EZRA HOLBROOK (DRUMS), CASEY NEILL (GUITAR), LITTLE SUE (Vocals), HANZ ARAKI (Irish flute, vocals), JENNY CONLEE (keys, accordion) and sometimes Lewi Longmire (guitar, keys) & sometimes Chet Lyster (guitar, steel).
Influences
Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros, The Clash, New Model Army, Ted Leo, PJ Harvey, Billy Bragg, Social Distortion, Silly Wizard, Shane MacGowan, Pogues, Sepultura, Rain Like The Sound of Trains, Rickie Lee Jones, The Ramones, Tom Waits, Richard Thompson, Husker Du, THE HOLD STEADY, R.E.M., Lungfish, The Hated, The Gits, Van Morrison, Rancid, Dick Gaughan, Bedlam Rovers, Rabbit Choir, Fugazi, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Screaming Trees/Mark Lanegan, QOTSA, Rush, Replacements, Nick Cave, Cat Power, Little Sue, Band of Horses, Fernando, Stevie Nicks/Fleetwood Mac, Eels, the Minus 5, Richmond Fontaine, Leonard Cohen
Sounds Like
folk punk with irish undercurrents. Desolate ballads and raucous rave-ups. Narrative, romantic, and political lyrics delivered with empassioned raspy vocals over take no prisoners rock.
"Casey Neill's music conjures up that time when you're on the way out of the bar after last call or you're up at the crack of dawn,that moment when you look up and the sky feels as if it has something to say, something important, something that has to do with the past and the present at the same time." - ROBERT SULLIVAN, author or RATS
"(This band ) can muster some fearsome energy in concert... "- OREGONIAN
"A masterful songwriter..." - PUNK PLANET
"Soul searing songs..."- UTNE READER
BIO Casey Neill & the Norway Rats are a Portland, Oregon based band who play music informed by post punk ethos, haunting Americana, bits of Scottish tunefulness, and unhinged rock energy. The band are a crack gang of Portland's finest musos performing Casey's original songs and the occasional Husker Du cover. The Norway Rats feature Jenny Conlee on accordion and keys, Ezra Holbrook on drums, Hanz Araki on Irish winds, and Little Sue of Little Sue fame. Casey cut his teeth in the underground music community of the Pacific Northwest and has toured throughout the US, Canada, Japan, and Britain. He's played stages such as New York's Town Hall, San Francisco's Great American Music Hall, and Glasgows Celtic Connections Festival. Many respectable (and not so respectable) people have said nice things about the music. Recently the Norway Rats have been recording a new album, playing shows around the west, and dreaming about ripe garbage.
HISTORY
In 1995, Casey self released his CD Riffraff - a record that evenly split punk and folk sounds. He was signed to the Appleseed imprint of Red House Records in 1997. They released his self-titled CD in 1998, Skree in 1999, and the live CD Portland West in 2001, as well as including a track on their Grammy nominated tribute to Pete Seeger, alongside Bruce Springsteen, Billy Bragg, and Ani DiFranco. A CD of archival songs titled Memory Against Forgetting was released in '05 on Amy Ray's Daemon label. In 2007 Casey released ‘Brooklyn Bridge’ on Portland label In Music We Trust. It returned to a more electric sound at the urging of producer, the late (but sometimes early) Johnny Cunningham. After 3 years living in New York City, Casey moved back to Portland and the Norway Rats were formed with old friends and veterans of many of Portland's finest bands. “Brooklyn Bridge” has been received as a career defining record garnering rave reviews from press, radio, and fans. All this is just and a sign of things to come. Work has begun on a Norway Rats CD slated for 09. Wreck the place.
Casey Neill & the Norway Rats's Friend Space (Top 28)
Hi Casey, I wanted to say thank you and let you know I really loved the show at Beginnings in southern Humboldt last Sunday. You rock! and Little Sue ahhhhhh She has the voice of an angel. I will be there any time you come through So Hum.
Eat not before you go. The BEST food in the whole wide world. My favorite hangout and I will be there. Super people, super new sound system. See you there, Tom Nowak
One of Casey Neill's K.M.R.I.A. shows is picked on the Concert Co-Op Podcast for the week of March 9th, 2009. Plus he got mentioned in an interview with K.M.R.I.A. bandmate Scott McCaughey.
The Concert Co-Op Podcast runs down notable shows happening in Portland area each week. Subscribe via iTunes and get it each Sunday.
