The Exploding Hearts - Guitar Romantic

Hello readers, please excuse my inconsistent posting as of late for I have come across more pressing matters of importance. Regardless, I'll continue to bring you my musical point of view although rather inconsistently from this point on (I'm even working on a multi-part feature I plan to unveil at some point over the next few weeks!). Alright, back to the grind with today's top notch pick, "Guitar Romantic" the first and only LP released by Portland pop rockers The Exploding Hearts.

Back around the turn of the century when the punk scene was going absolutely nuts over thrash revival these four lads came out of nowhere playing some of the most rocking, catchy, power pop numbers you could ever imagine. Heavily influenced by artists such as Nick Lowe and The Jam; The Exploding Hearts released two well received singles and soon followed up with this much acclaimed LP on Dirtnap Records. Ultimately destined for greater things the band had a string of shows lined up as well as a full US tour in the works. However, none of this was meant to be...

En-route home from a series of successful shows in San Francisco the Heart's van flipped less than two hours shy of their final destination. Vocalist/guitarist Adam Cox, and drummer Jeremy Gage were pronounced dead at the scene while bassist and driver Matthew Fitzgerald would pass away later at the hospital. Guitarist Terry Six as well as their companion/band manager survived. The band would cease to exist from this day forward.

The tragedy would prove to have a profound effect on the national punk network causing many to organize benefit shows and fundraisers in the bands honor. Their infamy has continued to rise as more fans discover "G.R." as well as the 2006 release "Shattered"; a collection of singles and b-sides . "Guitar Romantic" is often considered a modern punk classic from a band destined for greatness had they not been cut down in their prime. Every song on this LP is just that, a classic and deserves to be treated as such. "Just won't cry cause my life's going by, I'll find someone before the day I die"

- Daniel Marc Cafferty

Personal album highlights:
Modern Kicks
Thorns in Roses
Sleeping Aides and Razorblades
Still Crazy

Guitar Romantic - if you enjoy the album please support the band and your favorite independent record store by purchasing a copy

The Exploding Hearts second to last show in San Francisco

Oh, Canada(Part 1): The Plan - Only These Movements Remain

There is something about Canada and me. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I have a French Canadian last name, with no actual Canadian ancestry. Maybe I’m searching through the music of the country to find out what the fuck that’s about? Haha. I don’t know. I’m just making an excuse for liking so many Canadian bands (The Plan is one of my favorites). Not alot of people know, but Canada has had an amazing music scene for quite some time. I know, its hard to believe. Most people think Rush or Bryan Adams when thinking of Canadian music. Maybe, if you're lucky you'll get someone that thinks of Godspeed You Black Emperor! But there is so much more to it then that and i hope with this new "series" I'll open some people's eyes to some of the amazing music that has been going on in the Canadian underground over the years.

I always felt that in America, Fugazi was sort of the standard of influence in starting a post hardcore band. It was either them, or a later band whose influence was undoubtedly them. I always sort of thought that in Canada, the same could be said for Shotmaker.  Now I’m not saying that Fugazi hasn’t influenced bands in Canada but I feel like on an album like “Only These Movements Remain” you can hear Shotmaker all over the place. Now that is not to say that Fugazi can’t be heard as an influence on this album as well. I think there might even be a tinge of that “San Diego Sound” that people used to refer to when talking about Drive Like Jehu. Simply put, this album is energy. Yelling vocals with screams coming from behind. Duel guitars coming at you with angular and aggressive movements. The bass work on this album is really great. I would even go as far to say that some of it is noteworthy for the genre. The drums are powerful and tight. As they should be for this kind of music. There are elements of mathiness every now and then. There is even some slight experimentation in the way of cello, vibraphone and trumpet being added to a few songs. But nothing that would turn off the post hardcore purest to this record. 

I am very bad at recommending albums to people. I usually don’t know what to say in a “for fans of…” statement. But I will say for this album that if you have listened to any of the above mentioned bands, and you liked them, you should really listen to this album.

-matthew st.

Download The Album Here

if you like the album , please try to buy it from your local independent record store

or you can get it from the record label's online store

Suis La Lune - Heir

Up until this point, the majority of what I have posted have just been favorite albums and bands of mine. And personally, I don’t think there is anything wrong with that. But I'm changing it up today. Instead of posting back to back all time favorite albums, I decided to post today about a band I just heard for the first time earlier this month. This 4 song EP has been on repeat pretty much since first hearing it.

Suis La Lune is a Swedish screamo band. And when I use that term, it is completely related to what that genre used to be and not what the hot topic going masses would try to have you believe it is today. Think of bands from Virginia and Canada in the mid 90’s. The best example for comparison might be the band Indian Summer from California. Suis La Lune plays a style of music consistent with all those bands, but adds elements of later acts that might be tagged “emo.” The guitarists often play together in a way on this EP that brings to mind both Indian Summer and American Football. The loud, screamy and aggressive sound is surprisingly complimented by breaks of clean, beautiful, intricate guitar work. Only to build up and explode again. 

If you are at all familiar with the genres and bands I've discussed above, “Heir” will just make sense to you. Its not difficult to see what the band is trying to go for stylistically. Suis La Lune plays a style of music that I thought was dead. I’m glad, in this case, its not. 

-matthew st.

Download the album here

If you like the album, buy it from your local independent record store

or you can get it from Suis La Lune's webstore

More songs and American tour dates can be found at Suis La Lune's Myspace page.

Television - Marquee Moon

What you need to understand is that to me, this is real original punk. Not The Sex Pistols. Not The Clash. For some reason I always thought the first punk music was this: NYC 77. I don’t know why. I think it was probably because my first taste of what old punk was, wasn’t all that British stuff. It was all the New York bands. Television being one of my favorites.

I’ve seen interviews in a few movies on the genre of punk, where members of both The Sex Pistols and The Clash admit that they were all at the first Ramones show in England, and then started their bands after seeing that band. At least those “punks” had a blueprint to build off of. God, or the flying spaghetti monster, only knows what influenced Television to play the way they did. Or be able to play what they did. They did things on their debut full length “Marquee Moon” that I cant honestly think of influence for reference. Lets just take the albums title track for instance. It starts with every member coming in and playing on some off beat of one another. Math rock ancestry fodder maybe? The leads and solos in the song are not your typical blues based guitar lines used in popular rock at the time. You can hear it in the song's however many minute long guitar solo. Which leads into a build up and peak that I have to think influenced Sonic Youth on some level. And that’s only one song. Overall, this is a punk rock record, with an emphasis on the rock. Though there are a lot of ideas from other genres of music. Elements of classic pop songs can be heard in “Guiding Light.” While a song like “Elevation” has an almost reggae vibe in the beginning, but completely changes by the chorus. Singer/guitarist Tom Verlaine has such a distinct voice. It works so well with his lyrical style. And both his voice and lyrics work so well with the music the band produced on this album. Like they were all made for one another.

I feel like, over time, people who have wanted something different in the music they listen to have gravitated towards this record. A lot of the ideas contained on this album might not seem like a big deal today. But viewed in context, its kind of outrageous this band did what they did, when they did it. I think the album still holds up as one of the greatest “punk” albums, and maybe one of the best albums of the 70’s.

-matthew st.

Download the album here

support your local independent record store buy purchasing the album if you like it

Tenebre - In Everything Give Thanks

I’m digging into my secret stash for this one. This band was a myspace find for me. They were in the top friends of Animal, my friend’s band, and I randomly checked them out. Boy am I glad I did. Historically, I’ve probably listened to this album more at work than any other album. And working in a daycare, you have lots of opportunity to listen to music.

Tenebre does something very cool musically on this album. I always considered math rock and post rock to be on different sides of the same coin. But Tenebre’s music is kind of a blend of both genres. Which I didn’t think was possible. The band has the mellow vibes of post rock. With some songs having an undeniable jazz influence. But guitarist Max Foreman is often playing his guitar like he’s right out of Chicago. It’s easy to see why these guys refer to Don Caballero and Owls as influences. But don’t pigeonhole this band as just another tappy, pull off happy instrumental math band. They create crazy amounts of atmosphere on this album. With help of the dynamic drumming, courtesy of Daniel Pearce, and the upright bass skills of Patrick Taylor. Yes, that’s right, their bassist plays an upright bass! How can you not check this out now?

It’s very rare that an album exists that you can see people of opposite interests enjoying. This album is, at times, mellow without ever getting boring and other times interesting without ever getting overbearing. Overall, “In Everything Give Thanks” is a really good record start to finish, which tends to be rare nowadays. If you like to just chill out and relax, or love bands with interesting guitar work, this is a band you need to know. How often do you get to make such an oddly grouped statement? Haha.

-matthew st.

Personal album highlights:

-The Story of a boy on a Ladder

-Libelle

-Painting Walls

-A Call From Jane

Download the album here

if you enjoy this album, please buy it from your local independent record store

or you can buy the album online

You can hear more music from them at their myspace page

Rainer Maria

Today's incredibly short entry focuses on a little indie rock band from the mid west that went by the name of Rainer Maria. Formed in 1995, the band who took it's name from famous german poet Rainer Maria Rilke are greatly characterized by their deeply personal lyrics and the tag team vocals of bassist Caithlin De Marrais and Guitarist Kyle Fischer.

Through consistent releases and constant D.I.Y. touring the band would make quite a name for themselves in the indie rock scene. With the release of 2003's Long Knives Drawn the band had it's first brush with crossover success when the single and accompanying video for "Ears Ring" became a minor MTV2 hit. Eventually the band would pack up from it's mid west roots collectively moving to Brooklyn and signing to a major. In 2006 the band released their one and only major label release Catastrophe Keeps Us Together and promptly called it quits soon after.

Included here are their first three (and in my opinion best) long players. They collectively illustrate the transition the band would eventually make from a more subdued sound to their later more anthemic way of songwriting. As always, if you enjoy these releases please support the band and your local independent record store by purchasing a copy.

- Daniel Marc Cafferty

Past Worn Searching

Look Now Look Again

A Better Version of Me

Personal album highlights:
Past Worn Searching:
- Always More Often
- Put Me to Sleep

Look Now Look Again:
- Rise
- Breakfast of Champions

A Better Version of Me:
- The Seven Sisters
- Hell and High Water

Rainer Maria performing "Artificial Light" from A Better Version of Me

1.21 Jigowatts: Knife Crazy Retrospective (Part 1?)

Knife Crazy was a three piece rock band from Buffalo, NY. I can proudly say I was, and am friends with the members of this band. Fen Ikner played drums while Vic Lazar and Phil Freedenberg played guitar. Phil was usually playing his guitar with his fingers in a tapping manner. They played loud, technical, dancy, mathy rock. All three members sang. Often with a simultaneous duel vocal attack courtesy of Vic and Fen. Their voices always sounded amazing together. I had never heard a band that sounded like them. And even after hearing them and being well versed in their songs, I still can not think of any band that they sound like.

Theres used to be a long story here but I took it out because it made this post super long. Maybe ill repost it in a future blog. haha ...Well, for some reason Knife Crazy actually liked my band, and we would go on to play more shows together before they broke up/went on hiatus/whatever it actually is. Fen moved away to Arizona, which pretty much put an end to the band playing. Which is too bad because I felt that band had so much potential. 

Phil and, his then future wife, Lisa had already started a side project called Red Tag Rummage Sale, A guitar/cello duo. So that became his main project. Vic started the spacey Victory Light Black Honey, and later, Patrons Of Sweet, which he still plays in now. Fen is doing a project in Arizona called Hero Alligator. Which is equal parts weird and awesome. But considering he was in Knife Crazy, that combination is not really surprising. He’s also in a band called The Otterssey, which pretty much needs to be heard to be believed. Dude is a fucking genius I tell you.

Recently I went to see Patrons Of Sweet play in Rochester with Mistletoe. While there, Vic gave me a copy of the unreleased Knife Crazy album. Listening to that CD has brought back all these memories and has made me want to tell and show all of you this band you either never heard of, or didn’t give enough of a listen to.

I’ve uploaded their albums “Delicious, Delicious Science” & their unreleased full length “Sweet Ferrari Pics Dude.” Which I got word probably is not going to be released. Bummer. This band is for fans of mathy rock type stuff? There is nothing I can really do to describe this band accurately and do them justice, so please just check them out and get your groove on.

There was talk at the Sinaloa show Sunday that Knife Crazy might be playing some shows in the future. Lets keep our fingers crossed that that happens. They are greatly missed.

-matthew st.

Delicious, Delicious Science

Personal album highlights:

-Hittin' It Big on the 801's

-Your Shampoo Smells Like the Directors Cut of Cocoon

-An Homage to Ants and All the Hard Work That They Do

-Mao Say What?

Sweet Ferrari Pics Dude

Personal album highlights:

-Intrigue At MinelliCon 97'

-Hmm, That's Fishy - A Computerman And His Soldering Gun!

-Moonwalking Over Isotopes with George Washington's Runaway Coda

(note: The song “Saving the Running of the Bulls from Heart Failure” was supposed to be the opening track on "Sweet Ferrari Pics Dude", but Vic didn’t have the finished version. So I included the demo version so you can get the idea. They never figured out a tracklist except for knowing that “Bulls” was going to open the album. How the tracks are numbered is how Vic put them on the CD for me.)