From: jljones@geppetto.encore.com (Jeff Jones)
Subject: New Beatlesque Music!
Summary: Reviews of unsigned band Rooster Head
Organization: Encore Computer Corp.
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 14:54:34 GMT



I am a "Member of the Church of the New Beatles"(I didn't make that up - picked
it up off the net - thanks, whoever you are - I'm sure you're reading), and as
such I always have my ears open for new Beatlesque type music.  The major label
scene has brought to my attention bands such as; Jellyfish, Cave Dogs,
Dramarama and Smithereens. But none of them compare to an unsigned South
Florida band called Rooster Head.  Although their sound is somewhat Beatlesque,
I think the comparison is more accurate based on their originality, versitality,
sincerity, and plain old songwriting talent.

At the risk of overinflating your expectations, I have to say that I haven't 
been this impressed by anyone, save the Fab Four.  How did I find them?  Well,
I read the local libral free weekly rag called XS every week, and saw some 
very complimentary reviews(some of which follow). I also heard one song of 
theirs on the local college(actually high school) station WKPX.  With a wife and
two little kids(under five years old) at home, it wasn't easy to get out to see
them, but I finally obtained their second release "An American Cock in Paris."
After listening to the 1st side of that tape for the first time, I had to just
put it away and rest for a while... It couldn't really be that good!  Could it?!
Well, by now I have probably heard it nearly as many times as I've heard 
"Sargent Pepper" and I still think it is indeed that good.

Anyway, I am posting this here because I think you guys will dig this music, and
I really think this band deserves to succeed!


Although the reviews below are of their last two albums, they have released
three full length albums (two on cassette and one on both cassette and CD), and 
a couple of singles.
If you're really interested, you can get "Barnyard Delights" on CD or cassette
directly from the band by writing to:

Rooster Head
200 SE 5th Ave. #304
Dania, FL 33004

$10.00 for the CD and $5.00 for the cassette.


And if that's not cheap enough for you, I am willing to copy a tape of some of
what I consider to be their best (from all three albums) for just the price of
the cassette & postage ($3.00).
Respond via E-mail and/or send your three bucks to:

Jeff Jones
11500 NW 37 Place
Sunrise, FL 33323


Oh, and if anybody else out there has any obscure (or not so obscure) music you 
think I(we) would like, I would love to do some trading.  Respond via E-mail 
or post.


1993 is the year of the Cock!

'later
JJ  (jljones@encore.com)


The following compilation of reviews is part of my attempt to drum up some
(more) interest in this band.  I have no personal connection with these guys
other than the fact that I am a BIG fan of theirs, and I show up (as one of the
band members once remarked - like a bad penney) for almost every show they play.

These reviews are copied without permission from the indicated sources.



The following review appeared in the Dec 1992 issue of SOUTH FLORIDA MUSIC NEWS
(A free Monthly music magazine)

ROOSTER HEAD
Barnyard Delights & Other Songs of Protest
(Style CD and cassette)
BY LEE ZIMMERMAN

    So why don't these guys have a major label deal already?  Michael Kennedy is
not only the best songwriter in South Florida, but a good enough composer to be
considered in any league, bar none.  More importantly, Rooster Head are the type
of band that refuse to be pigeon-holed into any one style of music, adept at
switching musical direction at will.  A look at the credits reveals another 
remarkable insight as well - everybody in the band switches instrumental
chores with ease, a talent that's all but unknown these days.
    They mostly aim for sixtys-sounding British rock--"She's Just In Love,"
"About Us," and "Hell Street" show the engaging and often-times irresistable
approach of the Beatles and those they've influenced in the twenty or so
years that followed.  "We're not the Beatles," Kennedy sings on "Serious Boys,"
and indeed they're not; but "Chill of Winter" has the same sort of emphatic
refrain that characterized "Don't Let Me Down" while "Radical Decision" carries
traces of the same campy pop that marked "When I'm Sixty Four" and "Yellow
Submarine."[ Sounds even more like Sweet Honey Pie from the White Album to me -
JJ ]  Still, it would be wrong to call Rooster Head mere revisionists--
they also toss in bits of country ("Going Back To Memphis"), traditional
sounding folk ("Liz and Jim"), a hint of reggae ("Chant Down Babylon"), as well
as plenty of sentimental weepers ("Stay" and "Too Large"). Yet, no matter what
course they take, it results in memorable melodies and a professional product 
that's consistantly impressive.  Like it's predecessors, BARNYARD DELIGHTS is,
in a word BRILLIANT. 



The following review appeared in a Winter of 1992 issue of the NEW TIMES (one
of those free weekly local music publications)

ROOSTER HEAD
Barnyard Delights & Other Songs of Protest
(Style CD and cassette)
BY TODD ANTHONY

    Was that the Beatles?  No, no, it was the Byrds.  Or Neil Young.  The Silos?
Matthew Sweet?  WHO THE HELL AM I LISTENING TO?
    Oh, Rooster Head.  No wonder.
    A music writer could go completely 'round the bend trying to pinpoint all
influences, homages, and apprropriations the members of this incredibly
talented and unrepentently diverse outfit bring to their music.  BARNYARD
DELIGHTS, their third release, finds South Florida's best and brightest at the
top of their craft, rolling out more sweet stuff than Willy Wonka's chocolate
factory.
    Rooster Head remains the most accessable original rock band on the local 
scene, the band that single-handedly contradicts all those who would put
down the area's rock talent pool, the (dare we say it?) thinking person's
rock band.  If they have a shortcoming(they must - they haven't yet outsold
Garth Brooks or Pearl Jam, and we all know how closely related sales charts
and artistic merit are, don't we?), it's that lead vocalist/songwriter
Michael Kennedy isn't blessed with golden pipes.  So you won't hear Rooster
Head cover octave strechers like Mariah Carey(at least not faithfully).  Big
fucking deal.  Non-Davie(country type little town in area) residents(and
perhaps some of the shit-kickers themselves) with enough functioning brain
cells to recall the Chuck Berry tune that inspired it will break their achy
hearts over "Going Back To Memphis."  Kennedy's voice is confident and 
expressive, his phrasing refreshingly original, and his timing dead on the
money.  And, yes, most of the songs he writes fit comfortably within his
range. He's no fool.
    If you've been thinking about sampling some local fare but haven't
opened the menu yet, take a tip from a regular:  Rooster Head should be your
first course.  They're accomplished and versatile enough to please even the
most discriminating gourmand, yet sufficiently hook-conscious and melodic to
appeal to those not fully weaned from Top 40/AOR.  As Americans prepare to 
usher in a new era in presidential politics, the time has come to put a
Rooster in every pot.



The following review appeared in the 10/21/92 issue of XS Magazine (another one
of those free weekly liberal editorial and local entertainment publications)

RoosterHead's latest
something to crow about
BY PHILIP KRETSEDEMAS

    Mike Kennedy, singer/songwriter for RoosterHead, says the local band's third
release, "Barnyard Delights," feels like a first album in many respects.
    The addition of Mike Vullo (drums) and Dave Cook (bass) has allowed the band
to concentrate more on live shows.  These experiences have marked the new record
with a no-frills sound that departs from some of the indulgences of previous
works.
    This collection of songs is marked by a freshness and simplicity that can be
attributed to a certain newness and the process of maturity.
    Instruments are still larely communal property for band members - a telling
sign of a studio project.  Pete Moss wanders alternately between guitar, banjo,
bass and drums.  Mike Vullo frequently departs from the drum kit for the guitar
and Bob Wlos's specialty is pedal steel guitar but his best influence on the
band's sound is from behind the mixing board of his own L7 studios in Deerfield
Beach.
    Though the record sports an eclectic bunch of songs ranging from unassuming
ballads to distortion-laden pop ditties, the familiar RoosterHead combination
is maintained throughout.  The music fits like an old shoe, well-textured and
replete with jangly guitars, lilting steel pedal refrains and the occasional
mandolin.  With this backdrop, Kennedy continues to play his role as the
tounge-in-cheek mendicant poet with the slightly affected singing style that
wanders somewhere between the sarcasm of Robyn Hitchcock and the arguable
sincerity of George Harrison.
    "Going Back to Memphis" is Kennedy's answer to Chuck Berry's "Memphis."  In
this song, done as a straight-ahead country tune, Kennedy sings, "Tell her I'm
sorry/hope she understands/and hold her in my arms," adding, "if she'll let
me" as an anti-climactic afterthought to the burgeoning refrain.
    It is this sort of quiet sincerity that marks the best parts of the record -
a sincerity that transends some of the odd humor and even Kennedy's
self-effacing admittance that the lyrics are "based on bullshit."
    Another of RoosterHead's best feats is pairing unassuming lyrics with 
powerfull chord progressions that get the point across without reducing it all
to the working class, chest-beating bravado of, say, Bruce Springsteen.
    Such a song is "Stay," which can't clock in at much more than three minutes
and consists of no more than a handfull of chords and five or six lines of
lyrics.  The chord progression is reminisent of "Chinese Summer" from the
band's first release, but rather than 'baring his ass to the wind and sand,"
Kennedy is content this time to "go find a girl and have some babys," and
this time you get the feeling he isn't kidding.
    If there is any sort of cosmic justice, these guys will be signed to a
record label.  Either that or fade into obscurity and inspire numerous tribute
records decades after their demise.  Given the band's precarious nature, it
would be difficult to predict which fate RoosterHead would prefer.
    In any case "Barnyard Delights" is in local record stores.  Those who are
curious about local music - and whose taste has evolved even the slightest 
beyond shock rock and Euro dance trash - have very little excuse not to check
these guys out.  - TODD ANTHONY


The following review appeared in the October 1992 issue of SOUTH FLORIDA MUSIC
NEWS (A free Monthly music magazine)

ROOSTER HEAD
An American Cock in Paris
(Style)
BY LEE ZIMMERMAN

There's something that's both irresistably likeable and naggingly familiar
about Rooster Head's latest, AN AMERICAN COCK IN PARIS.  For one thing, they
don't sound like a South Floirida band, although the label claims they're
based in Dania.  In fact, they don't even sound very much like an American 
band.  On closer listen, their superlative sound identifies them as staunch
Anglophiles, obviously well versed in late '60's British power pop and
psychedelia.  Unmistakable traces of the Kings, the Pretty Things, Mott The
Hoople, early David Bowie, and dozens of other Limey bands too numerous to
mention echo in and out of these tracks.
    Fortunatly, though Rooster Head aren't mere revisionists.  Imitation
requires the good taste to know who to emulate--Rooster Head are well equiped
on that score--but it can also be a relatively mindless exercise.  Rooster
Head are no dumb clucks; their songs are filled with sophisticated touches--
the giddy sitar that dances along with "Gilbert Saved My Life," the sweet
steel guitar adding an unexpectedly lilting touch to "Lacy," and the sizzling 
sax that propels the quirky blues of "Dancing With th Ghost (Marvin)."  Just
as important, their lyrics provide more than the usual sex-strung drama.  Take
"Digging," for example; it's a remarkably insightful tome on the fact that
those who perpetuate injustice will inevitably end up victims one way or 
another.  Those are heady thoughts for a young band that is simply out to
entertain.  But those who are warry of cerebral circumstances needn't worry,
either.  Rooster Head's music is instantly infectious, marvelously memorable
and obviously worthy of a shot at the big time.  Record companies, are you
listening?  Rooster Head could give you something to crow about.

				&&&