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Jun 28, 2023 By Mark Redfern Photography by Shervin Lainez

Speedy Ortiz are releasing a new album, Rabbit Rabbit, which is their first new album in five years, on September 1 via Wax Nine. Now they have shared its second single, “Plus One,” via a music video in which a giant rabbit attacks the city and the band. Speedy Ortiz have also announced some new tour dates. Dylan Mars Greenberg directed the video. Watch it below, followed by all the band’s upcoming tour dates.

Sadie Dupuis (songwriter, vox, guitar) had this to say about the new song and video in a press release: “I love touring, but the workaholism it encourages has been a convenient way to repress my feelings. In the pandemic, I found myself ruminating on my estrangement from an abusive family member. I’ve used my songwriting to process other experiences of violence, but had not broached these memories until Rabbit Rabbit. Being able to work on old trauma in therapy and in my writing has helped my boundaries elsewhere, and taught me to move on from exploitative relationships.

“That’s what ‘Plus One’ is about, and it came out pretty quickly as a sad acoustic waltz. I was sitting on the floor of an empty living room, mid-move, and the bare surroundings added a liminal starkness, though some of the imagery is inspired by scenes from West Philly that summer. When I went back to do pre-production, Texan post-hardcore was in my head, so I tried to channel At the Drive-In and Trail of Dead, bands that inspired me as a teen.

“We made the video with director Dylan Mars Greenberg, whose campiness and B-movie expertise was a perfect fit for the band’s also very campy videography. We’ve done a ton of horror homages but had never paid tribute to an old school monster movie. Dylan’s pet bunny Voodoo was a perfect Godzilla-sized star—a cuddly rabbit who’s mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.”

Previously the band shared the album’s first single, “You S02,” via a music video.

Rabbit Rabbit sees Dupuis and Andy Molholt (guitar) be joined by longtime touring members Audrey Zee Whitesides (bass) and Joey Doubek (drums). The album was recorded at Rancho de la Luna in Joshua Tree, CA and Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, TX. Illuminati Hotties’ Sarah Tudzin co-produced the album with the band and also mixed it. Emily Lazar and Chris Allgood mastered the album at The Lodge in New York, NY.

A previous press release described the album and the inspiration behind its title in more detail: “Rabbit Rabbit is a nod to the superstitious incantation repeated on the first of each month to bring good fortune. Dupuis adopted this practice as a child coping with OCD and early trauma, so when she began to parse difficult memories for the first time in her songwriting, it felt like kismet to name her band’s fourth record after that expression of luck and repetition. But instead of re-treading old routines, the album finds Speedy Ortiz interrogating conventions, grappling with cycles of violence and destructive power dynamics with singular wit and riffs. The result is Speedy Ortiz at its most potent: melodically fierce, sonically mountainous, scorching the earth and beginning anew.”

“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 added.

Regarding the themes on Rabbit Rabbit, Dupuis said: “I turned 33 while writing this album, a palindrome birthday and a lucky number associated with knowledge, I wanted to mark how I was making better choices as I got older, letting go of heedless anger even when it’s warranted.”

Speedy Ortiz’ last album, Twerp Verse, came out in 2018 via Carpark. Dupuis’ last solo album under her Sad13 project, Haunted Painting, was released in 2020 via Wax Nine.

Speedy Ortiz Tour Dates:

July 28 - Chicago, IL @ Wicker Park Fest
July 29 - Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen (w/ The Good Life)
Sep 5 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s
Sep 6 - Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s
Sep 7 - Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom
Sep 8 - Somerville, MA @ ONCE at the Center For Arts at The Armory
Sep 10 - Troy, NY @ No Fun
Sep 11 - Winooski, VT @ The Monkey House
Sep 13 - Montréal, QC @ Casa Del Popolo
Sep 14 - Toronto, ON @ Rivoli
Sep 15 - Lakewood, OH @ Mahall’s
Sep 16 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Roboto Project
Sep 18 - Columbus, OH @ Ace of Cups
Sep 19 - Grand Rapids, MI @ The Pyramid Scheme
Sep 21 - Cudahy, WI @ X-Ray Arcade
Sep 22 - Bloomington, IN @ The Bishop
Sep 23 - Louisville, KY @ The Whirling Tiger
Sep 25 - Nashville, TN @ DRKMTTR
Sep 26 - Charlotte, NC @ Snug Harbor
Sep 27 - Columbia, SC @ New Brookland Tavern
Sep 29 - Savannah, GA @ Lodge of Sorrows
Sep 30 - Birmingham, AL @ TrimTab Brewing Company
Oct 1 - Memphis, TN @ Growlers
Oct 3 - St. Louis, MO @ The Sinkhole
Oct 4 - Cincinnati, OH @ MOTR Pub
Oct 6 - Morgantown, WV @ 123 Pleasant Street
Oct 18 - Washington, DC @ Black Cat
Oct 19 - Richmond, VA @ The Camel
Oct 20 - Durham, NC @ The Pinhook
Oct 21 - Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade - Purgatory
Oct 23 - Miami, FL @ Gramps
Oct 24 - Winter Park, FL @ Conduit
Oct 25 - New Orleans, LA @ Gasa Gasa
Oct 27 - Houston, TX @ Black Magic Social Club
Oct 28 - Austin, TX @ The Parish
Oct 29 - Denton, TX @ Andy’s Bar
Oct 30 - San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger
Nov 1 - Phoenix, AZ @ Last Exit
Nov 2 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
Nov 6 - San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
Nov 8 - Portland, OR @ Polaris Hall
Nov 9 - Seattle, WA @ Barboza
Nov 10 - Bellingham, WA @ The Shakedown
Nov 11 - Vancouver, BC @ The Cobalt
Nov 13 - Boise, ID @ Neurolux
Nov 14 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
Nov 16 - Denver, CO @ Globe Hall
Nov 17 - Omaha, NE @ Slowdown
Nov 18 - Lawrence, KS @ The Bottleneck
Nov 19 - Des Moines, IA @ xBk
Nov 22 - Detroit, MI @ Lager House
Dec 16 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom

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