Detroit 442

Reviews

Detroit 442 / Superdevil split LP

Solid split here from these Eastern Michiganders. DETROIT 442 sounds like an Americanized version of the DAMNED if they adopted the vocal styling of LEFTOVER CRACK and the HOLD STEADY. Yeah, I know. That’s a wild combo, but the singer has a lot of range and bounces between brutal screaming, melodic mumbling, and Fred Schneider-esque sprechgesang. Great guitar leads laden throughout glue everything else together. Old school, dystopian punk’n’roll. “I’m Not Crazy I’m On Drugs” may as well be our national anthem at this point. On the flipside, the vocalist from SUPERDEVIL has an impressively deep growl of a voice. It’s like if Tony the Tiger decided he wanted to take up a pack-a-day habit, and start singing in a band that took all of the best qualities from DEAD KENNEDYS and ANTISEEN and molded them into one big rock’n’roll monster. There’s a pretty great STIFF LITTLE FINGERS cover here as well. Both bands sound different enough that this makes for a pretty satisfying split LP.

Detroit 442 I’m Not Crazy I’m on Drugs CD

The vocals here will make or break your listen. They’re droning, snotty, and repetitive. I kept thinking of English anarcho-punk bands, whose vocals can be a barrier to entry. The guitars have a thin, whiny quality, which seems odd for a band really channeling bawdy bar punk. I kept waiting for them to thicken or turn up. This band initially struck me as a kind of bombastic proto-punk outfit, and they kept making choices which pulled me away from that impression. I don’t know if that contrast was intentional, but for me it defined the listen.

Detroit 442 We Stand Defiant LP

Two guesses as to where this lot is from. We Stand Defiant comes with the perfunctory middle finger ethos (and cover art) and there really isn’t much there beyond that. Big guitar punk indebted to DEAD BOYS and the ilk: less brain cells, more bruised knuckles. Pure lash-out stuff, very ugly and tough, but not even a tiny bit memorable.