the brat

THE BRAT: ANTHOLOGY



After more than a year, final mixing and artwork are nearly complete for THE BRAT: ANTHOLOGY. The two-disc set will contain 30 vintage songs and one “new” track. Includes the complete Paul Rothchild sessions. Look for a street date in late Fall, though some songs may trickle out sooner on iTunes.



Combining reggae, East L.A. grit and the bop of girl groups like Blondie and The Crystals, The Brat was hailed as one of the most important bands to emerge from the East Los Angeles underground.



Formed in 1979 - after a chance meeting between Teresa Covarrubias and Rudy Medina at The Starwood in Hollywood - The Brat fell into the mesh of punk artists and musicians straddling both sides of the East L.A./ West L.A. pop world. They made quick friends with Plugz guitarist Tito Larriva and X singer Exene Cervenka, both instrumental in the look and sound of The Brat’s debut EP, “ATTITUDES”.



Produced by Tito, with cover art/lettering by Exene, “ATTITUDES” found its 5 songs gathering healthy airplay at KROQ and other hip L.A. radio stations.



The Brat landed high profile gigs with everyone who mattered in Los Angeles and beyond (including pairings with “hot new” bands REM and Adam and the Ants) and garnered worldwide press.



But popularity is like a magnet. Would-be managers and producers appeared in short order, with dubious ideas for The Brat’s sound. A development deal with Capitol Records began well enough, but “wiser heads” soon prevented the band from releasing further indie material, demanding catchier songs.



It all felt wrong to Teresa. “By the end of ’82 it was over”, she says, “just beating a dead horse.” Still the band continued to work, and a 1983 gig resulted in a meeting with famed Doors producer, the late Paul A. Rothchild. An alliance was formed, and The Brat and Rothchild worked together for a year and a half laying down a dozen tracks for an album.



But “the spirit was gone”, concluded Teresa, and midway through the sessions she bolted, heading for Mexico City to take a break and think things through. She returned with one final song, “Slaughter Of An Ancient Tribe” which the band began cutting with Rothchild, before finally falling apart at the end of 1985.



Rudy kept possession of The Brat’s session tapes, stored in his basement. By 2006 he realized that age would soon render them unplayable, and began the chore of baking and transferring them. He found the performances were not as dire as he had remembered. Among the 30 or so tracks, Rudy rediscovered “Slaughter Of An Ancient Tribe”.



The track had never been finished. It was in pieces, unedited, on several reels of tape from many different recording sessions. Rudy tracked down former Brat Producer Mark Wolfson (Talking Heads, STP) and Grammy winning engineer Neil Citron. Following Rothchild’s roadmap, they pieced back together the song as it had originally been recorded.



Then, together with bassist Larry Arrieta and drummer Joe Montelongo, Rudy and Teresa went back to The Mothership Studio in Hollywood and added missing parts to the song, completing a new version of “Slaughter Of An Ancient Tribe”. It is now the opening track on THE BRAT: ANTHOLOGY.



THE BRAT! ON ITUNES



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