Those who appreciate zaza, doja, the stickiest of the icky – by and large, they are not looking to have a bad time when they spark up. Quite the opposite. So, it stands to reason that a band which indulges in the indulgences of weed culture would lean into the fun of it all. That’s the THC-fueled M.O. of Houston stoner metal trio Bong Wizard.
The band is releasing Transylvanian Munchies, its latest album, June 25 and will celebrate these latest and greatest hits from the Bong the following evening at 1810 Ojeman. Thomas Meeks, the group’s drummer, offered a glimpse of the album, the release party and everything else bubbling up with Bong Wizard.
“Basically with this band, it’s almost a parody band,” Meeks said. “It’s doom metal but like all of the song names and everything is kind of based on other songs. So, this whole album is kind of like a riff on black metal. And our last album was called Vulgar Display of Flower, so that kind of gives you the idea.
“This one’s kind of making fun of an album called Transylvanian Hunger. We’re calling it Transylvanian Munchies. It’s all silly and fun and games but then the music is just like this heavy, crushing, doomy kind of psychedelic stuff usually. So, it’s kind of cool, man. This whole band has a really fun schtick and I think it works.”
Meeks said guitarist/vocalist Justin Liles started the band “a really long time ago” as Blunt Witch. When Liles moved to California some years back, Meeks said “it was just kind of a goofy project we were working on and then he turned it into Bong while he was out there and it was still kind of like a joke.
“It kind of started picking up attention and it didn’t really become like a real band until a few years ago,” added Meeks, who was playing in the band Burdener at that time.
“Burdener was going on tour and I was like, dude, Justin, we should bring Bong Wizard and turn into a real band. And so that’s when it actually became a band with members that played shows.”
The trio is rounded out by bassist Ronny Spera, a staple in Houston’s music scene, attached to groups like Revels and Fostermother. Meeks bobbed in and out of Bong Wizard for a bit before becoming a full-time member, since he was busy with Burdener and a fabulous, Houston-centric music podcast, Long River Sessions.
The release show at 1810 Ojeman is also the start of a month-long tour which will take Bong Wizard westward to Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, California and back to Texas. A complete list of tour dates can be found on the band’s website. Don’t puff-puff-pass on the chance to see them live.
“Tour with this band is actually pretty mild,” Meeks said. “But, you know, there’s definitely lots of weed. We have these bongs that we put on stage with fog machines in them that make people go nuts and sometimes set off fire alarms. So, it’s a little bit of a party, you know?”
The album release party will feature local bands Wax Wizard and Rudus and Atlanta sludgecore act, LungBurner. Meeks said Bong Wizard will have vinyl copies of Transylvanian Munchies available for sale. And it’ll be a redemptive return to the venue for the band.
“It should be sick. We just played at 1810 a couple of months ago and blew a breaker. So, we’re excited to try to make up for that. Our fog machine bongs were on the same circuit, I don’t know, they had two stages set up there and we blew the circuit for the stage and it actually fried Ronny’s amp. It was it was a terrible mess.
“We have to bring up the fog machine bongs so our bass player will be happy. He builds them,” Meeks said of the multi-talented Spera. “We’re trying to make them a little bit better. They used to be like a straight tube bong and so we’re adding a bulb at the bottom, but it’s this clear acrylic. And I’m like, we’re gonna have to change our band name to Meth Pipe Wizard because it just looks like a freaking meth pipe now.”
Meeks said something fans seem to appreciate about the band is how organic it is in its approach to writing, recording and performing. For instance, he said it only took four days to write and record the new album.
“It’s the only band I’ve ever been in where it’s like we’re not sitting there overthinking it a lot. We kind of just come up with riffs, piece them together and then record them in my living room. And that’s just kind of the way it goes. Like the song for the music video, we literally wrote that song in 45 minutes and recorded it and that’s the recording.”
The video Meeks referenced is for “Bluntlust,” the lead track from the album.
“The video was done by us, pretty much by me, one camera, two lenses, and basically Justin and Ronny came up with this ridiculous story about a car that produces weed out of the glove box and a cop pulls us over and we kidnap the cop and drive around with them. And that was kind of the whole idea,” Meeks said.
He said creating the video got a lot more fun when they decided, “who cares if it’s good or bad? Me and Justin, we sat in my living room and watched like a hundred music videos from the ‘80s to today and we were like, man, none of these makes sense. None of these are amazing cinematography, you know, let’s just do it. Let’s just do what we do with everything and just have fun with it and go for it.”
Having fun can be sort of a lost art for bands in the modern music era. There’s too much work to be done to create, promote and handle the business parts of a music career to make room for the stuff that just brings joy for the sake of joy.
“You want to have something to put your heart into all the time but I think that another thing is a lot of people are just tired of the people that are taking it too serious, you know? Look at Castle Rat and Angine de Poitrine, all the biggest bands right now. They’re just out there having fun, they’re dressing goofy. They’re not singing about serious stuff all the time. You know, I kind of feel like maybe people appreciate a break from bands that are always taking themselves really serious. Not that there’s not a place for that too, you know? But, I think that every once in a while (audiences) are like, ‘Oh, this is something I can just enjoy without having to think too hard’ or something like that, you know?
“It’s the opposite of everything I’ve ever been involved in, where you spend all this time and you put in all this effort,” Meeks said. “For us, we’re just having fun and I think it really reacts with people a lot.”
Bong Wizard celebrates the release of Transylvanian Munchies, its new album, Friday, June 26 at 1810 Ojeman, located at 1810 Ojeman. With support from LungBurner, Wax Wizard and Rudus. 8 p.m., $15.
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