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

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