If everything breaks right for China Rats in the next few months, they will be 2013’s answer to the Vaccines 2011 campaign. The Leeds band channels more Ramones pop-brut than the Vaccines ever did, but the insistent drums and shout-along refrains are the common thread. “To Be Like I” is a revolving door rock song, spinning and spinning in place, joyfully centered on the title lyric. The band will play SXSW in a few months time, and have a coming single to back “To Be Like I” and the band’s other recent raucous single, “N.O.M.O.N.E.Y.” With a big following in the UK, in the ever-evolving American “now”, China Rats are in the pregnant moment before things either happen or don’t, like “To Be Like I”, full of potential, brash and uncertainty.
Reprinted with permission from 32ft/second.