The Candy Shop Boys, heard and seen in the film John Wick and for years the band behind comedian Murray Hill, release Sugarfoot Stomp on October 30 on BYNK Records: twenty-one songs recorded in 2013 and shelved for thirteen years, with Sophia Urista of NBC's The Voice out front.
SIMSBURY, Conn., Oct. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- A century before streaming, American songwriters slipped opium, reefer and seduction past the censors in code. From 2009 to about 2017, The Candy Shop Boys built a burlesque songbook out of those songs, playing over 150 shows a year on New York's burlesque stages. On October 30, BYNK Records releases Sugarfoot Stomp, the band's debut album: all twenty-one tracks from two January nights at Tedesco Studios in 2013, newly remixed and remastered, and on major streaming services for the first time.
The songs say what couldn't be said. Cab Calloway's 1931 Cotton Club showpiece "Kicking the Gong Around," by Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler, is about smoking opium. Ella Fitzgerald, recording with Chick Webb in 1936, barely hid what "When I Get Low I Get High" meant. And "The Candy Man," written by trumpeter Herb Morand and cut by Rosetta Howard and the Harlem Hamfats in 1938, is about a dealer and works as a double entendre too. The band played them next to The Doors, The Beatles and Prince as one songbook, and Dr. Reggie Quinerly's liner notes decode the tradition. The band unpacks the whole coded songbook, song by song, at thecandyshopboys.com/songbook.
In the burlesque rooms, the dancers chose their songs each night, always from the band's own list. "I love working with burlesque performers. It forces you to give your all, every moment," says tenor saxophonist Matt Parker, the founder of BYNK Records. "We played these songs for years and it was never the same way twice. You can hear that in these recordings. These songs became the soundtrack to a special time in New York burlesque."
For years The Candy Shop Boys were also the band behind comedian Murray Hill. "We did countless shows backing up Murray Hill, Mr. Show Business himself," says Parker. "He's unbelievably quick, and we were able to fly behind him and stop on a dime as a band." Hill has since reached a national audience as Fred Rococo on HBO's Somebody Somewhere, and Gallery Books published his memoir, Showbiz! My Life as a Middle-Aged Man, in October 2026.
In 2014 the band was heard and seen in the film John Wick, and their "Evil Man Blues" landed on the Official Motion Picture Soundtrack. Vocalist Sophia Urista, who fronts ten of the album's tracks, later won over the coaches on NBC's The Voice singing "Come Together," a song the band recorded with her in 2013. Around her are violinist Scott Tixier, with six Grammy certificates and credits from Stevie Wonder to Beyoncé; pianist Jesse Elder, eight years the music director of Postmodern Jukebox; bassist Kenball Zwerin; drummer Arthur Vint, seen on screen in Boardwalk Empire and The Knick; and Parker on tenor saxophone.
The band stopped performing as a whole unit around 2017, and the record sat on a hard drive for thirteen years. Listeners have looked the band up on the song-recognition app Shazam 46,200 times and counting.
Sugarfoot Stomp arrives on all major streaming services Friday, October 30, 2026. Listeners can pre-save it, adding it to their library ahead of release day, at orcd.co/0xdn3xr; the album streams at candyshopboys.bandcamp.com, and the band's full story lives at thecandyshopboys.com. A new album video is on the BYNK Records YouTube channel at youtu.be/33o01sQZQLw.
About BYNK Records: Founded by Matt Parker, BYNK Records, Because You Never Know, is an independent, artist-run label dedicated to meaningful music: jazz recordings, archival projects, film music, ambient work, and singles, EPs, and albums released with care and long-term catalog value in mind. Based in Simsbury, Connecticut, and distributed by The Orchard. Learn more at BYNKRecords.com.
Photography: Petr Salidar. High-resolution cover art, photography, and liner notes available upon request.
Media Contact
Matt Parker, BYNK Records, 1 718-813-9988, [email protected], https://bynkrecords.com
SOURCE BYNK Records
Share this article