Exploding Hearts

Great music often ends in a tragic tale. This is one of those tales. Only it’s not about a drug overdose or a suicide or a killing. No one’s really at fault here, and that somehow makes it more painful. Maybe because there’s no obvious place to direct your anger.

The Exploding Hearts were a young punk band who had released just one album – the exceptional Guitar Romantic. On this 2002 disc, the Hearts eschewed those first-album hints of brilliance and went straight there. They were like a young Clash, blasting out powerful, poppy punk with a purpose. Only their purpose wasn’t the hopeless social conditions of working-class kids in England – it was the romantic, emotionally fragile psyches of American youth today. “Throwaway Style” and “Sleeping Aides & Razor Blades” below serve as two standout examples. It was songs like these that made you wonder what might come next – a London Calling for the romantically crippled?

But before the Exploding Hearts could even think of a second album, tragedy struck.

On July 19, 2003, the band played a San Francisco show in support of Guitar Romantic. After the show, they decided to make the drive back to their home city of Portland. At 6 a.m., bassist Matthew Fitzgerald fell asleep at the wheel. He and two other members of the foursome – vocalist Adam Cox and drummer Jeremy Gage – died in the ensuing accident. All were in their early 20s.

Only guitarist Terry Six lives on – as well as 11 outstanding songs that stand in tribute to a band that achieved so much in the little time they had.

[MP3] Exploding Hearts – Throwaway Style
[MP3] Exploding Hearts – Sleeping Aides & Razor Blades

Buy Guitar Romantic
Learn more at the Exploding Hearts website