Description
Speedy Ortiz is proud to announce their sophomore album, Foil Deer, which will be released via Carpark Records on April 20th.
Major Arcana released in 2013 won them glowing reviews , features and several UK tours (highlights below):
9/10 LEAD REVIEW IN NME: One of the reasons Major Arcana works so well is because its addictive and fun. The guitars and bass sound incredible, like the last Deerhunter album without the Yankee Doodle Dandy
8/10 Drowned In Sound : Speedy Ortiz are way too euphoric and glorious to suffer for their artfulness. Stripping away the frills, at heart Major Arcana is a mournful treasure that asks to be celebrated.
*NME RADAR FEATURE: Whats miraculous, though, is that Major Arcana doesnt sound at all self-pitying; its torrid Slint-meets-Pavement rattle bolsters Sadies relished words so that yelling along is an exercise in gleefully exorcising your own demons
8.4 ON PITCHFORK: : Theres the squalling, guitar-on-guitar carnage of Archers of Loaf, the grungy mysticism of Helium (Dupuis lifted the title Major Arcana from a book she was reading on black magic), and of course the deadpan wit of vintage Liz Phair (I was never the witch that you made me to be, Dupuis tells a burnt-out old flame on Plough, Still you picked a virgin over me).
Standard LP is gatefold, single black LP with chapbook, plus digital download card.
Deluxe LP Is as above but with metallic gold coloured vinyl, and sticker (200 ONLY FOR UK).
Speedy Ortiz said they would get the flowers themselves. What a lark! What a plunge!
When considering Massachusetts Speedy Ortiz, that line from Virginia Woolf comes to mind. Not only for the obvious echoes to DIY, a form and function thats characterized the bands nascency, but in the proto-feminist undertones driving much of their sophomore album, Foil Deer. Im not bossy, Im the boss, Sadie Dupuis sings on Raising the Skate, invoking in spirit one half of the Carter-Knowles clan and echoing the others wordplay. And wordplay makes sense, considering Dupuis-the bands songwriter, guitarist, and frontwoman-spent the bands first few years teaching writing at UMass Amherst. Shes drawn to the dense complexity of Pynchon, the dreamlike geometry of Bolaño, the confounded yearning of Plath-all attributes you could easily apply to the bands 2013 debut Major Arcana, which fans and press alike have invested with a sense of purpose and merit uncommon in contemporary guitar rock.
The group, including Mike Falcone on drums, Darl Ferm on bass, and new addition Devin McKnight of Grass is Green on guitar, have spent the last year on an almost endless cross-continental touring jag, tagging along with the likes of The Breeders, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, and Thurston Moore. That shift into full-time musicianship brought with it an attendant reordering of priorities when it came to songwriting, and the band members lives in general. They would get the damn flowers themselves.
Dupuis wrote much of Foil Deer at her mothers home in the Connecticut woods, where the songwriter imposed a self-regulated exile and physical cleansing of sorts, finding that many of the songs came to her while running or swimming alone. I gave up wasting mental energy on people who didnt have my back, she says. Listening to our old records, I get the sense I was putting myself in horrible situations just to write sad songs. This music isnt coming from a dark place, and without slipping into self-empowerment jargon, it feels stronger. Many of the songs deal with a similar sense of starting over, editing out the unnecessary drama. Boys be sensitive and girls be, be aggressive, she sings on Mister Difficult.
And while their debut album was recorded on the fly, Speedy Ortiz spent almost a month in the studio on Foil Deer. Falcones drums are taut, mechanistic; Ferms bass ranges from the aggressive rattle of an AmRep classic to smoother, hip-hop inspired lines. McKnight, meanwhile, lends spacier, textural riffs to complement Dupuis wiry, melody-driven guitar style. The demos for our songs have always had tons of small details and production experimentation, but we never had any money to pay for more than a couple days in the studio, so the songs came out very live-sounding and guitar heavy, Dupuis says. It was recorded and mixed at Brooklyns Rare Book Room with Nicolas Vernhes (Silver Jews, Enon, Deerhunter), with the record mastered by Emily Lazar (Sia, Haim, Beauty Pill), lending a more polished sound and a pop sensibility that will stand out to existing fans and new converts alike. For all the lyrical complexity and guitar-based excursions Speedy Ortiz have built their reputation on to this point, Foil Deer has a sense of light-footed fun. Whats the point of doing things yourself if youre not going to enjoy the trip?
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