The Hadituptoheres - 'Wild City Honest Dancing'

Thanks to this thinger called the Internets, doing a limited pressing of a record doesn’t really mean a whole lot anymore. Sure, Detroit’s The Hadituptoheres put out only 200 hand-stamped copies of their album Wild City Honest Dancing on colored vinyl, but they’re also giving the album away for free online. The album is thus obscure yet freely available to everyone.

Which is just as well, since Wild City Honest Dancing packs 12 raucous garage rock jams a la the (International) Noise Conspiracy or fellow Michiganians The Stooges, with a dash of the Von Bondies’ blues rock (before Jack White punched all of the talent out of Jason Stollsteimer). The record captures what must be a pretty intense live set, complete dirty guitar licks, thudding drums, and shredded vocals.

The joke behind the Hadituptoheres’ name is that they’ve had it up to here with rock ‘n’ roll as of late *buh dum bum pish!*, and to that extent, the record is something of a throwback. Topics covered include drinking too much, ladies and drinking too much around ladies. The music could have come out anytime from America’s rock history over the last 60 years, and it probably would’ve gotten the same small pressing. This band does not indulge in solos, over-the-top instrumentation, or lyrics about hobbits. They just go out and rock through all the chords they know.

Of course, that means that while the songs successfully kick out the jams (motherfucker), it also means the tunes blur together, never get too deep emotionally, etc. Side A is a white hot burst of destructive fury. Side B is… more of the same. The band does this sound well, but it’s worth noting that A) it’s very surface level and B) they probably won’t be able to keep this style fresh for long. But then again, the songs are generally about living the moment. There’s little point in chiding the Hadituptoheres for delivering an energetic set of songs, and free ones at that.