Hoodoo Gurus

Certain Songs #618: Hoodoo Gurus – “(Let’s All) Turn On”

August 10, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Stoneage Romeos
Year: 1984

So here’s a thing I just learned: Dave Faulkner, lead singer and principle song writer for those Hoodoo Gurus, is now a pop music critic for The Saturday Paper in Australia.

Which is doubly good, because one thing I like is knowing where a music critic is coming from, and I’ve known exactly where Faulkner is coming from since the first time I heard the searing “(Let’s All) Turn On” back in 1984.

Certain Songs #617: Hoodoo Gurus – “I Want You Back”

August 9, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Stoneage Romeos
Year: 1984

Here’s what I’m hoping: there is somebody reading this — maybe one of those Millennials that are all in the news these days — who has never heard of the Hoodoo Gurus, and will click on this post and hear this song and fall in love with it the same way we all did back in 1984.

Perfectly straddling the line between power pop and garage rock, Australia’s awesome Hoodoo Gurus felt like a breath of fresh air; in the 30-odd years since then, they’ve never stopped churning out high-quality rock ‘n’ roll.

20 Musical Moments to Die For

January 23, 2009 by Jim Connelly

This month, on Musical Moments to Die For: secrets, influences, and secret influences, all book-ended by the two best bands to ever come from Athens, GA.

We’ve also got the front-runners for greatest guitar and organ solos ever; Neil Young’s most despairing moment; and not one, not two, but three variations of the beat solidified by the late, great Ellas McDaniel.

As always, I’m not necessarily talking about hooks here, more like traps. The parts of these songs that bring me back to them over and over again.

This is the sixth in a series: The first one had 25, the second one had 24, the third one had 23, the fourth one had 22, the fifth one had 21.

And yeah, you probably see the pattern and think you know the endgame, but I can promise you that there’s a twist!