The Hoodoo Gurus turned their bittersweet blues into a primitive powerpop paradise with the death defying diversity of this wonderfully weird wipeout. The strength of their debut album 'Stoneage Romeos' had sparked interest for the group on the college circuit. They cut loose drummer James Baker and replaced him with Mark Kingsmill from The Hitmen to record their next album. 'Mars Needs Guitars!' was recorded with producer Charles Fisher and engineer John Bee and features Clyde Bramley on bass and backing vocals; Dave Faulkner on lead vocals, guitar, and keyboards; Brad Shepherd on lead guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals, and harmonica; and new addition Mark Kingsmill on drums and cymbals. Shepherd says: "The recording of it was just kind of workman like, and we just went up there at 301, here in Castle High Street in Sydney… and got through it fairly briefly. My recollections are that we started playing that album, we started playing the songs a whole lot better actually when we were on tour for that album. That’s my strongest recollection, that we were very busy in the wake of Stoneage Romeos
Faulkner: "When we commence the sessions for 'Mars Needs Guitars!' we had a brand new drummer, Mark Kingsmill who altered our lives forever with his distinctive explosive style. At the same time I vowed to myself that I would write less comic narratives and try to express my sentiments in a more forthright way. I feel I succeeded with 'Bittersweet' though at the time I didn't think that a) the band would want to play it and b) our audience would want to hear it. I was happily wrong on both counts ... 'Mars Needs Guitars!' was a turning point for me as a writer. I started being more personal in my lyrics, not just writing colourful stories ... The final straw with A&M was for Mars. We gave them that, and they were like, “Oh yes, ‘Bittersweet,’ we love that song! But it’s completely wrong. You’ve got to have a chorus that’s fast enough and all that, so we’re gonna show you how it should be.” The A&R guy took it into a studio in L.A., remixed it and chopped it up, and did this hideous abomination to the song. Because he thought he could do better than us, how to write a song. When we said, ‘Get fucked, you can’t release it like that!’ they dropped us. That was because it was his thing: he was going to make ‘Bittersweet’ a hit record. Of course, to this day, people would laugh at the idea of you changing that song at all.” 'Mars Needs Guitars!' charted at number one hundred and forty on the US Billboard 200 album chart, five in Australia (where it has been certified platinum), and number one on the US college album chart.
http://www.hoodoogurus.net/ "Bittersweet" reached number sixteen in Australia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNNHEZzBDZk VIDEO You are my sword.
Your love is its own reward.
My heart, I have found,
Gets carved surely by the pound.
God knows. I tried,
Tried to hold you with all my might
But time has won,
And I could never be that strong.
(Don't cry) I couldn't be that strong,
(Don't cry) That used to be my favourite song.
(Don't cry) Tears so bittersweet
Fill my eyes whenever we meet,
It's always bittersweet.
I cut and I bleed.
You seem to find that so hard to believe!
That's just too, too bad.
You could never touch the love that we had.
(Don't cry) For the love we had,
(Don't cry) Sometimes we try to take it back.
(Don't cry) Tears so bittersweet
Kiss my cheeks whenever we meet.
It's always bittersweet.
(Don't Cry) For a love-gone-wrong
(Don't cry) That used to be my favourite song
(Don't cry) Tears so bittersweet
Kiss my eyes whenever we meet.
Anyway...
We've grown and times change.
When we meet now it feels so strange.
I hold you like a sword
You won't cut me like you did before.
It's always bittersweet.
"Like Wow – Wipeout" went to number fifteen in Australia. Faulkner: "We recorded thinking that we could make a bit of racket and have some studio fun ... as a b-side but producer Charles Fisher thought it 'had something' and should be included on the album. No-one was more surprised than us when it became the second single and our biggest hit at the time. We just liked it because it was noisy."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkgOumIrSY8 VIDEO "Death Defying"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRHvTrfpiTI VIDEO 'Mars Needs Guitars!' full album:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEvr99j7ruPzNF50_3yPpzyVT8vTveD0G VIDEO All written tracks by Dave Faulkner unless otherwise indicated.
"Bittersweet" – 3:44
"Poison Pen" – 4:09
"In the Wild" – 3:07
"Death Defying" – 3:21
"Like Wow – Wipeout" – 3:09
"Hayride to Hell" – 3:15
"Show Some Emotion" – 2:56
"Other Side of Paradise" – 3:31
"Mars Needs Guitars" (James Baker, Clyde Bramley, Faulkner, Mark Kingsmill, Brad Shepherd) – 2:52
"She" – 3:28
The Hoodoo Gurus plundered retro trash culture to create the effervescent new wave garage cowpunk and psychedelic surf rock freakyness of this volcanic debut. Guitarists Dave Faulkner, Roddy Radalj (aka Roddy Ray'Da), and Kimble Rendall met at a New Year's Eve party and became Le Hoodoo Gurus with drummer James Baker. Baker had been in The Victims with Faulkner and in The Scientists with Radalj. Rendall had played with XL Capris in Sydney.
Faulkner looks back: “I’d say the Cramps and the Fleshtones were the ones that really gave me the desire to do the Hoodoo Gurus. Not that I knew it at the time, of course. But back in Australia a year later, I was seeing the legacy of Radio Birdman and all the so-called ‘Detroit bands.’ There was also this sort of homemade art-rock scene—I called them the suitcase synthesizer bands. But not much in between. And I just wanted to have something a bit more brash, more pop I guess. In the case of the Hoodoo Gurus, in the early days, the songs had a lot of jokey themes and titles. But I mean, ‘a wop bop a lu bop, a wop bam boom!’ had this exuberance; it didn’t necessarily have to make sense, and it’s still just as exciting and direct today.”
After releasing their debut single 'Leilani' on Phantom Records, Rendall left to pursue a career as a film director and was replaced by Clyde Bramley. Not happy with the state of affairs in the band, Radalj left soon after to be replaced by Brad Shepherd, Bramley's flatmate who had played with him in The Hitmen and Super K .
'Stoneage Romeos' 'Stoneage Romeos' was an instant hit in Australia, going to number twenty-nine on the album chart. The album won 'Best Debut Album' at the 1984 Countdown Awards and was certified gold. In the US, it was released on A&M with a completely different album cover and tracklist. Many US fans preferred the original cover by Yanni Stumbles and bought it as an import. 'Stoneage Romeos'
http://www.hoodoogurus.net/ Faulkner says: "'Leilani' was the only record released by the first line-up of the band, then know as le Hoodoo Gurus, for the independent label Phantom Records. Back then the members were: myself, Rod Radaji and Kimble Rendall on guitars and James Baker on drums. Astute listeners will note the absence of bass guitar in the band, an accident of fate which later inspired a song about a fatal accident ('Arthur'). It was only when Kimble and Rod quit a year later that we were able to remedy that "oversight". 'Leilani' was based on an old 50's movie, 'Bird Of Paradise' starring Jeff Chandler (my least-favourite actor at the time, though that title is now held by George Clooney). This primitive recording somehow received extensive alternative airplay, whatever that may be, and even became popular in a few clubs, so allowing us to break out of the inner-Sydney musical ghetto we inhabited."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUWMWBbEhJA My Girl
"Owing to a flippant suggestion by Kimble, who had returned to film-making, we made the song's video a story about a dog trainer and his champion greyhound. To this day people insist the song was "written about a dog". Oh, well. The truth is, it was meant to be part of a never-made home movie, a tribute to 60's beach movies entitled 'Gidget Goes Ape' 'Stoneage Romeos' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syFijAzk6Qw Tojo (Never Made It To Darwin) "marks the true beginning of the Hoodoo Gurus "sound". Brad Shepherd and Clyde Bramley had joined the band, Clyde excellently providing some much-needed bass guitar and in Brad we finally had a real guitarist (no offence intended to Kimble and Rod but to my knowledge none of us has ever been asked to do any session work). 'Tojo..' was an "answer song" to an Australian hit of a few years earlier, 'Santa Never Made it Into Darwin' which had been release to raise money for the victims of Cyclone Tracy which had almost destroyed Darwin on Christmas Eve, 1975. During World War II the Japanese army invaded New Guinea but failed to reach Australia thanks to the heroic resistance however Darwin was bombed heavily and often. This is the only song I've written about which my father (a returned serviceman) has ever had anything nice to say."
VIDEO I Want You Back
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xb1nk_hoodoo-gurus-i-want-you-back_music Hoodoo Gurus - I Want You Back by soulpatrol http://vimeo.com/40571869 Hoodoo Gurus "Gold Watch" Track-By-Track - #5 "I Want You Back” from Dan on Vimeo .
(Let's All) Turn On
Shake Some Action, Psychotic Reaction, No Satisfaction, Sky Pilot, Sky Saxon. That's what I like. Blitzkrieg Bop to the Jailhouse Rock Stop Stop Stop At The Hop do the Bluejean Bop. That's what I like. Better get off my cloud 'cos two's a crowd, Better get off the phone - there's nobody home. I'm gonna work it on out, I'm gonna Twist & Shout. I'm gonna Ride A White Swan and Get it on, Let's all turn on! Born To Lose those Summertime Blues In Blue Suede Shoes, Le Hoodoo Gurus. That's what I like. Waiting for My Man, baby, Can The Can, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, remember Sam The Sham? That's what I like! When You Walk in The Room, Sunny Afternoon, A-Wop-Bop A-Loo-Bop, A-Lop-Bam-Boom That's what I like. I like Sugar, Sugar, Talk, Talk, Money, Honey, Boardwalk Who wears Short Shorts? (We wear Short Shorts!) That's what I like! Turn on. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTmfQVXgqXw 'Stoneage Romeos' full album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ_9IFLhKXQ VIDEO
01 - I Want You Back - 3:12
02 - Tojo - 3:23
03 - Leilani (Faulkner, James Baker, Roddy Radalj, Kimble Rendall) - 5:36
04 - Arthur (Faulkner, Radalj) - 3:10
05 - Dig It Up - 3:36
06 - (Let's All) Turn On (Baker, Darcy Condon, Faulkner, Radalj) - 3:04
07 - Death Ship (Faulkner, Radalj, Alan Sharples) - 2:37
08 - In The Echo Chamber - 3:44
09 - Zanzibar - 3:25
10 - I Was A Kamikaze Pilot - 3:12
11 - My Girl - 2:40
bonus tracks:
"Leilani, Pt. 2" - 3:58
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-LMKahxSjU "Be My Guru" (Baker, Faulkner) - 2:40
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nax1CT5Rzkg "Hoodoo You Love" (live)(Baker, Faulkner) - 2:07
(recorded by Triple J at the Trade Union Club in Sydney in 1983)
http://www.musicline.de/de/player_flash/0805772802926/0/11/50/product
.jpg)
