Stoned Soul | the early years
Stoned Soul was founded in 1989 by Rishi Puntes and Ben Carlin, established musicians in the NYC Hardcore scene. Rishi was the drummer for recently disbanded Youth Defense League while Carlin was most known for his acting roll on a PBS science TV show called 321 Contact. The duo wanted to expand their horizons with a band that embodied influences like Jimi Hendrix and Lynyrd Skynyrd. They soon added Seyin Cubukcu on guitar and Adam Milat-Meyer on bass. Derek Reese played the drums when Rishi (originally a singing drummer), stepped away from the kit and got on the microphone. Carlin soon left to form the 90's hip hop group Zooty Zoo, who would later change their name to The Brooklyn Academy.
Stoned Soul was playing live at the Old Carriage Inn located in the north-central Park Slope region of Brooklyn, when discovered by Chris Gurl. He soon became their manager and was instrumental in getting the band into the studio to record their music. During one session, a substitute engineer asked for a contact number and later called back to say that he was interested in producing the band. DJ Admoney was an accomplished rapper who formed a band with his brother Mr Kaves called The Lordz of Brooklyn. The group had toured extensively with Sublime in the early 90s and liked a song they did called KRS-One. Stoned Soul seemed like the perfect group to attempt a rock cover of a rap song. Sucker M.C.'s by Run DMC was the song decided upon and tracked at Tube Bar Studios in the south-central area of Park Slope.
The band travelled to Conshohocken, PA to record with co-producer Phil Nicolo of Butcher Brothers fame. The song was completed and included on a demo with two other songs that caught the attention of billionaire Jive/Zamba owner Clive Caulder, who soon agreed to underwrite a demo deal. Unfortunately, Jive deemed the demo to be sub-satisfactory and talks broke down. The band was never signed and split-up even though Ad Money of the Lordz got members of the group to record the instrumental backing track while producing "This Means War!!" by Busta Rhymes featuring Ozzy Osbourne. On top of that, "Sucker MCs" made it onto a high-profile compilation album called "Take a Bite Outta Rhyme: A Rock Tribute to Rap", that subsequently made the billboard charts. The version was changed from the original to include vocals by the Lordz as well as a verse by Everlast who had recently left House of Pain to pursue a solo career.
In 2005 the band reformed under the name Red Hook Mansion. New drummers Jimmy Parker and later James Musty were used as well as other bass players. Chris Gurl switched roles as the bands' manager to executive producer and landed them a live performance playing a fundraiser for the Baldwin Brothers' breast cancer research non-profit. That basically led to them getting a song in the tween comedy "Rebound", starring Martin Lawrence. The song "Blossoms" failed to chart. A video was made but never released. Soon after, the band split once again.
In 2011 Stoned Soul (Rishi, Adam Base, Seyin Cubukcu) reformed to play Diablo Fest where they joined the Lordz as well as DMC to perform a live version of Sucker M.C.'s. AD Money also produced and performed on the soon-to-be blockbuster smash: Skin on Skin.
