Rooney

Soak Weezer's noisy pop smarts in the sun all day, and you'll wind up with Rooney's chiming sing-alongs. This band understands the benefits of handclaps, wiry guitar solos and peaceful, easy harmonies. It's alt-radio rock with pop smarts instead of aggression. So simple and direct that you can't help but mouth the words.

Before Rooney became the handle of an L.A. pop-rock band, it was the name of the
perpetually red-faced principal from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Rooney frontman Robert
Carmine will blush someday, too, when he listens to his band's debut album and hears how
cloningly close his melodies and delivery resemble those of Weezer. But whereas Rivers
Cuomo's misanthropic undercurrent was compelling (for a while, anyway), Carm... More >