By Keith Walsh
In what was another era, Jon Lee of Up Another Octave Records used his Buena Park record store to promote indie bands. One of these was The Brat, a wonderfully loud act from East L.A. headed by Teresa Covarrubias. I saw them perform at the store in 1981, having purchased their EP “Attitudes” from Jon, who was understandably excited about the band.
The five-song EP was their only release to date (on Fatima Recordz, in two formats: a 10″ in 1980 and a 12″ in 1981). Despite growing in popularity, The Brat broke up in 1985. However, a number of recordings sat on someone’s shelves for the past 35 years or so. That is until now. Amazon.com has just announced the upcoming August 18th release of “Straight Outta East L.A.” on RockBeat Records, which will feature the previously unreleased material, as well as the EP songs. It’s more than an hour of tunes, and the release will be across all conceivable formats: CD, Vinyl, MP3, and Streaming.
The controversy comes in the form of rumors that news of the upcoming release caught some of the band’s members by surprise. The question is, will these members be compensated for their efforts? Stay tuned for more info. Anyone with info please contact me at info@punkrockbeat.com .
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