About Me
The Ann Arbor News , Hiawatha and the crew are back again with a new cassette that quickly proves that this band hasn"t slowed down at all. Hiawatha came onto the scene nearly -yipe! -20 years ago and has become a legendary figure around town for his energetic shows and his high-decibel punk. It's easy to see where his band The Cult Heroes fit in the family tree of big guitars and primal beats from the Detroit-Ann Arbor rock-punk tradition. "Hangin'/aut/" includes Cult Heroes' covers of songs by Iggy Pop, MC5's Fred Smith (to whom the record is dedicated)and Scott Morgan (The Rationals, Scots Pirates) plays on the record, too. Lyrically, The Cult Heroes sound unusually socially conscious these days. "Berlin Wall"talks about the divisions forced on people by the wall with lines like "A sweet fraulein/her boyfriend Jess/She lived in the East/he O.D.ed in the West". "Nation of Strangers" is about separation, too, ending with "The sentence is death for The Nation of Strangers." Other topics are street kids("Kids that Kill") and rich kids with nothing but money and drug habits ("She's Got Nothing.") The record may seem like a new addition to the category of Michigan-made power punk but that gritty, raw sound has been a part of the group all along. - Jill Hamilton, News special writer. The Agenda May, 1996 If there is ever an Ann Arbor Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, next to a display of Fred "Sonic" Smith's guitar from his MC5 days, the John Sinclair-autographed copy of "Guitar Army,"a giant wall mural of Iggy Pop crawling like a snake over a floor of broken glass, et al., there would HAVE to be a statue of Hiawatha Bailey, the guiding force behind one of A2's most powerful rock outfits of all time, The Cult Heroes. Since the late 1970's Hiawatha, with various versions of the Heroes, has kicked out a legendary series of 45's, demo tape , live shows and the like which stand up as rock & roll genius alongside of all the classic stuff a' la the Stooges, the MC5,The Rationals and the others.Finally, with the new cassette, "The Cult Heroes-Hangin''..aut..", most of Hiawatha's new material,long out-ofprint 45's and classics from years of live shows, have all been released on tape with this cassette. The 14-track collection is both a celebration of the classic roots- with covers of Iggy/Stooges tunes like "Down in the Streets" and "Cold Metal" and Sonic Smiths tribute to State Street and the Diag, "Shakin'Street"-and proof that Hiawatha is a rockin' saint in his own right with his own original voice on"Kids that Kill" and "Nation of Strangers." There are heavy Detroit-style garage guitars, tales of death and separation and a backbeat that will blow your brains out,all on tunes that (mostly) clock in at under four minutes each. That is what rock & roll is all about. Hiawatha Bailey's roots are planted in the industrial Motor City history of rock. - Alan Goldsmith The assaultive darlings of the Detroit/Ann Arbor corridor. Clifford Richey - The Detroit News Purveyors of precision high energy rock and roll in the tradition of the Stooges or early MC5. Consistently crowd pleasers. Mike Earle - Stage Monitor Punk Fury with primal guitar. Mike Duffy - Detroit Free Press Original tunes, high decibel drive…a promising heavy rock combo. Kirby - Variety Magazine The inevitable comparison is between Hiawatha and Iggy Pop. Doug Heller - The Detroit News One rock & roll band that brings people to their feet every time they play. Lyrically post-modernistic teenage laments. Rob Weisberg - Michigan Daily A TNT group punching out hard-core American music, Detroit music to be specific. As soon as the band cranked up, people were on their feet dancing and screaming. It reminded me of the late sixties and at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit where one might find Johnny Winters, Cream, or The MC5. Sadig - Reniassance CenterI edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4
