by Jordan Michael (@jordwhyjames)
Music nostalgia is a problem. Originality gets harder as more music gets made. Maybe 90’s alternative/punk was the absolute best decade to make music. Thirty years on, we go back to when life was easier, more carefree. These days, shit is too complicated, anxiety and stress too abundant. Bands like Speedy Ortiz exist to distract us from the current oversaturation of annoyance. We have four albums (also two EPs and a compilation) to pick from now. Put Speedy Ortiz on shuffle and sharpen your knives.
Ted Gioia, The Honest Broker, over at Substack, recently wrote about music nostalgia, “I’m still worried that our society has grown too fond of the past, especially in creative pursuits.” Gioia referenced the latest streaming figures from Luminate: only 27-percent of tracks streamed are new or recent. That means that 73-percent of listeners are ingesting old stuff, which probably includes the majority of Speedy Ortiz fans. The Philly band is nostalgia-core, taking the best noisy, peppy, and poppy parts of 90’s rock, and putting it into their own sonically diverse comfort zone.
Sadie Dupuis and her crew are BIG on sonics; they played about fifty different guitars, through over a hundred effects pedals and thirty amps in Joshua Tree at Rancho de la Luna, and in Tornillo, Texas at Sonic Ranch for Rabbit Rabbit. The band has always had a guitar focus, and the riffs have continuously been hot (check “Cash Cab” from 2013’s Major Arcana, a perfect riff line on a perfect album), but engineer Sarah Tudzin, of Illuminati Hotties, brought added heat to Speedy’s riffs.
Debut Major Arcana, now a decade old, is perfect. Follow up, Foil Deer, is almost perfect. Twerp Verse, Speedy Ortiz’s last LP from 2018, is not perfect, but oddly enjoyable. “Tiger Tank” is probably Dupuis’ best single, and I doubt the band could make a more mysterious song than “Gary.” However, when a band starts out with two amazing albums that are widely lauded in the scene, it gives the musicians a distinct freedom to do and try whatever they want. Fans and the media will pay attention regardless of the situation; a certain excitement revolves around the band. The media and listeners are all over Rabbit Rabbit right now, just type “Speedy Ortiz” into any search bar, and you’ll have plenty to read, see, and hear. They deserve the attention.
Dupuis, who used synesthetic constraint in pre-production for Rabbit Rabbit, immersing herself in a different color for each song, has matured, but remains as playful and poignant as ever. “Ballad of Y & S” is a fun circus with a chorus of “ha ha ha ha” as the band jams around Dupuis’ voice. Dupuis is an artist, she’ll say whatever while drinking the cool whip, maniacally chattering. “I turned 33 while writing this album, a palindrome birthday and a lucky number associated with knowledge,” she said. Dupuis is making better choices as she gets older, letting go of anger even if those frustrations are justified. “I’m underwater and soundless,” she sings on the eerie “Who’s Afraid of the Bath.” “Never betray that I’m sinking down the bathwater he drew.”
The overlapping guitars will make the brain run while simultaneously trying to discern what Dupuis is saying. “Ranch vs. Ranch” (titled after the two studios that the album was recorded at) is the rocklicking highlight—Rabbit Rabbit’s ninth track has an enlightening stutter step as Dupuis tells an origin story for a horror movie hero (“Fly by, killer on the night sky. Hit me with your best try”). Dupuis is a great poet and writer that has built a successful career outside of Speedy Ortiz. She’s been the only constant player in the band, but obviously understands that it takes an entire group of pieces to make a fully-formed album. “Every voice has a narrative,” said drummer Joey Doubek (of Pinkwash and Downtown Boys as well), of the post-hardcore, alternative metal song arrangements, which are soaked in the Palm Desert scene they inhabited. “There is so much feeling and melody to interpret, and so much room to express it.”
Not for nothing, Speedy Ortiz has created a comfortable, exploratory room for itself. They’re a 90s and 2000s soundtrack of density, cleanliness, and control, all through a protagonist's lens. Honoring nostalgia can be a great exercise, so good tidings to Speedy Ortiz, an enthralling band that is alive and well. Speedy Ortiz is putting together a better future, surfing highs and lows for stability. Saying “rabbit rabbit” on the first of every month can bring good fortune, and Speedy Ortiz is our rocking good luck charm.