The Rats

Infobox Musical artist
Name = The Rats


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Alias = The Desperate Edge
Origin = Portland, Oregon, United States
Genre = Garage punk
Years_active = 1980–1984
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Associated_acts = The Lollipop Shoppe
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Past_members = Fred Cole
Toody Cole

The Rats were an American garage punk band from Portland, Oregon, formed by Fred Cole from the garage rock band The Lollipop Shoppe. Cole played guitar and sang, his wife Toody played bass and sang, and initially Rod Rat played drums. Their sound was a raw mix of punk rock and garage rock with occasional country touches. Their self-titled debut album appeared on Cole's Whizeagle label in 1980. Soon after, Rod Rat left the band, though he guested on the 1981 follow-up "Intermittent Signals" before his death by suicide. Sam Henry, formerly of the Wipers, played drums on this LP but left to join another Portland band, Napalm Beach. Louis Samora was on the drum throne for the 1983 album "In a Desperate Red", still on Whizeagle. Samora left in 1984 to concentrate on his rockabilly band, The Jackals. The band broke up, but Bill Barker of Profile Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia convinced the band to reunite for a single. It appeared under the band name The Desperate Edge later in 1984. Soon after, Cole assembled a country band, Western Front, and he and Toody later reunited in Dead Moon.

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