Blow Your Cool!

Untitled

Blow Your Cool! is iconic Australian rock group Hoodoo Gurus' third album released in May 1987 and contains their hit single "What's My Scene?". The single reached #3 on the Australian Music Charts. The band's American label, Elektra Records, was hoping that they could come up with something a bit easier to market than the witty, '60s-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. Background vocals on two tracks were supplied by The Bangles. It was recorded both in Sydney and LA. 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.

EMI re-released the album on February 6, 2005 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.

Track listing

All tracks written by Dave Faulkner unless otherwise indicated.

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

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) – 3:42
16. "Jungle Bells" – 3:37

Personnel

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)

Credits

• 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

Region	Date	Label
Australia	May 1987 (1987-05)	Big Time
	February 26, 2005 (2005-02-26)	EMI
Europe	July 7, 1987 (1987-07-07)	Chrysalis
United States		Elektra/BMG