again in New York’s Madison Square Garden, but this time in the far smaller Theater below the actual Garden proper (where onetime Phish collaborator Jay Z was busy performing to a packed house). Also, this time the notoriously expansive Phish didn’t play a …READ MORE

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WILFRED

by Bean, Mon May 5, 2008

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ORGANICS TODAY - TEA TIME

by Bean, Sat Apr 26, 2008

Since the earliest days of agriculture, compost—an aerobic mix of decaying vegetation and decomposing animal wastes—has been collected, managed and later spread to crops by farmers as a free organic fertilizer. Using locally occurring substances to augment the process by which nature already feeds plants, successful composters increase the vigor and yield of their produce without negatively affecting the surrounding ecosystem.

Today, more than 60 years after the so-called “green revolution” transformed most of the world’s agriculture from a natural, community-based process to a chemical, corporate-based industry, an increasing number of small gardeners—whether growing gardenias or ganja—have been opting to take a healthy step back to organics. Mixing and applying effective compost is one of the first steps in this latest transformation, as well as one of the most important and rewarding.

And now, in …READ MORE

tags: june 2008, organics, grow articles 9    « add a comment

WHAT IF GOD SMOKED CANNABIS?

by Bean, Tue Sep 25, 2007

If you remember this song by Joan Osbourne, you're not smoking enough weed... even so, here's the inevitable Weird Al parody.

tags: hits from the blog, staff picks 16    « add a comment

WONKALAND FOR STONERS

by Bean, Wed Sep 19, 2007

Okay, so HIGH TIMES' Jorge Cervantes Ultimate Grow DVD's may have higher production values that this little gem, and actually teach you how to grow weed, step by step, but damn, our cameras have never been to a place with an escape tunnel...

tags: hits from the blog, staff picks 22    « add a comment

FULL HOUSE OF WEEDS

by Bean, Tue Sep 18, 2007

We have a running debate within the HIGH TIMES office: Does Showtime's "Weeds" portray the world of marijuana poorly, what with all the guns, shootings, DEA raids, and highly inappropriate parenting, or is the joke on those who still believe that this kind of Reefer Madness represents the norm.

Either way, former child star Mary-Kate Olsen has taken a star turn on the show this season, as a lover of the Lord who also enjoys Lord Shiva. Check it out, and let us know what you think of the show in the comments.

tags: hits from the blog, staff picks 30    « add a comment