Ra Ra Riot
The Times Right Now Are The Ones
Oct 15, 2007
Words by Sean Moeller
Illustration by Johnnie Cluney
Sound engineering by Patrick Stolley
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Welcome to Daytrotter
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Each Year
original version appears on Ra Ra Riot
This was one of the first songs that we wrote for the EP. It was completed in August of 2006, with working lyrics. John and I wrote the lyrics in installments, but eventually settled on lyrics inspired by our summer tour of the south, and the Harper Lee novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. This version features an alternative version of the bridge that was originally conceived by our friend Rostam Batmanglij (of Vampire Weekend).
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St. Peter's Day Festival
unreleased
This is a song that John brought to work on with us back in May of this year. It was originally a song about the nefarious Scottish character named Sawney Beane, inspired by a song by a close friend's father. But being the truly optimistic New Englander that he always was, he added a verse and instead wrote the lyrics about the St. Peter's Day Festival in Gloucester, Mass. He recorded a quick demo acoustically in the last week of May this year, but the song wasn't finished at that time. It is in a period of development and will likely be different on the final recording.
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Suspended in Gaffa
unreleased
We have all been fans of Kate Bush since the early days when we covered "Hounds of Love," and although "Gaffa" was one of my favorites, I was expecting it to be a little too quirky for us. While rehearsing for our tour with Tokyo Police Club, I walked into the carriage house where all of our equipment was set up and found the rest of the band (to my delight!) running through the structure. Milo is using the piano in the Daytrotter studio instead of the usual Wurlitzer electric piano.
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Dying is Fine
original version appears on Ra Ra Riot
This was one of the first songs written by the band, back in January of 2006, and it has been evolving ever since. The verses have been subject to a few major changes; structurally, lyrically and melodically. The chorus was inspired by the E.E. Cummings poem "Dying Is Fine" (but Death and ultimately used words from the poem as lyrics. This version is nearly identical to the EP version, although we used whatever instruments were available in the Daytrotter studio.
Any attempt at creating a sense of isolation and insulation in song is typically felt as ingenuous and comfortable only in its one substantive dimension. The same goes for the feeling of hominess that can only be replicated if it is in fact being replicated, verbatim from a vivid mental postcard or what"s plainly laid out before two rolling and blinking eyes. It takes a burning imprint and a method of dislodging it from its realistic strings and pulleys to transfer it to other means of compassionate understanding.
Ra Ra Riot - a band of Syracuse University students past, present and on hiatus - find that balance -- already in its short life, literally putting heartbeats and pacemakers into the stuffing of all of the songs that they"ve thus far put to their name - an explosive tag of cheerful and misleading aggression. They"re alive in such a way that they can and do exist in a sort of mezzanine capacity, separate from all main levels, happily formed between states of joy and despair.
Wesley Miles" vocals are of a gentle persuasion that cascades into warmer temperatures and the string section closing in behind him is what gives the music its credible epicness. It"s been drafted from the wings of the higher echelons, where the waters are more sparkly and the untold deepness is indeed staggering. This deck, this mezzanine is not a purgatory at all, for that would mean more sunken spirits than anything, but it is a waiting room of sorts that needs unlocking, with many of the songs gradually making a claim for the present time being more of the payoff rather than the need to submit to a wild goose chase toward ultimate fulfillment, a la the long-term plans and the wishful thinking that overactive optimism can produce.
The things that we can feel most sure of are those which are happening immediately in front of us. We have the most peripheral with them and the detection of fingerprints and future courses are more obvious than at any other stage. When there"s a need to refer to ancient, cookie-cutter adages to see us through certain traumas and the ilk - time heals all pains and others in reference to the unexpected hurts that are bound to afflict us at one time or another - the one that gets led out more often than not and the one that gets used shamelessly and free of all irony is the one that preaches to never take today for granted.
It doesn"t have to be a snippet of verbiage that has to be taken to mean smelling the roses is tantamount to all else. It doesn"t have to refer to making sure that laziness doesn"t take over the controls, letting us get stoop-shouldered and complacent with our efforts in maximizing our small allotment of time. It can just mean to look forward to whatever it is that may happen out of the blue, out of the black and into the red when the morning curtains lift or part, popping open the bright stage lights of everyday performance.
All of this comes through the fog when a Ra Ra Riot song is being involved. The last song that Ra Ra Riot drummer John Pike brought to the band late this past spring, before he mysteriously died at the age of 23, was called "St. Peter"s Festival" and lead singer Miles describes Pike as being the truly optimistic New Englander in his voice and attitude toward this tune. He may be referring to the line in the song where he sings, "You know it"s worth the nights we wait there." It"s such a simple lyric, but the slight incline to Miles" delivery of it is like drilling it home. It"s that emphasis and the reiteration of it numerous times in the song that make it moving and reliable.
There"s a line in "Each Year," where Miles emerges from the danceable drums and the monologue-ish strings by singing, "Come on force it down," and it feels like a holy ghost yanking the microphone and telling it like it is, a plaintive dash of this is it, this is the way to get through it all. You take those lumps and iron out the wrinkles when they happen. There will always be water and steam and time if you retain the patience and the necessary strength. This band is in the business of making life seem easier to live even if it doesn"t feel like we"ve got enough time to do it all right.
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