Philadelphia, USA, based classic hard rock influenced quintet Rat Rod are cut from the same cloth as many of your favourite Australian rockers … bands like Rose Tattoo, The Angels, and AC/DC… as well as a few American contemporaries namely, Dirty Looks, Dangerous Toys and Rhino Bucket.
Their new album, Four On The Floor is due 18th November through Shock Records/Vanity Music Group and is the band’s third, with the band going from strength to strength, growing in popularity since their 2017 debut Do You Remember Rock And Roll.
Ten tracks comprise Four On The Floor, an album that starts out with the crowd favourite ‘Cars, Guitars, And Rock-n-Roll’, an up-tempo rocker and bit of a biography about one of the band. ‘All Or Nothing’ is as the title suggests, giving it everything you got. ‘Call Down The Thunder‘ keeps the energy up and is actually the sequel to ‘Peacemaker (Ballad Of Tombstone)‘ from Light Em Up. ‘Hella Ride‘ was the debut single and is equal parts ode to a pretty girl and a life well lived in that mid-tempo ‘Alright Now’ sort of vibe. ‘Motherload gives the listener a chance for a breath as the slow blues beat lays a bed for the singer to growl the desire to have it all. The back five consist of ‘Speed Of Light’, ‘Not Your Fool‘, “Stole My Soul‘, ‘Resurrected‘ and the album closes with ‘Knock ‘Em Down‘.
Straight to the point, no frills, 4/4 hard rock.
Their most recent single was ‘All or Nothin’, and according to guitarist Mark McCarty, it “is literally about what the title says, giving it all you’ve got, whether it’s a relationship, your job or life in general.” ‘All or Nothin’ can be purchased here and streamed here and you can check out the video here at RAMzine.
“The title Four On The Floor is an homage to some of our influences – AC/DC, The Angels, Airbourne, Rose Tattoo, bands like that – who often use the 4-on-the-floor drum beat, a phrase expressing the fact that the bass drum hits on all 4 beats of a measure not just the 1 and 3,” McCarty also explained. “It’s also an obvious car reference which of course makes sense.”
The self-produced album was recorded between August 2021 and January 2022 at Studio E in Westminster Maryland and at the Rat Rod Bunker in Somerdale, NJ. It was engineered by Eric D and Mark McCarty and mixed by Lance Walter at Philadelphia’s Rhawn Street Studios.
Four On The Floor also marks Rat Rod’s signing to Vanity Music Group’s Shock Records imprint, that will give the band broader exposure. The album will be released in early Autumn and will be supported by regional touring and festival dates.
Previously they brought out ‘Call Down The Thunder’ as a single and that in itself was a sequel to a song on their previous album, Light ‘Em Up, entitled ‘Peacemaker (Ballad of Tombstone)’ that was inspired by the bar scene between Kurt’s Russell (Wyatt Earp) and Billy Bob Thornton (Johnny Tyler) in the movie Tombstone.
‘Call Down The Thunder’ takes the viewpoint of Wyatt Earp and his desire for vengeance in response to his brothers being ambushed with Virgil injured and Morgan killed. The raw emotion is characterised by this line in the song: “every bullet in my gun has got a cowboys name.” Cowboy referring to the offending outlaw gang known as the “cowboys.”
‘Call Down The Thunder‘ can be streamed on Spotify and purchased on Apple Music.
