Rabid Rabbit

"Local outfit Rabid Rabbit recalls avante-garde sludgecore and drone bands like Isis and Earth, but the quartet is far more focused than both of these groups combined. Plus, RRs members know that just because their instruments are tuned down to C doesn't mean they can't toss in an unexpected insttrumental freakout or unrelenting drum assault courtesy of Mike Tsoulos ( ex the Dishes )..." The Onion ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

By a strange set of circumstances, the spacy, heavy strains of experimental doom have edged their way into tastemakers' iPods. Well, here's an act for cool art school kids and metalheads alike, one founded by a Chicago husband-and-wife team who thankfully have more to offer than endless drones and aimless feedback. With two bassists holding down the thick low end, Rabid Rabbit splits the difference between suffocating sludge and freaky rock n' roll madness, offering a hungover head trip for fans of everything from Sonic Youth to St. Vitus. "The quartet's debut album benefits from diversity of tempo. The end-times righteousness of "Welcome to the World" kicks it off, crashing Mike Tsoulos' wild tribal drums against Gregg Prickett's virtuoso guitar with ever-building fury. Nine-minute slow jam "Spider" follows, Andrea Jablonski giving ominous overtones to "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" with a dry recitation of the nursery rhyme as she and fellow bassist Arman Mabry throb and thrum, Prickett alternately creaking and soloing with bluesy classic rock abandon. The record's other five tracks move between these poles of powerful rock and contemplative creepiness, sometimes with Jablonski's minimalist vocals and sometimes without. The focus remains on hazy, enveloping atmosphere, felt equally in traditional doom instrumental "Ephedrine" and static-crispy rocker "Morse Code," which sounds like an older track by The Kills recorded on an especially foul day. The only downside is that it's currently a vinyl-only release, since analog cultists aren't the only ones who will appreciate it. Everyone else: be content with Rabid Rabbit's live shows, which from the recorded evidence are no doubt wonderfully, thunderously filthy affairs."
Jeff Pizek Chicago Daily Herald **********************************************************************

Critic's Choice RABID RABBIT Interloper Records, a local label whose catalog includes a handful of vinyl releases by Pelican and Tusk, has picked up the self-titled full-length debut by the very heavy Chicago four-piece Rabid Rabbit. The band started as the duo of drummer Mike Tsoulos (formerly of Frontier and the Dishes) and his wife, bassist Andrea Jablonski (formerly of the Drapes and the Camaro Rouge), but these days it includes guitarist Gregg Prickett, who gives the music a jolt of psych-metal frenzy, and second bassist Arman Mabry (the drummer from the Camaro Rouge), who gives it an extra dose of brutal bowel-massaging bottom end. The album’s seven tracks display a nice variety of moods, from avant-jazzy badass to posthardcore badass to dreamy doom badass. (Badass is so a mood!)... Monica Kendrick Chicago Reader ***********************************************************************
" This local metal quartet doesn’t need to have a record out to generate buzz—its bottom-heavy attack vibrates every loose bit of hardware in the room. Bassist Andrea Jablonski (formerly of the Camaro Rouge) and guitarist Gregg Prickett (a recent transplant from Dallas) play together with an unruly but intricate flow, like two buzz saws at a couple skate, and Mike Tsoulos, an alumnus of Frontier and the Dishes, adds solid but unpredictable drumming. Neither as ponderous as doom nor as geeky as tech metal, Rabid Rabbit has one foot in the garage and another in the art gallery—and a third on the pencil necks of the twerps who make aggro sound boring. " —Monica Kendrick CHICAGO READER
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RABID RABBIT
C Section
(self-released)

In certain corners of the metal world, slow drone and minimalism are as popular as they’ve ever been outside of contemporary classical music, and local four-piece Rabid Rabbit is pushing that aesthetic as far as anyone in town. The band’s new “single,� C Section—so named because the guitar and both basses are tuned down to C—is a 16-minute instrumental track cut into one side of a vinyl 12-inch. It takes about a minute to fade in after you drop the needle on its outer edge, and for its entire length it sticks to a droning riff that alternates between just two notes—the drums don’t even kick in till halfway through. But the band manages to inject this drawn-out sludgefest with some ferocious groove, and the wild-man sax solo from Yakuza front man Bruce Lamont sets it on fire. .... but it’s a good idea to try to pick one up at a show right now . The band’s only pressing 250 copies, so it's a good idea to pick one up now—o - various