- CRANK
Every once in awhile I like to go shopping for vinyl. I know,
you're saying "god, how ancient are you? vinyl? dad, did you feed the dinosaurs
when they were around?" Well let me tell you that vinyl junkies still exist.
I can assure you that I'm not one, but there are the purists who'll give you
detailed instructions on how to care, buff, polish and generally become aroused
over these prized LPs. Numerous vinyl specialists have told me that "it's the
only way to listen to music". Which I think is a load of bullcrap really. You
have those guys on one side of the coin, then the dj types on the other side
scratchin' them up and showing you their crates full of everything from sound
effects records to their mom's Engelbert Humperdink albums.
When I shop for vinyl I usually have economy in mind, as my local record merchant
offers two dollar vinyl whatever the condition, and this my friends is too good
a deal to pass up, especially when you're like me and still have a turntable
in working order. So old soul was my theme on this particular visit to my friend's
house of vinyl. I was scouring the racks and did end up with some pretty scratched
up Redding, Pickett, and Burke artifacts, but in the H section
between Humble Pie and Tommy Hunter I found
a brand spanking new version of "Mars Needs Guitars". What the hell?? G'day
mates...how ya goin'? For a mere two bucks I had to rescue this album from its
inevitable obscurity because the greater population of Sydney implored me to,
or at least the LESSER population of Sydney. This was a perfect copy, no scratches
and barely out of its cellophane. What former hipster sold this I wondered?
Please tell me it was someone who acquired the album on c.d. because this album
totally rules.
I really feel for the Hoodoos as I believe they never really
garnered the respect that they deserved. If the Aussie power pop combo's inscription
were to appear on a tombstone it would read something like "1982-1998 Could've
blown your cool man, but we didn't...sorry mate." But they did blow many music
fans' minds either in their glory days in the mid to late 80's, or later in
the game when their pissed off lyrics ruled on their last album "Blue Cave."
God knows at this point they had reason to be pissed off. The Hoodoos never
really surpassed the "cult favourite" tag either in Oz or throughout the rest
of the world. In North America their albums and songs barely made a dent in
the mainstream outside of college radio. If I could shake the general public
and wake 'em up, I'd ask "why the hell not??" Their peers in the mid 80's were
REM, The Smithereens, Let's Active and at least one of those
bands made it big (hint: bald vegan lead singer). Luck of the draw I guess.
In Australia, Inxs and Midnight Oil were getting all the worldwide attention,
while the Hoodoos barely made it out of the pubs.
Their sound on Mars Needs Guitars is simple, jangly and retro
- at least retro for 1985. I guess groovy titles like "Like Wow Wipeout" qualified
as retro by this point. Their sound was caught in between homage to Beatles,
Byrds, Big Star jangle and full throtle post punk aggression. The production
on this album is dated in a very 1980s way, as if producer Charles Fisher would
rather be producing faceless synth pop rather than gritty rock and roll. No
amount of production incompetence could stifle the winning formula of these
songs though.
"Bittersweet" opens the album and is nice in a Document era REM sort
of way. Great Kinks style riffs too. "Poison Pen" kind of has
a jerky tempo revealing their garage rock roots or rockabilly influences. "Into
The Wild" totally rocks and you can now see how Liam Gallagher
would be snarling his way through a rocker like this in about ten years. I believe
the Hoodoos were best when they ditched the goofiness and went straight for
the great melodic pop songs. Perhaps it's because I don't really understand
wacky Aussie humour. Anyway, "Death Defying" has a glorious melody and never
was there a more patriotic Aussie sentiment than the lyric "my harbour is my
home". You could hear their fans in Sydney cry "yeah mate" at that one. "Like
Wow Wipeout" is pleasant again in a old Kinks syle way, but "Hayride To Hell"
is album's one clunker, as it's pretty silly with its pseudo country tempo.
"Show Some Emotion", "The Other Side Of Paradise" and "She" are the best tracks
on the record, revealing both Dave Faulkner's goofy sounding
but earnest and unique way around a melody, and the band true songwriting strengths.
A strong record and I'm sure many fans (including the dude who sold this vinyl
copy) get really nostalgic at hearing it. Remember...the Vines were still in
diapers at this point.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
Well, the year 1994 seemed to be a pretty sad one what with
Kurt Cobain passing away, high unemployment rates everywhere, and my
personal indecision as to whether to drop out of university or not (I didn't),
but on the up side, in Australia, Kylie left her soap opera
past behind and became the modern dico diva that we know and (some of us) love
today! Guitar oriented music was now at the forefront in many music buyers'
minds, and on this record the Hoodoos decided to beef up her their sound considerably
with the addition of notorious heavy metal/modern rock producer Ed Stasium,
who'd previously worked with Living Color and Marshall Crenshaw
among others. With the sound he creates here, you'd think his name was Ed STADIUM,
because the sound is one which closely approaches arena rock. It's not very
raw and the overall polished feeling leaves the songs kind of stale and old
fashioned sounding in a hair metal sort of way, but the Gurus aggression is
still there. When you get righ t down to it though, this is one fucking loud
record, the loudest that they recorded up to that point.
I really wanted to like this record because it does have some very good moments,
but as a whole the album is pretty uneven, and some of Dave Faulkner's
choice songwriting gems are missing. Most die hard Hoodoo Fans
write this album off as a lesser work and they're right for the most part. I
couldn't resist picking it up in the delete bin of one of the record shops I
frequent though as it seems that this album was destined for "delete bin obscurity"
shortly after its release.
Things start off quite nicely with the aggressive "The Right Time". This one
blew my socks off when I first heard it, and I thought, if the rest of the songs
are like this, the album can't be as bad as everyone says it is. Aggressive
and sounding genuinely pissed off, "The Right Time" would prove to predate some
of the more angry work on Blue Cave, the Hoodoos next record.
"Crossed Wires", track number two, is stellar as well. Faulkner's voice twists
and turns around the tricky opening verse, and the guitars roar in the chorus
in an anthemic Oasis/Cracker sort of way. It should be said
here that I LOVE Faulkner's voice - he always manages to sound goofy and melodic
at the same time, not unlike say, Dave Lowery of Cracker/Camper Van
Beethoven fame.
"Quo Vadis" is a so-so straighforward rocker, built upon a boring riff, and
"Nobody" is a cheesy ballad which I suppose manages to dredge up some sincerity,
but is weird for a band who always seems to wink at you with major irony. "Form
A Circle" is where the old fashioned hair metal comparison comes in. It's not
bad, just kind of cliched and boring unless you like old Poison or Quiet Riot
(and believe me, there are more than enough people trying to revive this genre
of music today) but I really can't say I do. Things go pretty much downhill
after this one, as "Gospel Train" is another one of the Hoodoos' countrified
campfire singalongs that really irks me about them, again, perhaps it's just
corny Aussie humour which I don't understand.
Ah, but here we go - "Less Than A Feeling" is one of the best Hoodoo songs ever.
It's usually the single most people remember from this album, and manages to
rip off the riff from Boston's "More Than A Feeling" for the
chorus, but turns into a wonderfully melodic song in its own right. Very sarcastic
too, and kind of like a companion to the classic vitriol in Elvis Costello's
"Radio, Radio". "You Open My Eyes" is great, reminiscent of the older, jangly
Gurus, and "The Mountain" is a great Beatles/Teenage Fanclub
style closer to the album with great harmonies. The rest of the album the just
seem to drag down with filler and seemingly half finished ideas.
Probably not the best place to start if you're just getting into the band, but
there are songs that do deserve to be heard here.
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?