The Ratmando Band

Funky, native american rhythm and blues, with a zappa influence and a folk feel. It's alternative silence. Women sing, but men are also holding their own...and yet... It's jazz funk fusion that you can sing to.

Ratmando started out as a small critter living in a back alley of the pizza parlor called The Pleasant Cafe in Roslindale, Massachusetts. As it starved for musical knowledge, jumping from one fledgling club to another, it found Passim's in Cambridge. It was a wondeful find. It sucked up the tunes and drank in the sounds from people named Dave, Arlo, Kate, and Bridget. They flowed with folkages, and blues and permeated the air with all sorts of tunages. The critter soon ran from subway station to subway station, following the trails of open guitar cases and flights of instruments from the many musicians in that subterranean land of mystery. And the critter sang along. In bands it would play, striking beats, and blending smoothly with the funk and the beats, and the chorales and the fusions. Whether Native American blendings of the drum circles of the Mic Macs, or the beatnik bongos of the pseudohippies in the post punk power pop bands in the early 1990's, the critter learned, performed, and played.

Then came the big C. Cancer. Doctors lied to the RatmanDo, and said the Chief Rat would never sing. But the doctors aren't as smart as the voice. The Critter transformed, and educated more. From the shores of Provincetown to the land of San Francisco Bay, in the Club Bimbo's, and Boomerang, in swing bands of 22 members, and punk rock bands of three. The education continued. San Francisco State University and California Institute of the Arts transformed the Chief Rat into a voice of MUSIC, and MIDI, and Beyond the SOUNDS and beyond the big C.

The two-K's arrived. Critter bonded with another. Jazz became the household sound. And it insinuated itself into the tones and treasure of the chords. Voicings changed, and rhythmic notions expanded. Chief Rat was now ready to move into DOING and being and going beyond what Rats DO. So the critter did only what critter could do, and that rat would do, man, rat's would do, what rat's would do.

The Rats Play where they do. It's a process of performance that pertains to the performers... and powerful to the audiences as they participate.

Frank Zappa, Arlo Guthrie, Kate Bush and Bob Dylan. George Clinton and Stevie Wonder as well as Peggy Lee and Henry Rollins. "It's a warm night in a drum circle that puts your feet in motion in a disco by a campfire singing along." Says the critics anyway.

Sitar and Protools. Yamaha guitars and Kawai piano. Cakewalk and Dumbek.

Lots of vocals blended with lots of rhythm. Lots of fun, and great lyrics. (see ratmando.net)