NEWS: Ra Ra Riot - "Need Your Light" Out Today, February 19! Tour Begins March 2!

February 19, 2016 • Leave a Comment

Congratulations to Ra Ra Riot whose new album Need Your Light is out today, Friday, February 19 via Barsuk. Much of Need You Light was produced by Ryan Hadlock (VanceJoy, Blonde Redhead) exempting both the title track and "Water" which were produced by Rostam Batmanglij (Vampire Weekend, CharliXCX,Carly Rae Jepsen), who has a long-time association with the band.

Need Your Light was the #1 most added album at CMJ this past week and broke into the top 20 on FMQB's Non-Comm AAA chart. Speaking of the album Pitchfork declared that Ra Ra Riot have "hit the sweet spot." To date the band have shared 3 singles including the recently revealed "Foreign Lovers," which hit#2 on Spotify NMF and was included on Apple Music's "Best of the Week." You can read what Ra Ra Riot's Wes Miles had to say about the single in his Q&A with Interview Magazine here. Previously the band shared "Absolutely," which has surpassed 1 million streams on Spotify, and "Water" (a collaboration with Rostam), which has neared 2 million streams. The single peaked at #25 onFMQB and has been included in Sirius' Alt Nation's "Alt 18." KCRW posted it as "Today's Top Tune" earlier this year.

Ra Ra Riot will be doing a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" today (2/19) at 2pm EST. Find the band there at music.reddit.com. This evening WFUV will air a session the band recorded for them earlier this week. Tune in during the station's "The Whole Wide World" show at 8pm.

Known for putting on high energy and epic shows, Ra Ra Riot will be touring the US with dates kicking off March 2 in Albany, NY at The Hollow. They will play New York City's Webster Hall on March 4 and The Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles on March 24. Sun Club, PWR BTTM, & And The Kids are each confirmed as support on select dates, and the full tour is listed below. Tickets for the tour are available now.

Harpers Bazzar recently included Need Your Light in their "10 Albums You Need To Listen To In February," saying "the singles from Light don't stray from the band's fun indie vibe, especially 'Absolutely,' which the band fittingly released on New Year's Day. 'It's the year of absolutely being, absolutely nothing, absolutely crushing,' they sing, possibly foreshadowing what the forthcoming album holds.WNYC pegged "Absolutely' as an "undeniable bit of synthpop" and Stereogum labeled it "ebullient."

Need You Light is the fourth full-length from Ra Ra Riot and sees the band getting back to their house party roots without abandoning the more heady soundscapes they explored with 2013's Beta Love. The result is an album that's celebratory without being saccharine and that sees the group collectively mining their prior experiences in order to craft something that looks toward the future with an optimistic gaze.

Ra Ra Riot is Wes Miles (vocals),Mathieu Santos (bass), Milo Bonacci (guitar), Rebecca Zeller (violin), and Kenny Bernard (drums)