Chris Newman Music 1040 - 006

Chris NewmanMusic 1040 - 006

Ratatat-Mike Stroud -Evan Mast

•Experimental Electronic rock!

•Heavy combination of rock, synthesizers, and layer upon layer of tracks

Musical Roots•Stroud was always a great guitarist• Big fan of Classic Rock (especially Jimmy Page)• Worked with Dashboard Confessional and Ben

Kweller

•Mast (or E*vax) grew up with musical siblings• Brother Eric (E*Rock) runs a record label in Portland• A lot of Evan’s inspiration came from music his

brother showed him when he was growing up

Origins•Stroud and Mast met at Skidmore College in New York

•They did not start working together until 2001

•Stroud played the guitar, Mast played the bass and synthesizer.

•Their first single “Seventeen Years” was all recorded on Mast’s laptop

“Plugging a synthesizer, guitar and bass directly into Mast’s PowerBook, the pair began to drop beats and conjure the instrumental technotronic epics that wound up on their fortuitous self-titled debut in 2004.” –NBC News –TODAY Music

Works•First single “Seventeen Years” released 2003•First album was “Ratatat” on April 20, 2004, and they also released a remix of this album the same year.

•Their second ablum , “Classics was released on August 22, 2006.

• After releasing a few more remixes in 2007, they released their third album, “LP3” on July 8, 2008.

•The last album the released was “LP4, on June 8, 2010.They are currently working on “LP5, release date TBA.

Ratatat Style•Evan Mast describes how they start with a beat, and it just goes from there.

•They mix layer after layer of guitar, bass, and synthesized sounds (one of their favorites is the harpsichord)“…once we heard it the first time, we had it echoing across the office from various speakerboxxxes, headphones and shi**y laptop speakers all day , everyday.” –The Fader

...Style...•Stroud and Mast describe how they keep adding things as long as it still sounds “cool”.

•Collaborations:• With almost all of their music being entirely

instrumental, several other artists (many of them rap artists) have taken an interest in their raw beats, such as:

• Notorious B.I.G, Kanye West, Kid Cudi, Daft Punk, Interpol, Franz Ferdinand, the Killers, Vampire Weekend, and even Fergie.There’s always different little pockets, there is this melody,

that turns into this other melody….-The Fader

Music Samples•“Seventeen Years” was Ratatats first single released in 2003.•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be_pWWlf0xA

*Listen for simple repetition, new sounds being added on top of each other, heavy use of synthesizes sounds and instruments, and of course, heavy rock from electric guitars.

Music Samples•“Loud Pipes” was included in their second album “Classics”, and is one of their most popular songs.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_X8QYViW6A

*Again, listen for repetition in the beat that slowly builds, synthesized sounds, distortion of sound, improvisation, and pay attention to how many tracks you can hear playing at once. This song is a lot more relaxed than the last example!

References-Leckart, Steven. “Have Laptop, Will Travel.” Today. NBC News. August 28, 2006. Web. April 25, 2013. < www.today.com >.

-Samuel. “Ratatat; Frequency Bad-Asses on LP3.”Drowned in Sound. Drowned in Sound, July 3, 2008. Web. April 25, 2013. < drownedinsound.com >.

-”Everlasting Bass.” Fader. The Fader, August 22, 2006. Web. April 25, 2013. < www.thefader.com >

-”Ratatat.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia, July 10, 2007. Web. April 25, 2013. < en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratatat >