Mike V And The Rats

I spent a lot of time last year hanging out in my early 2000's playlists. For one reason or another, records from those years just never got a lot of attention from me. It was probably because those years were such a weird time for me musically, and I was probably downloading about 20 albums a week in a search for something that would grab me, and never really spending much time with any of it. I left a lot of those downloaded albums in the dust many years ago because a lot of the nu metal, hip hop, pop punk stuff didn't make a lasting impact... but when I go back to the hardcore records from that time, some of that shit sound exciting and new to me.

One of the records that caught me off guard recently was the Mike V And The Rats EP from 2002. I remember thinking this EP was okay back in the day, but I could probably count the number of times that I've listened to this over the past 20 years on one hand. I wasn't a skater, so Mike Vallely wasn't a big deal for me, and their Black Flag influence didn't move me too much at the time. Yet somehow, listening to this thing in 2023, I'm really having a good time with it. As a bonus, I just discovered the other day that Mike V And The Rats also released a 3 song CD in 2006, so I've been jamming those songs as well.

Since I only had this on CD originally, I figured that it was time to grab the vinyl. Why not? No one else seems too interested the band, and you can grab the 7 inch for cheap. Nice looking blue vinyl.