Exploders - Exploders

  by Andrew Carver

published: 15 / 4 / 2006

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Harrummph! As all God-not-fearing Canadians know, there can be only one Exploders! Namely, the Toronto one, with “Classy” Craig Daniels on guitar and Simon Pious from the Starkweather Fits singing! Nonetheless, we shall permit this trio of hirsute Australians to continue their evil name-appropriating ways, because we are a forgiving people, and ,like the real (harrumph!) Exploders, this lot rock pretty damn hard. A lot of this is down to Matt Britten; even taken the appropriately raw production into account, he is obviously a skins-smasher of rare puissance and precision. Guitarist T.J. Allender is also an excellent singer, with a fine sense of melody and an expressive, raspy voice. Musically they are not too far away from the three chords style favoured by honoured ancestors such as the Kinks and modern rockers the Buff Medways. When not bringing the noise, they also have time to craft clever lyrics, such as “Everybody knows/that your heart ... is as black/as the rain that falls on my car” or declaring on 'Can’t Sleep' “I’m so tired/and angry/I’d kill my mother/for some coffee.” That’s not a very nice thing to say about one’s mother, but it’s passably amusing. The band also has an adventurous streak (no, they aren’t mere revivalists) as evidenced by the percolating riff of the instrumental 'Hugh’s Lament' (for some reason, it makes me think of something Ween might com up with – perhaps because of the highly equalized sound Allender uses for his lead tone). A smashing debut by any standard – almost as good as the real Exploders (harrrumphhh!).

Track Listing:-

1 BBC Intro
2 My Country Brain
3 Stepping Out
4 Cowboy Jim
5 Big Hair Revolution
6 Can't Sleep
7 High's Lullaby
8 Please Please
9 God's Above
10 Fuzz Bomb
11 Everybody Knows
12 The Personal Correspondence of Major Algernon Mufflebottom

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