Spice things up with this visually-thrilling music video from Tony & The Kiki for “Extra Express,” a song that rocks like an unreleased hit from The Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack. To announce their debut EP, Light It Up – due out on November 17th – the energetic rock and roll band are treating fans to this pleasingly psychedelic single and video that we’re excited to premiere on P&W today. “Shave your head, bind your chest / Male pronoun-ed, but wear a dress / Pompadour, high heel shoes / You were meant to break the rules,” sings Anthony Alfaro, frontperson of Tony & The Kiki. Opening the EP with a bang, “Extra Express” is a joyful bilingual rager celebrating queerness and freedom of expression. This “fusion of intergalactic glam rock, 70s disco-funk, and psychedelic folk” is brimming with sex appeal, but it’s cleverly focused like a laser beam, used to deliver a wholesome message that inspires self-confidence.
“Extra Express” single artwork
“I envision The Extra Express as a vehicle that takes us from this very ‘real’ three-dimensional terrestrial place to a land of glamour, joy, love, and light,” explained Alfaro. “As the engine revs, we kick up glitter into the faces of crusty old systems that intend to hold us down. It’s glam, joyous, magical, and ass shaking. I think of it as ‘The Kiki Manifesto’… a mission statement; an invitation to live fully and boldly.” Alfaro also described the music video, directed by Doug Fitch and Tommy Nguyen, as “Dorothy stepping into Oz… a psychedelic welcoming into the land of The Kiki and an introduction to all of its high vibrations and radiant queer magic.”
“Rock and Roll was invented by queer people of color like Little Richard and Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and yet there is a still such a lack of representation in the genre. But everyone is invited to come hang at our kiki,” stated Max Vernon, the group’s “resident record-producing synth witch.” “Tony & The Kiki is the clack of seven-inch platform boots on Queens Boulevard, the summer sun hitting your sequin dress and turning the space around you into a discotheque,” added Vernon. “It’s beads of holographic sweat on your forehead from dancing all night after someone put a drop of LSD in your Agua Fresca.”
Queens native Alfaro, known as “the Genderf*ck Latine Rock and Roll Bruje,” has worked with artists like Gloria Estefan (touring with the Miami Sound Machine). They are backed by Vernon, “guitar-shredding Jersey Shore punk” Junior Pauls, “bass guitar sorceress” Yuka Tadano, “queer druid key-master” Rodney Bush, drummer Tristan Marzeski, and background vocalists Sophia Ramos, Cherrye Davis, and Gianna Masi.
Light It Up Tracklist
- Extra Express
- Light It Up
- Listen
- Paranoid
- Listen (Outro)
Tony & The Kiki’s just-announced debut EP, Light It Up, was reportedly recorded over a three-day weekend at Dreamland in Woodstock, NY using the treasure trove of vintage instruments at the famous recording studio – including a Hammond B3 organ, Moog synthesizer, Mellotron, clavinets, an antique Wurlitzer piano, guiro, congas, maracas, taiko drums, sleigh bells and an old toy piano. Get a peek at the tracklist here ahead of release day on November 17th. Be sure to follow Tony & The Kiki on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Spotify for more updates about their exuberant brew of rock and roll.
Article: Olivia Isenhart
