Rooney and Their 2003 "Blueside" Blueprint for Pop Mastery
22 years later, we finally drop the needle on Rooney, and the report card is glimmering! It sounds great, and we can dance to it! What more could Dick Clark, Ed Sullivan, or Greg Shaw want?
The band, formed in 1999 while still in high school, is named after Ed Rooney, the principal (pictured below in a scene from that 1986 teen comedy), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, portrayed by actor, Jeffrey Jones.
So, now we’ve got a (wink) bit of a hint as to their pop cultural leanings, and their appreciation of scalpel-sharp comedy script-writing! We can also glean that Rooney kingpin, Robert Schwartzman (who wrote “Blueside”), had to have seen Ferris Bueller on video cassette a bit into the ‘90s…he was four when the movie was in a sticky-floored theater (Jay Leno: “Ha! Theater! You mean the concrete bunker at the end of the mall?!”).
We also know that Robert (also known by his nom-de-tune, Robert Carmine) has a lengthy cord winding its impressively cinematic way through 20th century Hollywood…the filmside: You see, Robert’s mom is Talia Shire (née Coppola…yes, that Coppola, The Godfather director, Ms. Shire’s brother, Uncle Francis), and his father was film producer, Jack Schwartzman.
The YouTube Algo Strikes Again!
In what has to be a good half-dozen years ago, the YouTube algorithm burst forth, in my direction, with this lead track off Rooney’s self-titled 2003 Geffen Records debut album, the blistering “Blueside” (produced by Brian Reeves):
I kept going back to it with a surprising frequency, mesmerized by its urgency, insistence, and unusual combination of alt-rock guitar-attack and dreamy, multi-harmony beach melody, all tightly-wrapped in a firmly-arranged pop taco-to-go.
“Blueside” somehow manages to appease the grunge/rock/metal heads, while also massaging the ears and hearts of the fans of the harmony-driven groups of the ‘60s and ‘70s. No mean feat. And, even more mercifully, no shoe-gaze.
FR&B recently discovered and covered The Struts, and their similarly melodic rockin’ pop of their 2014 “Put Your Money on Me”:
Rooney’s Evaluation Is In
Johnny Loftus of Allmusic, asserts that Rooney (the band and debut) has E.L.O. and the Psychedelic Furs tendencies, and “aren’t just names to drop in interviews, but valid musical reference points that give their giddy, harmony-laden pop its freshly scrubbed sound.”
Wiki, however, allows this: “Their music is reminiscent of Jellyfish and Sloan. They have toured the nation with acts such as Weezer, The Strokes, Jane’s Addiction, Travis, Keane, Audioslave, OK Go, Queens of the Stone Age, and [the aforementioned] Electric Light Orchestra.”
This, it would appear, all places them firmly into the growing (but, still tiny) camp of 21st-century artists whose playing and songwriting talents are deeply rooted in the 1970s-era classic pop’n’rock songcraft!
Emily Burgess on BMI.com, opined shortly after their debut dropped: “While Rooney maintains that the only two bands who’ve supplied significant creative influence are Nirvana and Weezer, their sound is reminiscent of The Beatles.”
I wouldn’t be quite that specific, but, I see where Ms. Burgess is going (I mean, they do sport the requisite moptops! All that’s missing is jelly babies being tossed in their direction, and an iconic photo of them striding single-file across Santa Monica Boulevard)!
Locke and Schwartzman Interview, circa 2010:
A Few La-La’s and Hand Claps: The Case for Rooney & Power Pop Supremacy
When you’ve got unbridled and exuberant (and still-tightly-focused) guitar play, harmonies aplenty, you’re filming on a beach fuh-cryin’-out-loud, and, do I hear hand-claps in their Beach Boys-echoing “bum-bum-bum-bum-bum” bridge a hundred seconds in?
I rest my case. Counselor, your witness.
If the founder of BOMP! Records and Magazine (and my personal power pop guru), the late Greg Shaw, was still here (he actually may have heard this: He died in late 2004, a year after this release), I think Rooney would’ve easily passed his power pop muster, with his legendary “a few la-la’s and hand-claps won’t kill you” formula and raison d’être!
Schwartzman replied, “Some of the greatest pop songs were written by people in their early-20s. All those Beatles songs -- they were young guys when they wrote those love songs. Our lyrics are similar to what people experience, no matter what their age. And that’s the kind of music we like.”
“Coincidentally,” Burgess continues, “it was Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo who gave Rooney their big break by inviting them to tour as Weezer’s opening act for their Summer 2002 Enlightenment Tour.”
“We are a band with a strong sense of direction and intent. We’re not a jam band,” says drummer, Ned Brower. “Each part has a purpose within the context of the song.” It’s key to recognize that 3 of the 5 Rooneys sing, including Brower (adding to Schwartzman and Locke). This accounts for the multitude of harmony options the band has enjoyed.
The Band Moves On: The 2016 Schwartzman Interview:
The Inevitable(?) Move Into Film (2016, Dreamland, Schwartzman, Director/Writer, with Mom, Talia Shire, co-starring)
2023: Directing The Good Half, starring Nick Jonas:
The FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE Merch Store is open! NEW: This 11-oz. Color Morphing Mug, with The Ramones pictured (and yours truly) backstage at Houston’s Liberty Hall, 1977! This unique, high-quality ceramic mug transforms when filled with hot beverages, revealing vibrant designs that energize your morning routine!
I believe I saw them live once opening for Pete Yorn.
One of my favorite playlists is Fountains of Rooney - a mix of all the albums of Rooney and Fountains of Wayne.