The friendship of guitarist-vocalist Julia Steiner and guitarist Dave Sagan of indie-rock quartet Ratboys started with a burned mix CD. And it recently culminated with the release of another one — albeit of a more ambitious variety.
The pair came together over a shared love of music in 2010 as Notre Dame University freshmen and never stopped sharing. Their meeting came about after Steiner noticed that Sagan's Facebook profile featured a Rickenbacker bass and she took a chance with a friend request.
The Chicago-based band — which performs Thursday, Nov. 2 at Paper Tiger — has spun that affinity for sharing music into a string of five albums since 2015, including The Window, which dropped this year. Philadelphia act Another Michael opens the show.
Ratboys' sound mixes classic indie-rock songwriting with a hint of alt-country, fervent guitar playing and an exuberant vibe that practically explodes from the speakers. Indie bible Pitchfork described the group as being in the "Superchunk/Breeders tradition," an accurate summary which Steiner finds flattering.
When Steiner and Sagan met and began swapping CDs, the former was a bedroom songstress, given the name "Ratboy" as an inside joke among high school friends. Sagan heard her potential and decided to add his own bit, birthing a musical duo that eventually grew into a band.
Things started rocky. Since the Ratboys name sounds fitting for a '70s punk outfit, the group frequently ended up on mismatched bills.
"We would get booked on hardcore, aggressive punk shows," Steiner said. "[But] people were open to our type of music. At the time I was playing acoustic guitar, so it was very different from the punk bands on the bill."
Empowered
It took Steiner a while to start playing electric, and she admitted she never so much as touched a plugged-in guitar prior to meeting Sagan. She credits her musical collaborator with pushing her — and the whole band — to think outside the box.
She also credits the legendary Chicago indie scene for inspiring the band's pursuit of a sound unencumbered by conventional expectations.
"That's empowered us to make the music we want to make and not worry about how it will be received here," she said.
After a series of increasingly assured releases, Ratboys this year dropped The Window, a new high-water mark that surpasses its previous best, 2020's tuneful Printer's Devil. Some of The Window's depth as a musical document stems from its COVID-19 layoff. That lull in shows gave the band time to focus and tinker with the recording despite its preference to keep touring.
"It sounds finished in a way I'm not sure our other records do," Steiner said.
The emotional title track provides an example of Ratboys' ability to craft songs that work on multiple levels.
"It deals with the death of my grandmother and processing loss but also the joy that comes from remembering someone who you've lost and all of those things," Steiner explained. "So, that is a mix of emotions, but it makes me quite happy, in an odd way, to play that song."
Another clear highlight is the album opener, "Making Noise for the Ones You Love," easily its noisiest and most rocking cut. It's hard to imagine a song this raucous being birthed when Steiner was creating songs in a bedroom with an acoustic guitar.
No pressure
Even stacked against those high points, "Black Earth, WI" emerges as The Window's creative zenith. Its collaborative spirit goes back to those compilation CDs from Steiner's and Sagan's early friendship. The track features poetic lyrics, plaintive vocals, an epic guitar solo and even a "Hey Jude"-esque middle interlude — all over the course of its nine-minute runtime. Sort of like a mini-mix CD.
"That's probably [the track that] transformed the most over playing together as a full band and writing together," Steiner said. "We were enjoying ourselves and not putting pressure on ourselves to end the song early."
Given the strength of The Window, it's clear Ratboys has the ability to make compelling music. But can a guitar-driven indie band build a respectable career in a day when pop and hip-hop rule?
Steiner thinks so. She points to pop singer Olivia Rodrigo's choice of The Breeders as an opener for her next tour as a sign that mainstream artists are drawing openly from indie influences.
Still, the members of Ratboys are realistic about their expectations, Steiner added.
"Being an indie rocker is quite challenging and super different from how it was 10 years ago," she said. "While the ceiling is maybe higher, the floor is kind of lower."
$16, 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2, Paper Tiger, 2410 St. Mary's St., papertigertx.com.
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