High Times

Bloomington has a long history of supporting live and recorded music by both original and cover artists. Now, Bloomington music lovers will have another album to add to their collections with the release of High Times magazine's first CD, Rip This Joint. \nA compilation, the two discs contain more than two hours of predominantly live music by jam bands and classic rock icons such as The String Cheese Incident, Mountain, Leftover Salmon and the Tom Tom Club. High Times' mission is "celebrating the counterculture." Rip This Joint features many of the musical styles that can be heard in Bloomington's own counterculture. \nThe musical tradition of Bloomington and IU is notable for its support of the diverse local music, which High Times marketing director Mike Edison says makes college students a good audience for Rip This Joint. High Times hopes that Bloomington will prove a representative audience for the album. \n"Obviously, college campuses are a great place for this. It's targeted at people who like long-haired guitar champs," Edison says. \nOne of the characteristics of Bloomington's music scene is its variety. \n"I don't feel that Bloomington has a particular music scene. It's too diverse for one identity," says Andy Hollinden, a music school clinical assistant professor. "There is no specific Bloomington sound." \nHollinden says Bloomington is not comprised of a mainstream or a counterculture, but rather many groups of people with different musical preferences, as is represented by Bloomington's live music scene. \nThe variety of music played in Bloomington can be seen as both a blessing and a curse, especially in the eyes of performers. \n"The Bloomington music scene is not supportive of original music…People play cover songs just so they can be heard… there's not much creative integrity in that," says Theresa Long, lead singer of local band Utopia Blue. \nStill, there is always local music to be found in Bloomington.\n"I see more live music here than I do anywhere else," junior Nikki Freedman says. "I feel like a lot of this town is based around the campus. At the concerts in Dunn Meadow, I tend to see people more interested in hippy music, whereas at concerts at the Auditorium, there are college students and festivals are for the entire community." \nFreedman says music is an important part of Bloomington culture. Local Bloomington bands like Utopia Blue have been influenced by the same bands as the artists on Rip This Joint.\nThe album is the product of collaboration between High Times magazine and King Biscuit Flower Hour Records. \n"We had the idea for a long time to put our brand name on a CD," Edison says. "It seemed natural…music and marijuana go together like soup and a sandwich."\nAccording to High Times, The 23-track venture "explores a variety of jam bands -- from Grateful Dead-style cryptic improvisations to sassy funk and jazz to Southern-Rock jams. Bands like The String Cheese Incident, Disco Biscuits, Gov't Mule and Deep Banana Blackout are just a few of the jam band tracks that serve as a nucleus on this CD."\nDespite the subtly diverse music styles on Rip This Joint, Edison feels all the bands have a similar history and following. "There's a synergy between new jam bands and grass roots fan base and an anti-corporate vibe," Edison says. "We wanted to go in that direction. We feel it's something that we helped promote." \nThe music on Rip This Joint is fairly diverse, while still staying within the bounds of guitar-based jams. On the selection of artists involved, Edison says, "we started with a wish list of bands that were pot-friendly and shared a fan base with High Times, and we got almost everybody. Almost everybody that we talked to wanted to be involved. We didn't have any problems." \nFor some, High Times' marketing the CD so obviously toward a particular marginal group raises the question of whether music can or should be representative of that group. Local artists such as Long make it a point to diversify their music to market it to a larger audience. \n"I don't feel like music should be representative of any particular subculture. I feel that people should be able to listen to music without a particular cultural mind-set," Long says. "It's because music can be so sectioned off that stereotypes get formed about music and the people who listen to it. We need to take music from other cultures and genres and incorporate it into our own."\nBut High Times intends for this album to reach a specific group of people. \n"I think this is a culture within the counterculture," Edison says. "These bands are keeping the spirit of the counterculture. They seem to have also taken down the wall between the stage and the audience." \nBands found on the album build on the legacy of festivals like Woodstock and bands like the Grateful Dead, which the album celebrates. Hollinden also says it is easy for music to be representative of any lifestyle or group. \n"Lifestyles and certain types of music feed on each other. There's nothing inherent in the music that makes you want to wear tie-dye and get high… Which comes first, the music or the activity?" Hollinden says. "Birds of a feather flock together and listen to music." \nIt is this feeling that Edison hopes will foster the support of the CD; he feels the album carries on the tradition of the guitar rock of the 1960s and '70s. \n"The jam band is the new classic rock. They're all so heavily influenced by Hendrix and the Dead and bands that jam. The extended guitar solo is a viable message," Edison says. \nMusic fans can look forward to more album releases bearing the High Times name. \n"We expect it to do well and look forward to doing it again," Edison says.\nThe connection between music and lifestyle might be purely cultural, but Rip This Joint is still sure to find a home in Bloomington.