March 28, 2024

Few people own turntables, but bands like the B-Stars aren’t releasing 45 rpm singles for commercial success.  Vinyl releases in 2012 are more about racking up cool points and ramping up street cred.  Clever marketers that they are, the B-Stars are even giving away a turntable at their just-say-no-to-digital-technology vinyl release party to force the winner to buy the single.

“Chicken Fried/Still Waiting” reveals much about the band’s creative forces, personality, and yin and yang (if you will).  Greg Yanito — raised in the Rust Belt, happily married, and known for inspiration from the western swing axis of country — represents the band’s yin, which would have led him to write a nice ballad about longing and an exploration of unrequitted love: “Still Waiting.”  California boy Eric “Yang” Reedy, a single man about town and known for adapting roots Americana to contemporary themes from his time in the Jiffy Mellows, would have to have written “Chicken Fried.”

The title suggests “Chicken Fried” is about enjoying a tasty chicken recipe, but the lyrics hint at hidden intentions.  Realizing that analog technology allows a 45 rpm record to be played backwards, the Hicks with Sticks research staff did just that and the results are in.  Along with the usual subliminal messages to worship Satan and buy B-Stars merchandise, “Chicken Fried,” as Mr. Reedy sings (in reverse at the 2:20 mark), is a repudiation of the civilized world’s admonitions against lust in one’s heart.

Armed with this knowledge, gentle reader, you may now shoo the children out of the room and watch the HWS-produced, “Chicken Fried” video on the HWS Facebook page.

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