The Exploding Hearts: The best band that could’ve been but never was
“There’s trouble in paradise, your heart gonna pay the price”
How many times have we seen bands with enormous potential getting lost along the way, perhaps after releasing a great debut album? How many times have we seen bands screwing it up because of wrong choices of following the current trend? Surely we’re not in the position of judging musicians or bands choices, that’s obvious. But it’s equally true that there were certain bands that were ready to make that big break and didn’t have the possibility to gain success or fail miserably because destiny decided it wasn’t meant to be and ended it in the most tragic way possible.
The Exploding Hearts dreams of success ended on July 20th, 2003, crashing down along with their van while they were head back to their hometown Portland after playing a show at The Bottom Of The Hill in San Francisco. Singer Adam Cox (23) and drummer Jeremy Gage (21) were killed instantly while bassist Matt Fitzgerald (20) who was driving will die later at the hospital due to the wounds sustained. Guitarist Terry Six (21) and manager Ratch Aronica (35) were the only survivors. A tragic ending for a band that could’ve been huge, but most of all for three young guys who had their whole lives ahead.
But what makes this band so special that they’ve turned into a cult band? I guess there are many answers to this question but the main one lies in the 27 minutes of their one and only album “Guitar Romantic”, a high quality power pop punk that blends Buzzcocks, The Clash, The Jam, The Boys, The Only Ones and The Undertones, played with the energy and the shamelessness that comes with their age. They’re not inventing anything new, but they’re doing it great, sparking the flame of 70’s power pop revival along with their fellow citizens The Briefs and The Epoxies.
Dirtnap Records releases their debut album and their fanbase grows show after show, attracting the attention of bigger labels such as Lookout! Records. Cathy Bauer who was the label’s general manager at the time attended both of their last shows experiencing firsthand the crowd response and the magnetism of a band that was able to make everybody dance thanks to their “look + music” combo, despite not going on tour and playing onlyt few shows. I’ve read somewhere that they’ve eventually closed a deal with Lookout! Records and even if I can’t confirm that in my heart I hope it’s true cause it would give one last romantic touch to this story.
A story that officially began two years earlier in 2001 but which would have roots even further back: Cox, Gage and Six started playing in a garage band called The Iguanas, then the first two went on tour in Europe with another group, The Spider Babies. Upon returning from Europe Cox leaves to go and stay with his family in Southern California to get away from Portland. Full of energy, a multi-instrumentalist, always ready to absorb anything, bold and ambitious, he wanted to play in his own band, he wanted to be the star. During this period he kept in touch with Six, played songs on the phone and “Jailbird”, “Modern Kicks” and “Still Crazy” were born. Adam returns to Portland with future hits and along with Six persuades Gage to play drums, with 41-year-old Jim Evans filling the role of bassist.
Destiny is always there, watching the band with an eye, perhaps in a bizarre way, like the one that leads Cox to end up at Ike Turner’s house, but especially in a fundamental way by putting the legendary King Louie Bankston on the group’s path, a garage pop legend with both The Persuaders and his solo project. He recognizes Cox as one of the Spider Babies and they start talking, with Adam handing Bankston the “Pink Demos” CD-R, a compilation of lo-fi versions of Hearts songs. That same evening King Louie calls Adam saying that they had to let him join the band because he had a song for them, called “I’m A Pretender”. At the end of the album, he will be involved in 7 out of 10 songs. Afternoons spent looking for as many records as possible: Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, the Beat, The Nerves and many others creating the basis of their sound and balancing it with an image capable of countering “testosterone punk”. Mocked and ridiculed, the band doesn’t give up and actually becomes even more convinced of their goals. Matt Fitzgerald is the last to join the group after Jim Evans left shortly before entering the studio: a necessary change that gave a further boost to the recordings due to his own way of playing, more punk and faster than his predecessor: he played the bass as if he were playing the guitar. Bankston breaks the partnership with the group after the recording of the album to go his own way while the band begins to play shows also opening for The Kills, The Adicts and even a sold out show supporting the Buzzcocks. The group is there, the chemistry is crazy and we are starting to see the first results. “Guitar Romantic” was released in 2003 by the German Screaming Apple in Europe and on Dirtnap in America. They end up on the cover of Maximum Rock’n’Roll, very high rating on Pitchfork and the first pressing of the album of 1300 copies was sold out in 3 days.
Doubts swirled in Gage’s head and he decides to leave the group in 2003 even though they always managed to make him play “one last time”. And unfortunately for almost everyone that damned July 20th will truly be the last time. And I won’t be here to tell you all about the dynamics that led to the accident and its consequences, it would be completely morbid and I prefer to keep the memory of what they’ve meant and still continue to mean to me.
And there’s also the aftermath because Terry Six is the only one of the group to have survived and had to live with the consequences of the accident, especially on a mental level. An immense void that he was unable to fill by joining The Nice Boys, a cleaner power pop group than the previous one but very valid. In 2006, the collection “Shattered” was released without his knowledge, which contains all the songs released by The Exploding Hearts not appearing on the album and some alternative versions. He then reunited with King Louie to pay tribute to his deceased comrades with first acoustic and then full band performances of The Exploding Hearts’ classics, which gradually died out due to lack of motivation. During the pandemic, King Louie also dies, leaving Six as the sole holder of the group’s legacy. End of the story? Not by chance because as we know, legends never die.
The last piece, the last blow comes almost as a surprise, from the one you least expect: Jack White. After having entered the good graces of the people for having opened a vinyl pressing plant to counter the production power of the majors which takes away space from the smaller realities, he decides to publish, or rather reprints, the twentieth anniversary edition of “Guitar Romantic” expanded and remastered with three more songs on his label Third Man Records. A godsend for those who have been trying to find a copy on vinyl for years and now the good Jack gives you the chance to do so. Terry Six decides to do 5 shows to pay tribute to this re-release together with trusted friends and on a concert level, for now, it ends there.
I suggest you to look for the videos on YouTube, they gave me a mixture of confusion and goosebumps. Now we just have to wait for the release of the documentary dedicated to the group which will be the definitive piece in their story. In the meantime I hope that – obviously if you don’t already know them – this article will make you want to go and discover them and fall in love with them. It would be the good and right thing to do.
Article by Michael Simeon
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