The Brat: Straight Outta East L.A.

Track List:

1. Slaughter Of An Ancient Tribe
2. Vicious Love
3. Swift Moves
4. Leave Me Alone
5. Starry Night
6. Tombstone Blues
7. The Wolf
8. The Promise
9. High School
10. Misogyny
11. Brain Sparks
12. Attitudes
13. Corner Of The World
14. The Cry
15. Indian Ink Tears
16. Hard Sometimes
17. Believe
18. Just Another Day
19. Soldier
20. It’s A Climb
21. We Are The One

Named one of East Los Angeles’s Best Bands by LA Weekly Magazine, The Brat helped define Chicano Punk in six short years before disbanding. All three original members—lead singer Teresa Covarrubias, guitarists Rudy Medina and Sid Medina—were raised in the East Los Angeles enclaves of Boyle Heights and neighboring City Terrace (local bassist George Garcia and drummer Mark Stewart both joined later on). Teresa and Rudy met at the debut Los Angeles appearance of renowned English mod rockers The Jam on April 14, 1978 at the legendary Starwood nightclub in West Hollywood, California where punk royalty regularly performed: The Germs, X and Circle Jerks to name a few. Their meeting blossomed into friendship and eventually a musical collaboration when Teresa replaced Rudy’s singer, leading to the formation of The Brat.

The Brat began to regularly showcase their fiery punk infused sounds at Club Vex in Boyle Heights (a short-lived—six months—performance space above Chicano art center Self Help Graphics) alongside the likes of Plugz, Los Illegals, Thee Undertakers, The Stains and many others until they finally landed a record deal with Fatima Records, cutting their one and only album, “Attitudes,” in 1980.

After that release, they began opening for major groups such as R.E.M. and Adam and the Ants. Frustrations of failing to sign with a major record label and a growing antipathy towards the scene led to their disbandment in 1985. And so, a unique voice highlighting social consciousness and Mexican American oppression went silent.

vocals: Teresa Covarrubias
guitar: Rudy Medina
guitar: Sid Medina
bass: George Garcia