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Rabbit Rabbit

by Speedy Ortiz

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    - "Cactus Flower" Band Exclusive Color
    - Light Pink in Swamp Green Color-in-Color
    - Limited to 1,500
    - Gatefold Jacket with 12x24” Lyric Poster
    - Art by Sadie Dupuis

    Includes unlimited streaming of Rabbit Rabbit via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days

      $28 USD or more 

     

  • Cassette + Digital Album

    - Light Pink cassette shell
    - Includes download card
    - Art by Sadie Dupuis

    Includes unlimited streaming of Rabbit Rabbit via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days

      $13 USD or more 

     

  • T-Shirt/Shirt

    - Printed on Next Level 1580
    - Art by Mattie Lubchansky
    ships out within 5 days

      $35 USD or more 

     

  • Sweater/Hoodie

    Brand: Lane Seven LS14001 Premium Pullover Hoodie
    Color: Navy
    Art by K Czap (charmgardens.com)
    ships out within 5 days

      $50 USD or more 

     

  • - (1) 5" x 7" Scratch Pad, 50 Sheets
    - (2) Screen Printed Tantalus-I twist action Pink & Silver brass ballpoint pens (Black ink)
    - Art by Sadie Dupuis & Andy Molholt
    ships out within 5 days

      $20 USD or more 

     

  • From Sadie: Dragon’s Blood Elixir has been my favorite hot sauce for 13 years, and this is our third limited edition collaboration together. Speedy Ortiz - Carrot Carrot is a hot sauce that is friends with our new album Rabbit Rabbit. I mentioned to Doug at Dragon’s Blood that we all used to love a carrot “carbacoa” at a now-closed Philly taco shop, and he one upped that idea with a “carrot asado”-inspired flavor profile. In addition to farmers market carrots, Carrot Carrot features multiple kinds of zucchinis and cucumbers “for more texture and a fuller taste profile,” ripe paper lantern habanero peppers which put it at an 11 out of 15 on their spice scale, fire roasted tomatoes and yellow and green squash which give it a darker orange color, and other tasty pepper blends and spicy seasonings. It’s a joy for us getting to work with Doug and Alan on these, as every single one of their sauces is inventive and delicious. Go get Carrot Carrot while you can!
    ships out within 5 days

      $15 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    - 4-Panel Digipak
    - Art by Sadie Dupuis

    Includes unlimited streaming of Rabbit Rabbit via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days

      $15 USD or more 

     

  • Chess Tee
    T-Shirt/Shirt

    - Printed on Gildan 5000
    - Art by Mattie Lubchansky

    Sold Out

  • Playing Cards

    - Eco-Friendly Custom Poker Deck Playing Cards
    - Art by Sadie Dupuis

    Sold Out

  • Motel Tee
    T-Shirt/Shirt

    - Printed on Gildan 5000
    - Art by Mattie Lubchansky

    Sold Out

1.
Kim Cattrall 03:18
2.
You S02 03:37
Falling in love with LA, where the cars cut you off from the right lane. Love cuts the profit today. Buckle up in your helltrap with no escape, with no escape, with no escape, with no escape. It’s no small claim to say you lost your touch. So give a hand for every vintage popped on your dime. Build the bonds with plasticine, kicked back without needs. Falling in love with LA, where a wash and fold quiets your enemies. Suck up’s deluxe with your stay. Every Friday you pan out. Now what’s at stake if your star descends? Another helltrap takes you in. Law of the land’s not in layman’s. Showdowns are show, not worth payment. Dead letter office got your friends united. Couldn’t help but wonder why. It’s no small claim to say your acolyte is a voice in your head you drown out when your work’s not sitting right. Head to your weekend home, pass out for the strike. Is this what love’s like? Falling in love with LA where the cars cut you off from the right lane. The hills give a kiss for good luck. Just an arch of the lips, acting nice as fuck. Laughing like fair play’s a joke, cuz the dive bar plays sob songs your buddy wrote. Ready for notes? The love you claim is for no one other than you and cronies who excuse your mess. Now sit your ass down.
3.
Scabs 02:51
Born-to-scab solipsists are boogying for big commission. Yes in your backyard you take handshake squeezes to extremes. Nihilistic greeting to a flytrap hungry for a fist. Don’t talk to me. Don’t talk. Who do you wanna prove you’re a big dog to? You turn the screw, but you’re using the wrong size tool. (Don’t talk to me, don’t talk to me, don’t talk to me, don’t talk to me.) If we’re adults then why macromanage every conviction? (Don’t talk to me.) Breaks are out till feet below. Four on floor in plague and snow. (Don’t talk to me.) Storm atop a broke umbrella. Plans of the universe are not clear to you. Don’t talk. Who do you wanna prove you’re a big dog to? You turn the screw but you’re using the wrong size tool. (Don’t talk to me, don’t talk to me, don’t talk to me, don’t talk.) Keep the lines moving, we’re all supposing you’ll shoot your shot in space. No ostentation—help me help make sense of revenge in my veins, revenge in my veins. Taunting me with comment slop. Monosyllables exhaust so don’t talk, don’t talk. (Don’t talk to me, don’t talk to me, don’t talk to me, don’t talk to me.)
4.
Plus One 03:16
Three weeks you lived next door, and only now just thought to float your head around, ask me what’s up. All the puzzle pieces laid out in the street, soaked in the acid rain, trampled by both our feet. Go on without me now, a tattoo on your back. Cotton swabs and vinegar sometimes take the scratch out. Meant a lot to you, once upon a ride. But I’m on the ground tonight. Songs are for telling and records for show. Stole my split necklace half to see where I’d help you go. The other piece, it doesn’t fit where I hoped. Go on without me now, a tattoo on your lip. Sucker punched to pucker up, can’t forget the swelling. Meant a lot when you were hauling a long con. When I say long, I mean so long. Don my petticoat. Lace around my throat holding up my head, no good thoughts in it. Day trip to the lakeside with sick in your mouth. Share it with playboys whose names you still can’t get down. Yellow bellied, sunning to white. All the puzzle pieces don’t change how you like. Go on without me now. A tattoo on your thigh taught you to put one foot first. How’s the other, lagging behind? Said a lot when you stayed backstage for the show. Call me when you need a plus zero.
5.
Cry Cry Cry 04:26
Pressure, power, buyer beware. Rabbit rabbit. Meet me out there. Lie of lies. Three ways to cry lost on me–a cactus, bristling, inflexible through lifetime specials. Three ways to cry, and one is silence. He couldn’t see tears have meaning. A red flower caught in a crosswind it can’t withstand. I know my way round the stats on pain, but I never stop and feel it. Cut my hand, make a blood pact, then when I bite my tongue I’ll mean it. Pressure, power, buyer beware. Rabbit rabbit. Meet me out there. Beauty unravels, better get raptured. Keep your theories quiet when driven. Terminal midnight, switched at the next flight. Take advantage when they’re giving. Wednesdays, always like a firemen’s parade that downplays the risk when you mess with flames. I’m all-knowing like the black box pulled from the crash I research nightly just to keep from a half night’s sleep. Do I still deserve my sanity? Make my way down the path of pain but I never stop to see it. Cut my hand, make a blood pact, then when I bite my tongue I’ll mean it. Pressure, power, buyer beware. Rabbit rabbit. Meet me out there. Pressure, power, buyer beware. Rabbit rabbit. Meet me out there. Tears on the nightstand, highball in the upper hand. Guess I’m clear, whichever card’s chosen. Endless scroll through the shadows known to me only as “acquaintance.” Got five bucks by the jukebox and now I’m down to confess secrets. I know my way round the stats on pain but I never stop and feel it. I’m coming for your neck. I never stop and feel it. I’m coming for your neck. Never stop and feel it.
6.
Time to say goodbye to my double, platinum from summer. Wiped a nose bleed—with my white jean jacket fringe—from the stress of this martyrdom. Ha ha ha ha. Welcome to my stash, potent colors I make predominant. Turn the blue brights off when passing out of an abundance of passion. I am an artist and I am for hire, taking materials out of the pyre. Working for lovers hunting for meaning. You can take it from me. At the Victory Bar, there’s a neon in serifs I admire. Scratch the logo off the matchbook ‘fore I do my face up for rush hour. I am an artist with keys to the city in my possession once everyone leaves. Working for pundits unsure of their feelings. You can take them from me. You can take them from me. Ha ha ha ha. I am an artist, I’ll say whatever. Drinking the cool whip, maniacally chattering. I’m an artist, two times with feelings. Can you take them from me? Can you take them from me? Can you take them from me? Can you take them from me? Ha ha ha ha.
7.
Kitty 02:28
While you sleep, the kitty-corner neighbor is burning up her lot. How do you stay so quietly wrapped up when she’s screaming, “I’ll do whatever the fuck I want!”? All of my bad dreams run like errands now: rang too high a shift tab up and got called out, or I fly to the wrong city while you wait on another continent. Minor years occasionally with night terrors. Hypervigilance kept me up for drag races at 3 o’clock, over the potholes and the trolley tracks. Wouldn’t wanna sacrifice my hours like that, but wishing you a sweet dream makes me desperate. And I’m known for latching on till the sour end reveals its forwarding address. I’m top 10, so don’t go off my grid again. Waiting around till the sour end gives out for good. That’s life, I guess.
8.
X was waiting for me in the service lot, like I thought. All night offering overkill, nothing I’d ever want. Had to type up in detail exactly what happened, and where. In case things ever escalate, we need proof that he scared me Hard to say what happens, but they keep on coming up with stories about our past—though we share in none, don’t know each other. I’m underwater and soundless. Never betray that I’m sinking down bathwater he threw me in. Facing facts, he’s one of many. Don’t wear a ponytail. If you can help it, don’t go alone. That clown doesn’t work here anymore, but there’s no way to stop him coming out to the gig if he paid for a ticket tonight. Barks in my ear like an extinction burst. Ignore it, alright? Hard to say what happens but they keep on coming up with stories about our past, though we share in none, don’t know each other. I’m underwater and soundless. Never betray that I’m sinking down bathwater he drew. Being honest, others draw it too. Please speak only what’s real to me or the static takes over. Z would hit their head on a cabinet, wake up, ask me what I’d done. Calls came from different numbers, faking like they were downstairs. Had to type up in detail exactly what happened and where. Hard to say what happens but they keep on coming up with stories about our past—though we share in none, don’t know each other. Taking the honest way out: all your projections are not about me. Wet, shivering. Wring me out, I’m not for pleasure.
9.
By god I swallow when it’s in my face rather than hawking out a spit-take taste. Replace my predecessor, overblown. No little bunny wears a rabbit skin coat. Bee sting started me transforming, crawling out of my skin till I came out kinda great. Fly by, killer on the night sky. Wings an invocation. Come on baby, sting back. Not every videotape needs rewinding. Up to your neck, misidentified. Hector the leader till he’s lobbying hard. Why should a puppy drink the hair of the dog? Bee sting started me transforming, crawling out of my skin till I came out kinda great. Turnstile, terminate my old self. Fuck off, my cackle shimmers like some crystal. Fly by, killer on the night sky. Hit me with your best try. Circle the differences between the pages. Sometimes the image really is the same. A little lambchop resists the pull. It’s not the sheep who’s gotta sport the wool. So what’s the takeaway fit for my tongue? Let’s split the legwork and need not run. It isn’t luxury you need to float. No little bunny wears a rabbit skin coat. Bee sting started me transforming, crawling out of my skin. Look, I came out kinda great. Fly by, killer. Fly by, killer. Fly by, killer. Fly by, killer killer.
10.
Exit on 90, an ear upon my mindfulness audiobook rallies me after hours. Conflict, even when parenthetic, makes hiding out my favorite use for cars. I’m so defenseless. I worship infographics. Now the year’s up, lessons were left unspent. With regrets, I barricade the exits, fix my oxygen last in emergency. Emergency, that’s you and me. Freeze the frozen. (Emergency.) Kick the sun out into the mountains. (You and me.) Striking first like that’s victimhood. (Emergency.) Freeze the frozen and play possum—for how long? Underneath my desk, prayers and thoughts are pointless. Borealis whispers, but the lights burn. You see it? One aspect of a silhouette keeps your vision blurred past a safe return. Freeze the frozen. (Emergency.) Kick the sun out into the mountains. (You and me.) Striking first like that’s victimhood. (Emergency.) Freeze the frozen and play possum—for how long? Emergency, you and me. I’m so embarrassed, I danced around my ethics. Now my cardiac’s blowing up my spot. The message you garner from a legend is never wow. Leave me now, hot shot.
11.
The Sunday 03:20
Cross out the ending: Sunday’s coming Monday. Swap in the start, Monday’s next to impossible. Prone on a glue trap I placed down. Only chronic action gnaws me out. Ask me anything, even if it’s painful. Come back on Monday, validate your patience. Drain a couple cans in the noon heat. Only need the flattery semi-weekly. Bandaid on my ego: it’s peeling. Practice my act on a beam going on top of our tallest building. Drumming as hard as I can. I want the power and my beat is dangerous, puncturing the sky. Sunday’s coming Monday. Treat me for constant 180s. X-ray’s in my shape but it isn’t me. Circle past the weekend, take my demons swimming again. Practice my act on a beam going on top of our tallest building. Drumming as hard as I can. I want the power and my beat is dangerous. Yes, I want the power and I think I’m made for it. Clouds across the sky.
12.
Brace Thee 05:29
Drawn to the chain of horses and their smell of ire. I’m never coming back now, but it was a nice try. Shine a flash in the corner where you gloved my pulse. Destroy all of my photographs. What you did, we both remember. Treachery—though I braced for all the tipped scales, head slams, poisonings. Can’t brace for centuries. Sorrow opened up the void. All the shapes you backed me into, an outline I cannot shake off. But with praise washing over me, I’m fine. Wait for a moon with lightning. Veil the tired thirst. You’re gonna end the world. I know you ended mine first. Treacherous. Trust: something I’m sorry I once gave you. Treachery—though I braced for all the tipped scales, head slams, poisonings. I can’t protect me. But with praise washing over me, I’m fine. With praise washing over me, I’m fine.
13.
Ghostwriter 02:21
Song of the wandering idiot’s our song. The criminal element left some stones unturned, their coats in my car. For every river a drawbridge, for every motion an adjective. Every nickel I’m dimed, water logging my slime. How to grow up? Lately I don’t really push much. I’m tired of anger. How to move on? Even comets are staying in one spot. I’m tired of anger. Lickety split, got lost components. So I get tight with customer service, take a backwards road, say thank you with omens. For every white lie I got a gray one and a reason for every failure. Every nickel I’m dimed, I just take it offline. How to grow up? Lately I don’t really push much. I’m tired of anger. How to move on when the ocean is coming up strong? I’m tired of anger. How do I let go? Yank a dandelion and blow. I’m trying, I’m trying. Trying.

about

“Rabbit rabbit” is a superstitious incantation repeated on the first of each month to bring good fortune—a belief practiced by Sadie Dupuis, the guitarist, singer and songwriter of the Philadelphia rock quartet Speedy Ortiz. As a child with OCD, she followed arbitrary rituals, a coping mechanism commonly triggered by early trauma, and “rabbit rabbit” was one that stuck. When Dupuis began to parse difficult memories for the first time in her songwriting, it felt like kismet to name her band’s resultant fourth record after an expression of luck and repetition: Rabbit Rabbit. Instead of re-treading old routines, the record finds Speedy Ortiz interrogating conventions, grappling with cycles of violence and destructive power dynamics with singular wit and riffs. Rabbit Rabbit finds Speedy Ortiz at its most potent: melodically fierce, sonically mountainous, scorching the earth and beginning anew.

Speedy Ortiz debuted as Dupuis’ home-recording outlet in 2011, but the solo project quickly blew up into a full-fledged band beloved around the world for its pointed lyrics, disarmingly hooky choruses, and musical ingenuity—as well as its activism. The group graced festival stages from Bonnaroo to Primavera, supported heroic artists from Foo Fighters to Liz Phair, and brought acts including Mitski and Soccer Mommy on some of their earliest tours. In 2016, the band relocated from Massachusetts to Philadelphia, with the lineup changing shortly thereafter to include sonically inventive guitarist Andy Molholt (Laser Background, Eric Slick), drivingly melodic bassist Audrey Zee Whitesides (Mal Blum, Little Waist), and heavy-hitting drummer Joey Doubek (Pinkwash, Downtown Boys). Rabbit Rabbit is the first Speedy album to feature the longtime touring members as full contributors, and Dupuis and her bandmates blaze with unpredictability, their intrepid playing thrusting songs in exhilarating new directions.

The gnarled guitars and imagistic lyrics that defined 2013’s Major Arcana, 2015’s Foil Deer and 2018’s Twerp Verse are still present, but Rabbit Rabbit’s recordings feel as vast as a desert landscape. “As I was channeling scenes and sentiments from decades past, I wanted to honor the bands I loved when I first learned guitar, ones that taught me to get lost in the possibilities of this instrument,” Dupuis recalls. Speedy Ortiz delved into its members’ most formative musical favorites—post-hardcore, the Palm Desert scene, alternative metal—pushing the agile complexity of the guitars and forceful rhythmic interplay between the drums and bass to unprecedentedly tricky extremes. “Every voice has a narrative,” offers Doubek of the arrangement process. “There is so much feeling and melody to interpret, and so much room to express it.”

The desert’s guidance extended to their choice of recording locales: Rancho de la Luna in Joshua Tree (Mark Lanegan, PJ Harvey) and Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas (Sparta, Fiona Apple). They worked with engineer and co-producer Sarah Tudzin (Illuminati Hotties, Pom Pom Squad), who imbued the riff-heavy record with righteous heat. She also helped carve space for the electronic tones of Dupuis’ ornate pre-production, completed using a synesthetic constraint in which she immersed herself in a different color to arrange each song. Former bandmates Darl Ferm and Devin McKnight added overdubs to fill out the record’s already-teeming sound—an homage to Rancho’s sprawling, collaborative Desert Sessions project. David Catching (earthlings?, Eagles of Death Metal), Rancho’s owner, also added mesmerizing lap steel, a favorite moment for the whole band.

In her past few years of work as a writer and interviewer, Dupuis recognized a recurring thread among artists with parallel backstories to her own: music had provided escapism from childhood abuse, but those same turbulent circumstances had normalized the grimmest aspects of the music industry. These were flashbacks she’d shied from, and constant touring enabled that avoidance. But Rabbit Rabbit pulls no punches, either in its self-reflections or its call outs. With a Touch and Go-indebted maelstrom of distorted solos, lead single “You S02” trains its gaze on apologists, union-busters, and other ex-punks who don’t live up to their public ethos. Sing-song verses explode into a candy-tipped arrow of a chorus on the danceably off-kilter “Scabs,” a critique of those who cross picket lines. Jagged-cliff-dwelling riffs and thundering drums punctuate the kiss-off waltz of “Plus One,” while dry-lightning guitars and skewed bass groove turn “Ranch vs. Ranch” (a nod to Rabbit Rabbit’s two studios) into a vivid origin story for a horror movie hero. The darkly hued “Cry Cry Cry,” written about Dupuis’ inability to feel safe with tears, is a classically-composed tumble of contrapuntal riffs and electroclash timbres. And “Ghostwriter,” already a staple of Speedy’s live set, is a call to dismiss unproductive rage, delivered with the shimmering bash of the Y2K alt renaissance. “I hope we captured the total joy I get when I hear bands like that,” says Whitesides.

The record’s most scenic lyrics come from “Kitty,” an urban pastoral about the all-night noise on Dupuis’ block. “It felt important to ground the record in our shared location, especially since being at home and the friendship of my bandmates is what helped me reckon with this album’s themes,” says Dupuis. But a sense of fight is still at the forefront of Rabbit Rabbit; another catalyst was Speedy Ortiz’s efforts as community activists. Molholt and Dupuis are organizers with the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers and its Philly local, which has worked to place instruments in state prisons. The band has also collaborated with harm reduction organizations, Girls Rock Camps, and other grassroots groups while on tour. In addition to her production work with electropop project Sad13 (Backxwash, Lizzo), Dupuis is also a poet; her second book Cry Perfume was released in 2022, and its subject matters of grief and harm reduction put her in the frame of mind to write Rabbit Rabbit’s intimately nuanced lyrics—a confessionalism explored on the meta “Ballad of Y & S,” which teasingly ponders the market utility of semi-autobiographical art.

The record’s cover is Dupuis’ mixed-media painting of a fire-engulfed pickup truck, an image inspired by the trucks on fire she drew compulsively as a kid in therapy. Drawing from literary influences that include workplace apocalypses, magical realist family dramas, and artists’ biographies, Rabbit Rabbit is Speedy Ortiz’s most ambitious and expansive record to date. “I turned 33 while writing this album, a palindrome birthday and a lucky number associated with knowledge,” explains Dupuis. “I wanted to mark how I was making better choices as I got older, letting go of heedless anger even when it’s warranted.” The album’s stirring immediacy owes much to the band’s strength as a collective, working together toward a better future—or, as Molholt puts it, “constantly surfing the highs and lows in search of a stable place to land.” With considered muscularity, captivating earworms, and genuine solidarity, Speedy Ortiz is equipped to confront the world’s indignities—with or without a good luck charm.

credits

released September 1, 2023

Produced by Speedy Ortiz & Sarah Tudzin
Recorded by Sarah Tudzin at Rancho de la Luna (Joshua Tree, CA) & Sonic Ranch (Tornillo, TX)
With additional recording & production by Sadie Dupuis at home (Philadelphia, PA)
Mixed by Sarah Tudzin at Retro City Sound (Philadelphia, PA) & at Snack Shack (Los Angeles, CA)
Mastered by Emily Lazar & Chris Allgood at The Lodge (New York, NY)
Songs & artwork by Sadie Dupuis
July Was Hot (BMI) 2023

Sadie Dupuis:
guitars (baritone, electric, acoustic, 12-string, doubleneck), vocals, drum machine, synths, piano, bedpan, motorcycle box, tambourine

Andy Molholt:
guitars (electric, acoustic, 12-string), synths, Wurlitzer, piano, Rhodes, organ, OM-1, debit card, mellotron, vocals, vocaloid

Audrey Zee Whitesides:
Bass, 8-string bass, acoustic guitar, piano, vocals, delay

Joey Doubek:
Drums, shaker, tambourine, bells, synth, spoons, shotglass, BB-gun, whispers, slicer

Lap steel & culinary excellence: David Catching
Even more guitars: Darl Ferm & Devin McKnight
Guest vocals: Sarah Tudzin, Ram Cantú, Anna Arboles
Extra Engineering: Ram Cantú, Jesse Weiss, Jon Russo, Andy Tyler Clarke
Crunch time audio edits: Andy Molholt, Amar Lal, Ram Cantú, Sadie Dupuis

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Speedy Ortiz Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Speedy Ortiz is: Sadie Dupuis | Andy Molholt | Audrey Zee Whitesides | Joey Doubek

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