Hoodoo Gurus

Certain Songs #628: Hoodoo Gurus – “Gene Hackman”

August 20, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Electric Chair
Year: 1998

This is my favorite song in what is perhaps the all-time smallest category: “Late-90s Songs About Gene Hackman as Sung By 1980’s College Rock Icons.”

How small? There are only two songs in this category: The Hoodoo Gurus’ “Gene Hackman” and Robyn Hitchcock’s “Don’t Talk To Me About Gene Hackman,” which may or may not be an answer song. Probably not, as Hitchcock’s is a live acoustic take that was a hidden track on Jewels For Sophia.

Certain Songs #627: Hoodoo Gurus – “Down On Me”

August 19, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: In Blue Cave
Year: 1996

The year is 1996. I’ve moved to Oakland, and I’m doing what I did at least twice a month on Saturday mornings: digging through the recent additions in Amoeba Music’s used CD section.

It was one of my rituals: driving into Berkeley first thing on Saturday morning, standing in trade-in line with CDs that had run the gamut of usefulness in order to get some store credit to offset the a bit too much I was going to spend on music that day.

Certain Songs #626: Hoodoo Gurus – “Dressed in Black”

August 18, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Kinky
Year: 1991

After four good-to-great albums in a row, the Hoodoo Gurus finally stumbled with 1991’s Kinky and 1994’s Crank, both of which suffered from songwriting that just wasn’t up to their previous standards.

And when you’re a straight-ahead rock and roll band, and all you are ever going to be is a straight-ahead rock and roll band, you live and die on the strength of your songwriting, and — for the most part, those two records just didn’t have it.

Certain Songs #625: Hoodoo Gurus – “Shadow Me”

August 17, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Magnum Cum Louder
Year: 1989

I don’t know. While the vast majority of the songs I write about were singles, or at least major album tracks, occasionally I hit upon a song that was neither, and yet speaks so deeply to me that I can’t help but write about it.

Like “Shadow Me,” which is on the list of Prettiest Songs Ever Recorded, Hoodoo Gurus Division, and yet is a song that I expect to get little to no reaction when I post it. But I don’t even care: except for the utterly god-like “Bittersweet,” it’s my favorite Hoodoo Gurus song, and pretty much always has been.

Certain Songs #624: Hoodoo Gurus – “Come Anytime”

August 16, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Magnum Cum Louder
Year: 1989

After the massive utterly 1980s sound of Blow Your Cool! didn’t raise their profile one whit in America, the Hoodoo Gurus retrenched a bit, changed record labels, and followed it with the more restrained Magnum Cum Louder.

Of course, that “restrained” is relative, but at least the drums sounded like drums again, and the spaces between the acoustic guitars and electric guitars were more defined.

And Magnum Cum Louder sported their only #1 U.S. Modern Rock song (for whatever that’s worth), the pure pop “Come Anytime.”

Certain Songs #623: Hoodoo Gurus – “Party Machine”

August 15, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Blow Your Cool!
Year: 1987

Here’s a rule: if you’re going to have the temerity to name a song “Party Machine,” then it damn well better sound like one hell of a party.

Luckily, that’s a rule that the Hoodoo Gurus knew quite well, and so “Party Machine” ends Blow Your Cool! with an utterly raucous blast of full-on good timey energy.

Certain Songs #622: Hoodoo Gurus – “Out That Door”

August 14, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Blow Your Cool!
Year: 1987

1987 was probably my favorite year of music in the 1980s, and one of the reasons for that was the third straight winner by the Hoodoo Gurus, Blow Your Cool!, which at the time I felt was their most consistent album, even if it admittedly didn’t quite hit the highs of their previous two records.

That said, I’m also now horrified by the terrible terrible 1980’s production, which makes Mark Kingsmill’s snare drum sound like it was miked at the bottom of a metal trash can that was then set on fire.

Certain Songs #621: Hoodoo Gurus – “Like Wow-Wipeout”

August 13, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Mars Needs Guitars!
Year: 1985

Mars Needs Guitars! was a weird beast. I loved the first side, but couldn’t stand the second side, which got away from their core strengths. Over the long decades, I’ve changed my mind somewhat, and enjoy a couple of songs from it now, but they still don’t compare to that first side.

And how could they?

Because the first side of Mars Needs Guitars! — starting off with “Bittersweet, barreling through “Poison Pen,” “In The Wild” and “Death Defying” before climaxing with “Like Wow-Wipeout” — was as fantastic of a side of a record as anybody put out in 1985.

Certain Songs #620: Hoodoo Gurus – “Bittersweet”

August 12, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Mars Needs Guitars!
Year: 1985

Yes. “Bittersweet.” One of the greatest songs of the 1980s, full stop. Why in the holy hell isn’t it recognized around the world as such?

Right. Why do I keep asking that question when I lived through the answer?

But, gentle readers, it’s sometimes rough taking this journey through the past and digging into a song like “Bittersweet” and knowing that every single person ever hasn’t heard it and can’t celebrate it with me. I mean, talk about bittersweet.

Certain Songs #619: Hoodoo Gurus – “My Girl”

August 11, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Stoneage Romeos
Year: 1984

“My Girl” was the last song on the U.S. version of Stoneage Romeos, and — for me, at least — was a stellar ending to an album that completely resonated with my circle of friends.

How much did it resonate? It came in #4 on KFSRs year-end DJ poll, behind R.E.M., The Toy Dolls & XTC, and beating out The Smiths & U2.