Hoodoo Gurus Album Reviews

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Stoneage Romeos (1984)
Mars Needs Guitars ! (1985)

Stoneage Romeos (1984)

9

(Let's All) Turn On / I Want You Back / Arthur / Death Ship / Dig It Up / My Girl / Zanzibar / Leilani / Tojo / In the Echo Chamber / I Was a Kamikaze Pilot

I've given up all hope of ever living in a just world, where everything is valued as it should and where credit is given where it's due, but man… how I regret the fact that this album has become such a cult classic. I mean, it's not an obscure, gut-wrenching, neo-existentialist piece of exorcism but a pop album with more hooks than all the yearly fishing competitions in Scandinavia combined. Stoneage Romeos is a 37 minute-trip of melody and energy, feels like a summation of two decades of pop music and ends up being an unforgettable tribute to the abundant vigour all good rock music conjures up. Whereas they're nowadays considered to be one of Australia's prime power-pop outfits, there's much more to the album than the jangly guitars and romantic subject matter the genre's known for. Under the leadership of Dave Faulkner (vocals/guitar), the team of James Baker (drums), Brad Shepherd (guitar, vocals) and Clyde Bramley (bass, vocals) managed to record eleven slices of infectious, raucous rock 'n' roll that you rarely encounter. And you read that correctly: this is one of those albums with no duds on it, no filler, it's 100% bullet-proof. "Leilani" was actually released as a single two years prior to the album, when Shepherd and Bramley weren't in the band yet (they joined after the majority of the songs on Stoneage Romeos were already written), and already serves as a nice indication of the band's sound and direction. On their best songs, the Gurus sound like the Sonics having a ball with the Flamin' Groovies and The Cramps, combining the refreshing energy of mid-60's garage rock with the melodic knack of the best Brit Invasion and the velocity and simplicity of punk godfathers The Ramones (in the US), Radio Birdman and The Saints (in Australia). As such, they became part of a blossoming garage scene in Australia (that also spawned the Celibate Rifles, the Scientists, the Lime Spiders, etc), but I doubt there were many other bands capable of delivering such an awesome debut. All the other singles derived from the album are stellar: "Tojo" is propelled by a guitar chug derived from pre-Beatles pop, but this is combined with a huge chorus (with unashamedly upfront backing vocals) and a punk attack. Even more old-fashioned is the pop-ballad "My Girl," which comes complete with "going to the dance and lose your girl to a friend"-story. The absolute winner however, and one of the great 80's singles, is "I Want You Back," which has to be one of the catchiest songs ever recorded. The moment when the band switches from the fairly restrained verses to those "What it all means when she says (yeah!), I want you back (She says)"-lines in the chorus, that's when you realize that good music can get you an instant shot of adrenalin precious few things in life can give you. It doesn't end with these singles, as each of the remaining songs has its own identity and style. "(Let's All) Turn On" is an explicit tribute, mentioning influences ranging from The Seeds to The Ramones, the Groovies and many more, wrapped in the most energetic (you could call it "punk", indeed) arrangement of the entire album, and if you open your ears, you'll hear traces of instrumental rock, surf, pop, punk and 60's kitsch, all in one song. And there's more: "Arthur" is a delightful jungle stomp, "Death Ship" a punk-pop gem, "Dig It Up" the best Cramps-song that band never recorded (it's funny, morbid & cartoonish), "In the Echo Chamber" another stomper featuring a few fantastic guitar freak-outs and album closer "I Was a Kamikaze Pilot" the band's very own interpretation of roots-rock, a garage-punk version of The Blasters, if you will. The band would follow up Stoneage Romeos with several terrific albums (and in 2004, they released their first album since 1996's Blue Cave), but none of them managed to combine the illusion of spontaneity with melody and energy in such an exciting way again. The Gurus are surely an unjustly forgotten band (unless you're from down under or a music geek), but if there's been one album that encapsulates everything the band stood for to great effect, it's Stoneage Romeos, an 80's classic every serious fan of rock music should own and one of the best power-pop albums ever filed under that label.

Mars Needs Guitars ! (1985)

7

Bittersweet / Poison Pen / In the Wild / Death Defying / Like Wow - Wipeout / Hayride to Hell / Show Some Emotion / The Other Side of Paradise / Mars Needs Guitars! / She

I've come to my senses in the meantime, 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 they released Stoneage Romeos, they not only released the (as far as I know - prove me wrong) 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 that album, they hit you in the face with one thrilling song after the other, they rocked and they rolled, they had magnificent sing-along melodies, they had it all. They 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-oriented direction. 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) or 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. What do you expect from "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, The Dream Syndicate's The Days of Wine and Roses, that kind of guitar-albums; red-hot freak-outs, abrasive distortion, power chords, slashing solos, thunderous riffs and squealing feedback, put together by axe-men using barbed wire instead of your traditional strings. Of course the lack of "body" (as if somebody switched the BASS-button to 1 and the TREBLE-button to 10), was quite common in the mid-80'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, you know, rock out to.

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 60'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 seems 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 live monster of a song, featuring surf-styled percussion, an energetic chorus and a 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 a few heart-felt "Zanzibar"-styled songs are quite okay, but really a bit too cutesy. "Show Some Emotion," "The Other Side of Paradise" and - especially - "Death Defying" boast sweet melodies, harmonies and gently swaying rhythms, but you just wish they'd crank up the volume a bit. The primitive stomp of the title track, which is 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 it with the dragging "She," probably the only below-average song here, one of the very few Hoodoo Gurus-cuts with a directionless (yes, even bland) chorus. While it's far from a bad album, it would be a travesty to claim Mars Needs Guitars! is on a par with the classic debut album. Nevertheless, they'd keep on going (even though real success eluded them) and deliver material that fans of pure pop candy are still drooling over.