Beach Rats – “Rat Beat”

Very few people in modern punk rock have resumes as impressive as that of Brian Baker. Baker has played in about a million bands, most famously Minor Threat, and he’s also spent the past few decades in Bad Religion. In 2018, Baker was living in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and he started a new band with a bunch of other punk lifers living in his area. The new group Beach Rats also featured former Lifetime frontman Ari Katz, Bouncing Souls bassist Bryan Keinlen and guitarist Pete Steinkopf, and Let It Burn drummer Danny Windas. Beach Rats released their debut EP Wasted Time in 2018, and now they’ve got a full album on the way.

This summer, Beach Rats will release their debut LP Rat Beat. The pandemic gave the members of the band time to work on their album. In a press release, Baker says, “We’d go down in the basement, put on masks, open the windows, and we could play — within CDC guidelines! We couldn’t go to dinner at each other’s houses, but we could practice.”

The album’s title track is also it’s first single, and it’s fast, snotty old-school melodic hardcore. Lyrically, it’s a sort of statement of intent: “Rats! Rats! We’re the rats! In the basement making tracks!” The song lasts a minute and a half, and even if these are middle-aged guys with decades in the game, they still bring that fired-up teenage rage. In the “Rat Beat,” video, Beach Rats film themselves lugging around equipment, consuming pizza and Slurpees, and hanging out with a guy in a big rat costume. Check out the “Rat Beat” video and the album’s tracklist below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Bikes Out!”
02 “Dress For Sick Sesh”
03 “Heavy Conversation”
04 “Rat Beat”
05 “Summers End”
06 “Saturday”
07 “Clorox Boys”
08 “Wordz”
09 “Blown To Bits”
10 “She Was A Goner”
11 “Beach Talk”
12 “Fuck You Dad”

Rat Beat is out 7/29 on Epitaph.