Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Ratas del Vaticano on Volar Records



Here's another one from Volar Records, probably old news by now, but I'm just getting around to putting it on the turntable and already I can see that these 4 tracks are going to be monsters, hardly taking up half of the side of a 45. More than just their name, the reverse sleeve has the track titles in spanish, specifically these guys are from Monterrey, Mexico and even my rudimentary high school spanish could figure out Ratas del Vaticano is Rats of the Vatican (I hope)...or maybe in the Vatican? Who cares.... it's furious punk, recorded as raw as anything from the heyday of the genre.

The A-Side "All authority is a joke (which does not make me laugh)" I love translating these song titles, they just get better and better.
The fact that this is coming from Mexico just makes me think about how it's even more punk to write in your own language...of course, let's stop thinking English has to be the default way to communicate in music. When my brother was in Denmark, it seemed sad to me that all the bands he came across had to write everything in English just to have any kind of future outside of their own country. Good music, played like this with the kind of energy and punk shouldn't matter if you understand every word. There are plenty of live Germs shows that I don't understand a word of, Darby had his own messed up inebriated language.

"Would be cool that there was no law", the dual guy/girl vocals are right up in front, like any self respecting flat out punk should be, with that flat instrument distortion sound, no low end, two people yelling as loud as anything about anarchy. I don't think it has to be nostalgic or quaint...people aren't that jaded are they...and look at the revolutions going on around the planet. All of them should have this soundtrack. I don't want to mix politics and 7inches but if the punk fits... this kind of sentiment is always going to be valid. Musicians like this are as important as the press in

The B-Side, "I can not stop", has a more forward sounding guitar driving this melody and the guy/girl vocals are back, leaving room this time for the song to stretch out a little and get a power chord chorus going. There's even a fade out
"I seek no problems with authority" this one feels like it could have something in common with the echo-y garage sounds from Nashville, at full speed of course, but the distortion in the vocals, and gritty texture reminds me of something off Teenage Hate and that guitar screech from one speaker to the other is a nice touch.

Get this one from the Volar Records blog, another lable I can barely keep up with the slew of quality releases from these guys. Opening minds and ears.
And if this is definitely your bag, Siltbreeze has a full length from these guys which should have about 2000 songs on it.

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