Warish, the sludgy punk-metal act fronted by Riley Hawk, are gearing up to release their new album, Next to Pay, on April 30th. Now they’ve tapped Barney the Dinosaur to help promote the latest single, “S.H.M. (Second Hand Misery)”.
The song’s music video syncs old VHS clips of the big purple dinosaur with the ferocious street metal of Warish, creating an absurdly hilarious combination. The lyrics to the song appear as subtitles so you can sing along with Barney, just like on the show.
Riley, the son of skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, explained, “This video came to mind when I heard the ‘If you’re happy and you know it’ song by Barney playing somewhere while I was in a bad mood and was thinking, this song is kinda evil sounding. Then I went home and instantly started editing the video to the track S.H.M. Because it’s the polar opposite of If You Are Happy And You Know it. It fit nicely I thought, hah.”
The video is far more humorous than the dark themes that inspired Warish’s upcoming album, with Hawk stating, “Next to Pay is about a sense of imminent doom, everyone is going to die. It’s not the happiest record, I guess.”
The band cites early Nirvana, the Misfits, the Spits, and Master of Reality-era Black Sabbath as the primary influences for the new songs. In short, Warish have built their sound on an eclectic mix of some of heavy music’s greatest artists.
“This album is more of an evolution, it’s a little more punk-heavy,” Riley added said of the group he founded in 2018. “We figured out what our sound was.”
For more from Warish, check out our exclusive premiere of the band’s previous single, “Seeing Red”.
Pre-order Next to Pay via RidingEasy, Bandcamp or Amazon. Watch the video for “Second Hand Misery” below.
