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Ra Ra Riot Provide A Rich Romp Through "The Orchard"
Music festivals are popping up everywhere and one of the newest, the Music to Know Festival, set in the glimmering summer resort of East Hampton NY, where my sister lives incidentally, is more of a VIP fashion catwalk rather than a rock show. The NY Times has written about the pop-up boutiques appearing at the festival (read here) and top end tickets offer parking privileges, air-conditioned restrooms, a curated food service and plenty of delicious cocktails. While all of the creature needs will be met, organizers still face the vexing question of what type of music do these super rich people wanna see?
Vampire Weekend are an obvious choice, and they indeed headline the festival on Saturday, and also appearing is Ra Ra Riot who are frequently compared to this better known, gold- selling artist. Both bands play upbeat music led by a high pitched male vocalist. Musically, however, Ra Ra Riot tend to experiment more than Vampire Weekend, with compositions performed more like a classical chamber quintet,with a cellist and violinist plucking a frantic beat, veering wildly from the straight line strictures of rock and roll.
The band was formed at nearby Syracuse University’s Department of Music where vocalist Wes Miles recruited fellow music students to form a sort of art-rock performance group. Few other groups can be described as “classically trained”, Glasgow’s Belle & Sebastian immediately come to mind, but not in a good way considering their cluttered, chaotic performance including a 4-piece string section, french horn, and other orchestral flourishes last year at Fuji Rock. (Read here).
Ra Ra Riot don’t make the same mistake, sticking firmly to a 5-piece and playing with metronome precision. And they’ve already achieved acclaim for some twee classics like “Boy” and the frantic kickdrum tempo of their most recent single “Too Dramatic”. Both songs can be heard on the band’s Myspace page.
But not all is perfect in Ra Ra Riot as the band seem shadowed by the drowning death of drummer, John Pike. This casts a somber tone over the bands music which is otherwise joyful and carefree. For more information about the band, including some cool live footage and a blog check out their website here. And in case you were wondering what is that fantastic font on their album covers and web pages, the answer is Helvetica Bold.
