Rozwell Kid

Rozwell Kid

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. But when it came to writing Rozwell Kid’s new album, Precious Art, Jordan Hudkins found himself in the strange place of wondering who and what Rozwell Kid actually was. After more than two years on the road, the band – completed by guitarist Adam Meisterhans, bassist/vocalist Devin Donnelly and drummer Sean Hallock – hadn’t quite hit a dead end, but they needed to regroup, rethink and refind their identity.All of those questions are thankfully answered by the twelve songs that make up Precious Art. It 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 the past. Rather, it recalibrates the past, revisiting it with the added wisdom that comes with age. It’s quirky in the way that Rozwell Kid songs have always been quirky, but more than any other record the band has made, it sees Hudkins diving deep into the heart of human existence, telling universal truths based on his own personal memories and unexamined experiences.“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.”The result is an album that expands the strain of weird whimsy that’s always run through the band’s songs, but on which it’s increasingly difficult to ignore the more serious side of things. Nothing illustrates that more than the song “Booger.” Yes, it’s an amusing tale that revolves around the green stuff that comes out of your nose being smeared across the screen of your smartphone, but it’s also so much more than that – it’s a tender, touching and even tragic ode to lost love, that is filled with an audibly sad beauty.This album also marks a new frontier in how the four members were able to write songs; having ample time in the studio allowed the band to be more experimental, and to collaborate in an entirely new way. But it’s remarkability is as much because of Hudkins’ 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.

Colleen Green

Colleen Green is a DIY singer-songwriter and visual artist from Lowell, MA.Following the release of her classic debut album "Milo Goes to Compton" in 2010, Green started to make a name for herself in the lo-fi bedroom pop scene of Los Angeles. She soon became known in punk circles across the country for performing alone on stage with nothing more than a drum machine, a pair of sunglasses, and her iconic electric guitar.In September of that same year, Green signed with Seattle-based Hardly Art Records, a subsidiary of the legendary Sub Pop label, and went on to release 2015's "I Want to Grow Up" which brought her international renown and critical acclaim from the likes of Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and the New York Times. Following the success of this album, the readers of LA Weekly voted her Best Solo Act of 2015.Green's pride and joy is the full-album cover of Blink 182's Dude Ranch that she released in 2019. The recording has since become beloved by fans of both acts and even led to a guest appearance on Mark Hoppus's Apple Music radio show.She has performed in 20 countries including Brazil, Chile, Japan, Italy, Spain, Poland, Czechia, and Norway.The past 10+ years have seen Green continue to grow, learn, and improve, and she hopes to keep following that trajectory indefinitely by staying cool, being nice, and believing in love.

New Junk City