Gat-Rot

Tucson, Arizona: From deep in Lower Sonoran Desert’s urban nexus of creative and cultural diversity comes the uniquely armed and talented Gat-Rot. This five-piece hard music outfit – stylistically, a seething cauldron of hardcore, metal, hip-hop and punk, yet philosophically a proponent of individuality, positively, ethical integrity, tolerance towards your neighbor and living one’s life to the fullest – has proven itself over the course of its seven-year existence to be one of the Old Pueblo’s most consistently inspiring acts.

From its inception in late 1995, Gat-Rot stood apart from its Arizona contemporaries. Early rehearsals quickly established the band as a word-of-mouth must-hear among an ever-expanding circle of friends. Local house parties and over-the-top guerilla assaults upon impromptu outdoor stages cemented Gat-Rot’s reputation as a group with whom kids of all stripes, ages and social persuasions could blow off steam together – minus the negative vibes or destructive behavior frequently attributed to quote-unquote “punk rock shows.” To this day Gat-Rot, which doesn’t necessarily view itself as a straight-edge band per se, is proud of the fact that it frequently encounters fans who not only cite Gat-Rot as the reason they were inspired to pick up instruments and start their own bands but also a key inspiration behind their drug- and alcohol-free lifestyles. Early demos No Static and XXXLoud (from ’96 and ’97, respectively) showed a band with the proverbial fire lit under it, yet one which was unafraid to grow up in public, “take us or leave us,” warts-and-all style. (Nowadays both demos are highly coveted items among Gat-Rot fans, and no doubt there are MP3s culled from the tapes being downloaded via the Internet at this very moment.)

By the time Gat-Rot was ready to crash the Tucson club scene it was a bonafide phenomenon. The band arrived with a primal, vertiginous sound that defied easy categorization. Reviewers frequently cited Rage Against The Machine as an obvious touchstone for Gat-Rot, and while that comparison soon became superficial as the band continued to evolve, at the time it was one the group proudly took as a compliment. Another observer succinctly pegged the Gat-Rot sound as “ghetto metal,” a tag that, even if somewhat syntactically vague, does go a long way towards suggesting Gat-Rot’s high-volume, street-level, take-no-prisoners approach. Indeed, to some locals – radio programmers and club owners in particular – that approach was too extreme, too confrontational, and Gat-Rot still considers the fact that it was banned from several clubs as a point of honor. This is a band; after all, that has gone out of its way to ensure that its headlining shows remained all-ages, preferring to cater to people who arrive seeking primary inspiration drawn from the musical well, not the draft beer tap. Too, by not kissing the asses of the aforementioned radio programmers and club owners, Gat-Rot established itself as a local paragon of self-sufficiency and business integrity. They were clearly an outfit with a social conscience, too: on numerous occasions Gat-Rot lent its talents to local organizations for homeless benefits, food drives and the like, additionally helping to get the word out through its ever-growing mailing list. And by consistently pushing their own musical boundaries and continuing the process of musical self-education (Gat-Rot even featured a skilled deejay in its performing lineup for an extended stint in its quest for newer sonic textures), the group demonstrated that at the foundation of every lasting creative endeavor resides the term KNOWLEDGE.

ONE PLAN Such virtues did not go unnoticed among Gat-Rot’s fan base, which snapped up all 1,000 CDs of the group’s ’98 CD Strength Through Struggle (Code of Ethics Records) so quickly that nowadays original copies are considered collectors’ items. By the time the follow-up, the self-released, enhanced five-song mini-album Conflict, was released two years later that fan base had consolidated to the point where the band was selling out concerts in the Arizona region and making its presence known throughout the Southwest, in particular becoming a known quantity in Southern California. Key gigs opening for national acts such as Eyehategod, Turmoil, Testament, Hatebreed, Downset, Indecision, V.O.D., Suicidal Tendencies and Earth Crisis further exposed Gat-Rot to a wider audience. This furthered the group’s momentum by prompting a second wave of word-of-mouth kudos from those bands and their fans.

By now Gat-Rot was an established veteran upon the Tucson scene, twice being named “Best Heavy Metal/Punk Band,” in 1998 and 2000, at the annual TAMMIES ceremony hosted by The Tucson Weekly. In November of 2000 Gat-Rot played the Arizona Music Fest in Tempe and wound up being featured on a Phoenix TV station’s nightly newscast. And the band has been featured on two compilations CDs, Rise Up (True Strength Records) and Cantankerous (Epiphany).

National publications were beginning to take notice of the band as well. Respected hard music magazine Ill Literature, in a thumbs-up review of Conflict, observed that the CD “continues the Arizona band’s legacy of brutality with an array of emotion and disturbance. From the barrage of guitar fire to the relentless attack of bass and drums [to] the dual vocalists’ deafening screams and gritty yowls… this album takes you and kicks you in the ass… While music with meaning has become the latest trend, this band does it with originality and style.”

ONE LAND In the aftermath of September 11, the everyday fabric of life remains irrevocably changed for every American, and rock ‘n’ roll bands are not immune to the changes. While numerous hard/extreme music groups whose main thrust is one of groveling self-pity and angst-suffocated self-indulgence are now viewed as largely irrelevant, other groups – Gat-Rot among them – whose approaches are more all encompassing and unity-oriented are now more relevant than ever. Perhaps to the point of essential, in fact, given that now is a time for rising up, looking around, and realizing that as citizens the old cliché “no man is an island” holds truer than ever for us now.

Consider the following Gat-Rot lyrics, taken from the song “Weapons Of Wisdom.” Written long before 9-11, they are startlingly prescient, and instructive.

“I hate this world fight illusion that divides us. Reject it… Nothing will grow examine in this field without dreams. Redefine. I must change this attempt what give it my all. Is not certain. I won't give up; take a chance I love this world!!!! revenge… mindstate love/hate in this world second rate TV shows, new shoes, new clothes. smashing windows in my mind nothing matters. life of disorder, who's in line-who's in order? I lost track, I can't see who's peeking through the cracks. your king is down, drops in the battlegrounds, bleeding hands across these lands. it's time for redemption. it's time to take revenge! I hate this fucking world that divides us. nothing will grow, in this field without dreams. a commitment to reform this corrupt system stronger than a bullet my weapon of wisdom.”

While Gat-Rot is certainly aggressive and, yeah, more than a little confrontational, theirs is the approach of social broadcasters – musicians for whom honesty and frankness means not shying away from the ugliness in the world and subsequently reporting from the front lines precisely what they see. If there is an element of provocateur found in the Gat-Rot collective psyche, so be it; like Public Enemy or The Clash before them, they believe that in order to positively motivate people, you first have to wake them up from their cultural slumber. The band continues to tour regularly and is in the preparations for its third record. You, as the listening public, should prepare for further wake-up calls, courtesy Gat-Rot. GAT-ROT: One Band, One Plan, One Land