The Hoodoo Gurus will release their latest single – “Answered Prayers” – as a VERY limited edition 7″ on June 12. At the same time they will digitally release an expanded Deluxe Edition of their 2004 album Mach Schau, which will combine the track listings from both the local and US editions in a new 16 track running order.
“Answered Prayers”, which the Gurus performed live in front of a huge national audience on last Friday night’s episode of The State Of Music and which is already available digitally, is the first new music from the band in 10 years, not counting 2014’s Gravy Train, a newly-recorded EP of lost tracks from the band’s early days. It is the first recording to feature “new” drummer Nik Rieth, who joined in 2015, following time served with The Celibate Rifles, New Christs and Tumbleweed, as well as Radio Birdman, with whom he still plays.
“Answered Prayers” is a stark and visceral track addressing a certain type of abuse propagated by a particular type of male. It’s also a reminder of the Gurus’ raw power and their roots in the original punk rock of the ’70s. Indeed the track follows the release of both old and new material by The Victims, the band that head Guru Dave Faulkner formed with drummer James Baker in Perth in 1977, some four or so years before the pair reunited in Sydney to form the Gurus.
“Song of the Year”, which will feature on the single’s B-side, further emphasises the band’s punk roots. Written and sung by guitarist Brad Shepherd, the flat-out screamer of a song obliquely references in its chorus two of Brisbane’s legendary punk-era bands, The Fucken Leftovers and The Survivors. Brad, of course, fronted his own groups as a teenager in Brisbane at the time, beginning with The Aliens, who evolved into the legendary Fun Things.
Oh, and did we mention the band that Gurus bassman Rick Grossman and former Gurus drummer Mark Kingsmill attempted to get off the ground with Radio Birdman’s Deniz Tek, before Radio Birdman started? Talk about punk rock roots…
“Song of the Year” will also appear on the digital Deluxe Edition of Mach Schau. Left off the original Australian release in 2004, it was one of a handful of tracks added to the US edition of the album at the expense of a couple from the local edition. The new digital release will include all tracks from both editions – plus a couple of tracks, “This Is Your Time” and “Keep It Alive”, that were B-sides on a CD single – in a new, improved running order. None of these extra tracks have ever been available for streaming anywhere in the world, and many were previously unreleased in Australia.
Mach Schau was the first album the Gurus recorded after their five-year hiatus starting in 1998 and is one of their very best. Co-produced by another veteran of Perth’s feisty late-‘70s punk scene Kim Salmon, it features cracking tunes like “Sour Grapes”, “Girls On Top”, “Domino”, “When You Get to California” (with guest Vicki Peterson of The Bangles) and the great single “Nothing’s Changing My Life”, which surprisingly featured the decidedly non-punk – but classic ’70s – pair of Venetta Fields and Renee Geyer on backing vocals.
Mach Schau Deluxe Edition track listing:
1. “Sour Grapes”
2. “Domino”
3. “Nothing’s Changing My Life”
4. “The Good Son”
5. “When You Get to California”
6. “This One’s for the Ladies”
7. “Girls on Top”
8. “Dead Sea”
9. “Monkey’s Wedding”
10. “#17”
11. “Isolation”
12. “White Night”
13. “Song of the Year”
14. “The Mighty Have Fallen”
15. “Chop”
16. “Penelope’s Lullaby”
