Ricky Hell & the Voidboys
Keeping up with Cleveland’s premiere DIY imprint Quality Time Records, we present the world premiere of Ricky Hell & The Voidboys’ quixotic video for “The Feeling Is Alright” directed by Vinny Zazzero. Sporting a moniker that riffs of the iconic punk legends Richard Hell & The Voidoids; the trio of Adam Spektor on clarinet & treatments, Ricky Hamilton on guitar & drum machine with Carter Luckfield on Microbrute synthesizer/treatments off a jagged & jacked-up visual taken off their album Hell is Real. So hold on to your hats, buckle up your safety belts & shoulder harnesses as Ricky & the gang take you for a tour of their own little C-town underground.
Vinny Zazzero’s visual for “The Feeling is Alright” is almost everything you would expect from the punky two minute plus wonder. Time-elapsed footage of driving about Cleveland is seen from freeways to city street scenes where animated barbed-wire frames the footage in a border that also houses karaoke ready on-screen lyrics. But this is not your ordinary lyric video, as motifs of phones off the hook are seen amid an array of lighting effects and image interplays that keeps the visuals kinetic & connected to the energetic track. Animated flames & daggers are randomly seen strewn about the video as you are plummeted deep into the world of the Voidboys where there is constant action, excitement, danger& delight around every corner & bend, with a sense of jovial anarchy breaking out everywhere. Delivering something stronger than a jolt of your favorite craft coffee brew; Ricky Hell & The Voidboys keep the mood excited & strange reminding you that “The Feeling Is Alright” & maybe perhaps that things are gonna be alright after all in our wacky world.
Ricky shared the following exclusive insights on the song & video:
“The Feeling Is Alright” takes place in the suspended reality of someone that is fixated on finding and using drugs. I wanted it to reflect a mood of outsider lifestyles like third shift, bar work, and entertainers. The song is for anyone that lives in some sort of grotesque underbelly of society. Imagine a roach motel on the outskirts of town with a red phone that lights up when someone calls, and when it does, you know it’s your man.
Vinny Zazzero filmed all the footage on an iPhone or GoPro. He would strap the GoPro to his car or his dog when they went for a walk. “Sometimes I would hand the go pro to whoever was in my car and told them to point / record,” Vinny told me. Alic Daniel edited the video. All the graphics, like the spinning phones and flaming palm trees, help create the world for “The Feeling Is Alright”.
Ricky Hell & The Voidboys’ album Hell is Real is available now via Quality Time Records.
