Rooney Rooney LP (Metallic Gold Vinyl)

Rooney (named after the principal in Ferris Bueller's Day Off) was formed in high school by singer-songwriter Robert Schwartzman, whose list of celebrity connections is long: brother to actor Jason Schwartzman, cousin to actor Nic Cage and director Sofia Coppola, and nephew of Francis Ford Coppola. But it wasn't just celebrity that turbocharged Rooney's rise; songs like "Blueside," "I'm Shakin'," and "I'm a Terrible Person" blend power pop with British Invasion and punk influences to create a sort of rock and roll classicism in the best sense of the word.

That's why none other than Johnny Ramone selected them for the Ramones tribute album We're a Happy Family, and why the band were tabbed to tour with such cult faves as Weezer, The Strokes, and The Donnas (they also appeared as themselves in the first season of The O.C.).

That's also why their 2003 self-titled debut (produced by Jimmy Iovine among others) sold a cool half million copies…but somehow it's never been out on LP. The Real Gone release comes in metallic gold vinyl housed inside a jacket with printed inner sleeve.

Another one of those early aughts records that's way, way overdue for wax.

Released in the thick of peak CD era, the debut album by L.A. power pop group Rooney never did find its way to vinyl way back in 2003. Once again, Real Gone Music comes to the rescue, giving the LP its first proper wax pressing in time for its 20th anniversary. Listening to it divested from its initial release when it was swept up in the rock revival fomented by groups like the Strokes and the White Stripes, Rooney is now given a chance to be heard as a continuation of the work of Todd Rundgren and Raspberries up to the pop revivalists like Jellyfish and Matthew Sweet. True, the music has been polished to an occasionally unhealthy sheen thanks to the major label maw that the group willingly placed themselves in, but the devilishly catchy pop hooks and the raw heart of frontman Robert Schwartzmann cuts through the market-tested, David Geffen-approved slickness.