Band : Rat City Riot
Album title : Load Up
Label : People Like You
Distributor : Hard Life Promotion - Suburban
Release date : 13/10/2008
Release : CD

San Diego outfit Rat City Riot was founded in 2003 by singer Noah Bricker and guitarist Chris Barclift, and after some 700 shows played all over the US and even Europe and several line-up changes the band has grown to a quintet with the inclusion of second guitarist Alex Paterson (formerly of Gun On The Run), bassist Daniel Franco (for touring purposes only, apparently) and ex-Stanger Six skinsman Garrett Eland.

Originally working with Taang! Records for the Jan. 2005 release of debut album Dirty Rotten Games, the founding duo learnt hard lessons about trust and survival, getting by with near to nothing. But with an alliance made to the music they love (a mixture of Street Punk and Oi! With a high Rock 'n' Roll value) and decent DIY ethics, the guys managed their own tours, and sold enough merchandise to record the Open Road EP forreleaseon Street Anthem Records in 2007. In support of the EP, the band then toured Europe and the entire USA in their beaten down van, along the way first picking up Franco, then Patterson, and eventually Eland. Along the way, the guys can boast having shared the stages with the likes of The Business, Dropkick Murpys, Slaughter & The Dogs, and Roger Miret And The Disasters.

Starting October 17th, the quintet kick off a European tour in Clausen (Germany), after which they take a trip to Temse near Antwerp (De Narcist, 18/10/2008) before heading off for Eindhoven (Holland). Then it's down on the map towards Saarbrücken for a first German show... but before continuing what is mainly a German tour, the guys first pass through France (Paris, Saint-Etienne, Bayonne), Spain & Portugal (Santander, Lisbon, Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona), Italy (Verona), Ljubljana (Slovenia), and Budapest (Hungaria)...before hurrying over to Munich and Germany to start the German leg of their tour there (what with this being the home turf of their label, and the country actually being the main market for their kind of music, that's not very surprising, I'd say). Nine more German dates follow (with one quick side-step towards Prague in Czechhoslovakia), and by then it'll be November 15th!.

To find out whether you're into the band' Rock 'n' Rollin' Street Punk/Oi!, surf either to myspace.com/ratcityriot (1 full-length track off the new album – also as video – plus 3 older tracks) or last.fm/music/rat+city+riot, where you'll find 5 (30-second) samples of older tracks plus a total of 5 videos! The one track on MySpace is actually pretty representable for the whole new album, even if it IS the only one with sound samples (of Bush trying to rationalize his warring conduct away as being something that would have to be viewed 30-40 years from now...the bastard, like as if he would still be alive by then, and be acountable for his stupid actions!). Still, the other tracks available fill in the picture pretty well enough.

82/100

Tony.