Beat Rodeo


Beat Rodeo was a country rock band from New York City during the 1980s.

Career

Following the breakup of the Minneapolis-based Suicide Commandos, Steve Almaas moved to New York, turned to guitar and formed The Crackers; the band's EP Sir Crackers! indicates the rough-hewn melodic rock direction Almaas would later pursue. After working with The Bongos, Almaas, along with Bongos' leader Richard Barone, headed to North Carolina to visit Mitch Easter 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.
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. 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. The record, which shows a country bent implicit in its name, and integrates it into the already established pop-rock context. IRS Records 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; the LP produced two singles: "Everything I'm Not" b/w "It Could Happen Here" ; and "New Love" b/w "Just Friends" 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's memoir Prozac Nation.

Personnel