tunequest

When I began the original tunequest in February of last year, I had ~6000 songs in my iTunes library that had a play count of zero. Part of that list consisted of old CDs that just hadn't been played since they were digitized. A good number of them were the result of over-zealous music collection and exploration. That was one of the reasons I decided to undertake the endeavor ...

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...here's the Ratatat remix of Shout Out Louds' The Comeback. I actually listened to it last weekend, but didn't hear anything half as interesting today, so consider it a retroactive song of the day. This mix illustrates perfectly what I love about Ratatat's remixing style. They're not content to just throw a house beat behind the song, or chop it up until it's unrecognizable. No, Mike and Evan take full ...

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It's a bit of a cosmic coincidence that I happen to be on a huge Ratatat kick right now and a new Ratatat bootleg has happened to suddenly surface around the net. It's titled 9 Beats and is apparently a rare look at the band's early/demo work. How early? It doesn't say, but it probably pre-dates their 2004 debut. The tracks on the album aren't songs per se. They're mostly ...

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Take for example this remix. Normally, I absolutely can not tolerate Missy Elliot. I just don't like her style. And her 2004 single I'm Really Hot was a completely egotistical crapfest which couldn't manage to display the slightest bit of talent or even a minisculey appealing hook. So it is a bit of a minor miracle that Ratatat manages to not only make the song listenable, but the duo actually ...

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Quite the musical week here at tunequest. A little more than usual. First the Ratatat show, now a symphony performance. The Atlanta Symphony put in a wonderful performance of Holst's Planets. From the raw power of Mars to the ethereal ambiance of Nepture, the orchestra dispatched all seven symphonic poems with passion and exuberance. "Wow", I say "Wow." Parts of Mercury felt a little bit off, but it could have just ...

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...And I can't get El Pico out of my head. Here's a clip of the song taken with my phone

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I just got home from Ratatat's performance at The Earl in East Atlanta. Awesome awesome stuff. This band is phenomenal, from concept to execution, and they kick it ten ways live. I can now add Ratatat to the list of bands I've seen more than once. Hoorah. I would have liked to record the show, but my dinky Maxell voice recorder for iPod was overwhelmed the sheer amount of volume ...

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I. am. being. slowly. driven. insane. emphasis on the slowly driven. Seriously, if you wish to maintain your sanity, do not drive in Atlanta, ever. But especially avoid the interstates. and the access roads. and the side streets. and all intersections. If you give those places a wide berth, you will find yourself infinitely less frustrated with your life. But if you cannot manage that, make sure you roll down your windows ...

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This is exactly what a sophomore album should be. It has everything that made the debut so fresh and engaging, while adding nuance and complexity that show a clear maturation of sound, yet is not so over-indulgent so as to become foreign and off-putting. I refer, of course to Ratatat's recently released second album: Classics. One might argue that it takes a particularly confident or arrogant band to name an album ...

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