The Black Rats

A Dark Rising

Disclosure: The Black Rats' drummer is a colleague of mine. But I would have said good things about them anyway...

In those far-off and fondly remembered days, for example last month, when our PS3 could connect to the Playstation Network without permanently nuking our OpenOffice, we'd pass many a happy virtual hour swigging the Pinot (noir for me, grigio for the moll) while driving like methylated crackheads round Paradise City or Big Surf Island. Custom soundtrack pounding from the dust storm buggy. Best times of all were when The Black Rats came on the radio.

They're "a hard-rocking four piece with a load of attitude and swagger", according to Bryan Quinn on the Daily Record's Music Blog. His 2008 article Rise of the Rats? described their sound as "[Black Rebel Motorcycle Club] covering The Music in a plane falling from the sky", before concluding "perhaps most importantly, they don't want to be the Kooks".

Yeah, what he said! And yeah, we have the bootleg of their entire, as yet unreleased, Mill Recordings album. Which makes it all the worse to realise we'll be missing them again this Sunday night, when they play Glasgow's Pivo Pivo.

But now, everyone can enjoy them. Not only is their first single, Wasted/ Sorry About the Mess, available for download on iTunes (go there! buy it!), but now there's a new single being given away at their gigs. Black Passionate Love is also playing on the band's MySpace page, along with a couple more tracks, and this video:

The Black Rats - Dirty Little Girls - Cragsfest 2009

The Black Rats | MySpace Music Videos

My personal favourite: Sorry About the Mess. Anthony from SceneonSound wrote, reviewing their Glasgow appearance last May, The four piece looked comfortable and at home on the Classic Grand stage and playing songs like ‘Dirty Little Girls’ you could tell the welcoming crowd were enjoying the sing-a-long. Following this the tunes mellowed out with the ballad ‘Sorry About The Mess’ which has a great running drum beat leading up to a powerful chorus.

Earlier in the year Rebecca Hogg had written at whatsurmusic.com, reviewing their March gig at ABC2, “Sorry about the Mess” was probably the most memorable of their set with the repetitive cynical line and angsty accompaniment. This band may be from a small part of the country, but they sure do know how to make big noise!

Let's hope they continue to get even more attention this year. So far they're confirmed only for Hangerfest at Strathaven Airfield in June, but they're still tensely awaiting the response to their T-Break application...

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/theblackratsuk