Vermin & the Beachrat

  The Whole Story

Hello, my name is Joe Lamore, also known as Vermin & the Beachrat. I was born in Waltham, MA. on December 31, 1955, I’ve been involved with writing and playing music from a young age, like many other artist. I started out on the accordion, as my parents wouldn’t let me get a drum set, I made an agreement with them that if I saved enough money to buy the drum set I could get it. Within 2 years I had saved enough to buy a drum set and my parents let me. We were still living in Waltham, MA. at this time until we moved from Waltham to Sudbury, MA. in 1968, I was 12 years old and certainly did not want to move.

 I met a lot of new friends, quickly, as on the first day we had moved in I was in the front yard throwing a football in the air and catching it, that’s when Craig Kahn pulled in my driveway on his bike and said “ Hey, you want to play football “ I said “ Oh Yeah “ ran in and told my Mom and away I went, it was the end of July and when school started I sure didn’t feel like the new kid, I already had many friends and still do.

       I was playing the drums then and would practice in my bedroom, one day Scott and Steve told me that they would hang outside and listen to me play, Scott asked me “ Do you want to play in a band “ I said “ Sure “ so I started out on the drums but quickly learned they had 3 drummers that would sit in here and there, Scott said “ Joe, you need to learn how to play guitar “ I asked him “ Can you teach me “ and he did. I learned to play on a Cort Guitar, the strings were so hard to push down that my fingers would bleed, I would study chords every day. One day Scott said “ Joe, you need a real guitar “ so we went down to Sudbury Music and I met Fran Caruso, Fran owned Sudbury Music and gave me an Aria guitar to try, it played so easily and sounded so full, I loved it. Fran let me take the guitar and pay him each week whatever I could. I learned quickly and we started playing at Parties around Town and then we were asked to play for our friend Jay’s Benefit Concert. Scott and I went to a meeting with the two other bands that would be playing at the concert. The first thing we were asked by Greg was “ What’s the name of your band “ Scott and I just looked at each other and told him “ We don’t have a name “ Greg then named us “ The Dutton Road Band “

 After High School the band split up as some friends went to college, Scott was playing in a few cover bands and I had started to write original music.

I started a new band in 1985 with Conrad Caia on drums from the Dutton Road Band, Ken Nelson on Bass, and John Vicaire on lead guitar, Conrad came into practice one day and said “ I have a name for the band, The Beachrats. “ We had a lot of fun and played in many clubs in the New England area. We made two studio recordings, the first was in Leon Russel’s Recording Bus in 1986, and the second studio recording was at Long View Farm in North Brookfield, MA. This studio was popular for having recorded bands like “ The Rolling Stones “ and “ The J. Geils Band “ along with “ Aerosmith “ and many other popular bands back then. We recorded a 4 song demo and passed them out to family and friends “ The Wiser Man “ won the vote for best song and can still be heard on You Tube and Sound Cloud under “ Vermin & the Beachrat “ I got married in 1989 and Conrad had moved to Cape Cod, “The Beachrats” sadly, broke up.

 In the years that followed I played in a few Cover Bands. I worked for Comcast, a Cable Co. as a line tech, I met a few other line techs and we formed a band called “ 10dB Down “ we picked this name because the Data carrier was 10 dB lower than the video carrier. We stayed together for a few years and played many parties until my good friend, co-worker, and band member Greg, passed from Cancer in 2005.

 I had started to play solo acoustic parties for graduations, Wedding get together, and social events when the bass player from 10dB Down contacted me, Billy Bass had started a new band and they needed another guitar player, so I agreed to play only until they found someone that could replace me. This band was named “ Five Hole Band “ and we played in many, many clubs in the Worcester area. We played cover songs and party music and would fill many clubs to their capacity. I played in this band for three years, my Mom was now living with us and my wife’s Mom was also living with us, along with having a day-care. The band was playing out three weekends a month, I had to leave the band as my time was needed with family, and really I was only filling in.

 In 2009 I started writing songs again, and released my first solo CD “ Crossin the Line “ I had to think of a name, I first checked out Beachrats, but another band had taken the name. Whenever Bausk, one of my best friends would call he would always say “ Vermin, what you doing, “ funny thing he still says it to this day. I thought to myself, I’m only one Beachrat now, I became,“ Vermin & the Beachrat “  

“ Crossin the Line “ was my first release in 2010 – A seven song EP that is still on streaming services, “ Lock, Stock, and Barrel “ was well received.

This was followed up with my second CD “My Fantasy“ also a 7 song EP, it was released in 2014 and received many streams and some press for the song “ All in this Together “

 I took a break from music for a few years as we had many family matters to tend to.

In 2019, I was asked to play at a couple of family gatherings, so I started playing again and writing songs once again.  It was 2020 and during the time of COVID, the first song I wrote was “ Dream of You “ a song about  missing the ones you love. I put together a “LIVE SHOW“ on Twitch and Zoom for the song release “Dream of You” on May 5th, 2020 I had started writing songs again and during the Live Shows I wrote and played another new song “ One Last Chance “ I received a lot of request for the new song so I started working on my 3rd CD release “ One Last Chance “ with a release date of April 7th, 2021, a new 7 song EP.

In 2023 I released the single " Dinner by Candlelight " a nice romantic song, had a lot of fun filming the video right in our backyard. I'll be playing this one at the open mic's.

    The new release “ I’ve Got Sunshine the Remix “ is set for release on May 5th, Once you catch this Groove you can’t let it go. The video is also set for release on May 5th. 

So that’s it, the story of Vermin & the Beachrat right up to present day.

Truly I Thank You for Following the Magical, Musical, Journey of

 Vermin & the Beachrat