Photo of the lobby of the New Jersey Turnpike administration building by Gottscho-Schleisner, Inc., 1954
Mike Mazzarella loves the Beatles. He formed the Rooks in New York in 1990 and spent a decade building 3-minute aural shrines to the Fab Four with little recognition or success. The Rooks released a promising self-titled debut record in 1994, with excellent jangly guitars and Mazzarella's Lennon-esque vocals. But the '90s were a tough decade for power-pop, and, like many, the Rooks were forced to take refuge in one of the many power-pop ghettos and pockets of resistance that sprang up around the country in reaction to shifts in musical trends. They signed with Not Lame Records, and their first release for the label was a split CD with Twenty Cent Crush called Double Dose of Pop in 1995. Considered by many to be one of the lesser songs on the CD, I love the song "Music Sound Sensation". While most of the Rooks songs build on the Beatles' mid-period sound (not unlike the Spongetones), this song recalls some of McCartney's more pastoral late-period songs like "Fool on the Hill". It also channels the sound of Martin Newell and Cleaners from Venus (another "We Love the Beatles" band from the '80s) with its clean 12-string guitar, clip-clop percussion and sighing backing vocals.
I have no idea about the song's title, however. That one's a total head-scratcher - sounds like a working title that they forgot to replace with something better.
"Music Sound Sensation" by the Rooks
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