Ra Ra Riot formed in January 2006, playing at houses and venues around the Syracuse University campus. They recorded a demo in February 2006 titled My Favorite Cat. The band started to attract attention due to their energetic live shows, enough to gain an appearance at the CMJ Music Marathon, fewer than six months after their formation. Following this appearance, their live show received the first of several favorable reviews from SPIN.com, who called them “one of the best young bands we’ve heard in a really long time”. They went on to open for Art Brut and Bow Wow Wow in New York City, toured the UK twice on their own, then returned, opening for the Editors (footage of which can be found on Crackle); they also toured North America supporting Tokyo Police Club. Their first solo headlining tour of the U.S. was completed in 2007, and in early 2008, they embarked on a second. The band was also invited to play the Iceland Airwaves Festival, inReykjavík, Iceland. They have recorded three sessions on the national online radio station WOXY and three for the acclaimed Daytrotter sessions at Futureappletree studio 1 in Rock Island, Illinois.
In 2007, they made their first appearance at South by Southwest and headlined a show at the Seaport Music Festival in New York City. The band returned to appear again at the South by Southwest Music Conference in March 2008.
The band released their second album called The Orchard on August 24, 2010. “The Orchard” was produced by Ra Ra Riot and Andrew Maury, and 9 of the ten tracks were mixed by Death Cab For Cutie‘s Chris Walla, and one mixed by Vampire Weekend‘s Rostam Batmanglij. The band played several new songs from the album during a February performance in Brooklyn, NY.
