Trampled by Hippies

Bruce Woodman had the fanciest shirt in West Duluth this morning.

1 Comment

Andrew Olson

about 12 years ago

Where can we buy the shirt? The April Fool's article from the Reader circa 2005 talked of a band with a similar name:

There were two presskits sent this week for bands to cover for the April 1st Duluth Battle of The Bands. One was from Duluth's Horny Harry Hippies while the other was the #1 Minneapolis band, The Cityiots (pronounced like City-Idiots).. 

The Horny Harry Hippies have no CD, web site, PR, permanent members, and they're not even sure what their name is (There were 20 other Duluth bands competing, but none of them even had a press-kit). On the other hand the Cityiots have a glossy press-kit, CD (With words to the songs, stories, etc), they play some covers everyone loves, and if you say jump... They say how high?

It wasn't long ago that The Horny Harry Hippies changed it all in Duluth.. They said forget it to their format of "Grateful Dead jams" and decided to jam a novelty mix of hip-hop, folk, and alt-country. At first no one thought it would work. Lucy McGee was interviewed at their first show and was reported as saying, "Is this a joke? Can you even call that sh#t music? My ears are almost bleeding!" 

From there it only got worse for the Hippies. When they were booked at the new Nuttybar Coffeeshop for a Thursday evening opener Hard Harry Hunchback was severely burned. 

He talks of the incident, "Some lady walked up to the stage, spit in her coffee, then flung it at me.. cup and all..." Nuttybar Coffeeshop was open for 6 weeks before closing due to The Smoking Band and the smoking ban.

The Horny Harry Hippies were playing to a full house at Pizza Luce last Friday night. The place was packed, and when I got to the door the bouncer asked me for the cover. I didn't say I was trying to do a review for the Reader and just wanted to see if the band was worth reviewing. Price: $35 cover for two people.. OUCH! But this band must be something.. I thought.. 

There were about 300 people in the whole place with 10 dancing up front. With so much room the dancers in front swung around like flowers blowing in the breeze... And almost into me.. Making their way through the enchanted forest I think. There was talk of changing the name of the band to Trampled By Hippies.

The dance floor consisted of the oldest guy in Duluth and 3 hippies dancing.. but I didn't know what was longer, the old guys beard or one of the hippie girl's under arm hair. My friend joked that hippies don't usually wear such tight pants either, (Showing some skin is not always a good thing!) hey what happened to sewing your own clothes man? Maybe it was the Vodka, maybe I was losing my love of armpit hair on girls, or maybe I wasn't focusing on the band and taking in the music?

The band, well coming in so late what could one say? Cheesy, gospel poetry lyrics with a flare of hodgepodgey artsy eclectic hip hop jamming? But it mesmerized the hippies whose dreadlocks were swaying to the beat. They ate up every word of a poem that ended with the great rhyme of "band" with "sand." 

Miday through the show the crowd cheered so loud that the  guy twirling a pizza in the back looked up. That was when the Hippies broke out their hit, "Ain't Gonna Shower, Ain't Gonna Wash My Hair". The hip-hop rhyming was in full effect, especially in the lyrics, "My dreads - yeah they're so long, I ain't washed them since last cleaning out my bong. Water from the bong - moisturizes the hair, it also works great at attracting bear!"

This song held some special significance to Hard Harry Hunchback, the Banjo/DJ/Spinner/Vocalist/Mandolin/Mouthharp/One-man band. He told a story how bong water actually makes dreadlocks smell better, like a natural neutralizer. This was confirmed by the crew at The Last Place On Earth, who have started a collection jug for old bong water. Local beautician Janine Joplin pays big bucks for the bong water, and has a collection point at here salon. Contact her@ [email protected].

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