Slightly Stoopid is quite proud of latest album

Slightly Stoopid bassist Kyle McDonald lives in Salt Lake City, for the time being.

"I'll be here until the end of the year and then I'll move back to San Diego," McDonald said. "I never thought I'd find myself living in Salt Lake City."

So, what brought McDonald to Utah's capital city?

"My fiancee," he said. "She's from here. We met at Club Suede in Park City and then met up again in Oregon. She's great and she has me hostage. It's a life sentence and there's no ransom. And I'm not complaining."

Slightly Stoopid started off as a punk band but evolved into a reggae and ska band.

"My earliest influence was Motley Crue," McDonald said. "The 'Girls Girls Girls' cassette was everything to me. Then I got into Metallica and Guns N' Roses."

McDonald and band mate/best friend/guitarist Miles Doughty have known each other since they were babies. And, to be technical, that's when the band started.

"We did everything together and liked all the same stuff," McDonald said. "So, we decided to do a band. We were a punk band at the beginning. We did that 'duh-duh-Bam-duh-duh-Bam' beat for as long as we could, but then we discovered (the ska-punk-reggae sound of) Sublime. And that changed our whole way of thinking."

In fact, once Slightly Stoopid got its lineup together — McDonald, Doughty, drummer Ryan "RyMo" Moran, percussionist Oguer "OG" Ocon, saxophonist DeLa and trumpeter C-Money — solidified, Sublime's leader, the late Brad Nowell, signed the band to his record label, Skunk Records.

"That's when the reggae influence really came into the band," McDonald said. "We always loved reggae, but we decided to play it in our songs."

The band recorded two CDs for the label and moved on. At present, Slightly Stoopid is on its own label, Stoopid Records, and released its ninth overall release, "Slightly Not Stoned Enough to Eat Breakfast Yet Stoopid."

The album is a combination of previously released and unreleased material, said McDonald.

"Seven songs on the album were originally available on an extended-play CD," he said. "But since it was an EP, it wasn't available in large quantities to fans. So, we decided to put those song with eight new songs and release it as a new CD."

McDonald said he usually doesn't like talking about himself but said he'd made a exception for the new album.

"I think it's a great CD," he said. "I'm very proud of it."

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If you go ...

What: Slightly Stoopid, Pepper, Sly & Robbie, Taxi Gang

Where: Saltair, 12408 W. Salt Air Drive

When: Thursday, 8 p.m.

How much: $30

Phone: 467-8499, 800-888-8499

Web: www.smithstix .com

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E-mail: scott@desnews.com