Speedy Ortiz
w/Destroy This Place, Bars of Gold, and Espers
Thursday, July 11th, at the Magic Stick Lounge
$7, 9PM
“Speedy Ortiz aren’t 90s throwbacks so much as 90s revisionists: last
year’s gnarled, tunefully unruly debut EP Sports sounded like Mary
Timony fronting Archers of Loaf in a studio whose walls were crumbling
around them thanks to the earth-shattering guitar squall… “Ka-Prow!”
once again proves these guys don’t make false promises: this one’s
dynamite,” – Pitchfork
After too much time freelance writing and
watching re-runs in a windowless Brooklyn basement, guitarist and
songwriter Sadie Dupuis left New York City for the wilds of Northampton,
MA in order to pursue a master’s degree in poetry. In doing so, she
began Speedy Ortiz, a self-recorded lo-fi project named after a minor
character from the Love and Rockets comic series. Speedy Ortiz soon
became something else entirely as bassist Darl Ferm, guitarist Matt
Robidoux, and drummer Mike Falcone teamed up to form a full band,
balancing abrasive noise with infectious earworms. The newly minted
Speedy Ortiz quickly found an audience in the Boston DIY scene, playing
frequently with their friends Pile, Grass is Green, Fat History Month,
Sneeze, Krill, and Arvid Noe.Almost immediately, the band recorded a
two-song single, “Taylor Swift” and “Swim Fan,” with Paul Q. Kolderie
(Pixies, Hole) and Justin Pizzoferrato (Chelsea Light Moving, Dinosaur
Jr.), and self-released it in March of 2012. Shortly thereafter they
spent a few weekends at the dingy yet atmospheric Sex Dungeon Studios in
Philadelphia recording the Sports EP, a five-track, loosely conceptual
10” released that June on Exploding in Sound Records.
The creation of Major Arcana, their full-length debut, marks the
evolution of Speedy Ortiz into a wholly collaborative effort. Darl leans
toward basic, chunky parts, while Mike, a talented songwriter in his
own right, helped arrange while also providing aggressive, boisterous
drums. And Matt is a classically trained guitarist, but his experience
in noise and experimental music comes through in his anti-melodic guitar
solos, which counterbalance Sadie’s angular, scalar guitar riffs and
poppy vocals.
The end result is a band able to distill their influences and creative impulses into something at once dissonant and melodic, noisy yet undeniably pop.
The end result is a band able to distill their influences and creative impulses into something at once dissonant and melodic, noisy yet undeniably pop.
Speedy Ortiz - Ka-Prow! from DUMP FOOTAGE on Vimeo.