Kudzu: “Defeated” – Push & Pull Records (2 March 2018)

Missouri-based post-punk synth wave duo Kudzu have announced their forthcoming album ‘Defeated’, slated for release in early 2018 via Push & Pull Records. This album is a reaction to mounting disappointments and frustrations with increasingly frustrating and disappointing realities.

On this 9-track long-play, Kudzu delivers a cheerfully caustic synth pop assault with psychedelic underpinnings, like paint fumes you’d happily dance to. The offerings range from post-punk (Defeated) to synth pop (One Purpose, No Backbone) and tracks with a darker more industrial sense (Balking The Grave). If that’s not enough to intrigue you, the vocal delivery oscillating between John Lydon of Sex Pistols and PiL fame and the cold sinister lyricism of Al Jourgensen’s Ministry in the band’s earliest phase.

Based in Springfield, Kudzu is Seth Goodwin (vocals, synth, and drum programming) and Mark Gillenwaters (vocals and guitar). Influenced by bands such as Tears For Fears, The Cure, Spectrum, Guided by Voices, Sympathy Nervous, and This Heat, they’ve managed to concoct a sound original from any of them.

“A lot of these songs come from a place of disenchantment with punk and “diy” scenes i’ve dedicated too much time to and the resulting dissociation as i’ve continued to have involvement in those scenes,” says Seth Goodwin. “A documentation of a transitional period that im sure a lot of people feel as they start to feel parts of them age out from this type of lifestyle but dont know how to do anything else.”

‘Defeated’ was recorded by Adam Schoeller and Jonathan James at No Coast Recording, and mixed by the latter, with Shay Rainey creating the cover artwork.

“While we were working on new material, I drew inspiration from the petty frustrations of everyday life and the stark reality of life in the ozarks.  i feel like there is a type of alienation that you can harbor in a place like this that lends it’s self to bleak music. I like to treat lyrics as more emotional than literal so some lyrics might not make sense but still convey the emotion I’m trying to present,” says Mark Gillenwaters.

1. Some Cops   03:33

2. No Backbone   03:10

3. Defeated   03:18

4. Burn Yourself   03:00

5. Balking the Grave   02:39

6. Sleep in Disguise   03:10

7. One Purpose   04:57

8. When You Were Mine   03:37

9. B.I.Y.E.   03:05