Ratatat plays South Side Friday

‘ ‘ ‘ There’s a beloved indie duo hitting Pittsburgh this Friday. They play loopy, danceable… ‘ ‘ ‘ There’s a beloved indie duo hitting Pittsburgh this Friday. They play loopy, danceable music with funky, mutated samples as they groove onstage. Are they Daft Punk? Nope. Are they Justice? Not even close. ‘ ‘ ‘ While both of those French electro-party acts can surely move a crowd, it’s Brooklyn’s own Ratatat stomping through Diesel this weekend. And with a face-shredding beat and guitar-heavy live show that’s as much punk as it is dance, they’ll leave you saying, ‘Daft who?’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Originally naming the band Cherry, synthesizer master Evan Mast and guitarist Mike Stroud switched to the less awful disco-sounding moniker Ratatat before releasing their self-titled debut in 2004. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘At the time, I was sharing a two-bedroom apartment with three people and recording out of my room,’ said Mast in an interview with The Pitt News. ‘ ‘ ‘ Humble beginnings, sure, but when your main instrument is a laptop computer, you could live in a janitor’s closet and still record a masterpiece. That said, much of Ratatat’s debut was recorded on Stroud’s Mac PowerBook ‘mdash; a trend that, with electronic bands popping up like pimples on a high school freshman, has quickly taken hold of the dance world. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ So what makes Ratatat different from the laptop-slamming masses? A healthy dose of rock ‘n’ roll, for one ‘mdash; the duo’s tunes rely just as much on lumbering beats and twisting samples as they do on live instrumentation and jagged, tearing guitar riffs, making for a live show that’s a bit more, well, lively. Now that’s not to say that a laptop show can’t truly kill ‘mdash; anyone who’s ever seen Girl Talk tear apart a club, give me an amen ‘mdash; but it’s certainly refreshing to see a band come to life and still make the crowd dance, dance, dance. ‘ ‘ ‘ Before releasing its second album, the modestly titled Classics in 2006, Ratatat put out a remix album. Of course, though the notion of an electronic band putting out a remix album is about as exciting as watching an Olympic speedwalking race (yes, that was an event), Ratatat’s effort was so uncharacteristically badass that it became as popular, if not more so, than its actual album. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘There are slightly cheesy tricks we’ve pulled on remix albums that we wouldn’t have on our own records,’ said Mast. ‘[Remixes] don’t have to evolve from beginning to end as much as our own instrumental tracks, but we like to pump out ideas quickly and move on.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Essentially, the duo combined two overly-serious genres ‘mdash; mainstream rap and dance music ‘mdash; and made something quite the opposite. Hearing the boys take on G-Unit’s ‘Stunt 101,’ for example, renews interest in an older hit. Or, in the case of that song, it makes a boring song less boring’mdash; a lot less boring. ‘ ‘ ‘ So while Ratatat overcame one musical cliche with, as of 2007, two remix records (the best track being a revamped, totally awesome Notorious B.I.G.’s ‘Party and Bulls**t’), the duo did buy into another: licensing songs to big businesses. The band has licensed tunes for commercials, movies (remember the party opening ‘Cloverfield’? Yup, that was them) and even TV shows (making ‘CSI’ hipper, one episode at a time). ‘ ‘ ‘ But it’s hard to be down on a band for just trying to make it. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘There just aren’t a lot of ways to make money in the music industry anymore. With the right movie, it can be a great way to introduce people to the song,’ said Mast. ‘But you run the risk of having the wrong license ‘mdash; having your song in an advertisement can be a real irritating way to put the music in front of people. A lot of the deals we’ve taken, at the time we needed the money. Those had to be the right decisions at the time we made them.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Thankfully for Mast and Stroud, they’ve come far enough that day jobs and tiny apartments are a thing of the past. Nevertheless, the duo emphasizes, ‘We’re still waiting for that moment when we can say ‘we’ve made it.” ‘ ‘ ‘ Even with international tours coming their way (the band hit Japan with Mogwai in 2006), the duo isn’t past having bumps in the road. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘Last spring, just after we’d gotten off our own U.S. tour, we flew immediately to Ireland to open for [Brazilian dance act] CSS. We were the first of three bands, and they put us on before they even opened the doors to the club,’ said Mast. ‘We’d gone to such great lengths to make that show, and we played to one or two people ‘hellip; it was a bit heartbreaking.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Now, with record No. 3 titled ‘LP3’ (aren’t they so clever with those titles?) hitting shelves, Ratatat is looking forward to bigger, more fun tours to match the album’s bigger, more fun beats. ‘ ‘ ‘ Just don’t call them Daft Punk.