2017 saw East LA’s 80s punk band The Brat back in the spotlight with the release of the stunning 21 set disc, “Straight Outta East LA.” The album displays the groundbreaking band’s social conscience with more than a dozen never released tunes. Yet it seems that there’s even more unreleased treasure in The Brat’s vault.
On The Brat’s official YouTube channel today, the band released a provocative new video featuring an unreleased track “Pledge of Allegiance,” with the 1981 tune set to footage from the 1968 student walkouts in East L.A. As The Brat guitarist Rudy Medina explained to me, “It’s a collage of news footage from the ’68 East LA Walkouts, under ‘Pledge Of Allegiance.’ [That] was the first song we recorded after the ‘Attitudes’ EP. Pretty significant. It features Charlie ‘Chalo’ Quintana’ on drums.”
At the height of the civil rights movement, the walkouts were done to protest inadequate conditions in LA county schools. (For detailed analysis, check out this article from the LA Times: East L.A., 1968: ‘Walkout!’ The day high school students helped ignite the Chicano power movement )
The newly-compiled video puts the viewer in the midst of events, backed by a track that shows the band at the height of their powers. As Medina pointed out, Charlie Quintana plays drums on the track, sitting in for Roberto Soto who would soon go to Mexico to work in the developing punk scene. With the exception of Roberto Soto, this tune features the original members of The Brat: Teresa Covarrubias on vocals, Luis Soto on bass, and Rudy Medina and Sidney Medina on guitars.
Rudy Medina teased that he has ten more unreleased The Brat tracks. Whether these will soon see the light of day is yet to be determined. We can surely hope!
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