New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Anyone longing for the guitar-heavy, punky sass of classic bands like Elastica, the Divinyls or the B-52's will thrill to the audaciously free-wheeling new song "Hula Hoop" from The Infamous HER. The song's eye-popping video propels the viewer through hilarious, campy visuals while the hula hoop queen herself, lead singer and super vixen Monique Staffile, boasts flirtatiously that she can "go all night." Hula hooping was never so much fun.
Birthed from the New York, Lower East Side underground scene, The Infamous HER's music dances between rock, pop and glam with effortless abandon, always with a wink - plus a sultry grin from Staffile. The band's playing is uncompromisingly robust, locked in with Staffile's elastic vocal stylings, but peppered with attitude and playfulness.
The quartet recently returned from a wildly successful European tour where they performed in front of hundreds of thousands of adoring fans, As they set their sights on conquering North America, the huge spotlight being shown down on The Infamous HER continues to shine brighter and brighter.
The song and video for "Hula Hoop" originate from an old VHS tape of Staffile at her sixth birthday party, hula-hooping in front of assembled friends and family. The crowd shouts each twirl in unison, but the old tape abruptly cuts off as the count surpasses 324 spins. Staffile's obvious claim to the title of "hula hoop queen" inspired the lyric and "Hula Hoop" was born. The band rips into a heavy guitar riff that sets up the song until the lead singer jumps, growling and yelping her status in a series of hooky double entendres that ride the twisting, turning gyrations of the groove. She teases that once her hips start moving, she can keep spinning for hours and hours: "Once I start I can't stop." Then she dares anyone else to show their stuff, taunting "You could go for minutes and minutes."
The video for "Hula Hoop" is full-on vintage fun. Bringing back the low-budget pandemonium of early MTV videos, it's a dazzling mashup of quick cuts between old-school video gimmicks, early computer imagery, and just plain cool transmogrifications into manga-style animated moments. Says the Infamous HER: "We make the viewer know we are just having fun and not taking anything too seriously. The only thing we took seriously was trying to hula hoop on camera."
The band, for all their efforts, hopelessly flailed. Lead singer Staffile retains her hula-hoop queen status - until behind-the-scenes green screenshots reveal her surprising technique. Jokey, funny, and inventive, the video brings the band's creativity and humor to the fore in support of a flirty earworm that is guaranteed to rotate hips every time it's played.
