Pitchfork

Remember Ratatat? Infectious melodies and synthy goodness that you can never get out of your head even if you try? You've been rapping for about "Seventeen Years"? Right, them.

The duo is back with the follow-up to 2004's self-titled release. The album, entitled Classics, will be released August 22 on XL Recordings. Ratatat-er Evan Mast took some time to talk to Pitchfork about the new album and tour plans.

"We worked on it for a long time, like two years maybe," Mast said. For me, my head has been so far into it. I think overall it's much more broad. We were super limited with the first recording--we were confined by space, we had no equipment. This time, things are easier. We expanded the space and recorded in a couple of different places. We had a lot more at our disposal with lots of different thing--recording techniques, a lot of outtakes, getting a lot of stuff out there."

"A lot of stuff" would include not only both acoustic and slide guitar, but sleigh bells and cello. "The little bits and pieces are what make the album...different sounds, different ideas," Mast said. "It's a lot more varied. I think people that know the first album will be kind of surprised. There are definitely mellow songs, but there are songs that are really weird that you wouldn't want to dance to. I think it's a good mix. We like making the dancey songs, but you can only do that so much. A lot of times we would start with a dance song and then went in a weird direction. You just follow where it goes."

They just kick it from their head, you know what I'm sayin'?

Classics tracklist:

01 Montanita
02 Lex
03 Gettysburg
04 Wildcat
05 Tropicana
06 Loud Pipes
07 Kennedy
08 Swisha
09 Nostrand
10 Tacobel Canon

Yeah, that last one is in the running for song title of the year.

Ratatat hit the road with Panther (aka Charlie Salas-Humar, guitarist and singer of The Planet The) in September.

Roll out:

09-05 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
09-06 Boston, MA - Middle East
09-07 Montreal, Quebec - Les Saints
09-08 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace
09-09 Ann Arbor, MI - Blind Pig
09-10 Chicago, IL - Five Star Bar (DJ set)
09-11 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
09-12 Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
09-15 Seattle, WA - El Corazon
09-16 Portland, OR - Berbati's Pan
09-18 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
09-20 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour
09-23 Pomona, CA - Glass House
09-24 San Diego, CA - Casbah
09-25 Phoenix, AZ - Rhythm Room
09-27 Dallas, TX - Gypsy Tea Room
09-28 Austin, TX - Emo's
09-29 Houston, TX - TBA
09-30 New Orleans, LA - TBA
10-02 Atlanta, GA - TBA
10-03 Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
10-04 Washington, DC - TBA
10-05 Philadelphia, PA - TBA