Joudy - Destroy All Monsters
A band of Venezuelan refugees formed in youth under the growing shadow of one of the most corrupt authoritarian regimes in modern history and forced to flee their homeland one-by-one at the height of their success, heavy psychedelic-rock outfit Joudy (“Howdy”) thought their future had been stolen from them for good. By the mid-2010s the Venezuelan music scene had been obliterated by a falling economy and the band’s members dispersed across two continents. Grieving the shattered vision of a life that had once awaited them, cousins and founding members Diego Ramirez (vocals/guitar), Gabriel Gavidia (bass) and Hulrich Navas (drums) set about rebuilding their lives and coming to terms with sudden upheaval, unaware that fate would conspire to reunite them in New York City nearly three years later.
Mastering their instruments together as kids, the gifted cousins cut their teeth playing local shows and handing out DIY demos to friends. After a few years of continuous exposure, the band grew into a 5-piece family; Joudy’s creativity exploded and word of their energetic live presence spread quickly. The band’s first two LP efforts, La Bestia and Obertura, were released to wide critical acclaim by Venezuelan media in 2013 and 2016 respectively, and national recognition including winning “Festival Nuevas Bandas – Los Andes 2014” helped expand their territorial hold across the country. As Joudy’s success rocketed, the Venezuelan political situation worsened exponentially. Country-wide protests became a feature of daily life; music venues, theaters and festivals shuttered their doors, leaving nothing of the scene behind. By the time of Obertura’s release in 2016, three members, including Gabriel, had already fled the country. The album’s public reception was, by all accounts, a bittersweet victory.
Having made a new home in NYC a few years before, by 2017 Gabriel had persuaded Diego to join him for a new start. The hardships of immigrant life, language barriers, and a persistent sense of outsiderness took their toll as their hope of finding a new drummer to play with seemed to fade away slowly in time; nearly three years passed before Hulrich unexpectedly decided to join them in New York. By the end of 2019 the three cousins were reunited, resuming practice within renewed energy, steadily becoming a regular fixture in the Brooklyn’s rock scene. The indulgence hope that seemed out of reach for so long became a casual feeling again, allowing them to turn their main focus to the writing of their next LP, where the influences from their old and new worlds would merge harmoniously, giving them the musical balance needed to come back with a new sound. Altogether, they had resolved to take the second chance life laid before them.
A startling mirror to the band’s violent rebirth, their forthcoming third LP, Destroy All Monsters, is an austere journey through the belly of the beast; an invitation into oblivion and a hand reaching through the dark to pull you back out. Their first full length release since their fated reunion, the members’ individual trials of transformation and assimilation in an alien, even hostile, new world mutated their singular sound in unanticipated ways. Rising from the ashes of frustration, grief, and fear, Joudy’s newborn sound is a hybridity of who they were and what they became a transfixing meditation on overcoming impossible circumstances. Destroy All Monsters is a mystical synthesis of hypnotic rhythms, dark tonalities, and crushing harmonies, crowned in contrast with encouraging and esoterically-laced lyricism, both in English and Spanish.
“Uneasy” as an opening to the album, teases an instrumental introduction which builds into a hazy moody groove, deploying mystical lyricism against a spacious but severe wall of sound.