The Lab Rats- new CD available October 6th, 2006! Columbus Ohio duo gets your sternum poppin.

Press Features

Columbus Alive: June 12th, 2007

One of the most successful acts to emerge in Columbus during the past few years, the duo of Brian Brown and Kelly Warner have made waves in hip-hop circles with intelligent rhymes and by replacing samples with original beats and live instrumentation.

That combo works brilliantly throughout their latest EP and on this track [listen to "Devil's Train"], which features one of the catchiest-ever beats and old-timey vocals the pair manufactured in the studio. Few stories in hip-hop are as weird or well-executed as this tale about a kid who finds something quite eerie when walking alone out by the train tracks.

UK Music Journal: The Devil Has The Best Tuna, Wednesday, February 14, 2007
The Lab Rats Climb Aboard The Devil's Train

The Lab Rats
Genre: Hip Hop / Rock / Indie
From : Columbus, Ohio, United States

I may be wrong but I believe that the Lab Rats are the first (Indie) Hip Hop band to appear on the Devil's site. Brian Brown (could there be a less hip hop name than that?) and DJ KW (aah that's a little more like it) make genre-shifting music that throws in indie, rap, beats, grooves, keyboards, guitars, scratches, riffs, jams, feedback,sweat, laughs, beers, blues and truths without blinking an eyelid. These Rats stray far from the usual hip hop template incorporating jazz, funk, big beats, quirky samples and atmospheric soundscapes into their sound coming on like a 21st century De La Soul, this is the new Daisy Age. The Lab Rat's sound is rooted in the reality of lower-middle class suburbia incorporating the acute observations of Mr Brown on life and the world he sees when he wakes up every morning. This is hip hop that makes you wanna stop and think, this is hip hop that engages the brain as much and the feet, this is hip hop which informs, educates, explains and entertains. The Rats have a new video out today for their track Devil's Train and you can check it out at their Myspace site (see below). It's a dark and spooky trip to the crossroads with the Lab Rats, the Devil and Grandpops' ghost. If you like the video why not send it on to your friends or even include it on your own profile or website.

U Weekly, October 4th, 2006 - "More Than Hip Hop"
Daniel Kirschenbaum

The easiest way to categorize Columbus’ Lab Rats is with the term “indie hip-hop.” It’s a correct categorization, inasmuch as the Lab Rats are comprised entirely of an MC and a DJ and are not on a major label, but it’s incomplete. “With the Lab Rats, there’s hip-hop, there’s rock,” says DJ K.W. “There’s a lot of things that we are, and obviously a lot of things we are not.”

Check out the Lab Rats live, and you’ll see more than just a DJ and an MC. K.W. (Kelly Warner) handles pedal steel, keys and conga duties, aside from manning his trusty turntables. Brian Brown, beyond being a gifted MC, shows himself to be an able guitarist. In addition, Brown and K.W. eschew much of the off-putting posturing that is part and parcel of a hip-hop show. Specifically, this means “the call and response thing, ‘Get your hands up,’ that sort of thing, is something we never do,” proudly declares Brown. “We just try to bring people in with the music. If you want to sit down and drink a beer, whatever, do what you want to do. You paid to get in. We didn’t.”

Obviously, most bands don’t enjoy being pigeonholed as merely one genre or another, and the Lab Rats’ resistance to being called hip-hop could be seen as a band self-consciously avoiding an easy label, but Brian Brown is insistent that there’s more to it than that. “Getting pinned down as ‘indie hip-hop’ is sort of tough for us sometimes. Five years down the road, we’d like to be in a position to put out a blues record if we want. We’re not always in a hip-hop mindframe when we’re in the studio.”

“Half Full Ashtrays, Half Empty Glasses,” the Lab Rats’ latest EP, more than proves that Brown and K.W. have the tunes to back up their “more than hip-hop” claims. “Devil’s Train” utilizes a bouncy, carnival-esque beat to carry Brown’s peculiar story about the devil and his grandfather’s ghost. EP opener “Daily Grind” does have a familiar, old-school hip-hop feel, but the sound is updated with unusual instrumentation, specifically the liberal use of slide guitar, presumably by DJ K.W. So yes, there is hip-hop, but it’s not strictly hip-hop. The Lab Rats use hip-hop in the same way Beck did on “Odelay,” which K.W. has no trouble acknowledging as an influence.

“Beck definitely did come to mind when producing this album,” admits K.W. “I mean, shoot for the great and you can’t go wrong. Those quick changeups and fills, and strange instrument loops and riffs and fills – we think of his influence for sure in production. As far as MCs, you can imagine the type of people Brian gets compared to.”

K.W. is pointing me in a rather obvious direction to another regrettable issue with which the Lab Rats must deal. The Lab Rats are white. I know, I know. Who gives a shit? I agree. There are plenty of white hip-hop artists at his point, and to spend time discussing it is demeaning to artists of any race, but the Lab Rats cannot seem to have anything written about them without a discussion of their race. I bring it up on their behalf in the hopes of squashing any future discussion of the matter.

“We automatically get compared to other white hip-hop,” laments Brown. “Beastie Boys, Eminem, you know ... and perhaps it does sound a little like all of that. It’s just that every band has to be defined by something. Something has to be used to describe it, as a pivot for it.”

Cin Weekly, Sept. 21st, 2006
Kari Wethington

It's easy to tag Columbus-based duo the Lab Rats as hip-hop, but it's so much more. On the group's upcoming release, Half Full Ashtrays, Half Empty Glasses, you'll hear jazz, funk, big beats, quirky samples and atmospheric soundscapes. It's the push and pull between musicians Brian Brown and Kelly Warner (DJ KW) that makes it s collaborative - we're constantly critiquing or supporting each other's ideas," Warner says. Expect a dynamic live show, but have it your way. "I don't tell people to get your hands up - it's not an aerobics class," Brown says. "I try to let the songs do the talking."

Sounds of the City: Midpoint Music Festival 2006
City Beat (Cincinnati), by Mike Breen

Talk about your cool hybrids. The Lab Rats work an amazing groove informed by the jammed-out Riff Rock of MC Brian Brown on electric guitar and the mad breakbeats and electronic touches of DJ Kelly Warner, a multi-instrumentalist with two turntables and a microphone (and a pedal steel and keys and congas). With Brown's suburban-weary songs of everyday frustration and Warner's broadly whacked musical accompaniment, the Lab Rats will be your new favorite experiment, particularly with their about-to-be-released new album, Half Full Ashtrays, Half Empty Glasses.

Dig It: Local H and the Beasties kickin' it with Jay-Z and Eminem. (Brian Baker)

Sounds of the City: Midpoint Music Summit 2005
City Beat (Cincinnati), by Mike Breen

"Rushing back to Main, I find Jekyll and Hyde's second floor filled up considerably. Columbus' Lab Rats don't disappoint, their amusing, atypical setup and musical approach gradually drawing more and more fans closer to the stage as their set moves on. The duo is kind of like a two-man five-piece band, as they jump to guitars, bongos, keyboards, turntables and microphones kinetically throughout their creatively mischievous performance."

Top 5 Best Local Releases of 2004
The Other Paper, By Chad Painter
Best Albums
"The Lab Rats, Short Order EP. Columbus has a huge underground hip hop scene, and The Lab Rats could make the same national impact as RJD2 if they get the right breaks. Sounding like a more laid-back Beastie Boys - complete with pop culture references and samples from classic rock songs - they're the perfect soundtrack for sitting back and simply doing nothing."

Top 10 Editor's Pick
Music.Download.com
Editor's Review:
"Some music brings back memories of your friend in your hometown and The Lab Rats give you the feeling you've known them since high school. MC Brian Brown, who adds guitar to some tracks, comes with witty honest wordplay from an everyday man's perspective. DJ KW lays down raw chunky drum breaks filled with crusty but funky rhythms that complete the down to earth package of hip-hop."

Best Beatles Reference
City Beat (Cincinnati)
"Columbus Hip Hop twosome The Lab Rats kicked off their set with a trippy, funkily scratched-up "Strawberry Fields Forever," which had many of the audience members singing along (horribly).." (MB)

Hip Hop Vermin
The Columbus Alive
Hip-hop vermin
by Gabe Gloden

"Hip-hop has always offered a platform for urban artists to speak out against the consequences of drugs, violence and inner-city class struggles. But as the first generation of suburbanites born and raised on hip-hop grows older, they’re realizing they face some pretty serious economic barriers as well.

“We might be the first generation that won’t do better than our parents,” jokes Brian Brown, emcee and guitarist of local duo the Lab Rats. “We’re a generation of kids from the suburbs who were raised on hip-hop that are finally finding our voice out in the hip-hop community. It’s sparking up everywhere, in every city you have some new white rap.”

Refreshingly, the Lab Rats are open about their origins, going so far as to label themselves “suburban hip-hop for hourly wage working stiffs.” Songs like “Nickel and Dimed” and “Get Your Shit Together,” off their new EP Short Order, house the familiar sarcasm of a perpetually unemployed Columbusite: “Yes, I’d like to work for you. No, I don’t smoke grass. Yo, while we’re at it, may I please kiss your ass.”

Brown stumbled upon hip-hop as a creative outlet almost three years ago. Finding himself behind the counter at a gas station, he penned his first rap lyrics to a song called “White Trash” based on his daily observations. He wrote the music on guitar before transferring it to beats, and after writing a few more songs he decided to start making his own cassettes and distribute them to friends.

“By no means did I feel it would lead to this group, where we would be playing out,” he said. “It was mostly for my own amusement.”

After Brown’s demos caught his ear at a party, manager Ryan Jones went out of his way to hook him up with DJ Kelly Warner, a successful club producer who until then had been working under the name Loop Doctor, producing a couple of top-five Billboard Breakout remixes.

“I had been looking for an emcee for a few years because hip-hop was my first love growing up,” explains Warner. “I think I’m good at producing instrumental music, but I was always looking for that vocal dynamic. So when Brian Brown hit me with his lyrics, I thought, ‘I gotta get in with this guy.’”

After warming up to each other, Warner was able to take Brown’s songs and replace his self-proclaimed “shitty” beats with more sophisticated approaches. Hearing the results, Brown retired from creatively unfulfilling work in rock bands.

The pair started churning out songs and turning heads with their dynamic live sets, which included everything from old-school throwback songs to blues guitar workouts. After less than a year of making music together, the Lab Rats already have their first successful stint at the CMJ Music Marathon in New York under their belts.

For such a young band, the Lab Rats have made an impressive amount of headway in the Columbus music scene, a scene they find to be remarkably open.

“We listen to every type of music and we’ve enjoyed being able to show our influences without watering the music down,” says Warner. “You know, we don’t really fit into a particular music scene. We don’t want to… and we hope our fans are like that as well.”

The Lab Rats will celebrate the release of “Short Order” at Skully’s Music Diner on Friday, October 29, with guests Wicked Lung & the Wookalar, the Evil Queens and Kola Koca Death Squad. Click to laboratoryrats.com for info."

'To Do List' CityBeat Recommends
City Beat (Cincinnati), by Mike Breen
"Unlike the expected hotbeds that developed around mainstream Hip Hop (Atlanta, L.A., New York), the rise of "Indie Hip Hop" is making for some interesting, unanticipated new breeding grounds. Along those lines, Columbus, Ohio, looks to be becoming a hot spot, producing acclaimed artists like RJD2 and Blueprint. Next on that list could be C-Town duo The Lab Rats, whose EP, Short Order, throws back to olld school Hip Hop and adds a deft comedic touch that would make the Beastie Boys, A Tribe Called Quest and Biz Markie smirk in approval. Rapper/guitarist/songwriter Brian Brown is a clever wordplaya, blending pop culture and social observations seemlessly into his droll, banging lyrical concoction, while Kelly Warner holds it all together with his imaginative soundscaping (warner blends DJ-ing with keyboard grooves). Think Eminem (without the faux gansta-isms) getting high and jamming with Dan the Automator and you're in the ballpark. The twosome will play a show at The Comet this Thursday."

Local News
The Other Paper
"The Lab Rats' Short Order EP finds the band mixing pop-culture references with laid back hip hop beats that sometimes move toward jazzy funk and soul rhythms. The band will officially release the record Friday at Skully's. The Evil Queens, Wicked Lunk and The Wookalar, and the Kola Koca Death Squad also take the stage."

Lab Rats in Fashion
Abercrombie and Fitch - (abercrombie.com)
"The Lab Rats drop the hip hop like they ain't just two white guys from Ohio. With their debut release "Short Order EP" you can expect DJ KW's classy grooves and MC Brian Brown's juiced rhymes to bounce your mall-shoppin' a$$ right out the back seat of your best friend's spinner rimmed SUV."

New Hip Hop style
www.OurVoiceMatters.com
"The Lab Rats of Columbus, Ohio have created a new style of hip hop music representing the working class. Their EP is available through http://www.laboratoryrats.com."

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