The Good Rats

Few bands are as tied to a single stretch of coastline as The Good Rats, a rock act from Long Island, New York, whose sound blends rock with blues and pop. Their roots lie in the club circuit of the mid-1960s, when five students from St. John's University in Queens began playing covers in the Rockaways and across Long Island before writing their own material. Their reputation stayed largely local, though they also found success nationally and internationally.

The group's first album, the self-titled The Good Rats, appeared in 1969 and gathered a cult following among New Yorkers, with tracks such as the proto-punk 'Joey Ferrari' standing out. Their 1974 album Tasty, which mixed hard rock and blues and featured Peppi Marchello's raspy vocals, drew FM airplay around the country and is their best-known record. The band then played venues from Madison Square Garden to the Hammersmith Odeon in England, and in 1981 Bruce Kulick, later a Kiss guitarist, replaced two departing members for Great American Music before the group split in 1983. Marchello later revived the name with his sons, releasing Tasty Seconds in 1996, Let's Have Another Beer in 2000 and Play Dum in 2002.