A Thousand Guitars
Bachelor
2018
Rating: 7 mauled bullies out of 10
If you didn’t know Terry & Louie (aka Terry Six and King Louie Bankston) were from the late, great Exploding Hearts before listening to “A Thousand Guitars,” you certainly knew about five seconds into the first song “Rebel Ways.” Obviously I’m assuming you know who the Exploding Hearts are; if you don’t, stop reading this now and search out their one and only record “Guitar Romantic,” probably the best punk/glam-tinged power pop record of the last quarter decade, and one of my favorite things ever. One of the biggest musical regrets of my entire life is skipping their show at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco the night before the tragic crash that took three of their members.
After quite a few years apart, Terry & Louie decided to get back together and do their best to recreate the magic of their old band, at least on a few songs. Stylistically “A Thousand Guitars” is kinda all over the place, but it still works for me. The title track sounds like a Cheap Trick outtake, they churn out a bluesy rocker with “(I’ve Got The) Highway To Take,” go back to nearly the doo-wop years on “Pink Razor Blade” – it’s almost a rock music revue from 1960 to present. Undoubtedly the high points are always going to be the tracks that sound the most like their former group – “It’s All Mine” sounds like an Exploding Hearts song that just accidentally got left off of their album, and “(I’m) Looking for a Heart” is in the same ballpark.
Now if only a US label would release the damn vinyl of this keeper so I don’t have to pay import prices from the Euro label it’s currently on…(get your shit together, Dirtnap!).
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