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EXCLUSIVE: Watch Cherry Poppin' Daddies's Steve Perry do Drag
If you can remember back to the turn of the last century, you'll recall a huge surge in the popularly of big band and swing music. What? You don't remember when people wanted jazz-infused beats, wore fedoras and brogues, and would flip each other all over the dance floor while someone with an upright bass plucked away? Well it happened. But then, all of sudden, the nostalgic glow seemed to vanish (except for those friends who still liked to wear A-line dresses and swing their partners around the dance floor at weddings--you know who you are).
So when we heard that Cherry Poppin' Daddies--one of the most popular bands that re-introduced swing to a young generation with its hit album Zoot Suit Rio--was back with a new album, White Teeth, Black Thoughts, we were a bit surprised. Then we saw the video for the single, "Huffin Muggles," which features drag artist Rhea Della-Vera, Cherry Perry (aka Steve Perry), and Cherry Perry's wife Yvette Perry, among others in soothing, sultry, smoky, sexy, surreal surroundings (how's that for alliteration?).
So what is this unusual video all about. Steve Perry explains
"The video for 'Huffin Muggles' was done with some of my friends in the local drag community of Eugene, Oregon. Huffin Muggles is a '30s/'40s term for pot. The song is essentially an ear to the door to a humorous conversation which a more culturally experienced urban male is holding court with a small group of his younger acolytes while enjoying the reefer. The theme is innocence and experience, and that is why there is an oblique reference to William Blake's 'Songs of Innocence and Experience' in the lyric. Horrible that there are people out there that wish to deny other people basic human rights, and I am an ardent supporter of LGBT rights. The video style was an homage to filmmaker author Kenneth Anger.
But what about Perry's transformation with those bangs and shimmery gown? "I thought I would make a prettier woman..."
Love it even more! Watch the video exclusively here:
