Hoodoo Gurus - Magnum Cum Louder

1987's Blow Your Cool! found the Hoodoo Gurus adding a considerable amount of polish to their production and toning down their trademark humour in a bid for a wider audience. But in the United States, it didn't pay off; Blow Your Cool! opened few new doors for the Gurus, and they were dropped by Elektra Records. Thankfully, 1989's Magnum Cum Louder found them newly contracted to RCA Records and sounding like their loyal fans loved them to sound; loud, hooky, and rockin' out with a smile on their collective face. The album's opener, "Come Anytime," was the Gurus' most irresistible pop song since "Bittersweet," and "Another World," "All the Way," and "Baby Can Dance (Pts. II-IV)" proved they hadn't used up all their good hooks in one place. Meanwhile, those wanting something stronger got their fix with a handful of top-shelf rockers, most notably "Axegrinder," "Glamourpuss," "I Don't Know Anything," and "Death in the Afternoon." The high wackiness of Hoodoo Gurus classics like "Hayride to Hell" and "Dig It Up" is still missing from Magnum Cum Louder, but the overall tone is much more relaxed than Blow Your Cool!; Dave Faulkner seems to be having a fun with the songs here, especially the mock-pompous "Axegrinder," the smirking "Glamourpuss," and the baseball saga/music biz metaphor "Where's That Hit." The Hoodoo Gurus also went back to producing themselves, and the audio is full but uncluttered, with a roomy, natural sounding mix that flatters Brad Shepherd's guitars and Mark Kingsmill's drums more than the slicker, sterile sound of Blow Your Cool! Magnum Cum Louder proved that the Hoodoo Gurus knew better than anyone how to make a great Hoodoo Gurus album, and it marked a welcome return to form for the band.

Hoodoo Gurus - Mars Needs Guitars

I've come to my senses since, but there was a time when I almost loathed this album because it sounded so goddamn wimpy (well, it still sounds wimpy, but at least most of the songs are really good).When the Hoodoo Gurus released Stoneage Romeos in 1985, they not only released (as far as I know - prove me wrong) the best debut album in the history of Australian rock'n'roll, but also an album that was so clever, witty, energetic and cool it made you wonder why these guys weren't HUGE all over the world. On Stoneage Romeos, the Hoodoo Gurus hit you in the face with one thrilling song after another, songs that rocked and rolled, and had magnificent sing-along melodies - they had it all. The Gurus were a garage-band with a mean power/pop streak.
On Mars Needs Guitars on the other hand, they're less unique - a power/pop unit with a vague garage-edge, but most of all a band with a college-crowd orientation. As such, the sound/production is much closer to for instance The Replacements' Tim (another album that could've done with a bit more muscle), else the jangle of American bands like R.E.M., The Bangles, or The dB's - which is fine, but it doesn't exactly live up to the title's promise. So what did I expect from a title like 'Mars Needs Guitars!'? What I immediately thought of were albums like Dinosaur Jr's You're Living All Over Me, The Wipers' Youth of America, or The Dream Syndicate's The Days of Wine and Roses - those kinds of guitar albums - with red-hot freak-outs, abrasive distortion, power chords, slashing solos, thunderous riffs and squealing feedback, all put together by axemen using barbed wire instead of traditional strings. Of course the lack of 'body' (as if someone had switched the BASS-button to 1 and the TREBLE-button to 10) was quite common in the mid-1980's; Hüsker Dü's albums at the time also had tinny drums and not enough bass, but at least they had a monstrous guitar sound or enough distortion to rock out.

Enough nagging about the production. As on Stoneage Romeos, the best songs here sound as if they're played by a band with a healthy obsession with 1960's pop, and they're more than just throwbacks. First single "Bittersweet" is introduced by some strumming before it jumps into a simple yet effective rhythm, propelled by ringing guitars and some nice melodies. It was the obvious pick for a single, although I'm still wondering why someone appears to be beating on a cardboard box towards the end of the song. There's even better material though, as the propulsive "In the Wild" gets your car moving before you've even started the engine (and check out the chorus, one that begs to be yelled along to), and "Like Wow - Wipeout" has everything to be a monster of a song live, featuring surf-styled percussion, an energetic chorus, and swell use of a third shift to repeat it. A kind of novelty song, but a good one, is "Hayride to Hell", a swift country-shuffle about driver Charlie and his misbehaving daughter. 
The remainder of the album isn't as memorable, as whilst a few heartfelt "Zanzibar"-styled songs are quite okay, they're really a bit too cutesy. "Show Some Emotion", "The Other Side of Paradise" and - especially - "Death Defying", all boast sweet melodies, harmonies, and gently swaying rhythms, but I just wish they'd crank up the volume a bit. The primitive stomp of the title track, sung by Brad Shepherd, is quite fun and would've been an appropriate album closer, but to stretch it properly beyond the 30-minute mark, they finish with the dragging "She", probably the only below-average song here, one of the very few Hoodoo Gurus cuts with a directionless - even bland - chorus.
While it's far from a bad album, it would be a travesty to claim Mars Needs Guitars! is on par with the band's classic debut. Nevertheless, the Hoodoo Gurus would keep on going (even though real success eluded them) to deliver material that fans of pure pop candy are still drooling over.

Stoneage Romeos

"Shake some action/Psychotic reaction/No satisfaction/Sky pilot, Sky Saxon/That's what I like/Blitzkrieg bop/To the jailhouse rock/Stop stop, at the hop/Do the bluejean bop/That's what I like!" In the first verse of "(Let's All) Turn On," Hoodoo Guru's frontman Dave Faulkner summed up the band's aesthetic so well that elaborating almost seems pointless, but while it's obvious that Faulkner and his friends had a healthy appreciation of rock & roll's past, one listen to their debut album, Stoneage Romeos, made clear they thought music was having a pretty good present, too. The Hoodoo Gurus played power pop with the force and enthusiasm of a full-bore rock band, and while they loved '60s garage rock (as if "(Let's All) Turn On" and "In the Echo Chamber" would permit any doubt on the subject), there was a lot more going on than that -- check out the pop rock of "I Want You Back," the neo-exotica of "Zanzibar," the psychobilly of "Dig It Up," the heartbroken lament of "My Girl," and the straight-ahead rock of "I Was a Kamikaze Pilot." Faulkner, guitarist Brad Shepherd, bassist Clyde Bramley, and drummer James Baker loaded their songs with catchy melodies and killer pop hooks and played 'em with the sweaty enthusiasm of a crack rock & roll band that knew the value of a great tune. And Stoneage Romeos is funny as hell without sounding like the work of a joke band; the Gurus loved a good laugh, but they loved a good tune even more. Stoneage Romeos ranks with the most solid debut albums of the 1980s, and if you don't like the Hoodoo Gurus, I suspect you don't like rock & roll very much.

The iPod has a mind of its own, you know. At least mine does. Recently, it presented me with two consecutive Hoodoo Gurus tunes. I took this as a sign that the devious little device was sending me a message, telling me that it had been too long since I had listened to the Gurus. And so it was that I found myself playing (and enjoying) Stoneage Romeos, with the volume up a few notches higher than normal.

The beauty of this album is its simplicity. It’s guitars, guitars, guitars, interlaced with hooks and melodies that are just so easy to hum along to. Those riffs take a hold of you right from the start of the stomping opener Let’s All Turn On and they rarely let you go for the album’s entirety. Sure, Dave Faulkner doesn’t possess the greatest voice in music, but as a writer of catchy pop songs he borders on genius. Try these classics on for size: A Place in the Sun, What’s My Scene, Bittersweet, Like Wow-Wipeout, Good Times, I Was the One, Miss Freelove ’69 and 1000 Miles Away. Not a bad footprint to glance back at when considering your place in Australian pop music.

There are good times a-plenty: the jungle-like beat on Leilani (despite the tragedy of the story), the daggy charm of “Death Ship”, and straight-out rock of I was a Kamikaze pilot.

It is jangly early-era R.E.M. without Stipe’s politics and angst. It is the podium to which many garage and surf bands have aspired. And although it now feels slightly dated (with even my iPod noticing the production verging on tinny in places) the highlights more than account for the shortcomings. There are not too many better fade-in intros and build-ups to chorus than what the classic “I want you back” delivers. Tojo is almost as good. And as for the beautiful love lament of “My girl”: the moments when Australian pop reaches this level of perfection are rare. A large part of this album’s charm is the fact that it does not outstay its welcome – there sure is something to be said for a quality bunch of 3-minute pop songs.

Over the years, that old iPod has become an essential part of my every-day life. Yeah, it does have a mind of its own, but most times (given I was the one who created its content) I find myself taking its cues and vigorously agreeing with it.