Hentch-Forth. Five

A first-time-on-CD reissue of the 1998 Hentch-Forth album from Detroit garage rockers The Hentchmen along with friend and compadre Jack White (The White Stripes). Originally released the same day as the second White Stripes 7-inch (both records on Italy), the album's nine tracks have been remixed and digitally remastered to sound as the band and Jack had originally intended. Also included are all four songs from the Ham And Oil instrumental 7-inch, and one previously unheard gem.

This release crystalizes a time before the White Stripes international explosion, when Detroit's music scene was an incestuous miasma of band-hopping, Benadryl-buzzing and pre-MySpace/real sex. The Hentchmen's sound was an imagined 1965-- organ-fueled rock of the purest kind, influenced by things like The Trashmen, The Sonics, DEVO, early Damned-- only more rare. Though White lived in an imagined 1865 (the year of the Gentleman), his nascent guitar blisterings, basspertise and blueschild voice gelled well with the Hentchmen's fraternal chug. Original LP copies trade hands on eBay for high amounts of money. Deluxe packaging includes never-before-seen photos.