Discovery: The Rassle

Once-upon-a-time members of The Virgins, Young Lords and The Takeover UK, the boys of The Rassle have been up to much good. After cleaning up nicely for a J. Crew video campaign last month, the unsigned New York band got back to their rock-and-roller roots wrapping filming on their next music video for wild-young-and-hopeful anthem “Born Free.” Here, they invite us into their dinner party for a little back-and-forth.


WHO MAKES UP THE RASSLE:
The Rassle is Erik, Reed, Mark and Blair. We live in NYC.

HOW THEY DESCRIBE THEIR SOUND: We’ve been described as a mesh of Jesus and Mary Chain and Happy Mondays, but have also been compared to Big Audio Dynamite, or a cross between the Ramones and Arcade Fire. These are all pretty rad associations, so I guess it’s best to go with other people’s assessments on what our sound is like. PHOTO, LEFT, COURTESY OF JIMMY FONTAINE.

MAJOR INFLUENCES: Bill Murray, House of Pain, KLF, Naomi Watts, Eddie Murphy, Bill Haley and The Comets, Sam Cooke, Mexican food, Little Richard, Biggie Smalls.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN: On a cool summer night, we met, planned, schemed, wrote, recorded, and got stoked… We’ve all known each other for a good while and all decided to start something new and started the Rassle about 8 months ago.

HOW THE RASSLE IS DIFFERENT FROM OTHER BANDS ITS MEMBERS HAVE BEEN IN: It’s not, really. Bands are like dinner parties. A dinner party is a dinner party. What differentiates one from another is the people, the setting, the presentation. The Rassle is our own little dinner party- every day. We’re four guys with individual lives and experiences. We just put that all together and synthesize it into something we call The Rassle.

WHAT HAS RECORDING BEEN LIKE? Fun, nerve-racking, inspiring, really exciting. We did everything in Mark’s and Reed’s apartment – a-computer-and-a-mic type of thing – and there was really just something special that started happening when we began recording together and listening to it all gel. We’re just happy to be able to share it with people.

PRE-SHOW RITUALS: Vocal warm ups in our van, Peggy Sue. Perhaps a beer or a tumbler of Jack, maybe jumping jacks. A group high-five if we are feeling it. We’ll toss on the Mets game if they’re playing.

FAVORITE PLACE: Crazytown.

IF THE RASSLE’S SONGS WERE A BOOK, IT WOULD BE: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle.

EARLY BIRDS OR NIGHT OWLS?: Night crawlers. 

BAD HABITS: Nail biting, smoking, singing in the shower.

GOOD HABITS: We take a multi-vitamin every day.

BAND RULES: The first rule of The Rassle is there is no rassle.

BAND RULES MADE TO BE BROKEN: No sweatpants on stage.


THE RASSLE WILL PLAY CMJ MUSIC MARATHON OCTOBER 19 AT THE DELANCEY, OCTOBER 20 & 23 AT BOWERY ELECTRIC. DOWNLOAD THEIR FREE EP HERE.