Guitar Romantic came out in 2003. I don't think I found it until probably late 2003, but I'm thinking 2004 because I thought 2004 was one of the truly great years in Rock history. Considering that hardly anyone knows who they were now, I'm pretty confident in saying that for a Midwestern middle aged dad, I was a pretty early adopter of this band from the West Coast. It's a truly amazing story, too. I was in a Cleveland area record store called My Mind's Eye. Now, I don't go here all that often, because I like Music Saves more. But that doesn't mean I only go to one store, because I learned long ago when My Generation closed (possibly the greatest CD store that ever existed, anywhere) that you need to at least show your face around some of the other stores because you never know what's going to happen. Anyways, around 2003 - 2004 my old Bang and Olufsen needed a new cartridge. They were not readily available at reasonable prices, so I kind of started leaning towards CD's for about five years or so.
So I stopped in to My Mind's Eye and was just shopping and saw the cd release of this. I picked it up and looked at the cover and figured with all the pink, yellow and black that these guys either had to be the real deal, or they'd be the biggest poseurs on earth. I kept carrying it around, and then putting it back when I found something "better" (my usual shopping method). But I kept thinking That looks cool as shit. I should buy it. I might never see it again. So I finally just put it in my stack and bought it. I paid Charles at the counter and he held up a Dirt Bike Annie cd I was buying and said, "where do you find out about all these bands with funny names?" I told him I had no idea who they were but I liked their name, and I thought the cover of this was cool as hell. He said, "That one's real good. You'll be surprised."
That piqued my interest, so I put it in the cd player as soon as I could. The very first song is Modern Kicks, and it just sticks in your head instantly. I think I restarted it three times before I even let it play to the next song! But then I let the second song play, I'm a Pretender and now I'm so completely blown away and thinking that even I could dance to a song this good, with it's Punky Motown pedigree. These guys sounded cocky, they certainly looked cocky and they delivered the goods. Hell, this record is so good it should cost twice as much as all the other records because it's worth it.
Now, I could tell you all about every song and write hear for days. But let me tell ya this - when an Exploding Hearts song comes on my mp3 player on random, I always hit repeat. To this day. It doesn't even matter which song on the album it is, I hit repeat. If it just so happens to be the leadoff song on side 2 of the vinyl record, Rumours in Town, I might play it three or four times. It's just got the coolest guitars ever and it does everything Rock N' Roll is supposed to do - it makes you feel great! If you're asking me for a recommendation for something kick ass, fun and catchy then Guitar Romantic has been my first suggestion since about the day I got it. So if you don't have it, you're really just screwing up. Go get it.
I still have that cd, but Dirtnap rereleased the lp on vinyl a few years back. It's just black vinyl, and there were only 1000 pressed, so there should really only be 2000 of these on the whole planet. I'd guess you could still order it somewhere, and I'm sure it's not going to be expensive. But it's a nice package with a cool cover, a decent black and white insert and the label is nice, too. My record is nice and flat and real quiet, too. It's a little thin sounding, but the record is a little more full than the cd. If you like guitars, those cut through the way they're supposed to. Toss in the occasional keyboard....Man, like I said, you should just get this.
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