School’s Out for Summer: Lake Tahoe gets Slightly Stoopid

Slightly Stoopid
Slightly Stoopid returns to Harveys along with pals Stick Figure and Pepper on June 16.
Photo by Keith Zacharski

Everyday life is pretty cool for the members of Slightly Stoopid.

The regal reggae band from Ocean Beach is on its School’s Out for Summer Tour with friends Stick Figure and Pepper. On July 13, it will release its ninth studio album, “Everyday Life, Everyday People,” which includes guests such as Don Carlos, G. Love, Alborosie and Yellowman. On Saturday, it headlines the first of 18 shows at the Lake Tahoe Summer Concert Series. It will be the fourth consecutive year Sightly Stoopid plays at Harveys Outdoor Arena.

Slightly Stoopid has been around since the mid-1990s when Sublime’s Bradley Nowell signed founding  members Miles Doughty and Kyle McDonald to his Skunk record label while they were still in high school.

Tim Parsons / Tahoe Onstage
Miles Doughty

“We’ve been working a long time and not slowing down. We’re happy to have that longevity,” said Ryan “RyMo” Moran, who became the band’s drummer in 2003. “We’ve always been a road band. For us, that’s what we live for, just getting on the road and seeing the country, seeing the world and going with the flow.”

RyMo spoke with Tahoe Onstage from Seattle. He said Cocoa, Stick Figure’s Australian shepherd, was wandering around nearby. Stick Figure, aka Scott Woodruff, has fetched plenty of fans and radio airwave time in the last couple of years.

“They are writing good music and are super nice guys,” RyMo said. “They are doing great and I’m happy for them.”

When RyMo joined Slightly Stoopid, the band regularly toured with Pepper. But this is the first time they are paired on the same tour in a decade.

“They’ll like second brothers to me,” RyMo said. “It’s nice to be back with them now. We’re stoked. It’s a good vibe.”

Some of the folks who appear on the new record also will join Slightly Stoopid occasionally during the tour, namely Don Carlos and Chali 2na, who raps on the song “Higher Now,” on “Everyday Life, Everyday People.”

“Miles sang the hook and Chali smashed the vocals,” RyMo said. The session was held at Sound City Studios on the day Tom Petty died. Petty has recorded several records there, including “Wildflowers.”

Ali Campbell of UB40 guested on a cover of Peter Tosh’s “Legalize It.”

Weed is the subject of many Slightly Stoopid songs, including one of its greatest hits, “Officer.” Now that it is legalized in some states, how will that affect the band?

“It’s been a lifestyle choice for us since Day 1,” RyMo said. “We are all beach people and we love the music of reggae and when you are by the beach it’s a relaxed environment and it goes hand-in-hand with burning one and listening to tunes and that’s what we’ve been all about since Day 1. The fact that it’s legalized doesn’t change much for us.”

Related story: A record 18 shows for Harveys this summer.

School’s Out for Summer Tour
Slightly Stoopid, Stick Figure, Pepper
When: 5 p.m. Saturday, June 16
Where: Harveys Outdoor Arena
Tickets: $39.50
For: all ages

ABOUT Tim Parsons

Tim Parsons
Tim Parsons is the editor of Tahoe Onstage who first moved to Lake Tahoe in 1992. Before starting Tahoe Onstage in 2013, he worked for 29 years at newspapers, including the Tahoe Daily Tribune, Eureka Times-Standard and Contra Costa Times. He was the recipient of the 2011 Keeping the Blues Alive award for Journalism.

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