Artist Ra Ra Riot

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Ra Ra Riot

Ra Ra Riot pours its restless energy into grooming coy pop songs with cello, violin, and lyrics that self-consciously quirky indie-rock devotees enjoy chirping along to. The New York band started to break out a bit with its 2008 album, The Rhumb Line, for Barsuk—the indie label that famously made a little something of a band called Death Cab For Cutie. Last year, vocalist Wes Miles also turned his attention to Discovery, an electronically enhanced collaboration with Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij. It certainly doesn’t help the frequent comparisons, but on last year’s The Orchard, Miles’ sailing vocals and racing numbers, like “Shadowcasting,” do well to separate themselves from the baroque-rock pack.

Updated 02/23/2011