Exactly 10 years ago today, the hooky, twangy Chicago indie rock duo Ratboys released an EP called Ratboy, their first-ever record. That means that today is effectively Ratboys’ 10th anniversary as recording artists. Back in 2011, when Ratboys first released that EP, the group was just the duo of Julia Steiner and Dave Sagan. Today, Ratboys are a full-on band, and under ideal circumstances, they’d be out touring right now to celebrate that auspicious occasion. Instead, they’ve just released a new surprise record that features re-recordings of all their earliest songs.

Last year, Ratboys released a new album called Printer’s Devil just a couple of weeks before the pandemic hit. When they had to cancel their touring plans, Ratboys stayed busy, dropping a lot of songs on compilations, including our own. A month ago, Ratboys released a one-off single called “Go Outside.” As it turns out, “Go Outside” is the last song on Happy Birthday, Ratboy. (“Go Outside” is on the record but not on the Bandcamp stream.) The other 10 tracks are new versions of old songs.

On Happy Birthday, Ratboy, the band’s current lineup covers all five of the songs on the 2011 Ratboy EP, and they also play five more rare, early tracks from Steiner and Sagan’s days in college. These new re-recordings show just how solid the band’s songwriting has always been, and it’s cool to hear them sounding sharper and more polished, buffed up to full-band arrangements. Stream Happy Birthday, Ratboy below.

Happy Birthday, Ratboy is out now on Topshelf.