Spring Gruv to feature reggae-ska punk rockers Slightly Stoopid

On the online social networking site, Myspace, Ocean Beach, Calif.-based band Slightly Stoopid is linked to 145,222 friends comprised of fans known as 'Stoopid Heads' who take turns posting requests for them to perform in their towns. "I know everyone says, 'omg come play here' but really u need to rock out in ocala, fl. this place needs u all BAD!" pleads Bradon on March 20.

Despite the band's popularity (on Myspace, the songs on its page have collectively clocked in more than 11 million "Total Plays"), remains independent, preferring to share its acoustic reggae-hip-hop-blues-ska fusion in front of a live audience. Therefore, fulfilling many of the Stoopid Head's wishes, however frequent, are not out of the question.

"We're on the road for 250 days of the year," reveals Kyle McDonald, who shares the duties of guitar, bass and vocals with Slightly Stoopid co-founder Miles Doughty. "We take breaks, but sometimes it feels like one big tour."

McDonald takes the time to talk to the Park Record before Slightly Stoopid comes to The Canyons April 3. The performance will mark the end of a long tour that includes eight days in Canada.

Starting out as strictly punk rock in 1994 at the beginning of high school, McDonald and Doughty switched from electric to acoustic guitar now a key feature of their songs. "All I had was an electric guitar my friend had to buy me my first acoustic guitar, because I didn't have enough money," remembers McDonald.

The dual acoustic guitars

played by the co-frontmen, along with a harp played by Oguer Ocon, a saxophone played by De La, and trumpet played by C-Money, add dimension and soften Slightly Stoopid's hard-punk edge, creating a groove not unlike Sublime. And the connection is by no means a coincidence: The band was under the wing of late Sublime lead vocalist and guitarist Bradley Nowell and his record company, Skunk Records, early on.

"We were kids and the producer was told to record our songs," McDonald recalls. "Miles' mom met him at a bar by our house where Sublime was playing We were stoked. We were only 15-year-old kids playing punk music and we got to go record in the Fake Night Club, the coolest studio-slash-hideaway. It was pretty dope, and a pretty big break for us."

Although the band maintains a healthy selection of upbeat tunes, its latest album, 2007's "Chronchitis," is decidedly slower. Featuring soulful stylings of G Love and the steady poetry of Guru, a member of hip-hop's Gang Starr.

"What happened was we started as a punk band and we still play a lot of punk rock and then it turned from from punk to ska, which is related to reggae and then acoustic guitar, and everything revolves around the acoustic guitar now, which is pretty mellow," he explains. "When you get old your music changes. It's not like when we were high school kids and played rock every song."

Still, Stoopid Heads will form a wild mosh pit regardlessof the new mature coolness that the band has adopted of late.

"Sometimes people get upset because they think it's going to be all mellow and it's not, but mostly and kids nowadays are outta their minds people are starting a mosh pit to the mellowist song and you can never really win," he says. "But that's what we like. If they don't go crazy, it's not fun."

After Park City, the members of Slightly Stoopid will go to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, to play at former Van Halen front man Sammy Hagar's bar, Cabo Wabo Cantina their version of rest and relaxation before joining Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. "We take breaks, but sometimes it feels like one big tour," explains McDonald. "But it's what we do it's what we're about."