Rata Negra were there before you—and now that you’re arriving, they’re coming back around. A no-holds-barred, full-throttle trajectory that took off in 2014 after the demise of Juanita y Los Feos, and has so far produced two LPs and two EPs on the cult London label La Vida Es Un Mus. Built to break even the toughest resistance, they pull you onto the dancefloor with a punk-pop crossover so honest it would make Grant Hart cry and bring Dan Treacy to his knees—so bright it might unsettle The Go-Go’s, yet sharp and dark enough to leave Chris Stein on read and send the screenshot straight to Eve Libertine and Joy De Vivre. And when, on the second listen, you finally accept that they now matter more to your daily life than your partner or your mother, you might start to wonder whether the distinction between underground and mainstream ever really made sense. There’s no one more legitimate, no one more precise.

Rata Negra have toured extensively across Europe and the United States, building a fiercely loyal fanbase within the punk scene—for whom, yes, Rata Negra matters more than anything else happening, even in your own city, even in your own home. Even the godfather of it all, Iggy Pop, has played them on his BBC radio show. If you don’t know them yet, you’ll end up celebrating them—because they work when you’re sad, when you’re happy, when you’re full of rage, and when you just want to dance and tell everything to go to hell. And on top of that, they sound incredible.

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RATA NEGRA
UNA VIDA VULGAR