Press

"Hyper and half serious, this is one hell of an artistic vision." – Marjorie Skinner, Portland Mercury

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***REVIEWS for WELCOME TO NEW GRANADA***
NOTE: Welcome to New Granada is our rock operetta based on 1979's teen rebellion cult film OVER THE EDGE

"I got the operetta from CDBaby and it's great. "Johnny the Mute" put me into an out-of-body experience, in which I was once again working on the script with Tim Hunter at his place in Hollywood till 2 AM, followed by red beans and rice at the all-night South Town Soul Food on Wilcox."

- Charlie Haas, co-screenwriter of 1979's legendary teen rebellion cult film OVER THE EDGE

***LOCAL CUT/ALBUM REVIEW for
WELCOME TO NEW GRANADA***
    by Jason Simms for The Willamette Week
 
"Both the Mars Volta and Agalloch claim to be more influenced by film than by music. I never really understood how that works, but moments on the new album from Drats!!!, Welcome to New Granada--a rock operetta based (not only in content, but in form) on the film Over the Edge--help me make sense of such cinematic inspiration.

The penultimate track, 'The March (Trash the Place),' for instance, depicts the climax of Matt Dillon's 1979 debut, during which a pack of about 40 kids lock their parents in a PTA meeting of sorts and then destroy their cars and most of the school..a plot fittingly captured by the song's anthemic, driving, Ramones-style punk. In the film, shots of destruction are cut with the parents panicking and screaming at each other to 'remain calm.' Drats!!! borrows this cinemagraphic strategy, switching to a funky, keyboard-led section a couple of times, which makes each return to the yelled refrain 'Trash the place!' all the more intoxicating.

'Johnny the Mute' seems like a simple character sketch at first, until the final chorus..featuring a cowbell struck once, then twice accompanied by the line 'one click for yes/ Two clicks for no'..suddenly recalls the speechless boy delivering tragic news by tapping over the phone. The scene is made more poignant on the record because it sneaks up on you...

...New Granada (named after the planned community where the movie is set) is extremely polished and constructed to demand repeated listens..from both fans of Over the Edge and those who have never seen it (I heard the record first and liked it immediately). Even the occasional cliché classic-rock riff, like the one before the title phrase on 'Resale Property Values,' functions like the film's drab architecture, creating a tone of bleakness that anchors the work. Plus, like everything else on this record, those moments never last too long: All but two of the songs are under three minutes, and their frequent dynamic changes are packed with brilliant and fleeting moments..like the Bowie-esque opening to 'Ballad of Richie White,' which, for me, is not unlike the kind of glimmering favorite line that'll make you watch a movie over and over."

– Jason Simms, Willamette Week

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***RHYTHM & VIEWS/ALBUM REVIEW 
for WELCOME TO NEW GRANADA***
by Stephen Seigel for The Tucson Weekly
 
Man, talk about your narrow demographics. In 1979, the suburban-teen rebellion film Over the Edge was completed but never released theatrically, reportedly due to its controversial themes (the usual sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll, violence, bad parenting). But a couple of years later, the movie, which included Matt Dillon's first film role, began showing incessantly on cable TV, finding the audience it deserved and allowing teens and preteens from the 'burbs to feel that they weren't alone in their alienation and boredom. 
 
Still, cult classic or not, how many films have inspired entire albums? That's exactly what Portland, Ore.'s Drats!!! have done here: Welcome to New Granada is a rock operetta that chronologically follows the story arc of Over the Edge, portraying scenes from the movie both sonically and lyrically.
Thus, the scene where Claude accidentally drops acid before art class is depicted in "Claude's Trip" as a warped, Zappa-eque mindbender ("Staring at the painting on the overhead screen / That shit I bought was acid but I thought it was speed"). The optimism of the parents courting potential investors in New Granada is reflected in the upbeat, twisted funk-rock of "Resale Property Values." And "Johnny the Mute," which describes the scene in which the titular character is asked over the phone whether a character is dead, features wood-block percussion to accent the instructions: "one click for yes, two clicks for no." Whether this oddball curio stands on its own merits is a question I can't answer, but for those of us for whom Over the Edge was a formative experience, it's good fun, indeed.

- Stephen Seigel, Tucson Weekly

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***DRATS!!! article by Lee Williams for THE OREGONIAN***

Drats!!!: the opera

In the 1960s and '70s, pop music ushered in a new form: the rock opera. The Who's "Tommy," Queen's "A Night at the Opera," even Abba's "Mama Mia" were conceptual works quilting songs into a narrative arc. Not to mention some fab hair, lighting and costumes.

Now, Portland's own punky-fun sextet Drats!!! has delivered "Welcome to New Granada." Like some of its predecessors, the work deals with fairly serious stuff. The 10 original songs in the 30-minute work were inspired by the 1979 cult film "Over the Edge." The film, which marked Matt Dillon's breakthrough, centered on parent-teen relations and was spiked with vandalism, isolation and violence.

"In many ways 'Over the Edge' is a 'half-serious' movie," says co-composer Jeff Couch of Drats!!!, "so it makes sense that we ended up writing a rock operetta based on it. There might be some half-serious lyrics in there somewhere. But it's all about balance."

That balance comes in the film's over-the-top '70s sensibility: Like an extended episode of "ChiPs" or "T.J. Hooker," cars explode on impact, lines are delivered loudly and with lots of feeling (and with zero irony), and beneath all the melodrama is young love.

"We've always been fascinated with the use of music in movies," says Couch, who credits Devo, the Ramones and Oingo Boingo as his band's influences, "so we liked the idea of taking a movie and using it in our music. But pure love for 'Over the Edge' is what ultimately inspired us to write our rock operetta."

Following a screening of the inspirational film at Sabala's at Mt. Tabor, the band performed "Welcome to New Granada" with signature Drats!!! energy.

For this Sunday's free show at Berbati's, expect more polish -- and be sure and stay for the surprise finale, not listed in your program.

– Lee Williams, Special to The Oregonian

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http://www.musicforamerica.org/node/113568
Online review of Welcome to New Granada by John Book for The Run-Off Groove & Music for America. 

http://www.medleyville.us/2007/02/cinematic_sounds.html
Feature article on www.medleyville.us

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"Portland's art-punk sextet Drats!!! commands early arrival for its literate and strange songs reminiscent of proto-punks the Modern Lovers and, to a certain degree, Oingo Boingo.  Boasting four - that's right, four! - singers, Drats!!! sounds downright schizophrenic as each voice clamors for attention.  Plus, the band's mercurial song structures don't do much to ease the manic tension on its debut disc, Suicide Candy." – Dave Clifford, Willamette Week

"Far too many bands try to be quirky for its own sake.  Most bands simply don't need ukuleles, yodeling solos or more cowbell.  Drats' gimmick is to have four singers, but somehow it works.  The band's first record, "Suicide Candy", was released in November, and it comes across as a funny, harder, more rocking version of They Might Be Giants." – Cortney Harding, Portland Tribune

"With the same vocal, theatrical growl-timbre as Jello Biafra or Lee Ving (but with gutter humor more akin to the latter), Drats!!!' Suicide Candy EP contains punky, grodily fun songs about hot thighs and art-school casualties." – Portland Mercury

"Portland band Drats!!! released "Suicide Candy" near the end of 2004, giving fans of frantic rock an avenue for release. For a taste of the group's manic performance, head to the live show and find out why "Suicide Candy" is rightly sold out on the CD Baby Web site." – Nathan Skidmore, The Oregonian

"You can expect a full-fledged stage show with no one standing still." – The Oregonian A&E

"Six-member Portland band Drats!!! alternates between quirky rock and harder, faster sounds that bring to mind Richard Hell's work." – OregonLive.com

"If the sound of Drats!!! was a white russian the ingredients would be as follows: Mr. Bungle as vodka, Ween as Kahlua, and some Oingo Boingo as the cream (really, but just a splash).  Stirred together you get a yummy concoction...Suicide Candy captures the band's diverse musical styles without coming across haphazardly strewn together.  Time changes and different vocalists ebbing and flowing keep the music interesting...Some constant elements throughout the album are the dark organs lying in the back of the tracks' mixes and Chairman's eerie, tongue-in-cheek lead vocals.  I particularly enjoy his not-quite-there falsettos in the chorus of Plate in My Head." – Music Liberation Project

"Named after an animated rock film, Drats!!! assumes the headliner position Friday night in a show with Pillowfight and Ronster.  Wielding a reputation for charged performances, more high profile slots are in order for this Portland sextet.  With four singers, Drats!!! plays tense, springy rock with just enough experimentation to feel vigorously alive.  Like a musical slap in the face, the band will command your focus and raise your heartbeat." – Nathan Skidmore, The Oregonian

"Combine your loves of cult film, local music, and free fun in one fell swoop tonight with a screening of Matt Dillon's Over the Edge. Following that, stick around for an Over the Edge-inspired 'rock operetta' performed by the ambitious Drats!!!" – Marjorie Skinner, Portland Mercury

"Death to emo!  Portland's Drats!!! are throwing and end-of-the-eeem-as-we-know-it show, "Over the Emo," at Acme on Friday. According to Drats!!! leader Jeffrey Couch, "The show will be kind of like an AA meeting, but instead of getting over alcohol, you'll be getting over the emo (and probably drinking alcohol).  We're fucking sick of these pseudo-ironic velveteen scumbags, so prepare for the new rock 'n' roll revolution." – From the "It's Who You Know" column (by Adam Gnade) in the PORTLAND MERCURY

"On Saturday Drats!!! leader Jeffrey Couch is playing solo at the Mississippi Pizza Pub.  Jeffrey explains his solo stuff saying, "When a solo performer comes to the stage with an acoustic guitar, the music is almost always unoriginal crap.  I use electric bass.  My songs are weird, and I draw inspiration from the band Love and the films of John Cassavetes-because they always took chances." – Also from the "It's Who You Know" column (by Adam Gnade) in the PORTLAND MERCURY

"Sometimes those 'so crazy they just might work' ideas pan out.  Sure, a rock opera based on a rarely seen 1979 Matt Dillon movie sounds like something you'd come up with at 3 a.m. after several beers, but the boys in Drats manage to pull it off with panache." – Cortney Harding, Portland Tribune

"Titled Welcome to New Granada the latest release from Drats!!! starts off with a twisted gothic waltz, then moves on to calliope music as interpreted by Primus. It's intriguing, bizarre and a good introduction to the group's art-punk sound."
– Oregonian A&E

"Fronted by four singers-the awesomely named Chairman, Yoon, Maddog, and...uh, Chad-Portland's Drats!!! kicks out experimental punk jams that roll somewhere between Zappa's poppier work, the Dictators, and Cheap Trick.  And check this: The band is currently working on Welcome to New Granada, a "rock operetta" based on Over the Edge, a teen rebel flick that helped turn Matt Dillon into an international heartthrob."
– Grant Morris, Portland Mercury

"It's somehow fitting that this eccentric Portland sextet is playing at an event hosted by an organization whose purpose is to keep the wild parts of Alaska wild.  While their songs are catchy, you're always aware of the fact that their rock is close to falling over the edge."
– The Oregonian A&E

"I love getting invited. Invite me to dinner, a movie, a party—I've even been known to tag along to the grocery or the dentist. So you can imagine how thrilled I was when I received a personal invitation from Drats!!! to the free screening of Over the Edge and performance of their rock operetta, Welcome to New Granada. All of the songs are based on the characters of the most rad rebellion movie of all time! In case you weren't around to catch the Mercury's Rock Gods issue, I waxed prolific about Cheap Trick and how this movie was a total teenage catalyst to the world of joint smoking and rock 'n' roll ass. Drats!!! hunted me down to let me know about this musical/cinematic event that will for sure be a shit-ton of fun. How could I not be there? It's free for everybody AND you can say that you were specially invited—what more could you want? Smoke a bowl and pull out the popcorn, it's movie night at Holocene!"
– Salina Nuñez, Portland Mercury

"There’s ambitious, and then there’s ambitious and inspired. Local art-rockers Drats! have mined the vaults of cult cinema, landing on an obscure Matt Dillon movie called “Over the Edge” (which was trumpeted as a “Rebel Without a Cause” for the ’70s) and turned around a half-hour rock operetta called “Welcome to New Granada” based upon it.  The rock opera (which also is the group’s new CD) is being performed in its entirety tonight — after a screening of “Over the Edge,” of course — and as part of the celebration of its unveiling, audience members get to walk away with their own copy of the album.  Wacky? Sure. But in these capable hands, you can be sure it’ll be great."
– Barbara Mitchell, Portland Tribune