The Rats
In A Desperate Red (Whizeagle Records)
Dan McClure of Oregon punks the Beta Voids told us about their love for a Rats gem...
Dan McClure: The Rats is one of those bands that fewer people have heard—or even heard of—that left a big impression on me in my youth. Their music still resonates more than 45 years after I first saw them. Coming of age in Eugene, Oregon, I was fortunate to catch a bunch of great bands at the local all-ages venue, the W.O.W. Hall. Groups would tour up and down the coast, and I took every advantage of my absentee parents to see as many as I could.
In 8th grade I went to see what the punk rock hubbub was all about and saw the Subhumans (from Canada, not the U.K. Subhumans), whose big hit was Slave to My Dick, later featured on the Let Them Eat Jellybeans! compilation on Alternative Tentacles Records. I was instantly attracted to the raw energy and weirdo vibe. It was a great time for live music. Bands like Black Flag, X, Circle Jerks, Fear, Romeo Void, and the Minutemen formed my musical education.
The Rats, along with other Portland bands such as Sado Nation, the Wipers, Stiffnoids, the Cleavers, Neo Boys, and Poison Idea, was a group that hit the W.O.W. often. These were heady days. Perhaps it was my adolescent innocence, but music really seemed to matter. Even unknown punk bands attracted big crowds. Attending these performances was paramount for me and my circle of friends.
The Rats invariably put in an exceptional performance with unparalleled intensity. The set would climax with a wild guitar solo by frontman Fred Cole in which he would use the microphone stand as a guitar slide. Fred and his wife Toody, playing guitar and bass respectively, played with different drummers (my sister said they had bad luck with drummers), eventually lucking out with Louie Samora who had played in the Eugene band the Explorers, and later formed another great Portland band, the Jackals. Other drummers included Rod Rat and Sam Henry, one of the most revered Portland musicians of his time.
The Rats record I chose to highlight, In A Desperate Red, is their last release before experimenting with country music and then emerging as Dead Moon. It was recorded in 1983, but it still sounds fresh and powerful today. Fred and Toody’s plaintive vocals on songs like Desperation really shine. It’s a wonderful rejoinder to so much of the overprocessed music of today. The songs are spare, anthemic gems. It reminds me of the urgent hormonal desperation of the Reagan era. What a welcome antidote to the sickly, staid preppyism so prevalent in the mainstream culture of the day. Like the Rats, I think Beta Voids bring forward something energetic and original, something that’s needed in these dark times.
Of course, Fred’s musical career began long before I ever saw the Rats, and most view Dead Moon as his high-water mark. But for me, the Rats were immortal. Long live the Rats!
Beta Voids' debut EP Scrape it Off is out now.
Photo by Lord Fotog
