Kudzu Wish - Reverse Hurricane

If Kudzu Wish’s Reverse Hurricane was set as a soundtrack to a film, it would be best suited for a low-budget, undercover cop/ninja, action movie that somehow bares a clever, comedic parody to American culture/government. It would require a quirky script that hints at brilliance, but as the main focal point it would feature a visual hodgepodge of goofy stunts and intentionally bad acting. Let me explain myself. Kudzu Wish is an alternative/punk band that scuffles around important issues with peculiar metaphors (“Huh-uh I don’t know / We’ve got a big fat hand / and we’re holding a big fat stick / and we don’t speak softy anymore / we’re talking really fucking loud”). The backup vocals are a shouting/punk approach that provides an underground, basement feel with commonplace lyrics that have a few really exceptional lines. The main vocals equate to the “intentionally bad acting,” because they overdramatize the dull, but satisfactory lyrics. The songs “I Am Robot,” “re: Assassins,” and “Are We Not Snow?” support the eccentric, farcical style that is the “low-budget cop/ninja genre.” Occasionally grand, and occasionally bland, Kudzu Wish possess a pretty good recipe for some interesting, silly songs parading in a disguise as serious alt-rock melodies. I realize that it isn’t the brightest idea to review an album by comparing it to a completely different medium, but I feel that in this case it was easiest to summarize all of the atypical, ostentatious qualities of this band. “We’re sliced up in slices / snipers on the rooftops / aiming for the sweet spot / they already chase the lot / where I lay in rest and rot / I’m not upset, just out of breath / from the holes in my esophagus.” Ninjas, robots, and even a song about ‘The Lord,’ Kudzu Wish certainly has a bizarre attitude towards the often angsty, serious alternative/rock genre (Papa Roach, Linkin Park). Out of the ten tracks a handful are good. Most drag on for too long, or are only appealing from a distant, out-of-mind perspective, much like a basement kung-fu movie. “The climax is a laugh in the back of the Practice Room." [www.kudzuwish.com]