by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Ripped Genes, the solo project of Missouri's Jon Hadusek crawls through the bleakest parts of life; the sorrow, the heartbreak, and inescapable doubt. His songs are steeped in overwhelming emotion, delivered at a snails pace in a combination of acoustic slowcore and bedroom pop. Quiet moments and delicate reflections are built from empty spaces and the lo-fi hiss of the recordings, lending an intimacy to Hadusek's internal struggle.
Taken from Ripped Genes' upcoming album, Flowers (due out September 22), "Beautiful Girl" opens with a programmed beat and a guitar riff that instantly recalls Alice In Chains' acoustic material. The rhythm keeps the tempo pulsating as Hadusek's vocals drip like water from leaky faucet, his lyrics longing for a relationship he knows might not be meant to last. Flickering like a candle in the wind, there's a gorgeous simplicity to his songwriting. He shared:
"I wrote this song out of my car while I was in the desert. I was going through some rough shit emotionally a few months ago, so I decided to get out of town. I drove west without a destination, through Colorado, through the Great Sand Dunes, through the Mojave, until I ended up at Joshua Tree. I drove to the middle of the desert, parked my whip, opened the back hatch, cracked a beer, and started strumming this riff. I remember downtuning both E strings to D, which I never do. It's weird. There was something cosmic about it, being in that open space surrounded by nothing but rocks, dirt, and nature. We tempo'd the recording with a drum machine and ended up keeping it because it sounded like some bedroom Tom Petty bop. It's a seemingly cutesy love song that takes a sad turn at the end: when you love someone so much that you know they are stronger than you, and that if the relationship falters, they'll make it through despite the pain, despite your pain. It's a bittersweet reassurance, to have empathy for your partner in the face of despair."
Ripped Genes' Flowers is out September 22nd via Tell 'Em Tapes.
Tour Dates:
9/7 Columbia, MO @ Cafe Berlin
9/8 St. Louis, MO @ Puppy Planet
9/9 Chicago, IL @ Cafe Mustache
9/10 Chicago, IL @ Uncommon Ground
9/11 Muncie, IN @ Be Here Now
9/12 Cincinnati, OH @ The Comet
9/13 Elyria, OH @ Blank Space
9/14 Cleveland, OH @ Pat's in the Flats
9/15 Rochester, NY @ Vineyard Community Space
9/16 Winooski, VT @ Monkey House
9/17 Allston, MA @ O'Brien's Pub
9/18 Bennington, VT @ South Street Cafe
9/19 Bard College @ The Root Cellar
9/20 Brooklyn, NY @ The Glove
9/21 Philadelphia, PA @ Pharmacy
9/22 Pittsburgh, PA @ Blue Clock Supper Club
9/23 Columbus, OH @ No Culture