Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Rooney - three early eps: Deli Meats, Plug It In & Mastedonia (2000-2002)

With an arresting melange of Blue album-era Weezer crunch and the sophisticated swoon of the Beach Boys and ELO, Rooney had me under a spell with their 2003 self-titled album. True, they were on a major, and admittedly, they seamed to lure a disproportionate amount of young women to their concerts, but the sun-kissed L.A. quintet had talent to burn. Power pop fans seemed to overlook them (or were too embarrassed to overtly express any devotion), but they had enough admirers to nearly push Rooney to gold status. As for me, the eleven songs that encompassed that disk were simply not enough, and I was determined to get a second helping before their sophomore LP, Calling the World, would belatedly drop in 2007.

By the grace of file sharing platforms like Soulseek, I was in luck, not to mention in for a treat. Prior to signing to Geffen, Rooney had three self-released demo eps under their belt, Deli Meats, Plug It In, and Mastedonia. To this day I own not one of them, nor have I had any success in tracking them down. In fact I've merely seen thumbnail images of the sleeve art. MP3s will have to do for now, and with the exception of the occasionally glitchy Deli Meats tracks, these are by and large satisfactory. All of ep #3, Mastedonia would be transplanted to their first album in roughly the same incarnations. Deli Meat's "Blueside" and "Losing All Control" would also be recut for the album. The remaining seven songs spread across these incredibly rare disks were never revived or recut for subsequent releases, which means we (and Rooney) have them all to ourselves. I may have more Rooney to share in the future, from this period and beyond. By the way, the newest Rooney product is a tour-only ep, Wild One.

Deli Meats ep (2000)
01. Meltdown

02. Turn Yourself Away
03. Blueside
04. Find Myself
05. Losing All Control (Mellow Song)

Plug It In ep (2001)
01. The Floor

02. Why?
03. It Goes to Bed
04. No Wait

Mastedonia ep (2002)
01. If it Were Up to Me
02. Popstars
03. Losing All Control

Hear

16 comments:

Todd said...

Thanks for these! I actually had a copy of Turn It Up and gave it to my best friend as a gift.

geekroick said...

thanks for these EPs, I had no idea they even existed!

happy to upload 'The Lost Album' (from what I can gather, they scrapped an album recorded before Calling The World, so this must be it) if you'd like it for the blog?

Jeff said...

I know this is off-topic, but is there any chance you could put up some more Pollyanna? You said you had their entire discography in the Hello Halo post, and anything else is definitely appreciated, that stuff is just too hard to find.

spavid said...

I have the "lost" Rooney album, just not sure if I feel the need to share it.

As for more Pollyanna, Patience Daniel Son, patience...

Robert Cass said...

I hadn't really heard Rooney, aside from a Christmas song on one of those "The O.C." soundtracks, before I found a promo copy of "Calling the World" three years ago. Almost every song on it was memorable.

Maybe power-pop fans didn't like the "O.C." taint the band had around 2004, or the fact that girls actually liked these guys, but my only problem is that the lyrics sound like they're coming from 16-year-old boys. Then again, that's what most power pop is supposed to sound like, right? (Okay, fine — 19-year-old boys.) The lyrics are kinda goofy, but they seem sincere, and that's all that matters.

Thanks for the EPs!

poppers986 said...

hey if anyone has physical copies of these eps, would you mind emailing me? i'll buy them off of you. I have mastedonia, though.

also, if you have any of the old The Floor fanclub stuff.

Thanks- poppers986@yahoo.com

poppers986 said...

Hey if anyone has a physical copy of these, please email me, i'll buy them from you

poppers986@yahoo.com

i have mastedonia, though

thanks in advance!

poppers986 said...

Hey if anyone has a physical copy of these, please email me, i'll buy them from you

poppers986@yahoo.com

i have mastedonia, though

thanks in advance!

poppers986 said...

oh by the way, to th original poster, there are 2 copies of mastedonia being sold on ebay right now, just search rooney and click on cds

effatha said...

Please, re-up this, im fan from europe it s impossible to me to get this. Thx, marin from Croatia.

ehprh12 said...

Anyone able to share a link to the Rooney "The Lost Album" mentioned above. Would love to hear it.

Charles Nixon said...

Please re-up this early Rooney stuff.

HofnerBass said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Frisbee said...

Please re upload?

jilly said...

Woah, another Rooney fan in 2022? So rare to find!!

Yes, please re-upload!!!

virtualcrane said...

Does anyone plan to the "lost album" by Rooney? Thanks in advance!