Beat Rodeo (also known as The Beat Rodeo) was a

country rock Country rock is a genre of music which fuses rock and country. It was developed by rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These musicians recorded rock records using country themes, vocal s ...

band from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

during the 1980s.

Career

Following the breakup of the Minneapolis-based Suicide Commandos (in which he played bass), Steve Almaas moved to New York, turned to guitar and formed The Crackers; the band's EP ''Sir Crackers!'' (1981) indicates the rough-hewn melodic rock direction Almaas would later pursue. After working with

The Bongos The Bongos were a power pop band from Hoboken, New Jersey that emerged from the New York City arts scene, primarily active in the 1980s, led by Richard Barone. With their unique musical style, they were major progenitors of the Hoboken indie-pop ...

, Almaas, along with Bongos' leader

Richard Barone Richard Barone is an American rock musician who first gained attention as frontman for the Bongos. He works as a songwriter, arranger, author, director, and record producer, releases albums as a solo artist, tours, and has created concert events ...

, headed to

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

to visit

Mitch Easter Mitchell Blake Easter (born November 15, 1954) is a musician, songwriter, and record producer. Frequently associated with the jangle pop style of guitar music, he is known as producer of R.E.M.'s early albums from 1981 through 1984, and as frontm ...

at his Drive-In Studio; the three of them put together the four-track ''Beat Rodeo'' EP, credited to Almaas and released in 1982 on Easter's Coyote Records label.''Beat Rodeo'' EP liner notes (One of the tracks, "What's the Matter", later appeared on a compilation on the Shake Some Action label in 2003.) Almaas almost immediately formed a quartet named for the EP, but not including Easter or Barone; the single "What's The Matter" b/w "Mimi" was issued by Coyote in 1983 (under the name ''The'' Beat Rodeo). The following year, Zensor Records in Germany issued the band's first LP, ''Staying Out Late With the Beat Rodeo'', produced by Don Dixon, with two tracks helmed by

Richard Gottehrer Richard Gottehrer (born 1940) is an American songwriter, record producer and record label executive. In 1997, he co-founded the Orchard with longtime business partner Scott Cohen, an independent music distribution company. His career began as ...

. The record, which shows a

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...

bent implicit in its name (country-ish guitar sound, with a dash of fiddle), and integrates it into the already established pop-rock context. (A single, "She's More" b/w "Mistake" was also released; the group performed "She's More" on German television.)

IRS Records I.R.S. Records was an American record label founded by Miles Copeland III, Jay Boberg, and Carl Grasso in 1979. I.R.S. produced some of the most popular bands of the 1980s, and was particularly known for issuing records by college rock, new wave ...

signed the quartet and re-issued the album in 1985, shortening the band's name to simply "Beat Rodeo". In 1986, Beat Rodeo released their second album, ''Home in the Heart of the Beat'', produced by

Scott Litt Scott Warren Litt (born March 10, 1954) is an American record producer who mostly works with artists in the alternative rock genre and is best known for producing six R.E.M. albums in the late 1980s and early to mid-1990s during the band's most suc ...

; the LP produced two singles: "Everything I'm Not" b/w "It Could Happen Here" ("Everything" also appeared on a 12" promo disc with "I'm Not Afraid (Doesn't Matter to Me)" on the flip); and "New Love" b/w "Just Friends" (with videos made for both sides of the single; "Just Friends" had been previously released on ''Staying Out Late''.) Although "Everything I'm Not" got some airplay at college stations, none of Beat Rodeo's albums or singles were hits, and IRS dropped them from the label; the band broke up soon thereafter. Almaas later went solo, and has released six albums to date; he also reformed the Suicide Commandos, who in 2017 released their first album in 38 years, ''Time Bomb''. Beat Rodeo were mentioned in the acknowledgements of

Elizabeth Wurtzel Elizabeth Lee Wurtzel (July 31, 1967 – January 7, 2020) was an American writer, journalist, and lawyer known for the confessional memoir ''Prozac Nation'', which she published at the age of 27. Her work often focused on chronicling her persona ...

's memoir ''

Prozac Nation ''Prozac Nation'' is a memoir by Elizabeth Wurtzel published in 1994. The book describes the author's experiences with atypical depression, her own character failings and how she managed to live through particularly difficult periods while compl ...

''.

Personnel

*Steve Almaas (lead vocals, guitar) *Bill Thomas Schunk (lead guitar) *Dan Prater (bass, vocals) * Lewis King (drums)

References

{{Authority control American country rock groups