Eric Herman introduces you to a real little Stinker in his hilariously cheeky new animated video — premiering exclusively on Tinnitist.
Reminiscent of some of Weird Al’s original ballads, Stinker – the latest preview of Herman’s upcoming album Magic Beans — is a comedy tune hidden (at first) in the guise of an elegant lullaby featuring beautiful musical and vocal interplay. Herman describes the song as “kind of a confessional for me … all of my faults and shortcomings described and played for comedy.
“I like it when a song leads me in a completely different direction from what I initially envisioned,” he explains. “Stinker began with a guitar sequence and hummed vocal melody that made me think, ‘Oh, this will be a sweet lullaby, maybe with subtextual spiritual overtones.’ And the first lyric line seemed to fit (“I will never be afraid of the dark as long as you keep on the light”). But then, after struggling for quite a while to get any farther, I realized that lyric line could be interpreted very differently, coming from a hypocritical kid who claims to not be scared of the dark but whose nightlight demonstrates otherwise. And then boom, the lyric floodgates opened and the rest of the song burst forth.”
“The more I wrote, the more I realized that Stinker was an autobiographical confession,” he admits. “In many ways, I was that stinkery kid, and I still catch myself at times being a haughty, impatient, lazy, self-important know-it-all. So I hereby offer up all of my shoulda dones and shouldn’ta dids on the altar of this musical composition.”
The fun illustrations in the Stinker video are by Foo Tze Wei, with panning/scanning effects à la Ken Burns for some amusing joke payoffs. The recording features the elegant violin of Jude Noah opposite Ben Macy’s tasty accordion. And, yes, that is Herman’s incredibly dorky picture as Brody Evans with Herman’s wife Kim as Mrs. Ramsey.
Beloved by families nationwide, multi-award-winning Herman’s warm and witty videos have become hugely popular, with over 100 million views online. His cool tunes are at once ingeniously witty, indelibly memorable, and incredibly fun. His previous releases include The Eric Herman Strikes Back (DVD, 2017), Bubble Wrap (2016), The Incredibly Spaced Out Adventures of Jupiter Jackson (2014, Parents’ Choice Award), Party Animal (2014, NAPPA Award), What A Ride! (2009, Parents’ Choice Award, NAPPA Award), Snail’s Pace (2007, Pearl Award), Snow Day! (2006), Monkey Business (2005) and The Kid In The Mirror (2003).
Herman’s latest album Magic Beans (due March 18) represents a wide variety of styles and influences not often heard in the kindie genre, including David Bowie, Pink Floyd, The Police, Kate Bush, and Weird Al. Magic Beans continues to feature Herman’s unique voice and original songwriting approach for family audiences; comedic, introspective, existential, irreverent, and subtly autobiographical. Herman is releasing five videos from Magic Beans and is also launching a stage show with his band The Puppy Dogs, featuring creative video projections and theatrical performances.
Watch Stinker above, catch more of Eric Herman’s videos HERE, and connect with him at his website, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok.
