RIYL: Justice, Deadmau5
Here's another dynamic rock/electronic group from NY called Ratatat, featuring the lovely stylings of Evan Mast and Mike Stroud. Mike rocks out on the electric guitar while Evan jams out on the keyboard and composes the beats for the tracks on his computer. Evan and his brother actually own their own record label, Audio Dreggs, and he also has his own sort of one-man DJ group galled E*vax, so music basically consumes this dude's entire life. These guys have jammed as warm up bands for some super successful bands, such as Daft Punk, Bjork, The Killers, and Ben Kweller (everyone's favorite sensitive indierock redhead).
One thing that really distinguishes Ratatat's sound from other bands is that their music is only instrumental (except for the occasional jungle cat growls). However, even without lyrics, I find their music to be completely fulfilling, as the music is upbeat and complex enough to overcompensate for the lack of singing. One thing they do that I think is really interesting is that Evan makes the tracks first, and then Stroud adds the guitar after. That must take some mega music creativity, I give my kudos. Their music usually has some sweet bass to it, which is always a plus for me.
Here's their most popular song, Wildcat. It's honestly rather repetitive, but there is some variety thrown in about every 45 seconds that keeps things interesting. As you may have noticed on my last blog, music makes my imagination become rather active, and I often find myself creating an imaginary scenario for myself every time I listen to a song. This song makes me feel swanky, like I am big shot rolling high in a casino.
Ope, you know what, I lied, this next song, 17 Years, actually does have a bit of vocals in the very beginning, but it's not them speaking, so it doesn't count. This is my favorite song by them, Mike is doing WORK with his guitar in this song, and I really dig it.
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