The press release said: “American Rock ‘n Roll band, WHITE BOY AND THE AVERAGE RAT BAND, have announced the release of their first full-length album in over 39-years.” Sadly I’m afraid a pre-teen me missed their last one. So having only released only a single self-titled album in 1980, here is the follow-up (though there was an unofficial release entitled ‘II’ back in 2012 that includes 5 of the 12 tracks here, including the first three).
The band do seem to mean business though, as the press release states: “guitarist/singer Mike Matney, bassist Daryl “Rambo” Gibson and drummer Joby Barker will soon be heading out on the Back in the Rat Race Tour, that is scheduled to kick off on August 10th in Montana on the ‘Rockin’ the River Festival’ alongside artists such as Zakk Wylde, Cheap Trick, Dokken, Warrant, Lou Graham, Asia and more.
So what do they sound like? Chunky, dirty old school rock with lots of guitar in the mix and a vocal that on opener ‘Love My Ride’ is half-spoken and extols a love of the motor vehicle. ‘Mirage’ that follows it starts with a guitar that sounds like that ‘little old band from Texas’ and a vocal that kinda underlines the comparison, it’s again about cars and almost sounds like ZZ Top doing Circus of Power.
As you’ve probably have guessed by now the album lyrically does rather veer towards the motor vehicle and the, again, half-spoken ‘You Gotta Pay’ has more of a thrust. It’s Bluesy hard Rock and we’ve heard it before, but it’s one of those albums I’m still not sure about – I love its earthiness and its simplicity but in truth I’m not huge on the mix. And whilst tracks like ‘light ‘Em Up’ have plenty to recommend them the slow groove and half-sung-half-spoken template works at times and gets a little old at others. Then you hear the guitar at the start of ‘Cold Springs Hill’ and the more Hendrix-like spoken-word and you think “Nah, this IS great.” And the more you play it the more you love it’s almost willing defiance of the last 39 years! You imagine this album was made by a group of guys who just turned up, plugged in and played then went for a beer and to talk about cars…
Check it out, let us know what you think!