Our video pick for the week comes from the Aussie quartet Confidence Man and a song from their latest album Confident Music for Confident People and you can’t deny there is confidence here. The band’s party sound is an homage to 2000’s alt-disco acts like CSS and electronic acts from the same era as Fatboy Slim. But the 90’s is strong here too, the influences of bands like Deee-lite can’t be missed especially with a video as out there as this one. “There’s not enough dork in dance music these days”, they told NME in a interview earlier this year and sure enough there’s a lot of dance in this video. If this is the sound you were looking for the weekend, be sure to check out their latest album Confident Music for Confident People.
-Adolfo Zepeda
Sky Cries Mary is an American psych rock/cosmic music group from Seattle, Washington, formed in the late 1980s by Roderick Wolgamott and Ben Ireland. Early band influences included European Industrial music bands like Einstürzende Neubauten, COIL, Test Department, and 1970’s glam/punk artists like Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, and David Bowie. Notable band alumni include Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow of The Posies, vocalist Anisa Romero, Michael Cozzi (Shriekback), Jon ‘Juano’ Davison (later of Yes and Glass Hammer), and Gordon Raphael (producer for The Strokes). In 2017, Ben and Roderick reformed the band along with Ron Rudzitis (Love Battery) and Kurt Danielson (TAD), recording the first batch of songs for the new record along with noted producer Jack Endino (these tracks include War Song, Prayers and Curses, Ugly Stick, and the Velvet Underground’s I Can’t Stand It). Subsequently, Ben and Roderick created the current incarnation of Sky Cries Mary, drafting Jack Endino (Skin Yard), Curt Eckman (The Walkabouts), Kevin Whitworth (Love Battery), and Debra Reese.
The new Sky Cries Mary album, Secrets of a Red Planet, is available now. Hunnypot is proud to be Sky Cries Mary's official licensing agent. Check out the new album tracks and classics below:
Hunnypot Live flows hotter than car "eating" lava. Show #391 was another molten burner.
Hot Tub oozed and rumbled through a vulcanized opening DJ set. Jonathan Palmer donned his heat reflective suit and got in to the VERY hot tub to talk about his music career from major label band to music supervisor and more. Good.To.Go blasted live drums rap tracks, The Songery returned to break our hearts and shake our butts, supergroup jackiO proved their pedigree for pop, rock and jams, Rit$y cooled us with hip hop flavors and the night finished with a world famous Hot Tub Johnnie DJ dance set. 05/14/2018
Jonathan Palmer is a music industry veteran whose diverse experience encompasses music supervision, licensing, management, A&R, publishing, songwriting, production, and live performance.
Palmer has held key posts with Columbia Records, SONGS Music Publishing, Sanctuary Records, Sony/ATV and Bug Music. He has worked with artists including Adele, Beyoncé, Daft Punk, John Legend, MGMT, AC/DC, Foster the People, Jack White, St. Paul & the Broken Bones, Thievery Corporation, Ryan Adams, Tegan and Sara, Rosanne Cash, Los Lobos and Sam Phillips. His consulting clients include Riptide Music Group, Faction Management, and WAX LTD, among others.
His music supervision and consulting credits include the new series "Ugly Delicious" for Netflix, as well as projects for Apple, HBO, MTV, ABC and NBC. His numerous soundtrack credits include the Oscar- and Grammy-winning documentary “20 Feet from Stardom."
Palmer is also lead vocalist for the lounge-pop band Love Jones.
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HipHop, Words, Creativity, Unity and the DIY Mentality are all part of the George Ellett p.k.a. Good.To.Go lifestyle. Having played in different bands over the years ranging from funk, to reggae, with Punk Rock at its core, has given Good.To.Go a unique style and original voice that stands out on each track. Now on the brink of channeling his voice and message through the music of HipHop, Good.To.Go wants to push boundaries further while spreading good vibes and further thinking with meaningful lyrics and charismatic shows.
Create. Embrace. Enjoy!
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Writing songs that deal with every color and nuance of life, The Songery aims to push mental boundaries through genre-bending pop and theatrics. The concepts, ideas, and messages behind the songs are more important than the songs themselves and every move, every sound, every visual is developed with care and intent in a final attempt to peel back the mask that humanity can so easily wear.
When asked why one person would decide to call herself “The Songery” she replies, “The Songery is more than a persona. It is a call to arms, a spearhead signaling for spiritual awakening, symbolic of an ideology that the world seems to be lacking severely and yet constantly surrounds us. For this reason, my project is grounded in story-line, integrity, concept, and character. I feel very secondary- as if I am the one driving the car, and it’s my car… but I am not the car. The Songery is a name I feel very intertwined with, I feel it so perfectly encapsulates the whimsical world I strive to show people. I’m not quite there yet. I’m still developing, completely on my own, so it is a process… but I’ll get there.”
-I also feel the name gives me freedom to play with all these abstracts and to adopt such a wide range of tones and subject matter. Some very light, some very dark, ranging substantially in color yet all unified within this world. I have been writing songs and performing since I was a little girl, and never really had the belief that I could or should be trying to make a career out of it… until The Songery came along. It sparked a purpose within me. I believe in The Songery with such passion that I want to keep fighting until I see it realized. The Songery comes with power to me. It is more than me. It is bigger than me. If I forfeited the name, the music would not feel the same. Nothing would feel the same. It would not be the same.
The Songery loves Jonsi, Sigur Ros, Regina Spektor, Danny Elfman, Queen, Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, Beethoven, all the random hits of the 80s, and pretty much any film score.
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Steve Bartek (Oingo Boingo, Elfman etc.)
Ira Ingber (Dylan, Robert Altman etc.)
John Avila (Oingo Boingo, Neil Young, Willie Nelson etc.)
Dave Raven (Keith Richards,Norah Jones, T-bone Burnett etc.)
It's That Simple!
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Here comes another one from my favorite Russian punk-rave collective Little Big. The Saint-Petersburg based performance art group return with a brand new single/video "Punk's Not Dead". The track comes from the new album ANTIPOSITIVE. It's a suiting follow-up from their 2013 classic single release "Big Dick".
ENJOY!
Hot Tub Johnnie's favorite new pop princess Kim Petras releases the video to the single "Heart To Break". Kim crashed the scene with 2 fabulous singles "I Don't Want I All All" And "Faded". "Heart To Break" is another fully satisfying classic bop. Hunnypot Approved!
Hunnypot Live burns up inferior playlists and uses the ashes to give us that smokey look for the cameras. Show #390 started with Hot Tub celebrating the first amendment of party music playlists. Ethan Lader joined as in the Jacuzzi and we talked about his illustrious music video directing career and what music he really, really likes. Riah Lena performed delivered that slower jams to warm us up, Artur Menezes doubled the trouble with blues rock blasts, Element Rhymes returned to Hunnypot Live for his own full set of lyric lines and Osiris8 gave us a musical exodus from boredom. Photos & recap by J. Gray 04/30/2018
Lader's bold and fresh approach to directing is exemplified in his work with the world's top-charting artists, including Bruno Mars, Wiz Khalifa, Mariah Carey, Enrique Iglesias, Will.I.Am, Ricky Martin, and various others. His work has been recognized by the MTV Video Music Awards, BET Awards Video, BET Hip Hop Awards, amongst others.
His video for Bruno Mars’ "Just The Way You Are" has racked up over 874 Million YouTube views and won MuchMusic Video Awards International Video of the Year and Most Watched Video of the Year.
His video for Wiz Khalifa's "We Dem Boyz" was nominated for MTV Video Music Award Best Hip-Hop Video and BET Hip Hop Awards Best Music Video of the Year.
While Lader boasts an excellent reputation in the music industry, he is no stranger to commercial work with an expansive portfolio of campaigns, commercial spots and film/TV projects for many major brands. Recent campaigns of note include Disney's Memory Makers with Yellow Shoes Creative Group, American Idol Spots with Team Detroit, and Volkswagen's Google Smileage campaign with Deutsch.
His films have been acknowledged by HBO, Burrell Communications, and the National Foundation for the Advancement in Arts. Lader and his family reside in Venice, CA.
Riah Lena is a 22-year-old Pop singer/songwriter in Los Angeles, California. She's been singing her whole life & it is her passion. Riah loves singing original songs as well as covers of other amazing songs! Just an artist who wants to share her music with the world ?!
Winner of the "Albert King Award" for Best Guitarist and 3rd place on Band Category at the International Blues Challenge 2018, Artur Menezes is a high-energetic guitarist and plays with such a feeling that impresses the crowds. Based in Los Angeles, the brazilian artist is making his name playing around US and he is releasing his 4th album, produced by Josh Smith.
In addition to performing the traditional blues with expertise and respect, he also plays modern blues, mixing with other styles.
Recently, Artur shared the stage with Joe Satriani in a festival in Brazil for a 20 thousand people audience. He also opened for the grammy winner Bobby Rush in LA.
Two years ago, when he was still living in Brazil, Artur was the headline of inumerous festivals. In 2014, headline at Augustibluus Festival in Estonia and played in clubs in UK. In 2015, he had a tour in Mexico and in 2013 in Argentina.
In 2012, Artur played the opening shows for Buddy Guy's South American tour in Brazil. Artur lived in Chicago in 2006, 2007 and 2011, jamming in many blues clubs with great artists. That's where he met and played with Buddy Guy in his club (Buddy Guy's Legends).
In 2013 Artur led a contest during the 1st phase – tied with a band from Los Angeles – among more than 2000 artists from around the world for a place to play with Eric Clapton at the Crossroads Guitar Festival, one of the largest and busiest guitar festivals in the world, held at Madison Square Garden in NY.
Artur lived in Chicago for short periods of time in 2006, 2007 and 2011 and he had the opportunity to play in JAM Sessions with Buddy Guy, John Primer, Charlie Love & The Silky Smooth Band, Linsey Alexander, Phil Guy, Brother John, Jimmi Burns, Big Ray, among others, and in bars of great importance to the blues, like Kingston Mines, Smokey Daddy, Rosa’s, Vine Tastings and Katherina’s.
Concerned about disseminating and expanding access to blues in Brazil, Artur was one of the founders of the society “Casa do Blues” (House Of Blues), which promotes weekly shows with free entrance, remaining on the board of the project until early 2013.
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“You have the few artists that are actually real. I’m real to myself and my music.”
In 2005, Element Rhymes of Custom Made signed his first record deal with BabyGrande Records. Custom Made were now label mates with legendary artists such as GZA, Hi-Tek, Canibus and JedI Mind Tricks. Custom Made soon released their debut album Side Walk Mind Talk as a CD and DVD. Element Rhymes then signed with Rawkus Records to release another album Truth Be Told.
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A free spirited lyricist, pro-collectivism ready to lift and share. Hip Hop #UbiquitousLoveTribe#
In advance of his forthcoming debut album, rising Strange Music wordsmith Joey Cool has released the video for his “Under Pressure” single today. Shot in Kansas City’s 18th and Vine Jazz District, the clip provides Joey Cool a vivid backdrop for his witty wordplay about staying above the fray when most people would fold.
“A lot of people know I wear my heart on my sleeve,” Joey Cool explains. “I’m not one to bite my tongue about stuff like that. Writing ‘Under Pressure,’ it was therapeutic more than anything. I like the vibe of that whole song. It’s got that old school feel.”
Due in stores May 4, Joey Cool’s self-titled debut album features the Kansas City rapper showcasing his talents as a songwriter while always remaining in control of his flow, his emotions, and his focus. “I actually came up with few titles, but when it came down to it, it was just like the epitome of the album is just my name, Joey Cool,” the rapper explains. “That’s what it is. The whole album has a real cool vibe. It’s laid-back for the most part, but it’s got a little bit of everything at the same time.”
Joey Cool demonstrates his versatility on the propulsive “Hard” by teaming with labelmates Tech N9ne and JL for an exercise in verbal gymnastics. In fact, Joey Cool and JL created some of the song by engaging in a massive writing exercise. “JL and I actually walked around writing back and forth for like a good two, three hours for just that first verse,” Joey Cool reveals. “It worked out well. We perform so much together and kept that in mind, how it would be to perform it on stage. It’ll be something fun for everybody.”
Prior to joining Strange Music, Joey Cool built his rap rep in the streets of Kansas City through a series of independent projects. In 2015, he appeared on Tech N9ne’s “Life Sentences” song from his Special Effects album, as well as on Ces Cru’s “Off The Hook” cut from their Recession Proof EP. In October 2017, Joey Cool appeared at Tech N9ne’s Strange Reign album release concert in Red Rocks, Colorado, to announce that he had signed with Strange Music. Now it’s time for Joey Cool’s excellent entrance to the music world.
We're super stoked to have Dead Poet Society play Hunnypot's Memorial Day Party this year. The band have been creating quite a buzz of late and are ready to blow the Hot Tub cover clean off. Here's the video to the single "Under My Skin", an official Hunnypot video pick. Don't miss the show May 28th 2018, Free, All Ages, Streamed Live!
Hunnypot's favorite Queen of Bounce, Big Freedia, gives us her new single “Rent.” The twerk-inducing, high octane cut is Freedia’s first offering from her forthcoming EP, ‘Third Ward Bounce,’ releasing June 1st on Asylum Records. Now get out there and pay that RENT!
Spinal Tap bassist Derek Smalls discusses solo debut: It 'makes up in grandeur what it lacks in substance'.
Derek Smalls is stepping out on his own — literally. “It’s a bit of a lurch, shall we say, to decide I’m going to go from the back line where I’m the bass player and do an occasional la la la or something, to the front of the stage,” the Spinal Tap bassist says when EW connects with him to discuss his debut solo album Smalls Change (Meditations Upon Ageing). “By the way, I never realized before, but I’m sensitive to the cold and the lights are warmer up front. So it’s a good place to be, to stay warm.”
Though Smalls Change, due Friday, continues the hilarious legacy of Harry Shearer’s satirical rocker, it’s no mere comedy album. For the record’s 14 tracks, Smalls recruited greats including Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen, Yes’ Rick Wakeman, Joe Satriani, and Paul Shaffer to help him realize his absurdist rock vision. “We set about creating an album that makes up in grandeur what it lacks in substance and vice versa,” Smalls says. “It tries to cover all these different threads. You can’t cover threads, really, but it tries to follow the threads of all the types of music that were implicit in the Spinal Tap oeuvre and expand upon them. And yet, encapsulate them at the same time. It’s an expanded encapsulation.”
As for why he’s only now striking out on his own, the 77-year-old Smalls has a matter-of-fact explanation. “I was always in bands,” he says, noting Spinal Tap and his Christian rock project Lambsblood. “The band thing was always foremost in my mind — and my pocketbook, to tell you the truth.” (He did record a “never released” EP in the late ’70s named It’s a Smalls World.) Thanks to an (entirely fake) government initiative in his native Britain, Smalls’ circumstances changed. “Fortunately, there’s an agency that’s been set up in the U.K. over the last ten years, I guess using the funds from austerity,” he explains. “The British Fund for Ageing Rockers. They exist to give grants to people like me or in my case, me.”
Smalls connected with EW to discuss how he convinced Rock and Roll Hall of Famers to work with him, the problems with modern technology, and his opinion of “hip-hoppers” and “EDMers.” Read highlights from the conversation below.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You united with some fellow legends for this one — Donald Fagen, David Crosby, and more. How’d these collaborations come about?
DEREK SMALLS: First of all, you can’t approach these people through their representatives. Because they’ll just say, “Don’t do it.” Whoever they’re talking to: “Don’t do it.”
Even when Derek Smalls is calling?
Especially. I was able to make personal contact, because my name does open some doors, while it closes others. You could sum up the response as a “mercy f—.” This year they didn’t have to give to charity. They could just perform on my record.
With its alarming lyrics about accidentally giving your contacts a ring, “Butt Call” is one of my favorite tracks on the record. Does modern technology ever freak you out?
Modern technology has bedeviled me. I’ve had two stints in rehab for internet addiction. In the days when I was addicted, I had a smartphone — or, as I call it a dumbphone. I did a little switch on the name there. I thought, “This is a hellish part of modern life and I fancy myself a bit of a student of hell.” Anything that seems hellish deserves a musical portraiture by me, I think. I think of myself as a portraitist of hell.
Given your relationship with the internet, what do you make of the rise of streaming and digital music?
Like most people in my profession, I would like it if people paid for my work. In my personal case, we like to play it loud. Maybe the louder it is the more you pay or something like that. But, you know, anything to get the music to the people.
How did you decide to honor Tap with “Gimme Some (More) Money,” which references the band’s early single “Gimme Some Money”?
I think that’s the closest acknowledgment of my taproot, so to speak. “Gimme Some Money” was a song before I joined the band, actually. I felt free to acknowledge it without because I was accused of patting myself on whatever you’re supposed to pat yourself on. But it goes back to what you were saying, about streaming and all this stuff. Give me some more money, mate! People [are] thinking “Well, it all deserves to be free.” Well, we all deserve to have free rent then, don’t we? “Gimme Some (More) Money” is just a heartfelt plea for money, when you analyze it. Even if you don’t analyze it, that’s what it is.
Closing track “When Men Did Rock” is an interesting historical survey of rock. As other genres grow in popularity, how do you see rock in 2018? And how do you see your role in rock?
My role on that tune is to stand in awe of what was wrought by the rock experiment. As we look back at the people who built Stonehenge, people in centuries to come will look back at rock and say, “What was that about?” As we say about Stonehenge. They’ll look at these songs and say, “Was it a calendar?” It’s just an attempt to encompass this grand achievement of our generation and to say, “You who follow with your hip-hop or your electronica, let’s see if what you do can measure up.”
Do you think they will be able to measure up? Or is rock forever superior?
Of course I would say rock is the best because I’m a rocker. A hip-hopper would say hip-hop is best because he’s a hip-hopper and the EDMer or whatever you would say — I mean, if we don’t like what we’re doing we should bloody well get out of it. I just wanted to take 10 well-chosen minutes to sum up the grandeur of the rock experiment. And to say, “It got this high, this is your bar now, you should bloody well hope to get this high.” I mean “high” in the sense of an achievement. I know they get this high otherwise.
Eric Renner Brown (Entertainment Weekly)
