Young & Modern

Vancouver's Rattled Roosters emerged around 1990, busking on city streets before making their way into clubs and onto the road. At a time when the Pacific Northwest was rapidly becoming identified with grunge, the Roosters presented something very different: sharp clothes, upright bass, early rock'n'roll, rhythm and blues and rockabilly delivered with an increasingly modern edge. Over the next decade they would mix those roots with swing, punk, pop and lounge influences, building a reputation as much for their live show and visual style as for the music itself.

One of the earliest surviving Rattled Roosters releases is the undated self-released cassette Cut Across Shorty / Pretty Thing. The lineup featured Rick Cameron on guitar and vocals, Tony “Long Legs” “Boxcar” LaBorie on bass, Dave Marchant on harmonica and a drummer identified as “Big Bad” Brad. The cassette paired Eddie Cochran's ‘Cut Across Shorty’ with Bo Diddley's ‘Pretty Thing’ and described the band's music as “Rock-a-Doodle-Blues.” Another undated cassette, Get Wild!, contained ‘Get Wild!’, ‘’57 Cadillac’, ‘Goin' to the River’ and ‘Oh Lady, Lady’.

By 1991, the lineup had settled around Rick “Rev. Rick” Cameron on vocals and acoustic guitar, Bernie “Lucky” Boulanger on lead guitar and vocals, Tony “Long Legs” LaBorie on doghouse bass and vocals, and Gord “Crash” Piggott on drums and vocals. That lineup recorded the nine-song Rocket Ranch cassette live at Profile Studios on October 29, 1991, with Cecil English producing and engineering. The material included ‘Wild 'N' Free’, ‘Feelin' Blue’, ‘Angel With A Ponytail’, ‘Flat Broke’, ‘Oh Lady, Lady’, ‘Free Coffee’, ‘No Blinder Love’, ‘Kill Billy Kill’ and ‘Hot Rod Girl’.

The band's three-song 1991 seven-inch Next Heartbrake 1/4 Mile brought Billy Cowsill into the picture. The former lead singer of the Cowsills had become an important figure in Vancouver's music community and produced the record, which contained ‘Hot Rod Girl’, ‘Flat Broke’ and ‘No Blinder Love’. Steve Smith and Steve Royea engineered the sessions at Vancouver Studios, with Mark R.G. Yoshihara serving as executive producer.

Cowsill continued working with the Roosters on their first full-length album, Year of the Rooster. The album was released independently in 1993 as RR 93 and reissued later that same year by BangOn Records. It carried forward songs developed during the band's early period while giving the Roosters a more substantial recorded statement beyond the cassettes and seven-inch releases that had introduced them.

By then the Roosters were spending considerable time on the road. A May 1992 Whistler entertainment listing advertised the group for three nights and billed them as “the young rockobilly gods.” They appeared at Old Ironsides in Sacramento in November 1992 and returned in April 1993. That September they played KCMU's Rockabilly Ball in Seattle alongside Ike and the Orbiters, the Disruptors and the Fabulaires. In December 1993, the Seattle Times ran a feature under the headline “The Rockabilly Roosters Have A Fanatic Following.” Their touring expanded through western Canada and down the U.S. West Coast, where their energetic stage show and distinctive appearance began attracting attention outside Vancouver.

The Roosters' look was inseparable from what they were doing musically. Pompadours, tailored clothes, upright bass and vintage references placed them within rockabilly culture, but the attitude and energy were firmly rooted in the alternative music of the early 1990s. Their own history recalls them helping foster a Pacific Northwest scene in which rockabilly, swing, punk and pop could cross over into one another. Around 1991 they also became involved with the independent music-video series North West Rock, whose guest hosts included Mudhoney, Hammerbox, Tad and Sir Mix-A-Lot.

The lineup evolved as the decade continued. Bernie “Lucky” Boulanger, one of the principal guitarists and co-writers of the early group, later became involved with Vancouver's Colorifics, while Tony LaBorie continued working in roots and western-swing music. Cameron increasingly performed as Rick Royale, and the Rattled Roosters were rebuilt around Joel Darlen on electric guitar, Ed Maxwell on bass and Gord “Crash” Piggott, now generally billed as Crash Gordon, on drums. Darlen was guitarist Joel Sigerson, who later recalled joining the Vancouver rockabilly band during the 1990s and helping push its music beyond the expectations of some of its more traditional followers.

That lineup recorded the band's 1995 BangOn Records releases. The Marilyn seven-inch paired ‘Fifteen Minutes On Top’ with a new version of the early favourite ‘Free Coffee’, with Royale on acoustic guitar and vocals, Darlen on electric guitar, Maxwell on bass and Crash on drums.

The same lineup appeared on Young & Modern, an album that broadened the Roosters' sound considerably. ‘Stars On The Sidewalk’, ‘Silver Ring’, ‘Love Is... A Holiday’, ‘Little Star’, ‘One Night Worse’, ‘One Less Angel’, ‘Eyes Of Blue’, ‘True Love...’, ‘Morning Blue’ and ‘Nasty Jack’ carried the energy of the band's rockabilly roots into a mixture of pop, punk, swing and lounge music.

The recording itself was considerably more elaborate than the band's early work. Ian Jones recorded the sessions with Zach Blackstone assisting. Additional overdubs involved Joe Varkey, Don Benedictson and Tara Nelson at Greenhouse Studios in Vancouver. Ken “Martian” Marshall mixed the material, Jeff Boyd assembled it at Crosstown Studios in North Vancouver, and Anthony “Fu” Valcic mastered it at The Enterprise in Burbank, California.

The title Young & Modern suited the band. The Roosters were never interested in simply recreating the 1950s. In a 1996 Drop-D interview, Crash Gordon spoke about the importance of entertaining an audience rather than simply standing onstage and playing, while Royale described spending nights off on tour checking out local bands, underground galleries and the cultural life of whatever city they happened to be in. Their music, clothing, graphics and nightlife all fed into the same identity.

That visual side was especially apparent in the video for ‘Love Is... A Holiday’. The band's history states that MuchMusic declined to air the clip because its portrayal of the Roosters' lounge-and-punk lifestyle was considered to glamorize smoking and drinking. The video survives online and captures the humour, fashion and slightly decadent atmosphere that had become part of the band's presentation.

By late 1995, the Rattled Roosters had relocated from Vancouver to Los Angeles. Royale explained the following year that California's larger population, abundance of venues and cultural activity had drawn the group south, although their touring schedule meant they spent relatively little time at home. ‘Stars On The Sidewalk’, with its references to the Hollywood Hills and Sunset Strip, now seemed particularly suited to their new surroundings.

The move did not sever their connection with Vancouver. In May 1996 the Roosters returned for Music West, where Drop-D previewed them as “punkabilly hipsters.” On August 5 they were back at the Vogue Theatre as a late addition to a bill with Goldfinger and No Doubt. Drop-D described them as “Vancouver expatriates” and recalled an audience dancing in the aisles as Royale worked the stage and the individual musicians took their turns in the spotlight.

Los Angeles opened another chapter for the group. The Roosters' history recalls regular appearances at the Viper Room and performances with Royal Crown Revue, Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Reverend Horton Heat and Little Richard. One of the more unusual episodes came when television host Jerry Springer joined the band onstage to sing, an incident also mentioned in the Roosters' 1996 Drop-D profile.

Their image also carried them beyond music. The band was featured in W magazine in an editorial photo spread titled “Young Americans”, photographed by Mario Testino and centred on young California tastemakers. Testino would later appear among the photographers credited on the band's Retro-Spex compilation.

Touring remained at the centre of the Roosters' life. Royale told Drop-D that the schedule often left little time for songwriting and that new material sometimes had to be worked out during soundchecks. The musicians had also begun taking greater control of their own business affairs following an earlier management experience that had left them wary of handing too much responsibility to others. Much of the Rattled Roosters story during these years unfolded onstage and on the road rather than in the recording studio.

The music continued to change with them. The early Cameron–Boulanger–LaBorie–Piggott lineup had produced songs including ‘Flat Broke’, ‘No Blinder Love’, ‘Kill Billy Kill’, ‘Hot Rod Girl’ and ‘Free Coffee’. With Darlen and Maxwell in the group, older songs remained part of the repertoire while the writing expanded to include Darlen and the band collectively. By Young & Modern, the Rattled Roosters had moved well beyond conventional rockabilly.

Contemporary reviewers frequently heard different things in their music. Reviews later reproduced with Retro-Spex described rockabilly and swing, pop songwriting, punk energy and crossover appeal. The Vancouver Sun singled out the group's songwriting, while The Record emphasized their style and pop instincts. SF Weekly summed them up particularly well as a “manic blend of rockabilly, pop, punk and swing.” The Roosters had been developing that mixture throughout the decade, several years before the late-1990s swing revival brought retro style back into the North American mainstream.

In 1999, Retro-Spex was released in the United States through Hootenanny Recordings. The sixteen-track compilation brought together several stages of the band's career: Billy Cowsill-produced material from the Year of the Rooster period, ‘Free Coffee’ from the Marilyn single, selections from Young & Modern and two previously unreleased songs, ‘I Lie In Bed’ and ‘Bad Girl Too’.

‘Bad Girl Too’, written by Rick Royale, later took on a life of its own. In 2007 the Rattled Roosters released a video for the song using vintage footage of Bettie Page, including pin-up, burlesque and staged cat-fight scenes. The combination suited the band's long-established affection for retro imagery, sexuality and rock'n'roll style. The video reached a much larger online audience than the band's other surviving clips, eventually attracting more than 287,000 views.

The release of Retro-Spex also placed the Roosters within Southern California's thriving roots scene. The Los Angeles Times reported them appearing on a Hootenanny package with former Stray Cats bassist Lee Rocker, and on July 3, 1999 they appeared at the Hootenanny '99 festival at Oak Canyon Ranch. The extensive bill included Bo Diddley, Mike Ness, Reverend Horton Heat, Royal Crown Revue, Dave Alvin, Lee Rocker, the Paladins, James Intveld and Deke Dickerson, with the Rattled Roosters appearing on the Blue Cafe stage.

The individual musicians continued in different directions. Bernie Boulanger became part of the Colorifics, another distinctive presence in Vancouver's 1990s lounge and retro scene. Tony LaBorie continued working in roots and western-swing music, including later work on steel guitar and associations with musicians such as Ray Condo. Joel Darlen / Joel Sigerson moved through other Vancouver projects including Psychomania. Rick Royale carried his interest in art, design and urban culture into later work in the visual-art world in California.

-Robert Williston