The Ragtones

All the news, booze, thrills and fashion kills from The Ladies of Le Maison De Sauvignon.

Thursday, August 27, 2009
The Ragtones


My night wasn't all a spastic mind fuck. Got to see The Ragtones at Double Door with a whole gang of the ladies. I have to say, as horrible as it might sound, I was pleasantly surprised. Sometimes you never know what to expect when a friend tells you they're in a band. It could be extremely douchebaggy-creed type deal or, it could be what happened last night. I like Pepper Anne's take on their sound:"Nirvana meets the Black Keys", while I thought they were very :"The Doors during the Morrison Hotel phase mixed with The White Stripes". When you think about it, kind of the same comparison. Anyways, make sure to check out their set whenever possible. Great live show and great guys with really good original music.

Check out a couple of their songs on Myspace by clicking here. Apparently they're in the studio too....kudos, gents.
Posted by Lady Eve from La Maison De Sauvignon at 9:51 AM - lemaisondesauvignon.blogspot.com

http://chicagoist.com/2010/05/03/the_interiors_make_free_even_more_a.php

Opening tonight's show is The Ragtones, a relatively new trio that combines vocals, drums, guitar and keys into a frenetic swirl that whizzes by sounding like a wave of industrial leaning oldies. Hoarse vocals scrabble to catch perch above walls of heavily distorted keys, simple guitars dart in and out of the mix, and the whole thing just pounds by -- one second with the force of a sledgehammer, the next as gentle as a feather tickling a nipple -- catching everything around it in its wake. - Chicagoist

March 14, 2010

BY JIM DeROGATIS Pop Music Critic
As bands’ boasts of an unlikely combination of influences go, I haven’t heard a wilder one than the way guitarist-vocalist Chris Oakes described the Ragtones: as a combination of Tom Waits, the White Stripes and Nine Inch Nails. (Forget about “one of these things is not like the others”; none of them are!) Yet if the Chicago trio doesn’t quite pull off that unholy marriage, it’s easy to see what he was getting at: The band boasts a timeless, amorphous rootsiness at the same time that it feels thoroughly modern and sometimes downright alien. Initially formed to provide the backdrop for a fashion show, the response to that one-off live show was so encouraging that the group decided to keep going, and it’s been playing out regularly since early last year. The Ragtones — which are completed by keyboardist Jeremy Tromburg and drummer Mike Mazzola — are about to release a 10-song album aptly entitled “The Ragtones Time Travel Extravaganza.” A generous sampling of their songs is streaming online at www.myspace.com/ theragtones, and the band will perform March 22 at Double Door, 1572 N. Milwaukee.
- Jim DeRogatis - Chicago Sun Times

http://reviewsic.com/2010/02/02/the-ragtones-free-show-at-the-double-door-thursday/

The Ragtones- Free Show at the Double Door Thursday
By reviewsic
Despite only being a band in for roughly nine months, Chicago musicians The Ragtones have a pretty sizable number of reasons to brag. The boys have opened for Little Joy, played the Metro and in June of 2009 they released a self-titled 5 song EP. More recently they’ve been working on the final touches of their first full length, due out in late spring/early summer of this year, recording with Colin Sipos, who the band says is “now like the 4th member of our band”. Besides the completion of the record the band also plans “on shopping the hell out of the record and getting more people familiar with The Ragtones.”
Offering a blend of indie rock and blues, The Ragtones combine a number of elements such as rock and roll vocals and jazzy-bordering-on-dance-pop-keyboard to create their sound. You can check out this still relatively new group this Thursday as they play a free show at the Double Door alongside Dorian Taj, Soft Speaker, and Bitterwigs at 8pm.





The Ragtones online:

Myspace
Theragtones.com




Chris Oakes, Mike Mazzola, Jeremy Tromberg- the musicians behind The Ragtones- talked with Telegram Sam this week about musical favorites, first concerts, and what we can expect from the up and coming band.




Telegram Sam: What are your top three favorite cities/venues to play?

CO: Of the venues we’ve played in Chicago, my favorites are the Double Door, Metro, and Darkroom

JT: Quenchers is always a good time, too …

MZ: I know that’s four, but there’s so many great venues in this town, and we have yet to play some of our other favorites like The Hideout, Empty Bottle, and Schubas, etc..


T.S: If you could book a tour with any 3 bands, past or present, who would they be and why?

CO: Elvis – no explanation needed.

JT: Nick Cave and Modest Mouse

CO: Nick Cave and Modest Mouse??? That’s just stupid. I mean, they’re great and all, but out of ANYONE? Seriously??? So, I’ll add The Doors (for the drugs) and Willie Nelson (for the RV) … and the drugs.

MZ: I’m not a huge Elvis fan- Chuck Berry perhaps.

T.S: Give us some background on the current roster of songs you play with

CO: Lately, we’ve been trying to write more pop-inspired, happy songs … but as usual, they keep turning out dark, brooding, and more mysterious than expected.

MZ: We have pretty diverse tastes between the three of us. So I think we strive to make music that all three of us would want to listen to. As far as direction, I’d have to say it’s mostly feel. We get in a room and toss around ideas until things gel. Most of the songs write themselves if they’re right for us. The good ones tend to pour out naturally. Not to say we lack vision, but I don’t think we’ve sat down and talked much about “we need to write something that sounds like (or is about) this or that”.


T.S: What are your top three musical influences as a band?

The Ragtones: Not sure. In addition to having diverse tastes in music, we each play vastly different styles, so our 3 biggest influences may be each other… we’ve been compared to Tom Petty and NIN in the same sentence … so that should confuse you.


T.S: Give us a little history behind The Ragtones- how did the band come to be what it is today?

CO: Mzzo filled in on drums with me in the last year of Jesus and the Devil. I had been writing some songs that weren’t fitting into the standard garage-rock model that was J&D, so naturally a side project ensued. We initially thought of keeping things a very minimal two piece deal, but kept wondering if something was missing. To get the right pieces in place, we tried out bassists, keyboardists, and various guitarists. We finally decided on keeping the songs simple and keyboard heavy. Mzzo met Jeremy at a venue in Chicago who was just killer on the keys and things have been falling into place ever since.

T.S: Are there any instruments you don’t play already, but wish you did?

The Ragtones: Banjo, harmonica, chicken.

T.S: What other projects have you been a part of as individuals?

The Ragtones: Metropolis, Jesus and the Devil, and The Wisebloods, Cadillac Rope, Lasers and Fast and Shit, The Lust, Baby Scream Bizarre, Hobo and Boxcar, Mousetrap

T.S: Before you decided on The Ragtones, what other names did you come up with? Did you ever play under any of these other titles?

The Ragtones: Death Western, no … but wish we had.

T.S: Who was the first band/musician you saw live?

CO: Debbie Gibson

MZ: Neil Diamond

JT: Something gayer than Debbie Gibson? … no, nothing can top DG! … it was Susan Tedeschi
- Reviewsic

http://www.youmethemeverybody.com/2009/11/29/the-ragtones-destruction/ - You, Me, Them, Everybody