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Hotpipes: The Deadly Poison
[Vacant Cage]

Do you like Sammy Hagar?  Do you like sloppy stadium rock with indie overtones?  No to both?  Ok, you probably wont like Hotpipes then.  On their latest album, The Deadly Poison, this Nashville five-piece whips up a batch of bland, middle-of-the-road rock that annoys as much as it confuses.  If anyone could listen to this album more than once, I would be surprised.  Lacking even one interesting hook or melody in this whole gigantic apparatus of superfluity, the question in reference to Hotpipes is not so much what, but rather why.  Why does this band feel the need to continue existing?  Why would they write songs that go nowhere and with no apparent point?  Drifting into the darkness of the dollar bin. 

Its possible that my take on The Deadly Poison is totally off the mark.  Its possible that Im missing the deeply powerful goodness that Hotpipes has to offer, that I cant grasp their power and sublimity.  Maybe.  Maybe it was the singer who confused me.  Maybe it was his bizarrely rendered, second-wave Van Halen, Hagarific vocals that set me on the path to hating this band.  Maybe my antipathy for Hotpipes comes from the fact that all of their songs are interchangeable and less interesting than C-Span coverage of the Canadian parliament.  I dont know. Maybe its all of these things, or maybe Im just a cantankerous bastard. In any case, with The Deadly Poison, Hotpipes is not successful in creating anything like an album that would win over the apathetic masses of indierockdom.

This album can be purchased at Vacant Cage Records

Hotpipes Official Website

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