The Exploding Hearts / The Nice Boys

If three-fourths of The Exploding Hearts hadn't died in a van crash three years ago, the band might've led a bratty power-pop revival akin to what The White Stripes did for garage-rock, or Interpol for post-punk. The Exploding Hearts' debut album, Guitar Romantic, is a modern underground classic, trafficking in the clap-along attitude of New York Dolls and The Clash, but adding the thick, shiny hooks that have made heroes out of countless here-and-gone regional rock stars. Just before the accident, The Exploding Hearts recorded a knockout single, "Shattered (You Left Me)"/"We Don't Have To Worry Anymore," which expressed the tightly tangled emotions of hope and heartbreak with a purity that would've sounded cleansing coming out of open car windows in the summer. But the single went unreleased. Now, it kicks off Shattered, a compilation of alternate mixes, demo recordings, and compilation-contributions that make up The Exploding Hearts' remaining recorded legacy. If nothing else, it's great to have "(Making) Teenage Faces"—one of the best pandering-to-the-idle anthems since The Undertones' "Teenage Kicks"—preserved on CD, along with the rest of The Exploding Hearts' big choruses and razor riffs.

The band's sole surviving member, guitarist Terry Six, has begun recording as the frontman of The Nice Boys, another rough-hewn power-pop band, more beholden to Cheap Trick and The Boomtown Rats than The Buzzcocks. It isn't fair to compare The Nice Boys to The Exploding Hearts, one of the most promising bands of the decade, but though Six's latest likely won't become the next big thing, songs like "Teenage Nights" and "Southern Streets" are the kind of primitive stompers that any rock band would be proud to claim. Whatever the circumstances, it's great that people still feel the urge to crank up their guitars and describe what it's like to be young and in love, even if it's only with a sound.