There’s no surprise more pleasant than a rock ‘n’ roll surprise, and it’s been awhile since a rock ‘n’ roll band surprised me as pleasantly as Good Rats did last week, when I ran across the Long Island-based act on a fluke. I’ve had a hard time getting enough since.
I had the opportunity the other night to talk with Peppi Marchello, lead vocalist, songwriter and only consistent member throughout the band’s 40-plus year existence. We talked about a lot of stuff, but one thing persistently made itself very clear: Marchello’s love for making music. He’s passionate, he’s hilarious, most of all he’s authentic, and the band has a funny, interesting story. But these guys were and are all about the music, and I want you to go give ‘em a listen. So consider the following a starting point for your own exploration of Good Rats’ seamless, diverse blend of rock, jazz, metal, big band and sweat:
The band kicked things off on their 1969 record “The Good Rats” with a psychedelic garage rock attack in the vein of the 13th Floor Elevators or the Moving Sidewalks, with chugging organ, heavy drum-driven grooves and Marchello’s punctuated rasp (imagine Howlin Rain vocalist Ethan Miller with more range and a handful of cough drops) motivating tracks like “The Hobo” and “Gotta Get Back.” The latter includes a short, mad stretch of bluesy harmonica by Marchello. His rebel yell on “Joey Ferrari” paints as sincere and compelling a portrait of the blue-collar everyman as any Springsteen hit.
But not every song in the catalogue’s a three-minute barstool burner. Check out “For the Sake of Anyone,” also from “The Good Rats,” in which a poignant Marchello soliloquy, accompanied by funeral dirge drumming, erupts into straight-ahead rock ‘n’ roll before mellowing into an anachronistic combo of heraldic horns and ethereal harmonies with another tear-jerking talk sequence tacked on the end for good measure.
On the title track of 1974’s “Tasty”, Marchello humorously explains past members’ dismissals with Cole Porter wordplay while the band lays down a jazzy lounge groove. Guitarists John “The Cat” Gatto and Mickey (Peppi’s brother) Marchello duel in epic Mahavishnu Orchestra-jazz-rock virtuosity on “Klash-Ka-Bob” and “Ratcity in Blue,” from “Tasty” and 1976’s “Ratcity in Blue,” respectively. Two minutes into the former, the band launches into soaring a cappella harmony – Good Rats were doing the Fleet Foxes thing a decade before the oldest of the Foxes had even come into being.
Oh, and they can do ballads, too. “Songwriter,” from “Tasty,” is Marchello’s sort-of-folk-rock take on Foreigner’s “Juke Box Hero” or Bread’s “Guitar Man” for the lyricist in the family. Tender “Birth Comes to Us All,” from the 1979 album of the same name, extrapolates a newborn’s novel perspective on life to adulthood’s changes and challenges. Marchello’s range and control especially shine in “Advertisement in the Voice,” a compelling call for companionship from “Ratcity.” It could run the risk of coming off as insincere in the hands of another act, but these guys nail it.
If you’re still not convinced, check out “Writing the Pages” and “The Room,” which together constitute a spooky prog-rock vignette of Adolf Hitler’s final living seconds and cosmic judgment, respectively. Heavy stuff for a raucous bar band from the City. Phone your otolaryngologist immediately if the guitar solo’s piercing, sustained intro note at 2:34 of “The Room” doesn’t peel you off the edge of your seat.
Don’t go thinking Good Rats are resting on these laurels. Marchello, 68, says the band still does 90 dates a year, playing three hours straight at every gig. They released “Blue Collar Rats (The Lost Archives)” last April, a collection including new cut “Boom Boom” and 19 previously unreleased tracks from the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. And Marchello told me Friday he’s spent recent months putting together 24 new songs slated for 2013 release.
The new cuts will include “Why the World Should Love the United States of America,” which Marchello plans to release in conjunction with a music video compiled from various YouTube clips and send to politicians and media personalities across the nation. (“I’m talkin’ everybody – from Rush Limbaugh to Al Sharpton,” Marchello said.)
Here’s hoping everybody gives it a listen. If nothing else, it’ll be real dudes doing real rock ‘n’ roll. I’m not sure there’s much more you could ask for.
