the curious case of rooney

a band that could have been so much more

happy new year, folks! i have a 2023 recap/2024 to-do list over on my blog since it seemed a bit long and unwieldy for substack, plus my favorite songs of the year. but here, i’m kicking things off with a look back at one of my favorite bands as a teenager, whose debut album recently got a vinyl pressing for the first time in two decades!

if i were to engage in some personal revisionist history, i'd say that i first discovered the band rooney because of their cameo in the 2001 movie the princess diaries — one of my all-time favorites — in which lead singer robert schwartzman plays one of princess mia's love interests, who fronts a band called flypaper (which was really 3/5ths of rooney). or via their other cameo on one of my favorite, most formative TV shows, the OC — in which they’re featured as the band playing at the local live music venue, the bait shop — in 2004. however, it was actually in between those two appearances in 2003, when my music-wise friend, julie (who had introduced me to the juliana theory, ben kweller, and the rooney-adjacent phantom planet, whose drummer at the time was robert's brother, jason) spread the rooney gospel to me via their just-released debut album, that i immersed myself in their world. 

that self-titled record was the soundtrack to the summer after my junior year of high school, and it was everything my 17-year-old self needed at the time: a light, breezy power pop record that didn't take itself too seriously, conjured up visions of cruising along the PCH though i'd never set foot in california, and was fun to sing along to. while i do consider it one of my all-time favorite albums to this day, listening back now, i cringe at some of the misogynistic and/or downright creepy lyrics (exhibit a: "daisy duke"). but for some reason, robert's delivery and phrasing make it seem like he's either narrating someone else's story, or he's kidding, or he has his tongue firmly in his cheek. and maybe one or some of those things are true — it's still hard to tell. regardless, i was all in on rooney.

like phantom planet, the strokes, and pepper’s ghost (a fantastic flash-in-the-pan band from this time who i just remembered as i wrote this), they just made sense for me, a retro-and-rock-'n'roll-lovin' gal who was truly, seriously, really born in the wrong generation. i've never understood why that's used as an insult or what's so bad about thinking so, but regardless, it's how i feel in my heart of hearts. even my mom, who graduated high school in 1967, agrees with me, so there! anyway, rooney's happy, hooky blend of early weezer, the beach boys, ELO, and the cars captivated me. they stood out in so many ways from the garage rock revival pack, with their bright, synthy compositions and sunny sound.

taylor locke, straight from my disposable camera in 2004

i went to see them live in boston with my friends in june of 2004 at a small club called axis, which is long gone now, and it was so exciting to see such a fun, up-and-coming band i could follow as they created music that *sounded* kinda old, but was new. the best of both worlds for me! they also released a DVD that i watched about a billion times; a common musical artifact of the mid-2000s that i sorely miss. i was an active member of their website’s message board, which i even did an “ethnography” of for a college sociology project. i was rooting for them! it felt good.

but then, it all started going off the rails for a variety of reasons i’m still trying to piece together. according to wikipedia, the band wrote and recorded two full albums, from which i have some mostly-fantastic demo songs on my old laptop (and there are VERY few traces elsewhere on the internet), that were scrapped due to label issues. many of the songs had a slightly darker tone and sounded great. when you’re an emerging band, you don’t have much time to waste, and the four years that passed between rooney’s debut and the release of their sophomore album, calling the world, were at least a year or two too long. the momentum was undeniably slowed, and what made it worse was that almost none of those earlier demos made it onto the final record. instead, the result is a tale of two sides: amazing and…well, pretty awful.

the disparity between the good and bad songs on calling the world legitimately makes me angry, because the good songs — “i should’ve been after you,” “paralyzed,” “don't come around again” — are among the best songs they've ever done, full of energy and life, fantastic melodies and guitar work, and those signature quirky, memorable lyrics from robert (who casually works the word “coccyx” into a verse with ease). “i should’ve been after you” takes a page right out of queen’s theatrical rock playbook with multiple excellent melodic motifs, and as a youtube commenter astutely summarized:

…but the bad ones are among their worst: flat, unsettling, odd, corny, and boring (“tell me soon,” “are you afraid?,” “what for”). 

watching the music videos from this era now, i see a band seemingly under the thumb of its label and struggling to find its identity between vintage rock and shiny pop. this one for “tell me soon,” which i never saw until a few weeks ago, is wrong on so many levels beyond just being super tacky. it’s supposed to be a, uh, riff on the ramones singing to riff randell in her bedroom in rock ‘n’ roll high school, but the girl looks nine years old! who green lit this?! then, there’s the bizarre, pre-twilight vampire mini-movie for “are you afraid?” in which the only very loose thematic connection between the video and song is…fear? because vampires are scary, i guess? elsewhere, the earworm “when did your heart go missing?” is slightly less cringeworthy and a pretty fine pop song, but it made me (rightfully) concerned for where the band’s sound was continuing to head.

i was, unfortunately, correct. another three years later, by the time the third and final self-released record from the original incarnation of the band, eureka, came out in 2010, i had all but moved on completely, but i had to do my due diligence and check it out. and as i expected, it was the nail in the coffin for rooney, and — off the top of my head — one of the worst albums i’ve ever heard, as much as it pains me to say it given how much i really loved the band.

speaking in cheese metaphors — because why not? — their debut record is fresh mozzarella; burrata, even (chef’s kiss). calling the world is a kraft single (not top quality, but tasty and satisfies a craving). eureka is expired velveeta (artificial, uber-cheesy in a bad way, and just not enjoyable). ironically, my favorite song on the album is the one that robert doesn’t sing, “the hunch,” where drummer ned describes a terrible-no-good-very-bad day, because it’s campy and catchy in a ‘70s-TV-theme-song way that’s hard to take seriously, but hard not to smile at because it’s so ridiculous; one review said that it sounded like it was “written as the result of a lost bet,” which sums it up. the band leaned way too far into the worst of their retro influences here (in a bay city rollers, barry manilow, and tony orlando way), and that was the end of rooney.

well, sort of. robert still plays under the band name, though he remains the only original member, and has brought in a rotating cast of touring and session musicians since. i sensed some potential bad blood between him and the former bandmates via social media clues, and original guitarist taylor all but confirmed this in an interview a few years back, mentioning that robert apparently now *owns* the rooney name and only he can use it. yikes. before all of that, i actually went to a solo, acoustic “rooney” show at a very small venue in 2019 for nostalgia purposes, and it was a lovely trip down memory lane, during which robert told funny stories and played all the hits. of course, it wasn’t the same, and i couldn’t help but feel a vague sense of sadness for the missed potential of the band if one or two or five things had turned out differently.

rooney remains one of my greatest musical disappointments and morbid “what could have been” fascinations, because i don’t think i’ve ever seen such a slowly but surely declining trajectory for any band, let alone such a promising and talented one that i loved, in all of my days. alas, at least i’ll always have those sweet few years when i was just sh-sh-shakin’ and didn’t realize how good i had it…or what was ahead.

if you want to rediscover or check out the best of the band for yourself, i’ve compiled a little starter pack below (and i’m absolutely losing my mind over their circa 2000-2002 EP tracks like “no wait, but listen, i’m talking to you,” “why,” and “turn yourself away” that i used to be obsessed with and haven’t thought about or heard in like 20 years until i just discovered them on youtube. holy CRAP! i love the internet).

essential rooney listening:

• the entire rooney album (2003)

• calling the world (2007): “when did your heart go missing?,” “i should’ve been after you,” “don’t come around again,” “paralyzed”

• covers: “here today, gone tomorrow” (the ramones), “death on two legs” (queen), “merry xmas everybody” (slade)

• early EP/unreleased/bonus tracks: “no wait, but listen, i’m talking to you,” “why,” “turn yourself away,” “make some noise,” “oh what a day,” “the juice”