| Growing Mold | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by The Radioactive Chicken Heads | ||||
| Released | March 30, 2005 | |||
| Recorded | 2004 | |||
| Genre | Art punk, comedy rock, punk rock | |||
| Length | 18:26 | |||
| Label | Snail Sounds Records | |||
| Producer | Aaron Cohen & Jeff Forrest | |||
| The Radioactive Chicken Heads chronology | ||||
| ||||
Growing Mold is the first studio album by the California comedy rock band The Radioactive Chicken Heads, independently released on the band's own label Snail Sounds Records on March 30, 2005.
The first studio album released by the Radioactive Chicken Heads following their name change from Joe and the Chicken Heads in 2004, Growing Mold also marked a change in sound from the band's early ska punk influences into more eclectic and experimental territory incorporating rock, punk, new wave, blues and country, a combination of styles which (un)Leash magazine described as "like early Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo meets Dead Kennedys meets gothabilly monster mash". [1]
Ska punk is a fusion genre that mixes ska music and punk rock music together. Ska-core is a subgenre of ska punk that mixes ska with hardcore punk. Early ska punk mixed both 2 Tone and ska with hardcore punk. Ska punk tends to feature brass instruments, especially horns such as saxophones, trombones and trumpets, making the genre distinct from other forms of punk rock. It is closely tied to third wave ska which reached its zenith in the mid 1990s.
New wave is a genre of rock music popular in the late 1970s and the 1980s with ties to mid-1970s punk rock. New wave moved away from blues and rock and roll sounds to create rock music or pop music (later) that incorporated disco, mod, and electronic music. Initially new wave was similar to punk rock, before becoming a distinct genre. It subsequently engendered subgenres and fusions, including synth-pop.
Blues is a music genre and musical form which was originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1870s by African Americans from roots in African musical traditions, African-American work songs, spirituals, and the folk music of white Americans of European heritage. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. The blues form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll, is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blue notes, usually thirds or fifths flattened in pitch, are also an essential part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove.
Growing Mold's low-key independent release flew under the radar of major music publications, but critical response from zines, university papers and alternative weeklies was largely positive. Of the more notable reviews, UC Riverside 's Highlander called the Chicken Heads "one of the best bands you've probably never heard of", praising the "delightfully eclectic" album's "sly, quirky humor" and "off-the-wall style". [1] The OC Weekly , however, offered a more ambivalent opinion, noting that while the lyrics were "funny" and "the sonic nods to...sci-fi movie soundtracks are amusingly campy", the Chicken Heads "are a band that's best swallowed live" and that studio recordings "can never grasp the entire C-Head experience". [2]
A zine is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via photocopier. Zines are either the product of a single person, or of a very small group and are popularly photocopied into physical prints for circulation. A fanzine is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest. The term was coined in an October 1940 science fiction fanzine by Russ Chauvenet and popularized within science fiction fandom, entering the Oxford English Dictionary in 1949.
The University of California, Riverside, is a public research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on 1,900 acres (769 ha) in a suburban district of Riverside with a branch campus of 20 acres (8 ha) in Palm Desert. In 1907 the predecessor to UCR was founded as the UC Citrus Experiment Station, Riverside which pioneered research in biological pest control and the use of growth regulators responsible for extending the citrus growing season in California from four to nine months. Some of the world's most important research collections on citrus diversity and entomology, as well as science fiction and photography, are located at Riverside.
OC Weekly is a free weekly paper distributed in Orange County and Long Beach, California. OC Weekly was founded in September 1995 by Will Swaim, who acted as editor and publisher until 2007.
Although Growing Mold didn't receive any conventional radio airplay, "I Eat Kids", a cowpunk cover of a 1978 song by offbeat children's musician Barry Louis Polisar, was selected to air on the nationally syndicated novelty song showcase The Dr. Demento Show in July 2005. [3] In November 2006, the Chicken Heads appeared on an episode of The Tyra Banks Show , performing "Our Last Song" as part of a talent show-themed episode which featured intentionally weird and unusual acts. The band ultimately lost their set to John the Running Painter, a painter on a treadmill, by an audience vote of 73% to 27%. [4] [5]
Cowpunk is a subgenre of punk rock that began in the United Kingdom in the late 1970's and California in the early 1980's. It combines punk rock or new wave with country, folk, and blues in sound, subject matter, attitude, and style. Many of the musicians in this scene have now become associated with alternative country or roots rock.
Barry Louis Polisar is an author and singer-songwriter who writes children's music and numerous children's books, poems and stories.
A novelty song is a comical or nonsensical song, performed principally for its comical effect. Humorous songs, or those containing humorous elements, are not necessarily novelty songs. The term arose in Tin Pan Alley to describe one of the major divisions of popular music; the other two divisions were ballads and dance music. Novelty songs achieved great popularity during the 1920s and 1930s. They had a resurgence of interest in the 1950s and 1960s.
"Pest Control" and "I Eat Kids" were later re-recorded and "I Looked into the Mirror (What Did the Mirror Say?)", was remixed for the Chicken Heads' 2008 album Music for Mutants , each of which received music videos. Remixes of the original Growing Mold recordings of "Bag O' Bones", "Stitch Me Up" and "Our Last Song" were also featured on the album.
All songs written and composed by The Radioactive Chicken Heads, except where noted otherwise.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Bag O' Bones" | 3:00 |
| 2. | "I Looked Into the Mirror (What Did the Mirror Say?)" (Barry Louis Polisar) | 2:54 |
| 3. | "Waltzing on Eggshells" | 1:04 |
| 4. | "Earth vs. the Earthmen" | 1:40 |
| 5. | "Growing Mold" | 2:29 |
| 6. | "Stitch Me Up" | 1:21 |
| 7. | "Pest Control" | 2:19 |
| 8. | "Archaeopteryx" | 2:02 |
| 9. | "I Eat Kids" (Barry Louis Polisar) | 1:31 |
| 10. | "Our Last Song" | 1:26 |
| Total length: | 18:26 | |
Individual credits were not listed in the album's liner notes. Band roster at time of album's release:
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