SPEEDY ORTIZ Share New Single 'Plus One' & Announce New Tour Dates

Philadelphia rock quartet Speedy Ortiz recently announced its long-awaited new album entitled Rabbit Rabbit. The band previewed its first record in 5+ years by sharing “Scabs” and “You S02,” to praise from the likes of NPR Music, The New York Times, Pitchfork and more, and today Speedy Ortiz shares its next single.

“Plus One” features jagged-cliff-dwelling riffs and thundering drums, and is accompanied by a campy horror homage from Dylan Mars Greenberg. But while the video is lighthearted, the song finds Dupuis exploring a traumatic childhood experience in her songwriting for the first time.

Dupuis on “Plus One”:

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.

Speedy Ortiz will be back on the road with Rabbit Rabbit this Fall for a massive North American tour, spanning four months and more than 50 shows. See below to find a show near you, and get your tickets with the newly-announced dates go on sale Friday at 10 am locally HERE. 

Rabbit Rabbit was co-produced by the band with Illuminati Hotties’ Sarah Tudzin (who also mixed the record), mastered by Emily Lazar & Chris Allgood at The Lodge (New York, NY), and was recorded between Rancho de la Luna (Joshua Tree, CA) & Sonic Ranch (Tornillo, TX). 

Rabbit Rabbit is also the first to feature longtime touring members Audrey Zee Whitesides (bass) and Joey Doubek (drums), who are now full time contributors alongside Sadie Dupuis (songwriter, vox, guitar) and Andy Molholt (guitar). To be fittingly released on September 1st via Dupuis’ own label, Wax Nine, 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. 

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

Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez

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