Customer Reviews

Magna Cum Louder

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I've only ever seen this album on CD once! ONE TIME! What a shame. What a band! I first heard these guys on a radio program that I used to tape every night. This show was a really neat idea! It was called "The 12/60 Club." It ran on the now defunct WYDD out of Pittsburgh. It came on at midnight and ran for an hour. Thus the name 12/60. They played nothing but alternative material during that hour, and seemed to delight in introducing the listener to unheard of acts. Among those I heard for the first time on this show were The The, The Waterboys, OMD, The Raybeats, Trio, and much more. When they first played a track from "a new Australian band" I flipped! The track was "I Want You Back" from the "Stoneage Romeos" album. I loved EVERYTHING about it. Every last detail of the song was perfect. It instantly reminded me of the garage rock records of the 60's that we played alot when I was a kid. In rock, that was always my favorite genre. The verses were absolutely irresistable, but when it hit the chorus, it was like a favorite food bursting with more flavor than you can stand! The main melody to the chorus was more than sufficient, but the little back-up "ah-uuhaah" gave it even more dimension and became the part that I couldn't wait to hear each time I would play it. It was sort of like the pay-off for listening. When I bought the album, I realized that their music was full of fun and melody. When it comes to crafting a darn near perfect rock & roll song, these guys could give lessons.
That first album was FANTASTIC! So was the second one. The third one started to worry me just a little bit, but then I saw a video on MTV. I was just channel surfing when I heard a falsetto voice singing "come anyti-ime." Then I recognized Dave Faulkner. I put the brakes on my thumb and listened (and watched). It was just great! I immediately ordered the album. I still think that next to their debut album, this is their best one. "Come Anytime," "Baby Can Dance," "Death in the Afternoon," "Axegrinder" and "Hallucination" are the high points. But ALL of it is great!
One final point about this band. They would include a "Hall of Fame" list of things they liked (actors and musicians mostly). It's all of the stuff I like! ...Scary...

The Hoodoo Gurus' first album for RCA provided a lot of hit potential that sadly never materialized ("Come Anytime" was as close as they came to it on the college charts) but Dave Faulkner's guitar-jangly, hook-laden tunes never broke though into the pop mainstream. Too bad; virtually every song here could have been a contender. Self-produced, polished without being slick, and literate, the band never found a foothold in the tide of post-Nirvana rock that washed up on radio in the mid-90s. Star-crossed with a label that didn't know how to promote them (realizing RCA's less-than-stellar track record with its rock acts, they even needled the label with the baseball-metaphor "Where's That Hit?") even great songs weren't enough to get this album heard.

A friend of mine in high school turned me on to this band, and this album. I even got the DJ to play Shadow Me at prom (1992). This album never got the notice or appreciation that it deserved in my opinion. Get a copy, slap it in and prepare yourself for some great sound and a good time.