Ratboys have announced a deluxe edition of their stellar album Singin’ to an Empty Chair, which was originally released back in February. The new version of the album features covers of tracks by some of Ratboys’ favorite bands, including PUP, Ducks Ltd., Wild Pink, Bad Bad Hats, and Free Range. Additionally, their own cover of The Marked Men’s “Fix My Brain” they recording for a SiriusXM session will also be included on the expanded version.
Regarding the new release, the band’s Julia Steiner said: “We thought it’d be fun to cover one of our favorite songs and then to ask some of our closest friends and biggest inspirations in music to put their spin on some of our new songs. It’s a total trip and such an honor to hear the album songs transformed into something new entirely, and we can’t say thank you enough to our pals for making it happen.”
As for the Marked Men cover, which is out today, Steiner added: “The guys, especially Marcus, were already long-time fans of The Marked Men (and of Jeff Burke’s other band Radioactivity), but when I first heard it more recently, ‘Fix My Brain’ was a total revelation to me. I hyper-fixated on the song in ways that are pretty rare for me these days: I would find excuses to steal away and listen to it on repeat, and, when we got home from tour, I immediately sat down with my acoustic guitar to learn the chord changes.”
Check out the band’s take on “Fix My Brain” below, in addition to their newly released NPR Tiny Desk performance. Pre-order the deluxe edition of Singin’ to an Empty Chair here before it drops on September 18 via New West Records.
