For the first time ever, Slightly Stoopid’s iconic 1998 release of The Longest Barrel Ride has been made available on Vinyl. And not just any vinyl, its been pressed on Transparent Electric Blue 180G Wax, and as a result, all 2500 pre-ordered copies have completely sold out.
The Pre-order for the vinyl went live on March 2nd with copies being made available to lucky buyers on April 1st where we’re all still crossing our fingers that this too good to be true announcement isn’t an April Fools joke. It’s not. We think.
The album originally came out November 18th, 1998. People were ditching their tapes & vinyl for CDs and being the 15-year-old I was at the time, I fell into this category as well. Back then, the band was releasing music under Skunk Records and at that time, you could order the CD from the Skunk Records website, which is where I came to find the album while searching for news & updates on Sublime & Long Beach Dub Allstars.
On the website, they had a page dedicated to Slightly Stoopid, which is where I first came to listen to them. You were able to preview a couple of the songs from the 20 track record & I vividly remember those songs being “Jedi” and “Struggler”.
It took about a week of convincing my parents to buy the The Longest Barrel Ride CD from a website called Skunk Records that visually celebrated marijuana. Keep in mind, buying things online in 1998 came with a bit of caution and I probably prevented a lot of incoming calls to the “home phone” while being connected to our my Dial-Up internet waiting for “Struggler” to download so I could play it to see if I liked the band.
All of this coming full circle, seeing Slightly Stoopid make the announcement that this album is now available on vinyl brings back all the nostalgic feels of first discovering a group that would further me down a journey of musical exploration. There isn’t a single album in this genre or in all of music that will ever compare to the originality we hear on Longest Barrel Ride. The album was produced by Eddie Ashworth and Miguel Happoldt which ended up capturing a true coming of age record from a couple of kids who started out as Punk Rock before further developing a Reggae-Rock sound, bringing all of the punk & metal influences into one lightning in a bottle time capsule we now get to celebrate on wax, 23 years after its original release.
While the record of this variant may be sold-out, we’re confident a repress of sorts will be issued. In the meantime, you can still purchase The Longest Barrel Ride T-shirts, Hoodies, Patches, Rolling-Trays & Slipmats by clicking HERE!
Listen: Slightly Stoopid – “Struggler”
Related Links:
@SlightlyStoopid
Slightly Stoopid Website
Slightly Stoopid Facebook
Article By: Mike Patti
Listen: Slightly Stoopid – “Jedi”
