Rats, The - In a Desperate Red - New LP

black vinyl edition.  *does not include insert / book from first edition*

Although this is packed with the bare-wire beauty of Dead Moon, this has a sound all its own.  It's so much like Dead Moon, and yet it's so different.  While Dead Moon burned late 70s USA punk in a batch of the acid rock from the 1960s, this clearly has some connection with the early garage version of power pop, from Buddy Holly to Love, from the Box Tops to all the bands that would show up on early Nuggets collections, and yet of course, this sounds nothing like any of those outfits because this is the Coles coming straight from the gut and going straight for the throat.  In the age of the so-called new wave, bands weren't so much pushing forward, but rather looking back, but while the Rats may have looked back, they were clearly pushing forward, in so many ways, in the way they went about forming their music, and the way they delivered it.  It's so honest, so knowing and yet still showing the innocence of youth, Dead Moon was a whiskey bottle in the leather hands of an elder, a bottle turned upside down and caked with melted wax with a flame burning on top and shining through the dark while this is that same bottle freshly cracked open and held tight-fisted to the night sky, fresh on the lips but still burning with the realization that life is one crazy fucking ride. I've said it before and I'll say it again, but I'm still telling the truth: this is the greatest record ever recorded on planet world.  If you don't believe me, that's not my problem.  This is a great record, essential for fans of Dead Moon or fans of music that's raw and real. -- winch (green noise)   

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At last! Fred and Toody Cole (Dead Moon, Pierced Arrows) and drummer Louis Samora's ultimate punk masterpiece - In A Desperate Red.  This is the last record by the Portland punk legends before moving on to a very brief country period and then Fred and Toody moving on to Dead Moon.  In fact, two songs from the first Dead Moon LP hail from the same session as this LP. IN A DESPERATE RED combines garage rock, new wave and art punk...  6 years of work went into remixing and remastering this version - with Fred Cole twisting knobs and obsessing over its every detail and then Greg Shadoan and Tim Stollenwerk finishing the job.  Impossible to find for many years - at last this LP is available as it was meant to be heard.  Play it loud....

First Pressing includes a 40 page booklet and a xerox replica of a Rats show poster!  Limited edition color variant on Desperate Red vinyl!