Kevin Bronson on September 11th, 2013

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We’ve been admiring China Rats ever since the Leeds quartet energized our tired legs at SXSW last March, half-expecting a bulletin that they would arrive in Los Angeles for a show sometime soon. Alas, it has remained a long-distance love affair. It probably has something to do with “No Money,” because, we’d bet a few American dollars, their songs would go over great here. Recalling the scruffy charm of the Ramones and the more sophisticated scratch of the first-wave U.K. punk-rockers, China Rats pack plenty of hooks and attitude into their three-minute missiles, not too unlike the Londoners who’ve won some hearts in the U.S., the Vaccines. On Sept. 30, China Rats release a new EP, “Don’t Play With Fire.” Have a friend in the U.K. send it across the pond.

||| Stream: “Deadbeat” and “(At Least Those) Kids Are Getting Fed”

||| Previously: “Nip It in the Bud”