Local Record Review: Roosterhead's 'Burst Your Bubble' From Huntington Beach

Ned Raggett | August 16, 2010

Beat Blvd. is Heard Mentality's weekly review of local releases. If you're an OC musician or band with something new to offer–vinyl single, full length album, CD, cassette — we want to hear from you! Send copies, along with any photos and PR material, to Beat Blvd., c/o OC Weekly, 2975 Red Hill Ave., Suite 150, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.

Roosterhead

Burst Your Bubble

http://www.roosterheadmusic.com

Orange County's own slice of South Dakota transplanted to the shores of Huntington Beach has been having fun with its neon day-glo ways on stage for a while, so it's nice to see that color aesthetic carrying over to the cover art of Burst Your Bubble, the duo's self-released debut EP. (In an OC Weekly interview, Roosterhead say they try to match their day-glo aesthetic to their intense songs.)

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Shawn Her Many Horses and Luke Johnson are credited with so many instruments it's a wonder they don't employ each other as percussion but for all the happy over-the-top qualities in evidence there's a straight-up power-pop hook at the heart of everything. It makes the out of nowhere moments like the surf guitar breaks on “Smile!” and the rapid-fire overlapping vocals on “Graffiti Finger” all that more enjoyable. Lyrically songs like “Eat Your Bubblegum” and “Village of Idiots” call to mind Costa Mesa's late lamented Supernova, looking at pop culture with a gleeful snark but with their own individual flair–not to mention great lines like “IQ lower than a bottomless pit.”

Ned Raggett

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