Lower Class Brats

***You can’t discuss the American Street Punk movement of the 1990’s without talking about Lower Class Brats. Alongside bands like fellow TKO albums the Templars, the Brats helped usher in a new wave of American working class Punk Rock whose reverberations are still being felt nearly 30 years after the fact.Lower Class Brats. Additionally, TKO Records and Lower Class Brats.S have a shared history, dating back to 1997 (TKO Year One) and the label’s fourth release: the legendary Templars / Lower Class Brats split single. So with this in mind, it seems fitting, and perhaps a little overdue that we are proud to announce the reissue of Lower Class Brats’ classic debut album, Rather Be Hated Than Ignored.

Originally released on CD in 1997 by GMM Records, Rather Be Hated Than Ignored served as Lower Class Brats’ raucous statement of intent. Combining influences from 70s UK Punk, Oi! and UK82 and early California Hardcore, Rather Be Hated… served to quickly and definitively establish the Brats’ style, and their legacy. Heavy on melody, attitude, and a distinctly American sense of confrontation, their debut album remains a foundational entry in the American Street Punk canon.

This reissue bears all the hallmarks fans have come to expect from TKO. Rather Be Hated Than Ignored has been expertly remastered, repackaged and restored, all with our signature attention to detail. For the first time ever, the original GMM track sequence is available on a vinyl edition. When you get the opportunity to revisit a classic like this, half measures are not an option.

So there you go—Lower Class Brats’ debut album finally gets to treatment it’s long deserved. Now generations of LCB fans can enjoy the band’s first volley in their war of attrition against false Punk and all forms of poserdom: a fight they still wage to this day.