Mike Ratel - ProfilesArchive

About Me

Mike is a musician/photographer in the Washington, DC area. As a bassist he has played with The Burnt Ernies, Stranger Paradise, The Haigs, and Sarah Azzara. In the early 1990's he played guitar and fronted his own band called Downtime. The song Guest List was re recorded for the movie King Leisure S.O.B directed by Pat DiNizio of the Smithereens. Below you will find a clip of the movie where King Leisure (played by DiNizio) stages his come back performance. Mike played guitar, bass, keys, and bell kit on the song. Mark Reiter from the Daycare Swindlers played drums and recorded the song at his Sonic Boom studios. Sarah and Ben Azzara provided vocals and hand claps. In addition to bass and guitar Mike dabbles with cello, keys, and ukulele.
Mike specializes in glamour and musician photography. Below you will see some examples of Mike's photography.

Don't mess with the ACS!

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 6/24/2006
Band Website: mikeratel.com
Influences: Cheap Trick, Ramones, Replacements, The Byrds, Flaming Groovies, Smithereens, Superchunk, Go Gos, Sex Pistols, Blake Babies, Lemonheads
Sounds Like: A disaster
Type of Label: None

My Blog

Heading down to Florida for a lawn mower race!

I am heading down to Florida for 3 days of USLMRA lawn mower racing. Yes, it’s GRASSCAR season again! I will be about 1.5 hours south of Orlando. The project’s web site i...
Posted by Mike Ratel on Wed, 02 Apr 2008 05:17:00 PST

My band needs a singer

I have a band which is right now doing old punk and new wave covers on ukulele, bass, and keys. We need to find a singer! If you are in your 30’s or 40’s and can meet us at 14t...
Posted by Mike Ratel on Wed, 02 Apr 2008 05:12:00 PST

My new DVX100a

I made the plunge and bought a Panasonic DXV100a. That makes me far cooler than you. If you have the time to read my blog then you can’t be very cool anyway. I am using the DVX...
Posted by Mike Ratel on Wed, 19 Mar 2008 06:14:00 PST

By the grace of God go I...

Last night on 95 in Delaware there was a car about 40 - 50 yards infront of me I'm guessing. The car veered left a bit and then sharply veered right and headed straight for the shoulder. The car...
Posted by Mike Ratel on Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:25:00 PST

Do you have any instrumentals?

Hey,I need some background music for my movie! It's a documentary on a grass roots movement in motor sports. Do you have anything recorded that fits? Looking for all genres. Thanks...
Posted by Mike Ratel on Wed, 22 Aug 2007 11:58:00 PST

I am shooting a documentary

For the past couple of months I have been shooting video and film footage of what might be called a grass roots movement in motor sports. I plan to edit the footage into a 30 minute short which ...
Posted by Mike Ratel on Wed, 25 Jul 2007 10:40:00 PST

Can anyone sing out there?

Hey, Things are going well with the uke band that we may call the Beautiful Disasters. We'd like to add someone who can sing and play guitar/ukulele/autoharp/whateva. Let us know if you kn...
Posted by Mike Ratel on Wed, 11 Jul 2007 11:22:00 PST

Editor needed

I am shooting a short documentary on motor sports and I am looking for an editor who has experience working with miniDV. If anyone knows anyone pass them my way. I will also need original ...
Posted by Mike Ratel on Thu, 28 Jun 2007 03:27:00 PST

Uke Group Web Site

I started a web site for my uke band that is playing punk rawk/new wave covers. It's at www.geocities.com/mickfoto. We'd like to add an acoustic guitar and a second uke. If you're in DC and you'...
Posted by Mike Ratel on Tue, 19 Jun 2007 10:22:00 PST

Cover band

I have started playing ukulele with my friend Schecky who has just started playing bass. Our friend Beth will be playing keys with us and we hope to do some amusing covers at open mics a couple ...
Posted by Mike Ratel on Sat, 26 May 2007 06:10:00 PST