Fret Rattles “The First One” year unknown, probably around 2013. Self-released, purple marbled vinyl. Minneapolis-based garage punk with a lot of punch and swagger. Their Bandcamp says, “Fret Rattles bring their own approach to the sounds of late 60’s Detroit (MC5, Stooges), 70’s punk rock (Radio Birdman, Sonics Rendezvous Band) and the 90’s underground rock revival (Hellacopters, Dragons). The final result is straight-forward rock-n-roll that is not retro but instead alive, fresh and more relevant sounding than ever!” I’d agree with most of that, especially the band comparisons, but not sure how “fresh” it is: their sound – which I totally like! – has been around for over 50 years. It’s lo-fi, hard-driving rock-n-roll and I’m guessing they put on a helluva show. Rev. Norb (of Wisconsin’s Boris the Sprinkler) says about them on their website, “Minnesota’s Fret Rattles are a great live act in the sense that when you go to see them, they whap you around for an hour or so, knock the bored look off your face, and leave you dazed and walking funny. They are not necessarily the type of band, however, where you walk home from the club humming their tunes.” There is almost no information available about The First One but I’m fairly certain it’s their debut. Their discography also includes a single and an LP from 2016, a live album from 2019, appearances on a couple of comps in 2020 and a single from this past spring (2022). It looks like their next show is up in Green Bay (Rev. Norb territory) at the end of November (we won’t be going, we have tickets to another show).

The First One is a fairly recent acquisition – I think we picked this up in Minneapolis this past summer – and I’m just now listening to it for the first time. The whole record is solid but my top tracks include the ass-shakers “Medicine Head,” “Get Out of My Town,” “Hey Everybody” and “Can’t Trust.” All are super high-energy garage punk rockers. I’m guessing Fret Rattles will roll back through Milwaukee again fairly soon (they played a show here in May) and I’ll totally go see them (unless we already are seeing someone else!). 

I have no idea what songs they’re playing but here’s a video of Fret Rattles performing in Green Bay from this past June (there aren’t any YouTube links for tracks from The First One.)