Review / 200 Words Or Less
Explode and Make Up
Some Kind of Diplomat

Underground Communiqué (2009) Jason

Explode and Make Up – Some Kind of Diplomat cover artwork
Explode and Make Up – Some Kind of Diplomat — Underground Communiqué, 2009

Any band that names themselves after a Sugar song automatically wins major points with me. And it doesn't hurt the band's cause when you hear names like Dag Nasty and 7 Seconds batted around in reviews either. Explode and Make up features the singer of 88 Fingers Louie as well as members from The Bomb and The Suicide Machines. And yes, they play old school melodic hardcore in the vein of bands mentioned above. I even hear bits of 411 and even the all mighty Lifetime. There's plenty of fast catchy hardcore with a couple of "whoahs" and hooks that will leave you humming these six songs in bank lines. If know me, you know I eat this stuff up like a box of Mike and Ike's.

8.5 / 10Jason • December 10, 2009

Explode and Make Up – Some Kind of Diplomat cover artwork
Explode and Make Up – Some Kind of Diplomat — Underground Communiqué, 2009

Recently-posted album reviews

Physicalist

Self Titled
Dirt Cult (2026)

F.Y.P is one of the rare bands that I'd say nobody sounds like -- but in the past two months I've caught myself making that comparison twice. First while listening to the new Dumpies LP (spoiler alert: they cover F.Y.P on that same record) and now as I listen to the Physicalist debut EP. The interesting thing here isn't the … Read more

Dylan Thomas

Todo se desvanece
Burnt Toast Vinyl (2026)

When bands spend months slowly piecing together an album with cheap gear, limited time, and apparently an alarming amount of terrible beer, it’s kind of romantic. Not romantic in the polished indie film sense. More romantic in the sense that you can actually hear people chasing a feeling before life pulls them in different directions. That tension sits at the … Read more

Adam Steiner

Darker with the Dawn: Nick Cave's Songs of Love and Death
Rowman & Littlefield (2023)

Adam Steiner doesn’t just break the earth with a spade with this book; he actually digs deep into the fertile soil to enter the cobwebbed crypt. He approaches the catalogue like a forensic scientist examining the maggots on a corpse—meticulously analyzing the rot and the details of decay to chart exactly how long the body has been decomposing. He gets … Read more