White and the Average Rat Band gets first official reissue after 37 years
The deepest of all deep-underground rock albums.
Heaven and Hell Records will soon be reissuing a square-peg of a sort, which might leave a few scratching their heads. For the first time ever officially reissued, and first time ever released on CD WHITE BOY AND THE AVERAGE RAT BAND will be made available for collectors and introduced to new audiences.
WHITE BOY AND THE AVERAGE RAT BAND formed in the small secluded Virginia mountain town Richlands around 1979 after guitarist and founder Mike Matney returned from a short stint with a band in Nashville, Tennessee. Once back home Matney began to put together his Average Rat Band consisting of bassist Tommy Altizer (R.I.P) , rhythm guitarist Seth Kelly and Tim Gilbert.
In 1980 the project was ready to go into a small local studio and record a slap of DIY heaviness. The 8-track album would see a modest release of 300 and limited distribution beyond the band’s means.
“Beyond all the vagueness lies a very confusing, very DIY-sounding Heavy Metal album that'll have you wondering the intentions from the get-go. Did these guys know how fucked up they were?” –Neon Christ (Vice News)
Jump forward several years and WHITE BOY AND THE AVERAGE RAT BAND was now an obscure memory, but the album the band released was beginning to be remembered, remembered and discovered by collectors worldwide who would be paying hundreds of dollars to get one of these pieces of wax in their collections. Every fan of post punk and proto-metal would have this record topping their want-list.
“I think that one of the reasons people like this record is its isolated, alienated quality. It’s not an expression of anybody trying to get anywhere. Rather, it’s a raw power urge to make rock ‘n’ roll—a pure thing.” - Ron Garmon. (L.A. Record)
Now after all these years this album will finally get a proper reissue, fully digitally re-mastered from the original tapes and released on CD limited to 500.
Fans of early Sabbath, Priest, Motorhead, Roky Erikson, The MC5, and Iggy and the Stooges will certainly find this to be appealing.
Tracks are as follow:
01. Prelude 02. Neon Warriors 03. Sector 387 04. Maybe I'm a Fool 05. The Prophet Song 06. Leaving Tonight on Vacation 07. Blue Moon 08. Oriental Doctors
