Carter Hunnicutt credits Mark Zuckerberg for his return to music. “It all goes back to Facebook,” he says with a smile, referring to the Lest We Forget Facebook group dedicated to Milwaukee’s early punk rock scene, which sparked the 2012 Lest We Forget concert at Turner Hall. Hunnicutt sat in with The Blackholes that night and renewed the connections that led him to join Xposed 4heads. There, he met multi-instrumentalist Kelp Chofs, who produced Hunnicutt’s first solo album, Dangerous World.
Hunnicutt was active in local music during the ’80s. Although not an original member of The X-Cleavers, he joined the new wave reggae band as keyboardist during their height of popularity. “I like to say I was with them when they were making money,” he says. He fronted his own band, The Flat Rabbits, before putting music aside in 1990.
Hunnicutt played on X-Cleavers’ albums but never issued a recording under his own name until now. “One day I sent Kelp 30 or 40 songs. We were planning on a 15-song album,” he says, but they settled on six tracks. “Kelp is a family man and his time is tight,” he explains. “We thought we’d put these six songs out there and let them breathe a little. There’ll be more.”
Dangerous World’s title track, driven by Hunnicutt’s funky keyboards and elevated by a cool saxophone solo by Tobias Cainion Sr., sets an anxious tone for the collection. “Look behind you, someone’s gaining” goes the uneasy refrain. The mood continues on “Ice Cold City,” a new wave-accented rock song with images of “blood on the snow” and a city that steals the lives of its inhabitants. “It takes an angel to wash a devil clean,” according to “Good Eats Bad,” a rock track on which the mood begins to lift. It’s back to funk with “Extra Good,” where love can mollify the pain of existence.
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The direction shifts on Dangerous World’s final numbers. With its straight-faced description of highway construction in the Third World, “Big Road” recalls The Talking Heads of More Songs About Buildings and Food. The mini-album ends on an upbeat note with the reggae of “Slim Girl,” a paean to beautiful women—in all shapes and sizes.
“Slim Girl” dates from the ’80s and was written in Jamaica while on holiday with The X-Cleavers’ Terry Tanger. Dangerous World’s material is a mix of 30-year-old songs and songs written within the last three years. “Kelp picked the stuff that spoke to him. When we looked at what we had, we found six songs that can live together,” Hunnicutt explains. “I put myself in Kelp’s hands. We have slightly different taste and that chemistry is nice for producing musical ideas I might never have thought of.”
For his album release show, Hunnicutt chose an intimate hipster venue, Riverwest’s Circle-A Café. “I like playing there because I can keep the volume low—and I can start at 8 and end at 10,” he says.
Carter Hunnicutt plays at 8 p.m. Sunday, May 22 at the Circle-A Café, 932 E. Chambers St. Allan Williams from 1,000 Umbrellas will open the show.
