China Rats “To Be Like I”

In July, China Rats a brand new band from Leeds, were booked to play the tiny Villa Camp stage at massive European festival BENICASSIM the night before the start of the main festival. The result was an impromptu mosh pit and a festival booker who wished he had booked them for the main festival. When the following day, Bat For Lashes, who were booked to headline the 2nd Stage, couldn’t make it onto the site, the festival booker took his chance; China Rats stepped up to the plate and bigger mosh pits ensued. It is the material Rock n Roll folklore is made of.

A proper debut single will be released in March 2013 and expect the band’s first US shows at SXSW etc to follow shortly afterwards. China Rats formed in Leeds in the Summer of 2011, released their debut EP To Be Like I on Once Upon A Time Records in UK and quickly earned the attention of BBC Radio 1′s champion of new bands Huw Stephens as well as a flurry of European radio support from the likes of Absolute, Q and BBC 6 Music in the UK, 3FM in Holland, FM4 in Austria, national radio RN3 in Spain, P3 in Sweden amongst others.

Besides “To Be Like I”, Stephens also fell for the band’s song “N.O.M.O.N.E.Y” and a demo of the song was playlisted on the BBC Introducing List on BBC Radio 1 less than a year after the band formed. It’s a song that perfectly encapsulates the dilemmas of young people everywhere: “I got no money and I wanna die, I got N.O.M.O.N.E.Y” …

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

DOWNLOAD: China Rats “To Be Like I”