Based in NYC, Rat Wakes Red began as James Raftery creating songs in late night living room light. Odes to longing and loss, they found their way to producer Jeral Benjamin. Together they went into the studio with an engineer, 32 tracks, and using only James' guitar, voice, found-sound percussion, and Jeral's viola, created "Dizzy on Daddy", a lush, elegantly spinning song cycle of heartache and yearning. Romantic and edgy, cryptic and poetic. A sad and sweet wall of sound. Brim-full with sad melody, multiple harmonies and strings. "Dizzy on Daddy" was in rotation on over fifty stations nationwide, hitting CMJ Top 30 on three. Also, Rat Wakes Red was picked to be one of a select few bands to launch XM Satellite Radio's Unsigned Station.
In 2006, Rat Wakes Red released "Horizon Drops". Electric guitar, keys, drums, and bass provide the flipside to the previous acoustic rush. The songs are louder, faster and rock, with James' voice returning in harmonic hooks and cryptic choruses. Christy Davis (Kansas State Flower and Mold) played the kit while James strummed, picked, played and sang everything else with Jeral returning to produce and John Werner joining them on tracks 7 & 9 playing electric guitar. Radio quickly took notice. "Horizon Drops" was CMJ and AAA Top 30 on sixteen stations and spun on more than 100 across the USA and Canada.
In 2007, Rat Wakes Red emerged from the studio with new sounds and a new four song ep/dvd, Energy Garage, which began life during the sessions for Horizon Drops and was completed for this new collection. Three new songs, "Energy Garage", "You" and "Be Kissed" are spacey acoustic folk, pop with sweeping strings, and quirky rock nugget. "Anyway Now", originally released on Horizon Drops, shows up again on track 4 and as a music video on the dvd. Some new music and visuals to tie you over until the new full-length project is born. Recording is now under way and proving to be yet another departure as well as a new return to form.
Rat Wakes Red has played live shows from Toronto to New York City and opened for such artists as Bob Mould, Hayden, and Sloan.
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