Blow Your Cool!

Blow Your Cool!
Studio album by Hoodoo Gurus
Released	May 1987 (1987-05) (see Release history)
Recorded	January, 1987
Genre	Rock
Length	42:48
Label	Big Time (Australia) Elektra/BMG (U.S.) Chrysalis (UK) EMI (Australia)
Producer	Mark Opitz; Hoodoo Gurus
Hoodoo Gurus chronology
Mars Needs Guitars! (1985) Blow Your Cool! (1987) Magnum Cum Louder (1989)
Singles from Blow Your Cool!
"What's My Scene?" Released: May, 1987 "Good Times" Released: August, 1987 "In the Middle of the Land" Released: December, 1987

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Rolling Stone	[2]

Blow Your Cool! is Australian rock group Hoodoo Gurus' third album,^[3] released in May 1987 and contains their hit single "What's My Scene?". The single reached #3 on the Australian Music Charts.^[4] The band's American label, Elektra Records, was hoping that they could come up with something a bit easier to market than the witty, 1960s-obsessed pop/rock of Stoneage Romeos and Mars Needs Guitars!, so they paired the group with producer Mark Opitz, who had previously produced records for AC/DC, INXS, and the Divinyls.^[3] Background vocals on two tracks were supplied by The Bangles.^[5] It was recorded both in Sydney and LA.^[5] The album reached No. 120 on the Billboard 200 album charts in 1987.

"When the Blow Your Cool! touring was over Clyde retired from the road and the band. At this point we persuaded Rick Grossman to join, contributing his tremendous bass skills to the band, and so we had reached what was to be our ultimate line-up. After that we only changed our haircuts (and underwear)." - Dave Faulkner.^[6]

EMI re-released the album on February 6, 2005^[7] with four additional tracks, a fold out poster and liner notes by Vicki Peterson (The Bangles). One of the additional tracks, "The Generation Gap" was their first recording with Grossman, and had been released as a single-only in 1988; it was their cover of Jeannie C. Riley's 1970 country song.^[6]

Track listing

All tracks written by Dave Faulkner unless otherwise indicated.^[8]

Original release

1. "Out That Door" – 4:14
2. "What's My Scene" – 3:50
3. "Good Times" – 3:02
4. "I Was the One" – 4:10
5. "Hell for Leather" – 3:28
6. "Where Nowhere Is" – 4:00
7. "In the Middle of the Land" – 4:34
8. "Come On" – 2:43
9. "Heart of Darkness" – 3:04
10. "My Caravan" – 4:15
11. "On My Street" – 3:16
12. "Party Machine" – 5:10

The original LP release did not include "Heart of Darkness".

2005 re-release

1. "Out That Door" – 4:14
2. "What's My Scene" – 3:50
3. "Good Times" – 3:02
4. "I Was the One" – 4:10
5. "Hell for Leather" – 3:28
6. "Where Nowhere Is" – 4:00
7. "In the Middle of the Land" – 4:34
8. "Come On" – 2:43
9. "Heart of Darkness" – 3:04
10. "My Caravan" – 4:15
11. "On My Street" – 3:16
12. "Party Machine" – 5:10
13. "Hell for Leather (live) – 3:12
14. "Hayride to Hell, Pt 2 (The Showdown)" – 3:39
15. "The Generation Gap" (Charlie Craig, Betty Craig, Jim Hayner)^[9] – 3:42
16. "Jungle Bells" – 3:37

Personnel

Credited to:^[3][5]

Hoodoo Gurus

• Dave Faulkner – lead Vocals, guitar, keyboards
• Brad Shepherd – guitar, harmonica
• Mark Kingsmill – drums
• Clyde Bramley – bass

Additional musicians

• The Bangles (Susanna Hoffs, Debbi Peterson, Vicki Peterson, Michael Steele) – background vocals (tracks 3 & 12)
• The Calamity Bake Sails
• Dream Syndicate members Steve Wynn & Mark Walton – background vocals (track 7)
• Mike Kloster (The Bangles' engineer) – background vocals (track 12)
• Stevo Glendinning – background vocals (track 12)
• Mark Opitz – background vocals (track 12)
• Geoff Rhoe – background vocals (tracks 6 & 12)
• Paul Thirkell – background vocals (track 7)
• Allan Wright – background vocals (track 12)
• Malcolm Eastick (Stars, Broderick Smith's Big Combo) – guitar (track 1)
• James Valentine (Models) – saxophone (tracks 4 & 10)

Production details

• Richard Allan – Art Direction, Cover Design
• Allan Wright – Engineer
• Heidi Cannavo, Kathy Nauton, Paula Jones, Tchad Blake — Assistant Engineers
• Mark Opitz – Producer
• Barry Diament – Mastering

Release history

References

1. ↑ Allmusic review
2. ↑ Rolling Stone review
3. 1 2 3 Holmgren, Magnus; Georgieff, Didier; Hartung, Stephan. "Hoodoo Gurus". Passagen.se. Australian Rock Database (Magnus Holmgren). Archived from the original on 22 October 2013. Retrieved 25 March 2014. 
4. ↑ "Best of 1987". Oz Net Music Chart. Archived from the original on 2008-04-17. Retrieved 2007-12-18. 
5. 1 2 3 Murr, Kater. "Hoodoo Gurus - Blow Your Cool!". Discogs. Retrieved 2007-11-25. 
6. 1 2 Faulkner, Dave (June 2000). "Pop and punishment". juliat. Archived from the original on 2007-08-08. Retrieved 2008-01-27. 
7. ↑ EMI Records
8. ↑ "Australasian Performing Right Association". APRA. Archived from the original on 2007-12-05. Retrieved 2007-11-25. 
9. ↑ "Music Collections SJLibrary.org". San José Public Library and San José State University Library. Archived from the original on May 19, 2006. Retrieved 2007-11-25.