The Rankoutsiders are the ideal vehicle for Pat Todd's fantastic songs. A prolific writer with an eye on life in the margins - whether they be in small towns or the big sprawling city he has called home for 40 years - Todd routinely hits the mark where youth and the advancement of age find common ground in alienation and willfulness. Pat knows that rock’n’roll is not necessarily a young person's game, and nor is it a glamorous one; the name he gave this band accurately points to where he and they are coming from.
For over 20 years, Pat Todd fronted the undisputed roots-punk kings of LA: The Lazy Cowgirls. Having landed in LA from Midwest outpost Vincennes, Indiana in the early-mid '80s, the Cowgirls' live album Radio Cowgirl was the first release on scene prime mover SFTRI and ultimately inspired a resurgence of classic 1976 Ramones/Saints/ Heartbreakers-style punk that stretched across the US into Europe, Japan and elsewhere, inspiring bands like The Muffs, New Bomb Turks, Oblivions, Teengenerate, Onyas and others. Over the years the Cowgirls shared bills with the likes of that Ramones, Mudhoney, and Australia's Cosmic Psychos.
The Lazy Cowgirls were but a memory in 2006 when Pat Todd & The Rankoutsiders’ 28 song double-disc debut, The Outskirts of Your Heart was released. Where most bands would have exhausted their creative gas to fumes with such an ambitious first release, this was only the beginning for these guys. The band has since released eight more albums (some are double discs) and over a dozen singles and EPs, and they have more releases queued up. Each and every one of them is a testament to Pat’s personal vision of raw, high energy rock’n’roll infused with elements of country and rhythm & blues, and documentary proof that the Rankoutsiders are one of the hottest rock'n'roll bands on the planet.
Tune in to Sunglasses After Dark with Phil MacDougall on December 12 for an exclusive Studio 5 Live set from Pat Todd & The Rankoutsiders from 8pm.
