Radioactive Chicken Heads

The Radioactive Chicken Heads are apparently from right here in Los Angeles (who knew?) and are a costumed punk band made up mostly of, well, radioactive chickens. They also have a lead singer who’s a carrot and a guitar player who’s a tomato. There’s an elaborate band mythology on the bio section of their website that kinda explains the whole thing, but we’ll spare you the details. Let’s just say that farmers and a giant, rampaging bunny are also involved.

Musically, the RCHs have a lot in common with other jokey punk bands like the Dead Milkmen and the Aquabats. They also sometimes seem like a children’s band, but other times not so much. Unless you’re the kind of parent who doesn’t mind explaining to the children who Ron Jeremy is. Yeah, that’s him slinging pizza in the video below.

Radioactive Chicken Heads - Pest Control
http://youtu.be/qYuzt9ubKh0 - The Weirdist Band in the World

There are many arguments about what punk rock is supposed to be. Angry? Political? Violent? Silly? What often gets lost in these arguments is that at it’s heart, punk rock is supposed to be fun. Saturday night at the Knitting Factory was probably the most fun you can have with your clothes on. Opening the show were Los Angeles’ very own The Radioactive Chicken Heads. The Radioactive Chicken Heads are a group of mutated chickens, fronted by a mutant carrot, and supported by a tomato on guitar. You know, like any other band. The Radioactive Chicken Heads avoid the common pitfall of so many gimmicky bands, though. They’ve got good songs. No, scratch that, they’ve got great songs. With sort of a metal-ish Punk rock sound, they were definitely right at home sharing a bill with Green Jelly. The crowd responded well to the music, and even better to the lithely attractive Wikkan Chicken who came off stage to dance with audience members. If you’re not comfortable being freaked by a mutant chicken in a witch hat, you might want to stay home. The band isn’t all shock value though, they managed to squeeze in some public service announcements about the dangers of liquid fat, and the benefits of eating kids, as well as an excellent cover of The Who’s "Boris the Spider" (complete with dancing… er… cockroach. Just go with it.) before their set was over. If you’re looking for something brilliant, funny, and addictively catchy, head over to http://radioactivechickenheads.com to check out the tour schedule, or their mp3 page. - Jo Problems - Big Wheel Magazine

It's a crazy SoCal kinda thing; the children of that post-glam, proto-punk band The Tubes got cut loose in a drunken concept/nightmare of giant costume head characters from a post-apocalypse themed amusement park. But in this crazy place the Scooby Gang, unable to unmask them, run away in urine soaked fright. The punky, garagey inspired madness of Music For Mutants -- dripping with cheezy Farfisa-esque organ and twangy guitar licks -- hints at Oingo Boingo riffs delivered with sledgehammer force. Load your Walkman with some Chickenheads, climb into your sensory deprivation tank, turn it up loud and emerge a mutant. More fun than a freak show and you can dance to it!
- Cholly LaFrance - The Clountowne Thrifty Shopper Gazette

It's entirely possible that comic punk band The Radioactive Chicken Heads are legitimately insane, so just imagine the entertainment possibilities: the costumes, props and onstage antics of GWAR or LMFAO, combined with the humor of award-winning children's songwriter Barry Louis Polisar... okay, maybe that's too much to wrap your head around all at once. But don't worry, we're here to help.

Their new brain-scrambling video for “Deviled Egg” is a pretty accurate snapshot of what's going on inside the minds of musicians with names like Carrot Topp, Cheri Tomato, Puke Boy and Frankenchicken. It's directed by Jim Ojala, the talented makeup effects artist whose work has appeared in Hellboy, Deadgirl, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, True Blood, and much more.

“Deviled Egg” comes from RCH's album Music for Mutants, which also features titles like "Headless Mike", "I Eat Kids", "Boris the Spider", “Badd Bunny” and "Cluck You!"; Check out their deranged website for more info.

- See more at: http://www.fearnet.com/news/news-article/horror-music-video-week-radioactive-chicken-heads-deviled-egg - Fearnet

The zany mutant punk band, The Radioactive Chickenheads, are performing this Saturday at the Long Beach Zombie Walk. The 11-piece band includes a variety of modified vegetables, fruits and poultry-themed characters with insane masks and bizarre personalities. Their music is made up of punk rock tracks that illustrate their life struggles and adventures as mutants. Although a self-proclaimed punk band, their music caters to all kinds of people, alive or dead, mutant or not, with sounds ranging from reggae to ballads. The band is scheduled to perform this Saturday at 8:45 p.m. at the Zombie Stage.
The Daily 49er spoke to five of the 11 members, including frontman Carrot Top and other band members Cheri Tomato, Frankenchicken and Bonemarrow about the Zombie Walk and their Halloween favorites.
Q&A
Q: How did The Radioactive Chickenheads form?
Carrot Top:Well, The Radioactive Chickenheads formed in a laboratory to make giant chicken and vegetable franken-foods. As you can see, we have Frankenchicken (tambourine) here, Sgt. Cyclopes (guitar), the Bonemarrow Master (trumpet), one of the earlier prototypes Cheri Tomato (guitar), I’m Carrot Top (vocals) and a bunch of other radioactive chickenheads that will be there once we play for the Zombie Walk. This is just a small fraction of the band. We’re the more resourceful members; we were able to escape.

Q: How would you describe your sound?
CT: Probably the most beautiful harmonious sounds to chickens, but to humans, it just sounds a little bit more like punk rock.
Bonemarrow:I’d describe it as salmonella with bananas.

Q: What’s your favorite part about performing live?
CT: Our favorite part is just being able to rock people’s faces off.

Q: What are you looking forward to within the LB Zombie Walk?
CT: Making music for the zombies because, ya know, zombies need music and entertainment too! Most other bands and concerts only cater to the living, but I’d say this is the only music festival that is catering to the living dead.

Q: What is your favorite Halloween candy?
Cheri Tomato:Candy Corn! ‘Cause it’s like your face turned upside down.
CT: I like razor blades in them because, ya know, they clean out my teeth.

Q: Besides your Carrot Top persona, what are you planning to be for Halloween?
CT: Well, I think I’m going to be a dog this year. I want to be a dog, ’cause then I can get away with things that a lot of people can’t get away with like fire hydrants and everything.
Frankenchicken:He wants to hump your leg!

Q: What is your favorite horror movie?
F:“Frankenstein”!
Cheri Tomato:“Attack of the Killer Tomatoes”!
CT:“Night of the Living Bread”! That’s the original one.

Q: What can fans expect for the performance at the zombie walk?
Cheri Tomato: Partial nudity but tasteful.
CT: They should expect for this performance to basically blow out their eardrums with sheer rock and rock. I might show a little glimpse of my knee at the show – but Frankenchicken will keep his pants on.
- Priscella Vega - Daily 49er

The zany mutant punk band, The Radioactive Chickenheads, are performing this Saturday at the Long Beach Zombie Walk. The 11-piece band includes a variety of modified vegetables, fruits and poultry-themed characters with insane masks and bizarre personalities. Their music is made up of punk rock tracks that illustrate their life struggles and adventures as mutants. Although a self-proclaimed punk band, their music caters to all kinds of people, alive or dead, mutant or not, with sounds ranging from reggae to ballads. The band is scheduled to perform this Saturday at 8:45 p.m. at the Zombie Stage.
The Daily 49er spoke to five of the 11 members, including frontman Carrot Top and other band members Cheri Tomato, Frankenchicken and Bonemarrow about the Zombie Walk and their Halloween favorites.
Q&A
Q: How did The Radioactive Chickenheads form?
Carrot Top:Well, The Radioactive Chickenheads formed in a laboratory to make giant chicken and vegetable franken-foods. As you can see, we have Frankenchicken (tambourine) here, Sgt. Cyclopes (guitar), the Bonemarrow Master (trumpet), one of the earlier prototypes Cheri Tomato (guitar), I’m Carrot Top (vocals) and a bunch of other radioactive chickenheads that will be there once we play for the Zombie Walk. This is just a small fraction of the band. We’re the more resourceful members; we were able to escape.

Q: How would you describe your sound?
CT: Probably the most beautiful harmonious sounds to chickens, but to humans, it just sounds a little bit more like punk rock.
Bonemarrow:I’d describe it as salmonella with bananas.

Q: What’s your favorite part about performing live?
CT: Our favorite part is just being able to rock people’s faces off.

Q: What are you looking forward to within the LB Zombie Walk?
CT: Making music for the zombies because, ya know, zombies need music and entertainment too! Most other bands and concerts only cater to the living, but I’d say this is the only music festival that is catering to the living dead.

Q: What is your favorite Halloween candy?
Cheri Tomato:Candy Corn! ‘Cause it’s like your face turned upside down.
CT: I like razor blades in them because, ya know, they clean out my teeth.

Q: Besides your Carrot Top persona, what are you planning to be for Halloween?
CT: Well, I think I’m going to be a dog this year. I want to be a dog, ’cause then I can get away with things that a lot of people can’t get away with like fire hydrants and everything.
Frankenchicken:He wants to hump your leg!

Q: What is your favorite horror movie?
F:“Frankenstein”!
Cheri Tomato:“Attack of the Killer Tomatoes”!
CT:“Night of the Living Bread”! That’s the original one.

Q: What can fans expect for the performance at the zombie walk?
Cheri Tomato: Partial nudity but tasteful.
CT: They should expect for this performance to basically blow out their eardrums with sheer rock and rock. I might show a little glimpse of my knee at the show – but Frankenchicken will keep his pants on.
- Priscella Vega - Daily 49er

A pithy description of these art rockers would put them somewhere between Gwar and the B-52s on the wierdo spectrum. That's not to say they sing about love-shacks or drench their audience in fake blood. Within the context of the band's colorful mythology (involving mutated vegetables) they sing songs about the desire to be a dog, amazing zombie killers and homicidal rabbits. And with a sound that might work well scoring a John Waters, Ed Wood or Russ Meyer film, these mutants keep it kitschy. - BRANDON FERGUSON - OC Weekly