Puff, puff, pass: On weed and the bands that love it

When talking about "sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll," "drugs" can mean any number of things. And in the realm of socially acceptable substances, marijuana is no doubt the most visually iconic. Too bad super-lame groups like the Kottonmouth Kings and Cypress Hill are so obvious in their pro-reefer raging that they give the glistening leaves a bad reputation. In honor of the Kings' show tonight at First Avenue, The A.V. Club offers this rundown of bands that also love getting toasted.

Slightly Stoopid
Slightly Stoopid may be up there with the Kings in terms of trashiness, but the band really does have the genre of ganja-friendly grooving down to a hydroponic science. Bradley Nowell of the original Cali-weed aficionados Sublime signed this acoustic/reggae/bro-punk fusion act, and to date Slightly Stoopid has released six studio album’s worth of dope-laced jams. In this video for “2AM” (off 2007’s Chronchitis), the group pines on the beauty of growing a green patch—and the major bummer of a police raid.



Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg has never hid his love for indo. While mainstream rap’s sticky-icky obsession may have started with Snoop mentor Dr. Dre on the seminal album, The Chronic (which features the best rap album skit of all time, “The $20 Sack Pyramid”), Snoop still remains king of all weed dealing in the contemporary game. It began on his 1993 debut, Doggystyle, with the hit single “Gin And Juice.” In the video for it, Snoop rolls down the street smokin’ indo and properly gets clam baked in a Volkswagen Beetle. 



Band Of Horses
At first glance, Band Of Horses doesn’t seem like the usual marijuana cheerleaders. Sure, they have beards and sleepy eyes that could peg them as the stoner type, but the indie-rock band’s website and MySpace aren’t blinged out with floating bongs or glittering weed leafs (like Slightly Stoopid’s). Dig a little deeper, though, and the Seattle group’s interests become clearer—or hazy depending on how you look at it. Still don’t believe us? How about a song called “Weed Party”?



Sleep
Although no longer active (save for two exclusive reunion sets in England earlier this year), Sleep has been described as the ultimate stoner band. Its heavy stoner-metal title is hard to argue against, especially when the band has a song called “Dopesmoker” that's a little more than an hour long. Only a bunch of stoney tonys who are knee deep in a good trip could pull that off, and since there’s no way to post the entire song here (and it would be boring as hell to anyone who’s not stoned), we give you “Dragonaut” instead. It’s a badass stoner jam—watch it and you’ll get the picture. If not, take another pull off of that steamroller, dude.