Never considered yourself a van man? Get ready to reassess your life situation.
Whether he’s suggesting totally gross/genius menu items to fast food chains or pestering Marc Maron on Twitter, hilariously juxtaposing and attributing lyrics to songs on Facebook, or, returning with his band’s sophomore full-length, Jordan Hudkins is always entertaining.
On the recently released Unmacho, Hudkins, now, along with full-time writing buds Adam Meisterhans, Andrew LaCara, Devin Donnelly, and Sean Hallock, returns with ten songs worth of new and improved grungy, noisy, super-catchy power-pop, exploring the depths of the band’s get-in-the-van ideology, only now, with essentially three front dudes leading The Demon Beat drummer’s emerging side project.
Not only do you have Hudkins, Meisterhans, and LaCara (remember The Resonators?) but a short, star-studded, red carpet lineup of area musicians (Brian Spragg, Ryan Hizer, Bud Carroll, Dylan Balliett) appear on Unmacho, making it, as far as local releases go, pretty darn studly.
From the cacophonous jam at the intro of “Bonehead” (“Oh wow, oh wow/I really fucked up now,” Hudkins sings) through the first single and band’s super-charged anthem “Van Man,” to the shredding outro on “Rozwell Man,” (“Get in the van. I don’t have a plan,” Hudkins sings repeatedly) Unmacho is a delightful romp indeed.
Standout tracks include “Lipstick,” “Gumshoe,” and the swaggering “Afterparty,” (based on actual events?) you should definitely check out those if you’re reading this and never listened to RK.
It seemed silly to think a few years ago that of the handful of promising acts birthed out of Shepherdstown, RK would be or could be where it is today. Hudkins, with help from his friends now in Rozwell Kid, have emerged as more than just a drummer’s side project. Now, these dudes have fans and online stalkers all their own.
Where The Rozwell Kid LP may have, for some, fondly evoked The Blue Album, maybe Unmacho is like Pinkerton-- a better band, bigger guitars and killer solos (hear the title track,) better backing vocals/harmonies, and just a better, live energy captured on a better record. A more experimental bent is on display, from the noise jams to reverse cymbals to synth-type hits and other studio tom foolery. Kudos, again, to Dave Klug in Pittsburgh for his studio efforts.
It’s exciting to see how far Hudkins has taken Rozwell Kid, looking back on it from the Jude Universer days. As he and his band approach Rozwell manhood, it’s commendable that Hudkins, now, along with his friends, on a record so highly anticipated, did not disappoint.
--- Rozwell Kid performs in a very special Sunday rock show 3.10 at 123 Pleasant Street in Morgantown with Pat Pat and Dangerous Ponies.
Through the looking glass here, people: Rozwell Kid (clockwise from 1 o’ clock: Jordan Hudkins, Andrew LaCara, Sean Hallock, Devin Donnelly, Adam Meisterhans) has morphed from Demon Beat drummer Jordan Hudkins’ solo power-pop/grunge project into a full band with a second record, “Unmacho,” due out soon. The band plays the Huntington Music and Arts Festival Saturday.
Sometimes, a band comes along that strengthens and/or reaffirms what sometimes can seem like a burnt out love affair with rock and roll. Evoking the best of Weezer and The Rentals in particular, and 90’s power-pop and grunge in general, for some, Rozwell Kid is that band.
You may know him as the drummer for The Demon Beat, but if you haven’t yet, you’ll soon know how Jordan Hudkins has turned admitted dreams of rock operas and Jude Universers into a whole ‘nother badass band.
Chatting at length over email, Hudkins talked about everything from his formative college years, to Simpsons re-runs, and of course, the evolution of Rozwell Kid (himself, Adam Meisterhans: lead guitar; Andrew LaCara: guitar/vox; Devin Donnelly: bass; Sean Hallock: drums) into a full band.
Before asking him about the important stuff, the music, Hudkins was asked about another passion of his: Sheetz.
“I am obsessed with Sheetz,” Hudkins admitted. “They have it all. Gas (at a discount with a My Sheetz Card), great food (made-to-order), the best gas-station coffee, a well-maintained and unique brand identity, the works!”
Hudkins delved deep into his romance with Sheetz.
“Until 2004 when I moved away to college, I’d never been to a Sheetz. But there was one right next to campus, and when you are working for pennies at the student newspaper, two hot dogs for 99¢ is a supreme deal. I ate so many hot dogs in those four years, my diploma was actually rolled up and handed to me in a bun, topped with mustard and onions.
“After school, I moved into a house that was right next to another Sheetz,” Hudkins continued. “Four years later, I’m living in a new house by a new Sheetz. In the last eight years, I have always lived within a mile from a Sheetz. It’s the closest thing I have to Star Trek technology: when I see a Sheetz in another state, I’m instantly transported home, in a sense.”
Rozwell Kid is all about time travel, well, at least that one song, “Ace Ventura Pt. 3,” on The Rozwell Kid LP mentioned it, so he was transported back in time by being asked the tough questions, like: ‘Most people know you as the drummer for The Demon Beat, but when did you pick up a guitar and try to write your own songs?’
“I started playing guitar in 2001, started writing songs in 2004. Initially, I had big ambitions to write some kind of rock-opera. That was dumb. I don’t know what I was thinking. It involved dragons and bounty hunters and time travel.
“Anyway, that’s how I started writing songs. They were all part of this big story arc I had created. I guess it was pretty helpful considering I didn’t have any life experience to really draw from for material. I was young, in college, and scared to write about anything I was really going through. So dragons and time travel gave me something to construct a song around.
“Eventually, I began to heed the advice my mom (and Stephen King, I think? Dean Koontz?) always gave me, which was “write what you know.” So I literally started writing about crazy things I’d seen or felt touring around with The Demon Beat. The first Rozwell Kid record is pretty much a diary of those early touring experiences. I was meeting so many new people, seeing so many new places and learning a lot.
“Oh, and there’s also a song on that record about my Saturn SC1 blowing up. That sucked. That car was awesome. It had a very distinct smell. In fact, I was in another mid-90’s Saturn not too long ago, and it smelled exactly the same. I was having wild flashbacks to my old car. It was so small, but I used to fit my whole drum kit in it and drive to Demon Beat shows. If I would have crashed my car on the way to one of those gigs, it would have sounded like a Keith Moon solo.”
With advice from his mom (or famous writers) and real world experience of touring with The Demon Beat, Hudkins, first as Jude Universer, later just renamed Rozwell Kid, channeled the music he and his bandmates love: 90’s power-pop and grunge.
“We are all big Weezer fans,” Hudkins said of what is maybe the more prominent nod listed when describing Rozwell Kid. “I’m pretty sure we would all consider the Blue Album one of our favorite records of all time. That album and Pinkerton are like crack for the sensitive teenage rocker. So we grew up with that and never really grew out of it.
“I really connect with everything about that early-to-mid 90’s alternative/post-grunge/powerpop/whatever scene. The sounds, the melodies, the aesthetic; I think it’s all really cool.”
Not only does Hudkins and co. (LaCara has the Pinkerton art as his cover pic on Facebook, hear Meisterhans’ first Black Fag CD for Blue Album love maybe) love those old Weezer records, Hudkins also lists Matt Sharp’s grungy Moog-soaked spin-off project The Rentals as a big influence.
“I remember I was listening to some Rentals when I worked at the student newspaper, and I got so pumped up, that kind of pumped up where you feel like you’re gonna jump out of your skin, and I thought to myself, ‘Jordan, dude, this RULES! Just write songs like this.’ So I just try to write whatever makes me feel pumped up like The Rentals did that day.”
Hudkins said the sophomore Rozwell Kid CD, Unmacho, is in the can, with studio help from Dave Klug in Pittsburgh, and help from his friends this time around.
“It was really different from what I’m used to, but it was also really incredible,” Hudkins said of writing and recording as a full band as opposed to The Rozwell Kid LP. “They are great musicians and just downright fun dudes to be around. I am usually a control freak about my stuff, so this was a great exercise in letting go and watching the project take on a shape of its own.
“Everyone brought a little bit of their own style into the recording and that makes for a record that is truly unique. Something I could never have accomplished by myself, and I’m grateful they wanted to be a part of it!”
With help from bassist Devin Donnelly and drummer Sean Hallock, Hudkins said longtime bros (Demon Beat singer-guitarist) Adam Meisterhans and Andrew LaCara (The Resonators) were both instrumental in getting him started rocking out roughly a decade ago.
“He’s one of my best friends in the world, and probably the biggest reason I even play music,” Hudkins said of Meisterhans. “I mean, I learned drums so I could start a band with him. Without his influence, I would probably be crouched in the khaki rack at JCPenny, listening to Punk-O-Rama 6 for the billionth time.
“Adam helped me branch out a little. He’s been really supportive of my songwriting efforts from the very beginning, so to have him shredding like a maniac on my latest jams is truly a blessing. He didn’t stop talking to me the moment I said ‘rock-opera!’”
And LaCara was supportive from the start as well, Hudkins said.
“I met Andrew the same summer I met Adam, nearly ten years ago. We’ve all been inseparable ever since…We all started a band when we got to college, and Andrew was the main songwriter. Then I started bringing a few of my “rock-opera” tunes to the table, and nobody punched me in the stomach, so they are true friends.”
Dreams of rock operas aside, or maybe, continuing to pursue them, Hudkins said having his friends help him realize his dream of fronting a rock band is pretty killer.
“It’s been really fun. It’s weird to write and record a song all by yourself, then hear it for the first time as a full band. Up until that point, I’d only heard one recording, one interpretation of the song. Now all of a sudden, four other people are helping me bring it to life. That’s a great feeling. A feeling that makes me want to punch through walls with joy and swing through the treetops, bathed in the soft, milky moonlight. That’s similar to how I feel when someone tells me they like the songs.”
Asked about the talent and the cool bands and side projects birthed in and around Shepherdstown, Hudkins said there are good bands all over West Virginia.
“There’s a healthy crop of great musicians who just like to play and write and record. It’s like that all over the state. Pockets of cool music, everyone playing in everyone else’s bands.
“I guess it’s like any scene really, except that I almost feel like West Virginia as a state is one unified scene. If someone asks me about great bands from my area, I always end up naming bands in Morgantown and Huntington, too. I live closer to New York than Huntington. If someone wants to know about “my scene” I always tell them about the entire state.”
In advance of playing The Huntington Music and Arts Festival Saturday, and with a new RK album finished, asked if he was “Born 2 Drum” in The Demon Beat or write rock operas in Rozwell Kid, Hudkins said irregardless nonetheless, he’s living the rock and roll dream as it is.
“I’m pretty sure I was born to eat hummus and watch Simpsons re-runs, but until I can pay rent with Simpsons quotes and hummus-breath, I am gonna sing and drum until nobody wants me around anymore. And it’s always cool when music and friendship merge as one!”
--- Rozwell Kid performs at the Huntington Music and Arts Festival Saturday with a bunch of other cool bands. If you just got out of jail or have been living in a cave in Eastern Afghanistan and don’t know who’s playing, set times, costs, and other cool shit like merch and fabulous prizes (fabulous prizes not confirmed) swing by the HMAF site…
Funny story about The Resonators’ four-song EP Beard Envy laying around the house since getting it early in 2009: It’s common practice around the WVRockscene home stereo to take CDs out and place them in the case of the next CD we’d play. As Beard Envy was just a plain white CD with no discernable notation or label on it, every time we’d want to play Arms and Sleepers’ untitled EP -- which looked exactly the same -- we’d get blasted with the catchy, quirky garage rock of “Wishful Thinking,” which, among a few other songs off the debut EP, finds its way onto the full-length debut.
It’s cool because we liked both CDs, but totally different sounds.
Well, fast forward about a year, and, much as we liked the songs on Beard Envy (which you can download for free on The Resonators bandcamp page), the thing that was lame about it was that there were just four songs.
It’s not something you want to lead off a CD review with, referencing someone else’s review, which is why this paragraph is where it is. But, irregardless nonetheless, getting into the review of The Resonators’ 11-song effort Black Diamond, we direct your eyeballs to Mike Sizemore’s review of it at his Rock o’ Clock blog.
Sizemore makes the quite correct point that hearing Andrew LaCara’s band evokes something about the 90’s, referencing Weezer, among a few other acts. But it’s precisely the Weezer nod in the Shepherdstown-based trio’s sound that deserves some expounding upon.
Opening Black Diamond is the highly charged “Your Resonation,” which does indeed (along with a few other songs on the new CD) bring to mind the sound and vibe that comprises Weezer’s eponymous debut blue CD. Remember running out and buying that CD after seeing the video for “Undone (The Sweater Song)” the next day? Remember buying that DGC Rarities CD just so you could hear their version of “Jamie” -- like Sizemore notes, this was before the internet made getting one particular song so easy.
On the whole, Black Diamond may remind you of early Weezer stuff mixed with the kind of retro garage rock stylings of something like The Strokes. The whole point about referencing Weezer is that The Resonators, with an all new lineup (Charles House: bass; Joni Mason: drums) since the EP came out, still have LaCara as the driving force musically, and the sound is something Weezer fans should love.
Jangly-meets distorted guitars with catchy progressions, fat, sometimes muted but walking bass lines, nerd-core type vocals with a lot of loser-in-love type lyrics, rockin’ sing along choruses with no shortage of whoahs and backing vocals and a few rock star solos thrown in -- killer!
“Wishful Thinking” would be a track that may remind some listeners of The Strokes or something like that. Re-recorded versions of “Whatever It Takes,”“Gun For Hire,” and “Confessions and Lies” fill out the CD nicely. “Wasted Without You” is slower, fatter, and prettier. Is that even a good way to describe something? Slow, fat and pretty? Neat, dreamy kind of solo/bridge part as the song leads into the very awesome minute-long instrumental, acoustic (with xylophone?) interlude “I Took Too Many Drugs For The FBI” -- geez don’t tell ‘em that!
There’s a funny Mr. Show skit where David Cross is interviewing for an FBI job or something and Bob Odenkirk asks him about all his drug use and Cross openly and quite casually impresses him, detailing his past drug use. Great name for a song, and a hilarious skit. Would’ve been great to see LaCara flush this out into a full song, because it may have been something like “Island In The Sun” or something.
The acoustic-based “Enough’s Never Enough” is one of the sweeter songs on the CD, as LaCara finds himself at the end of his romantic rope and the song crests with overdriven guitar parts. LaCara ends Black Diamond with the driving, almost punk “We’ll Always Have Cusco.” While it’s nowhere near the song in terms of tone and style, this song seems to be LaCara’s own version of “Butterfly,” as he laments being a world apart from a long lost love interest in Peru, with only the memories to show for it. A really great song that finds LaCara learning it’s better to love and lost than never loved at all. The backing vocals and harmonies will evoke the original Cuomo-Sharp duo, maybe.
Recorded by Brian Spragg (It’s Birds/Pat Pat), mixed and mastered by Dave Klug (with art by The Demon Beat’s Jordan Hudkins), Black Diamond is, for a first official full-length, a great CD.
1994-ever? For some listeners, maybe.
Great rock and roll though, the kind that makes you write songs and be in a band in the first place.
--- Black Diamond will be available at midnight tonight on The Resonators bandcamp page
There's apparently something in the water out Shepherdstown way. And, yes, Shepherdstown is in West Virginia, and hearing the four-song EP from this Skull City trio makes us glad it is.
The Resonators, much like their Shepherdstown peers in The Demon Beat, have a quirky yet powerful, catchy, throwback rock and roll style, and both are influenced by Kings of Leon (a band we're not familiar with) and Weezer (one we are).
Songs like "Wishful Thinking," "Gun For Hire," and "Confessions and Lies" lay the rock down and let you in on what The Resonators are doing out there; most notably, rocking, and drinking the same tap water.
Demon Beat guitarist Adam "Mutton Chop" Meisterhans recorded, engineered, and mixed the effort in the Big Bullet studio, kudos to him for that, and drummer Jordan Hudkins did the art, as he does for the Beat.
This is a good start for these guys. Check 'em out online or live if you're out that way.
