The Rats "The Rats" 1979(orig) 2008(reissue)****

I've written before about Dead Moon and about how seeing them play at my neighborhood club in Athens opened my eyes to a different kind of rock'n'roll: intense, passionate, and gritty. Fred Cole quickly became an underground rock hero of mine, so I started collecting his albums: whether with 60's psychedelic/garage rockers Weeds/Lollipop Shoppe, 70's hard rockers Zipper, Dead Moon (1987 - 2006), or Pierced Arrows afterwards, his intensity and integrity shines through. Until recently, I hadn't come across any of his punk albums with The Rats - I wasn't even aware they had been re-released, so finding an affordable reissue of their 1980 debut in my neighborhood record store was a nice surprise. Looking at his photo on the album cover, Fred seems incredibly young. It's hard to believe that he already had 15 years of experience playing in rock bands at that point. His band The Weeds had started to make their mark in California in the mid 60's when they fled in a half-baked attempt to reach Canada in order to avoid the draft. Destiny was nevertheless waiting for them in Portland, Oregon where they stopped because they ran out of gas. It was there that Fred met his future partner in life and music, Toody, and where he'd later settle down. First the band went back to California where they changed their name to Lollipop Shoppe, made an LP, and got to play alongside Janis Joplin and The Doors, but ultimately failed to break through. The couple then left for Alaska before returning to Portland where they opened a guitar shop, while Fred continued playing rock in local amateur bands. One of them called King Bee ended supporting The Ramones in '78, and the experience was revelatory. One might think that '78 was a bit late to discover punk, but in the U.S. it was still an underground phenomenon mostly limited to New York. Anyway, punk's aggressive sound, DIY aesthetic, and prioritizing attitude over chops, suited Fred well. He had always been a great singer/screamer but not an accomplished guitarist, indeed The King Bees were the first of his groups where he also played guitar. He taught Toody to play bass, and they formed a punk trio called Rats with a drummer known only as Rod Rat. Their self-released debut didn't reach many ears but was certainly among the better U.S. punk efforts, and set the foundation for their future ascend into cultdom as Dead Moon. Indeed there's very little difference between the version of "Until It Rains" here and the one on Dead Moon's masterpiece Strange Prey Tell. On rare occasions they seem to be jumping on the punk bandwagon, e.g. when singing from the point of view of "Teenagers" despite being parents and small business owners at the time, while the unnecessarily ultra-short duration of that track also seems to point to punk orthodoxy rather than be what the song asks for. It's aggressive as befits a punk band, but also catchy and melodic, with Fred and Toody harmonizing perfectly on the chorus. They follow the same blueprint on most of the songs here: lo-fi production, fast songs, aggressive but always with a sense of melody, short on guitar solos but with an abundance of cool riffs. Fred's shrill voice drives most of the songs with Toody joining on the chorus. The music on a couple of tunes is a bit derivative of The Ramones ("Rat Race" and "Tactics Plan", the latter with Toody on half-spoken lead vocal). There's also a subtle folk influence on "It's Too Late" and ballad "19783" which is reminiscent of early Love. Other small deviations include "Secret"'s rockabilly guitar, the 60's influenced blues riff and organ on "Flash Dogs", "DC-10"'s distortion effects and a somewhat new wave-sounding "Can Never Go Back". The Rats would make another couple of LP's, which I'm now determined to add to my collection. This is raw but exciting stuff. I recommend it wholeheartedly, but I would suggest to start with Dead Moon which is where Fred and Toody got the formula exactly right. For more insights on Fred and Toody's story, you can read this article or, better yet, search for the documentary Unknown Passage: The Dead Moon Story.

**** for World War III, Teenagers, Flash Dogs, Tactics Plan, It's Too Late, Sacrifice, Social Indigestion, Panic On 39th, 19783, Gotta Get Away, Until It Rains, Secrets, Can Never Go Back

*** for Rat Race, DC-10

 

Dead Moon "Dead Moon Night" 1988-1989(rec) 1990(comp)*****

I saw Dead Moon perform a bunch of times in Greece, most often at the AN Club in my old neighbourhood. Each time was exhilarating, but the first one was an epiphany "so that's what the real thing looks like!". All passion, no fake rock star poses and no flourishes. Their shows were very intimate and intense, guitar feedback all over the place, Fred's shrilly voice often cracked with emotion. His wife Toody helped with the vocals while also playing the world's most badass bass (according to none other than Lemmy). Drummer Andrew Loomis used to fasten a Jack Daniels bottle with a lit candle in it on his drum kit, and then proceeded to beat the shit out of it. Their music was a mix of 60's garage punk, folk, psychedelia, and hard rock. Together with fellow Portlandians The Wipers they preceded and influenced grunge: despite never becoming famous, they enjoyed cult status in The Northwest, and many Seattle grunge bands acknowledge them as an inspiration. But the story of Cole begins way back in the mid 60's when he dropped out of high school to play rock'n'roll with his band The Weeds. 

Intending to drive to Canada to avoid the Vietnam draft, they ran out of gas in Portland where Fred (then 19) met and immediately fell in love with Toody, whom he married and with whom he was inseparable until his death. Renamed as The Lollipop Shoppe, The Weeds played support to the likes of The Doors and Janis Joplin, and recorded an almost hit: the fantastic garage rocker "You Must Be A Witch" which was later anthologized in the influential Nuggets compilation - but after a year they called it quits. In the late 70's, while punks were discovering Fred's music through Nuggets, he formed a punk band with Toody, called The Rats. The couple spent the next 4 decades playing passionate rock'n'roll and touring together under different monikers while also running a small music business and raising a family - I remember Toody amusingly complaining during a gig "our kids are so square, they don't take drugs and they don't understand us at all". Anyone interested in their story can seek out the excellent 2006 music documentary "Unknown Passage"

In the US, Dead Moon (i.e. Fred+Toody+Andrew on drums) distributed their albums through their own label Tombstone, but in Europe they were signed by German indie label Music Maniac Records. "Dead Moon Night" is a 1990 LP compiled by Music Maniac to introduce Dead Moon to European audiences and contains material from their first 2 LPs "In The Graveyard" (1988) and "Unknown Passage" (1989). Every song included is a veritable anthem, but "Dead Moon Night" and "54/40 Or Fight" are the two rugged garage punk dynamites that always ignited onstage, with "Black September" an equally aggressive third. On the other side of the emotional spectrum, Fred can also sound pretty vulnerable ("I Tried", the terrific ballad "I Hate The Blues", the country-ish "Dead In The Saddle"). "My Escape" is another angsty song, featuring a guitar sound reminiscent of their friend Greg Sage of The Wipers. "Echoes To You" is a gorgeous folk-rock ballad, akin to Love circa 1966. "Graveyard" and "I'm Wise" have similarities to The 13th Floor Elevators, which isn't surprising seeing as Fred -one of the original 60's garage/soul screamers- was a peer to Love's Arthur Lee and The Elevators' Roky Erickson. The 2 dynamic covers here (Love's "Hey Joe" and The Chambers Brothers' "Time Has Come Today") are also from the same period. All songs were recorded live at the Cole's residence, just like all subsequent Dead Moon LP's, then mastered in lo-fi mono and cut by Fred himself in a vintage lathe - ostensibly the one used by The Kingsmen for their '63 hit "Louie Louie". Curiously the Music Maniac reissue denotes "stereo" even though the original albums where these tracks first appeared were mono. Not that it matters, the sound is still very raw and unpolished. This LP was my first taste of Dead Moon, and I adored it - even more so after I witnessed the band live. They would produce a string of similarly great records, the only downside being a sense of repetition - if repeated awesomeness can ever be considered a downside. Alas Cole's death in 2017 (and Loomis', the year before) robbed us from the world's most authentic, passionate, truly underground, rock band. And most of us didn't even notice...

***** for Dead Moon Night, Dead In The Saddle, Echoes To You, 54/40 Or Fight, I Tried

**** for Time Has Come Today, I Hate The Blues, Graveyard, My Escape, I'm Wise, Black September, Hey Joe