HIO

The greatest party your cooler little brother didn’t tell you about until he returned via crashing a spacey rocket ship on the X of your parents’ astroturfed lawn—where upon he proceeded to tell ya all about it over smuggled pints of 420D Cherry Garcia—if that party wuz a person: Free Weed.

When not boosting listeners’ happiness and lowering their inhibitions as Free Weed, he is Rikky Gage, Cali-based (smoke)ringleader of great bands The Memories and White Fang. Gage/Weed continues to inhale a following that exhales mainstream, having made the hit “Burger TV” theme for Burger Records, with fans counting: Tim Heidecker, Chris “Party Boy” Pontius, influential weird-pop veteran R. Stevie Moore, artist Nick Gazin. And lil’ bros.

Like a Krofftian octopus of the bacchanalia family, Gage’s tentacles juggle magic markers, guitars, ‘scripts, California games, and the keys to Gnar Tapes (the dirt-chic cassette label). All this splish-splashing serves up an insta-baked sonic platter that glows for your health. It’s as if the freakpower of Ween was refracted off Beck’s Mellow Gold— shooting right on through the Butthole Surfers’ cheekier side of the moon.

Remarkably, according to an L.A. rock journalist, villagers from the surrounding area swear that they “never even saw the long-haired gringo get out of bed.” 

Free Weed has toured with the likes of YACHT, Mean Jeans, The Coathangers, Natural Child, and aforementioned cult icon Stevie Moore. Music off his smash Bad Diet debut, Introducing—which sparked the hit single “Later”—was recently featured on HBO’s High Maintenance.