Rats of Unusual Size
I’m gonna look to you guys for some help on Rats of Unusual Size. I know they formed in 1989 and released material through the ’90’s, and I think they were based out of NYC. Other than that, I have nothing. I never heard their albums, but the band’s two 7″s on Vital were filled with funny garage rawk songs celebrating the joy of menstruation, slackers, and the horrible truth about tuna. The first single, 1990’s “Can’t Call You/Flipper Is Dead” still sounds great, and is the choice pick of the two. The 4 song Elephant Man 7″ is a little more straight ahead rock, not as good but still kinda entertaining. Take a listen and decide for yourself. Rats of Unusual Size - Can’t Call You.mp3 Rats of Unusual Size - Elephant Man.mp3
Rats of Unusual Size - Flipper is Dead.mp3
Rats of Unusual Size - Twitch.mp3
Rats of Unusual Size - Razzles.mp3
Rats of Unusual Size - Rag.mp3
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Saw these guys a couple of times in Fargo, ND. A band I played in opened for them once. I’m pretty sure they were from Flint, MI at the time. The guitar player/singer was a really big, friendly, funny guy.
They were really fun fun live, but the recordings never did as much for me. Thanks for the post though. I’d forgotten about these guys!
Rats Of Unusual Size operated out of NYC when I was into them. They were a punk/rock band like Clawhammer (I guess), and maybe were a little too clever or not clever enough. “Macho Shithead” from their CD is as good as “Can’t Call You”. I own 2 of that single so that tells you what kind of dork I am.
NYC funny punk. ROUS first release was the “Ratzilla” lp, which included their hit “Jesus Was A Jew”. Went on to release a couple of 7 inchers and four more cds : “Id, Ego, Superego, Burns Ltd.”, “Jacket Made In Canada”, “Yes I Can”, and “The Prime Directive Cannot Be Denied”. RATS main man Jim Fourniadis made the unprecedented move from NYC to Flint (!?!) in the mid 90s. He reformed the RATS with ex-member of THE WILL (and later anybody he could find) and continued to yuck it up Buick City style through the early 00s. Jim lost some weight and moved to California (SF maybe) where he now operates a recording studio.
Funny. I’ve had Razzles stuck in my head for like the past year, and have been wishing I had my old record of it. Despite living in Seattle, I went to Touch and Go 25, and afterwards headed to my parents’ house in Michigan to dig through crates of old shit, and grabbed this 7″ (among others). Turns out I didn’t need to go to so much trouble.
thanx! Hippy Chick is my favorite RoUS track but it was great to hear all that.
my copy of ‘can’t call you’ is like marbled green vinyl, quite lovely, considering the tone of the material therein
Rats of Unusual Size can out on their own lable (Vital Music). The Flipper is Dead 7″ was part of a singles club subscription (similar to the SubPop one). Tom, the singer, I believe now runs Vital Music out of New Hampshire. Their CD “Can’t Call You” has a Henry Rollins spoken word track. I think someone from Rats of Unusual Size was also in Thundering Lizards.
Dying to find some more of ROUS on CD (I have The Prime Directive…).
Had Ratzilla on vinyl, they need to reish - CD, iTunes, anything.
Contour Chair!
Hi, this is Jim the lead singer of Rats of Unusual Size and pretty much what you read here is true, except I am the singer/lead guitarist and wrote 99% of the tunes.
I am currently running a small black box theater in San Francisco where we pretty much stress comedy. I pretty much have retired from punk rock because I am an old fart, at 46, and nothing cracks me up more than geriatric punks. That said I still feel my stuff is relevant or at least still funny.
To my catalog I can add 2 more cd’s:
1 Ratzilla VS Mecharatzilla:Ten Year anniversary cd.
2 Kinda, Sorta(but not really) Unplugged.
Feel free to contact me with any questions or requests and i will do what i can to make your ROUS needs come true.
Jim
oops, I realized they don’t post the email:
darkroomsfjim@gmail.com
Hey Jim:
It is Mike Martino. I used to work with Tom Cassar, back in NYC. I remember the old Vuatl Records days with great fondness. Rats of Unusual Size, The Waxmen, Iron Prostate, Reverb Mothers. Good to see your still making music.
Hey!! I was part of the “anybody he could find” period of The Rats. Jim’s message pretty much brings everybody up to date but what he failed to tell you is that he moved to SF because he became pregnant with my two headed love child. -Steve
Yeah it turned out to be a butt baby, two bottles of laxative and a few flushes and no one was the wiser.
Actually, Steve Reddy has the honor of being the only Rats bass player who wears sillier underwear than me.
That’s saying something.