Chronic Covers for 420: Luna Rex Performs Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit"

Editor's note: If you grew up in South Florida, you've lived a delightfully half-baked existence. You've definitely smoked the stickiest crippy and the worst Jamaican schwag. County Grind got all stoned and thought, why not ask these toasty South Florida musicians to give us a taste of their favorite pot-inspired...

By Alex Rendon

April 17, 2012

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Editor's note: If you grew up in South Florida, you've lived a

delightfully half-baked existence. You've definitely smoked the

stickiest crippy and the worst Jamaican schwag. County Grind got all

stoned and thought, why not ask these toasty South Florida musicians to

give us a taste of their favorite pot-inspired songs in preparation for

420? This Chronic Cover series introduces you to both songs about weed

and local talents. For the full list, click here.

Lake Worth quartet Luna Rex is one of the most unclassifiable bands we have going in the Palm Beaches. They are a little too funky to fit in nicely within the county's burgeoning indie scene, just too quirky to be placed among more straight-up rock acts, and simply not that aggressive to fit on a punk bill.

Luna Rex vocalist/guitarist Jon Glassman voiced his frustration about not finding the right act to gig with a few months back when we caught up with the salt-and-pepper-bearded musician at Lake Worth dive-music joint Speakeasy. Although his argument made sense, we both concurred that his band's ambiguous, hard-to-pin-down nature made the group all the more memorable and was surely a positive attribute.

In continuation of Luna Rex's hard-to-classify sound comes this buoyant, slightly gothic rendition of Jefferson Airplane's tripped-out classic "White Rabbit" from the group's breakout 1967 album, Surrealistic Pillow. We love the way that Luna Rex's vocals seem somewhat timid compared to Grace Slick's original bombastic blaring voice. Luna Rex seems content to turn one of the more mind-bending tunes of the past 40 years into a down-key, melancholic slow burner.

The use of the metallic, twangy guitars is also a favorite for us. Juxtaposed with the eerie vocals, the bouncy guitar frets have the good-time feel of late '70s Grateful Dead tunes -- reminding us of such Day-Glo favorites such as "Fire on the Mountain" and "Shakedown Street."

Luna Rex takes some liberties with the lyrics here too, which may annoy Lewis Carroll purists out there. Instead of Alice taking the mind-altering pills, as she does in Lewis Carroll's 1865's classic fairytale Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, she partakes in joints that make "you larger" and some that "make you small."

It would seem as if Luna Rex, with a slower-tempo, restrained vocals, slap-happy guitars, and altered lyrics, has tried to convert one of the 1960s' most blatantly psychedelic songs into a more roundabout stoner tune. But that's just our subjective opinion. You'll have to take a listen and decide for yourself.

By the way, the boys of Luna Rex have indeed found some people to gig with. They are set to perform with Luxury of Company, Symbols, and Yellow #6 at Propaganda on, you guessed it, 420. How perfect is that, eh? More info on that event can be found here.

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