14 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, April 29, 2003
EXPLODING HEARTS, GUITAR and if you give the Exploding Hearts
ROMANTIC DIRTNAP RECORDS just thirty minutes of your time, they're
Be prepared to turn your volume guaranteed to make you a believer in all
knobs up - the Exploding Hearts' that is great about rock and roll: the
debut has finally hit shelves. Because in rawness of the guitars, the hardly
all honesty, "misdemeanor" volume lev- melodic, that rarely sweet vocal deliv-
els are necessary to understand the ery, and even the Sex Pistols' wardrobe
reckless fury with which the Hearts will to boot. And while one may be driven to
attack. Writing some of the most addict- drop them off as a second-rate knock-
ing hooks since the New Pornogra- off of the aforementioned punk greats,
phers, songs like "I'm a Pretender," and you'd be doing yourself a disservice not
the album's peak, "Sleeping Aides and to acknowledge that these guys are at
Razor Blades," solidify the Hearts as least doing it now and they're doing bet-
the modern day incarnation of the Buz- ter than anyone else. ****
zcocks. This album charges through, - Alex Wolsky
ARTS
Mom is always right,
Ssay SF's Stratford 4
By Joel M. Hoard
Daily Arts Editor
MUsic REVI EW
When Peter Hayes and Robert
Turner left Chris Streng behind to
form Black Rebel Motorcycle Club,
they probably never would have
thought that Streng would move on
to a band that's better than B.R.M.C.
Well, they would have been
wrong. Streng carried on with the
Stratford 4, a San Francisco-based
band that features the same Jesus &
Mary Chain-style guitar shimmer
and feedback effects as the B.R.M.C.
but without B.R.M.C.'s hipster goth-
punk posing.
Sure, the Stratford 4 have a pretty
hip image going for 'em, and their
music appeals mostly to the deck
indie kids, but at the same time,
they're not afraid to let their guard
down and show their earnest side.
Take for example "Telephone," the
centerpiece of the band's latest, Love
& Distortion, during which Streng
relates a phone conversation with his
mother. Over thick layers of guitar
and white noise, he complains of
THE STRATFORD 4
lonely nights spent with just his
radio to keep him company, and his
mother comforts him by saying
"Son, you're gonna be just fine / But
don't forget Bob Dylan / Don't for-
get the Stones / And don't spend Sat-
urday night all alone / When I was
22 I was a lot like you." Touching
enough to melt even the hardest
heart.
Lush guitars and thoughtful lyrics
permeate throughout all of Love &
Distortion, making for one of rock's
realest and best records in recent
memory.
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