Fronted by the affable, spectacled Jordan Hudkins, Rozwell Kid write massive, gritty, excitable power-punk songs; they channel Blue Album guitar grandiosity and eternally-hummable melodies conveyed in ‘ooo”s, the likes of which would make Rivers Cuomo weak in his problematic knees.
Combine that with persistent touring that took the band’s bombastic guitar rock all over the world, their 2014 LP Too Shabby quickly became a cult classic amidst those in-the-know. And now, Rozwell Kid will finally release its highly-anticipated follow-up, Precious Art, on June 23 through SideOneDummy Records. You can pre-order the album here.
“UHF on DVD,” the first single off of Precious Art, is a good-humored, high energy probe into anxiety and insecurity. In Hudkins’ signature style, the song calls upon the 1989 Weird Al cult classic UHF and homemade tacos to pacify an anxiety attack brought on nearly half a world away while Rozwell Kid were on their first tour of Australia last year.
Precious Art is a quintessential Rozwell Kid album, and something entirely new at the same time. It’s teeming with understated nostalgia, but doesn’t get too lost in it either.
“Nostalgia has always been part of my inspiration for songwriting,” admits Hudkins. “I’ve always seemed to pull from childhood memories and recontextualized them, where I kind of imagine it as a big 30 year-old kid wearing OshKosh B’Gosh overalls singing about these things they experienced or thought about as a kid.”
What’s even more impressive is how Hudkins communicates in his own special language to relay the same emotions most songwriters do (excitement, disappointment, heartbreak, love, self-doubt, etc), but in an entirely different way. He has this insane ability to balance pathos and humor to turn the slightest, most oddball detail – whether that’s picking his nose, making Batman costumes or liking hummus – into works of, well, precious art.
