The Ropes are an indie rock duo from New York City, composed of

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

and

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...

Sharon Shy and

multi-instrumentalist A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays two or more musical instruments at a professional level of proficiency. Also known as doubling, the practice allows greater ensemble flexibility and more efficient employment of musicians, where ...

Toppy.

Formation and early work

Shy and Toppy founded The Ropes after meeting as interns at a record label. According to Shy, "While most people seem to bond over things they both like, I think it was a very long shared list of dislikes that kept our initial conversations going." They briefly began performing with a full band, but after describing working with other band members as “a living hell,” they chose to officially be a duo. The band's first release was an EP entitled ''Kill Her Off''. It was followed by the ''Cry to the Beat'' EP, with drums performed by Blake Fleming from

Mars Volta The Mars Volta is an American progressive rock band from El Paso, Texas, formed in 2001. The band's only constant members are Omar Rodríguez-López (guitar, producer, direction) and Cedric Bixler-Zavala (vocals, lyrics), whose partnership forms ...

. The Ropes released a full-length album entitled ''What They Do For Fun.'' Music critic Allan Raible chose ''What They Do For Fun'' as No. 15 on the

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

50 Best Albums of 2008. The Ropes disowned ''What They Do For Fun'' and the preceding EPs, calling them "Grotesque productions from grotesque times in the history of The Ropes, however some still seem to extract a bit of enjoyment and purity from these early recordings. Some of these songs may be revisited in the future… and many show up when we play live."

Releases from 2009-2014

The Ropes released the ''Be My Gun'' EP, followed by another EP that August, ''Clubs in Europe Forever''. They released the ''Love is a Chain Store'' and ''I Miss You Being Gone'' EPs in early 2010. The song "I Miss You Being Gone” was playlisted by Irish radio station

Phantom 105.2 TXFM (formerly Phantom 105.2) was a Dublin based radio station, founded in 1997 as a pirate radio station. TXFM broadcast under a contract awarded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI). The station ceased broadcasting on 26 October 2016 ...

, and "Love is a Chain Store" was playlisted by

NME Radio NME Radio is a radio station operated under ''NME'' magazine branding, that broadcast an alternative music format. It first began broadcasting on 24 June 2008 and ceased on 25 March 2013. The station was then revived in 2018 on NME's website. Ther ...

in March 2010. In 2011, the band released the ''Lack of Technology Made Me a Killer'' EP along with a video that was premiered at the 2012 SXSW music and film festival. The single "Lack of Technology Made Me a Killer" was chosen as Song of the Day by

KEXP KEXP-FM (90.3 MHz) is a non-commercial radio station licensed to Seattle, Washington, United States, specializing in alternative and indie rock programmed by its disc jockeys for the Seattle metropolitan area. The station is owned by the non-p ...

(90.3 FM) of Seattle. In October 2013, they released an EP titled ''The Man Who Refused to Be Born''. Two more EPs were released in 2014: ''I Want It All, So I Can Have Nothing'' and ''Sadness Is the Rich Man's Drug''. The Ropes toured throughout the US and UK, opening for acts such as

Crocodiles Crocodiles (family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to include all extant memb ...

Innerpartysystem Innerpartysystem (often stylized as InnerPartySystem) is an American electronic rock band. The group consists of Patrick Nissley, Jared Piccone and Kris Barman. The band is well known for their live performance lighting largely by Andrew Nissle ...

The Bravery The Bravery is an American rock band formed in New York City in 2003. The band consists of lead vocalist Sam Endicott, guitarist Michael Zakarin, keyboardist John Conway, bassist Mike Hindert and drummer Anthony Burulcich. They are best known ...

Chapel Club Chapel Club were an English indie- synthpop band from London, consisting of singer Lewis Bowman, drummer Rich Mitchell, bassist Liam Arklie and keyboardists/guitarists Michael Hibbert and Alex Parry. The band parted ways with Universal imprint ...

and

Sunday Girl "Sunday Girl" is a song recorded by the American new wave band Blondie, from the band's 1978 album ''Parallel Lines''. Written by guitarist Chris Stein, the song was inspired by Debbie Harry's cat, who was named Sunday Man—the cat had recentl ...

. The band's second and final LP as the Ropes was ''Post-Entertainment'', released in February 2013. In an IndieRay interview, the duo explained the title: "Post-entertainment is an examination of artist vs. entertainer. They are not one and the same. They are mutually exclusive. In a broader sense, it is an examination of the 'function' that music and art play in life. If art were to win the battle vs. entertainment – you would have Post-entertainment. Currently, one side is decidedly outnumbered."

R. Missing

The Ropes started a new project with a more electronic sound called R. Missing and released an album in March 2017 on the Talitres Records label titled ''Unsummering''. Music magazine ''

The Big Takeover ''The Big Takeover'' is a bi-annual music magazine published out of New York City since May 1980 by critic Jack Rabid. History Establishment Jack Rabid and Dave Stein began publishing ''The Big Takeover'' in May 1980 as a fanzine dedicated to N ...

'' wrote: "''Unsummering'' manages to be even more isolated lyrically than The Ropes’ famously nihilistic previous work, fully embracing complete detachment. Musically, fraught guitar and synth textures paint an image of an unstable world, held together only by tightly quantized electronic drum beats and Shy’s coolly dispassionate vocal."

Influences and references

The Ropes have been compared to

The Cure The Cure are an English Rock music, rock band formed in 1978 in Crawley, Crawley, West Sussex. Throughout numerous lineup changes since the band's formation, guitarist, lead vocalist, and songwriter Robert Smith (musician), Robert Smith has re ...

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...

Garbage Garbage, trash, rubbish, or refuse is waste material that is discarded by humans, usually due to a perceived lack of utility. The term generally does not encompass bodily waste products, purely liquid or gaseous wastes, or toxic waste produc ...

Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widel ...

, The Knife and the

Velvet Underground Weave details visible on a purple-colored velvet fabric Velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabri ...

, and they cite 1950s

French New Wave French New Wave (french: La Nouvelle Vague) is a French art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentation and a spirit of iconocla ...

as an influence. French magazine

Les Inrockuptibles ''Les Inrockuptibles'' () is a French cultural magazine. Started as a monthly magazine in 1986, it became weekly in 1995. Now it is a monthly again, since 2021. In the beginning, rock music was the magazine's primary focus, though every issue in ...

named the Ropes as one of its five bands to watch. Tricky sampled The Ropes' song "Love is a Chain Store" on the lead single "Does It" from his 2013 album "

False Idols ''False Idols'' is the ninth studio album by English trip hop musician Tricky (musician), Tricky, released on 23 May 2013. It is Tricky's first release on his label False Idols, an imprint of Studio !K7, !K7. The album features guest vocals by ...

Discography

*''Kill Her Off'' single - 2006 *''Cry to the Beat'' EP - 2008 *''What They Do for Fun'' LP - May 2008 *''Be My Gun'' EP - March 2009 *''Clubs in Europe Forever'' EP - August 2009 *''Love is a Chain Store'' EP - January 2010 *''I Miss You Being Gone'' EP - February 2010 *''Lack of Technology Made Me a Killer'' EP - October 2011 *''Post-entertainment'' LP - February 2013 *''The Man Who Refused to Be Born'' EP - October 2013 *''I Want It All, So I Can Have Nothing'' EP - May 2014 *''Sadness Is the Rich Man's Drug'' EP - October 2014

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ropes Indie rock musical groups from New York (state) Musical groups from New York City Musical groups established in 2005