Move Over Vampire Weekend, Ra Ra Riot Take Over
Published by musicunderfire on Saturday at 9/20/2008
Its worth mentioning them again since our 300th post, but Ra Ra Riot have already made a big impression on music this year. Perhaps its the similarity of Wes Miles' vocals to that of Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig. The similarity is unmissable, maybe even obvious, yet Ra Ra Riot seem to be the sleeper here. Already sitting on top of this years greatest albums, many music critics have marked Vampire Weekend's self-titled debut a must have, but have they spoken too soon?
If you're like me, and like to kick the popularity to the side, lift the cover and see who else has a great shot at it, perhaps you should give Ra Ra Riot's The Rhumb Line (released on Aug 19th) a sip and see how it swallows. The vocal similarity is there, yes, but if I had to match any of VW's songs to Ra Ra Riot's "Can You Tell Me", I would have to choose the latter.
The group, who hails from Syracuse, NY is yet another band to veer away from the norm in terms of band setups too. Not only do they work the guitar, drums and vocals angle, but they've consist of two more string intstruments a cello (Alexandra Lawn) and violinist (Rebecca Zeller). I can't say enough how much depth this adds to their sound, which is one reason The Rhumb Line could be a late surprise this year to top many other favorites we may have already had.
MP3: Ra Ra Riot - Can You Tell Me (buy)
MP3: Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (buy)
Official - http://www.rarariot.com/
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/rarariot
4 comments:
I don't know if you are making the Ezra / Wes comparisons knowing that they are lifelong friends (attended middle school together) and have been in bands with each other since.
Tis' an interesting tidbit of information - thanks! I think more people are apt to fall into anything Vampire Weekend does, which is all well and good - they're hard not to enjoy. The interesting part of it is that a band somewhat similar (both use more strings instruments, have similar vocals and are equally as unconventional), does not get a tenth of the attention of the other. I'm hoping more and more people get turned on to these guys, they're great.
i also don't know if you realize that the kid way on the left in that picture you used is, in fact, the bassist.
Well we just f-d this whole thing up now, didn't we? Are you their drummer? :)