The Radioactive Chicken Heads

The Radioactive Chicken Heads
The Radioactive Chicken Heads performing in Santa Ana, California in 2016. From left to right: Greasy Chicken, Carrot Top, Puke Boy, Bird Brain, El Pollo Diablo, Pastafarian and Rockin' Robin
Background information
Origin	Orange County, California, U.S.
Genres	Punk rock, comedy rock, ska punk
Years active	1994–present
Associated acts	Green Jellÿ, Rosemary's Billygoat, Count Smokula
Website	radioactivechickenheads.com

The Radioactive Chicken Heads are an American comedy punk rock band based out of Santa Ana, California.

Originally formed under the name Joe and the Chicken Heads in early 1994, the Chicken Heads are easily recognized by their freakish mutant chicken and vegetable masks as well as their theatrical stage shows, all of which tie into an elaborate backstory and mythology the band has developed over the course of their career and serves as the subject for much of their music, videos, a role-playing computer game and a future television pilot which is currently in post-production.

In a rare out-of-character interview, lead singer Carrot Topp explained that the genesis of The Radioactive Chicken Heads began with two comic books he had written as a teenager, one about a gang of mutant vegetables called The Vegamatics and another called "Joe and the Chicken Heads" about a kid named Joe who sings with a rock band made up of headless chickens. After discovering the comedy metal band Green Jellÿ, a group renowned for their use of puppets and foam rubber costumes, Carrot Topp ultimately decided to apply these concepts and visuals to a rock band combining elements of both comic books, creating the band's distinctive masks and props himself.

Joe and the Chicken Heads formed in early 1994, playing their first show at a Bar Mitzvah in Orange, California on February 26, 1994. Despite recording several demo tapes and appearing on numerous local compilations during the mid-1990s, the Chicken Heads performed few live shows until the arrival of the late 1990s ska revival helped the band attract a wider following within the Orange County's booming ska and punk scene, sharing the stage with such notable ska acts as Link 80, Slow Gherkin and Bim Skala Bim and receiving regular airplay on KUCI's influential Ska Parade radio show, which hosted many up and coming local ska and punk bands. The band's outrageous costumes and live shows soon began attracting publicity both positive and negative from local papers and zines including OC Weekly, LA Weekly, The Daily Trojan, X-TRA and Maximumrocknroll, with Thrasher magazine inexplicably describing them as "more fun than a shopping spree in a Mexican supermarket".