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Speedy Ortiz are not here for your vapid love songs — or even their own.
After the results of the 2016 presidential election, the material the Massachusetts-born band had prepared for their in-the-works third LP just didn’t seem appropriate given the new political circumstances; thus, after scrapping the album and starting a new batch of songs for their actual third record, the group recorded Twerp Verse, out April 27 via Carpark.
“The songs on the album that were strictly personal or lovey dovey just didn’t mean anything to me anymore — that’s not the kind of music I’ve found healing or motivating in the past few years, and I was surprised I’d written so much of it,” says singer, guitarist, and songwriter Sadie Dupuis. “Social politics and protest have been a part of our music from day one, and I didn’t want to stop doing that on this album.”
The band dropped first single “Lucky 88” today, along with a glitzy and glossy music video that features a prominent pile of goop as a main character.
“For the video, we wanted something evil, glossy, cynical, and camp,” Dupuis notes. “Our director Emily Yoshida came up with a concept that addresses our reliance on technology and apps that’s so absorbing, it’s hard to engage with the outside world, even when it is literally being consumed by slime (and, hello, global warming, melting ice, coral bleaching, impending heat death, make no mistake, it IS being consumed by slime).”
Much like the colorful whimsy displayed in the “Lucky 88” vid, the album title also reflects Dupuis’ typical tongue-in-cheek sense of humor.
“You need to employ a self-preservational sense of humor to speak truth in an increasingly baffling world,” Dupuis adds. “I call it a ‘twerp verse’ when a musician guests on a track and says something totally outlandish — like a Lil Wayne verse — but it becomes the most crucial part. I like ‘twerp’ as a diss, but in this meaning, the twerp is doing a service – shaking things up by being bold, not complacent, never silent.”
And that’s exactly what the Speedy Ortiz gospel preaches.
Check out the “Lucky 88” video below, as well as the group’s slew of new tour dates (which Massachusetts, for the time being, is sadly absent from).
Speedy Ortiz 2018 Live Dates:
March 13-16: Austin, TX @ SXSW
April 21: Lansing, MI @ Stoopfest
May 03: Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom
May 05: Washington, DC @ Black Cat
May 07: Norfolk, VA @ Charlie’s American Cafe
May 08: Durham, NC @ The Pinhook
May 09: Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade – Purgatory
May 10: Nashville, TN @ The High Watt
May 12: Chicago, IL @ Subterranean
May 13: Detroit, MI @ El Club
May 14: Toronto, ON @ The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern
May 15: Montreal, QC @La Vitrola
May 17: Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
May 29: Lakewood, OH @ Mahall’s
May 30: Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar
June 01: Little Rock, AR @ Stickyz Rock’n’Roll Chicken Shack
June 02: Austin, TX @ Barracuda
June 03: Dallas, TX @ Club Dada
June 05: Phoenix, AZ @ Rebel Lounge
June 06: San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
June 07: Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
June 09: Oakland, CA @ Starline Social Club
June 10: San Francisco, CA @ Cafe Du Nord
June 12: Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
June 13: Seattle, WA @ The Vera Project
June 14: Boise, ID @ Neurolux
June 16: Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge
June 17: Omaha, NE @ Reverb
June 19: St. Louis, MO @ Blueberry Hill’s Duck Room
June 20: Indianapolis, IN @ The Hi-Fi