Ravagers are the US’s greatest post-apocalyptic rock’n’roll band. I dunno if you realise this, but it’s over, man. The good guys lost.
“I thought it was a cool concept,” says Ravagers main man Alex Hagen from his hotel in Spain, where the band are on tour. “The name reminded me of a seventies exploitation grindhouse movie where the world is over, and there’s just rabid gangs of crazy people on the streets. I related that a lot to the neighborhood I lived in in Baltimore when I started the band.”
End-of-the-world vibes, long hair, tight pants and ripsaw sleaze guitars, Ravagers have everything you need for your next street rumble. Half Hanoi Rocks, half back-alley punk rock marauders, they formed a decade ago after the dissolution of Hagen’s former band the Living Wrecks.
“I’d started trying to write music and I had a couple tunes that I liked,” says Hagen. “I was living with Matt Gabs [previously a member of Baltimore sleaze-punk near-legends Fishnet Stalkers, as well as Atlanta rock heroes Biters], who’s in the band now, and I would show him what I was working on. He would give me tips and stuff, and he kind of helped guide my songwriting and guitar skills. It helped me feel confident enough to front my own band, and that’s where Ravagers started.”
Ravagers hit the ground running, releasing a spate of EPs and a full-length album, and playing every skanky dive bar and punk house in the US. Repeatedly.
“We would just go on these long tours across the country with our records,” Hagen remembers. “I used Facebook and booked all the tours myself. We would party a lot, made a lot of great connections, met a lot of cool people. We had a good time, but some of the tours were hard. We would get into fights. We would hate each other towards the end,” he says with a laugh. “I’d think: ‘Is this over? Should I form a new band?’ But the moment never came. We just kept going.”
Eventually, the US got hip to Ravagers. Europe came next. And now there’s new album On The Loose. Produced by former Biters frontman Tuk Smith, it sounds sorta like glam-era Japan if they were Scandinavian action-rockers. Its highlight is the nihilistic No Tomorrow No Problem, a sneering glam-punk ode to the bad times.
“I felt like: ‘How can it get any worse?’” says Hagen. “You can’t do anything about it. So you might as well just go out with a bang.”
Okay, so Baltimore is no Detroit Rock City, but when Ravagers come to play you’re never gonna forget them.
“That’s the best part, man,” Hagen says. “When you know you’ve won somebody over, and you know the next time you come to that town they’re going to be psyched to fucking see you, man. It’s cool.”
On The Loose is out now via Spaghetty Town.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
