THE ROTHCHILD SESSIONS

November 23, 2018

The “Rothchild Sessions” refers to a series of recording sessions THE BRAT undertook with legendary music producer Paul A. Rothchild beginning in the Spring of 1985.

The ten tracks from the original Paul Rothchild Sessions are mixed throughout THE BRAT’s recent twenty-one song double album “Straight Outta East L.A.”. But the Rothchild ‘ten’ were planned as a stand-alone album that was started in March ’85 and nearly finished a year later before the band ultimately gave up and moved on.

The story of THE BRAT’s Rothchild Sessions is a study of blended eras.

Paul Rothchild was a prominent American record producer known for his historic work at Electra Records in the 1960s.

Rothchild supervised the making of hundreds of albums, but his fame originated from six years of production work that began with Phil Ochs’ 1965 album of protest songs (“All The News That’s Fit To Print”) and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band’s debut effort (which took two complete re-recordings to get right), culminating in 1971 with Janis Joplin and “Pearl”.

In between those milestones came Gold and Platinum album awards for his work with The Doors. What followed was career success that spanned decades.

By the time Rothchild encountered THE BRAT he was a free agent, stalking new sounds and talent.

Paul attended artist showcase sets all over Los Angeles and on this particular day, tagging along with A&M Records, the performance he’d be witnessing was THE BRAT’s. It was one of several wearying showcases the band staged all summer long at a rehearsal shed in Rudy Brat’s backyard, as they sought to attract music biz interest.

THE BRAT had good reason to believe music execs would come to them. There was a track record to flaunt. After all, they’d gotten themselves onto local alternative radio (“Swift Moves”) without any help from the pros. The moment seemed ripe for aiming to a higher level.

Producer Rothchild was impressed. Dubbing Rudy’s practice room ‘the chicken coop’, Paul later enthused, “I love this band! Not a single love song!”

There weren’t a lot of love songs in Paul Rothchild’s professional backstory either.

The East Coast native’s storied reputation came from hanging with noted non-romantics Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Jim Morrison and others; relationships he’d built from years haunting the folk and blues scene.

 

Rothchild eventually followed his rock muse to the West Coast, settling in Laurel Canyon and immersing himself in the waves of seemingly endless talent.

Directing his attention to local luminaries Love and The Doors, Paul lent his studio savvy to their rough-hewn inspiration and gave them hit records in the process. Paul had been around the block, and now he was excited to meet THE BRAT.

Not all members of THE BRAT were familiar with Rothchild’s CV.

Vocalist Teresa Covarrubias, in particular, remained wary of outsiders and kept a characteristic distance, showing little curiosity or interest in the background of this newcomer. His story held no impact.

For his part, Paul found Teresa’s quiet presence intriguing, even charming, and he held out for a thaw, noting her unexpected participation would perk up the room. And everyone’s heads spun when Doors guitarist Robbie Krieger walked in the door and began to offer suggestions.

Room with a history.

Armed with demo dollars from A&M and Atlantic Records and with added contributions from the band’s families, Rothchild hooked up THE BRAT with on-call, off-hours rates at the revered Producer’s Workshop on Hollywood Blvd, an arrangement ensuring spontaneous sessions that ran late and ragged.

Producer’s was a landmark of music history with a newly boosted cache, having hosted Pink Floyd in their laborious making of The Wall. THE BRAT were granted use of the same room as the Floyd, the same recording engineer (Russ Castillo) and the same console, a “race car!”, according to Brother Russ, “That board was custom, handmade, high powered, nothing like it before or since!”  THE BRAT set up shop there for more than a year.

Rothchild’s retro recording style was basic.

Guitars, bass, drums were cut together in the studio, live. Even newbie guitarist Teresa’s rhythm strumming (on a new song, “The Promise”) got tracked in the room with the rest of the band. Paul pasted together the best performances, cutting up analog tape with a razor.

The pace was slow, old school, easily distracted by stories or puffs of smoke. One memorable interruption came in the form of an unexpected UPS visit, delivering piles of Doors studio tapes that Paul had been tasked to sort through, in search of the elusive “original masters”.

Spotting a familiar reel from the day, he dropped it on the tape machine and serenaded BRAT members Sid, Rudy, George and Mark with the sounds of the Doors’ first album, played entirely off tape.

After a little more than a year, Rothchild and THE BRAT wrapped up their recording project.

Months of work brought songs spilling across four reels of two-inch tape.  It made for an aggressively topical rock record that, for all its virtues, was unfortunately viewed as out of place in the MTV #eighties. Paul repeatedly made the case that THE BRAT’s sound was notable and unique, but he too found himself dismissed as someone from the wrong era.

Teresa bailed first. Rothchild removed himself from the story next and the rest of the band finished the record themselves, in environments less and less elegant, finalizing individual tracks one by one until exhaustion creeped in.

Finally, having committed themselves to an album that wasn’t immediately embraced, and bearing rusty chops from a year and a half without a gig, THE BRAT gave in to lethargy and indifference and threw in the towel –

***

Years to the finish line.

Resurrecting THE BRAT’s masters has been a priority for Rudy Brat throughout the 2000’s. It took obsession, cash and a fair amount of detective work to pull together a lost album. Several recordings had gone missing but were relocated, miraculously, in a personal storage unit belonging to Mark Wolfson, studio manager at one of the last places the band worked. A collector by nature, Mark habitually stored tapes left behind and had blithely kept possession of the missing BRAT reels for nearly thirty years.

The Rothchild Session tapes were in good shape; the songs nearly complete and ready to be mixed. Only two tracks were unfinished, “Slaughter Of An Ancient Tribe” and “Believe”, but both needed work to input missing vocals and instrumental parts. In the spirit of a reunion, both Teresa and Rudy devoted studio hours to adding their parts, completing their decades-old project in the present day. And just like that, the Rothchild Album was done.

TRACKLIST

SLAUGHTER OF AN ANCIENT TRIBE

Recorded 6/06/85 at Producer’s Workshop

Producer: Paul A. Rothchild

Engineer: Russ Castillo

Vocals: Teresa Covarrubias

Guitars: Rudy Medina (lead), Sid Medina

Bass: George Garcia, Drums: Mark Stewart

Additional Recording September 2014 at The Mothership

Engineering, arranging, editing: Neil Citron

New Guitars and Vocals: Rudy and Teresa

THE PROMISE

Recorded 8/03/86 at Producer’s Workshop

Producer: Paul A. Rothchild

Engineer: Russ Castillo

Vocals: Teresa Covarrubias

Guitars: Rudy Medina, Teresa Covarrubias, Sid Medina (lead)

Bass: George Garcia, Drums: Mark Stewart

INDIAN INK TEARS

Recorded 11/21/85 at Producer’s Workshop

Producer: Paul A. Rothchild

Engineer: Russ Castillo

Vocals: Teresa Covarrubias

Guitars: Rudy Medina, Sid Medina (lead)

Bass: George Garcia, Drums: Mark Stewart

TOMBSTONE BLUES (B. Dylan)

Recorded live 7/30/86 at Producer’s Workshop

Producer: Paul A. Rothchild

Engineer: Russ Castillo

Vocals: Teresa Covarrubias

Guitars: Rudy Medina (lead), Sid Medina

Bass: George Garcia, Drums: Mark Stewart

JUST ANOTHER DAY

Recorded 8/03/86 at Producer’s Workshop

Producer: Paul A. Rothchild

Engineer: Russ Castillo

Vocals: Teresa Covarrubias

Guitars: Rudy Medina, Sid Medina (lead)

Bass: George Garcia, Drums: Mark Stewart

BELIEVE

Recorded 6/16/85 at Producer’s Workshop

Producer: Paul A. Rothchild

Engineer: Russ Castillo

Vocals: Teresa Covarrubias

Guitars: Rudy Medina (lead), Sid Medina

Bass: George Garcia, Drums: Mark Stewart

Additional Recording September 2014 at The Mothership

Engineering, arranging, editing: Neil Citron

New Guitars and Vocals: Rudy and Teresa

HARD SOMETIMES

Recorded 8/03/86 at Producer’s Workshop

Producer: Paul A. Rothchild

Engineer: Russ Castillo

Vocals: Teresa Covarrubias

Guitars: Rudy Medina (rhythm & acoustic), Sid Medina (lead)

Bass: George Garcia, Drums: Mark Stewart

THE CRY

Recorded 4/30/85 at Producer’s Workshop

Producer: Paul A. Rothchild

Engineer: Russ Castillo

Vocals: Teresa Covarrubias

Guitars: Rudy Medina (lead), Sid Medina

Bass: George Garcia, Drums: Mark Stewart

IT’S A CLIMB

Recorded live 6/15/85 at Producer’s Workshop

Producer: Paul A. Rothchild

Engineer: Russ Castillo

Vocals: Teresa Covarrubias

Guitars: Rudy Medina (lead), Sid Medina

Bass: George Garcia, Drums: Mark Stewart

SOLDIER

Recorded 3/28/85 at Producer’s Workshop

Producer: Paul A. Rothchild

Engineer: Russ Castillo

Vocals: Teresa Covarrubias

Guitars: Rudy Medina, Sid Medina (lead)

Bass: George Garcia, Drums: Mark Stewart

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The Brat got a prominent namecheck Friday 9/1/17 on NPR’s “All Things Considered”

September 1, 2017 No Comment

The Brat got a prominent namecheck Friday 9/1/17 on NPR’s “All Things Considered”, in connection with a pivotal role the band’s song “SWIFT MOVES” plays in Celia C. Perez’s new book for middle-school readers, “The First Rule Of Punk”.

Click here for the article on NPR.

PEREZ: Mrs. Hidalgo is the mom of one of Malu’s classmates. And she owns a coffee shop in the neighborhood, Calaca. And I think she’s the adult that Malu maybe envisions herself as eventually growing into. She is not just a punk, but she is also really into her Mexican heritage. And when I started learning about Mexican-Americans in punk, those individuals kind of served a similar role for me.

MCEVERS: Yeah. There’s this one band she mentions. It’s The Brat. And we actually have some of it. Let’s listen.

PEREZ: Yeah.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SWIFT MOVES”)

THE BRAT: (Singing) You won’t forgive, but soon forget all the time we have spent. So again I get the shaft. Beer – what beer? I’ll take a draught.

MCEVERS: And I – so yeah, Mrs. Hidalgo, like, plays Brat for Malu. And this really starts to change Malu.

PEREZ: Yeah. And in that scene, Mrs. Hidalgo says to her something along the lines of, you should know about your history. And up to that point, Malu only – you know, only thinks of her history as what her mom is trying to teach her. And so for her, you know, history kind of feels like this stuffy, unrelatable thing that she just has no interest in. And then when Mrs. Hidalgo introduces this band and says, this is – you know, this is your history, too, then she starts to – I think something starts to click for her.

#thefirstruleofpunk #celiacperez

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PunkRockBeat.com – 80s Punk Rock Treasure “Outta East L.A.” from The Brat

August 23, 2017 No Comment

In the 80s, while synthpop artists wrestled with issues of heartache and love gone wrong, the responsibility of tackling social issues fell in large part to the punk rock movement. One such band were East L.A.’s The Brat, who despite growing popularity and opening for acts like REM and X, disbanded before releasing a full length LP.

Fortunately, for fans of good music, the August 18 release of “Straight Outta East L.A.” on RockBeat Records brings to light a treasure trove of previously unreleased tunes by the talented quintet. Included on the 21 song set are all the tunes from their debut EP “Attitudes” and 16 recordings for the intended major label debut that never happened.

The recording and production here is top notch. Lore has it that remastering these tunes has been an ongoing project for guitarist Rudy Medina, even including the addition of new instrument tracks. The quality of the original tracks, including vocals by Teresa Covarrubias is so well preserved that the resulting new production is flawless.

The Brat: Straight Outta East L.A. on Amazon.com

So why did The Brat disband just as they began to show such promise? Perhaps major labels were unsure if the politically charged themes of their later material had commercial value. Certainly the sound was no concern; even from the beginning and the “Attitudes” EP with its themes of post adolescent romance and friendship, The Brat’s sound was radio ready.

When writing their follow up, the band’s social awareness came to the fore, in some cases addressing the historical injustices against Native American people, and about the experiences of Mexican American people.

From “The Wolf”

The star spangled wolf comes side to side
This land was made for all
So hard to grasp the logic, coming from its rabid paw
You say it’s democracy, believes in our equality,
You lied. The wolf and the lamb, the wolf and the lamb,
We are the lamb.

From “Slaughter of An Ancient Tribe”

Brown feathered warriors share a kinship with the land
Across the raging ocean lives the civilized of man
Setting sail to pass beyond the new horizon line
Sturdy sailing soldiers only conquest on their mind
Slay them, betray them, rob them, harm them, shoot them, pollute them

The disc is well worth owning and listening to, as part of Los Angeles’ music history and the Chicano experience, or simply because it’s great punk pop music. “Straight Outta East L.A.” is available as a CD, as a Mp3 download, and in Vinyl as well.

finis

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Finally, after many decades…

August 18, 2017 No Comment

By AG on August 18, 2017

Several decades after The Brat recorded many of their material, it is finally remastered and released. This collection combines all songs from their 5-song EP “Attitudes” as well as songs that were recorded in the early 80s for their anticipated major record release (which never occurred). But rather than just putting out those original recordings, this effort gives a completely remastered and updated album based on that source material. It doesn’t sound dated and could very easily fool anyone to think the songs were recorded this year.

The songs themselves are outstanding, and this 21-song release is a must-have for anyone who got excited by the energy and sounds of the late-70s post-punk and early-80’s New Wave. But to categorize The Brat is an injustice. They were always more than the labels the music industry tried to pin on them. Finally we can all listen to the great music they created. And as I mentioned the songs sound fresh and appropriate for 2017.

The only think to keep in mind is that the titles listed in the Amazon page do not match the actual song list given in the back of the CD cover. Keep this in mind if you burn the CD as you’ll need to manually change the song titles.

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The Big Takeover – Video Premiere: “High School” (live) by The Brat

August 17, 2017 No Comment

Video Premiere: “High School” (live) by The Brat

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The Brat: Photo Credit: Daniel Villereal

The Brat was a Chicano punk rock ensemble originating from the barrios of the East Los Angeles, California. Its three core members consisted of lead singer Teresa Covarrubias, lead guitarist Rudy Medina, and alternate lead & rhythm guitar player Sid Medina.

From their conception in 1979 to their eventual break-up in 1985, The Brat contributed to the customization and inter-meshing of multiple musical and cultural models that culminated in the distinct East Los Angeles, Chicano punk sound. The Brat, a hard-working and politically-conscious band, nurtured the DIY punk scene of East L.A., which was defined by unofficial venues and backyard shows because the wealthier West L.A. circuit controlled the popular market.

By the time the famous Club Vex was founded in 1980 – by Los Illegals frontman Willie Herron, who desired an official venue to host East L.A.‘s numerous underrated bands, who were mostly Chicano – The Brat had become one of the biggest acts in the area. In late 1980 The Brat was signed as the flagship band of the upstart label of another local punk group, The Plugz’ Fatima Records. This collaboration resulted in The Brat’s only recorded album, the EP Attitudes, a five-song collection of some of their popular originals featuring Covarrubias’ aggressive, yet melodic, punk vocals critiquing social inequality and Rudy Medina’s – who was called Rudy Brat – urgent guitar hooks over drums with a reggae feel.

The Brat never found breakthrough success and remained an underground East L.A. Chicano act until breaking up in the late ’80s.

The Big Takeover is pleased to premiere a live performance clip of “High School” by The Brat, the song of which appears on Straight Outta East L.A., a new CD/vinyl album coming out on August 25th via MVD Entertainment Group and RockBeat Records.

Straight Outta East L.A. contains all 5 tracks from the long “out of print’ Attitudes EP. The rest of the songs were performed and recorded during the few years The Brat were together, but were never released until now. Most of those recordings were unmixed or were left unfinished until members returned to the studio and finished the songs in recent years.

Pre-order Straight Outta East L.A.

RockBeat Records Facebook

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