As certain styles of music catch hold and thus become revered and oft emulated, making or doing something to makes one's band stand out amidst an ever burgeoning horde of groups (that range from those that find their own voice to those that come off as half rate clones) becomes a much harder obstacle as time moves forward. Rabid Rabbit, a four-piece band that hails from the Chicago, Illinois area, mixes jazzy rock and doom while employing a two bassist attack in their attempts to create some sound of their own. This self-titled debut LP is their seven song introduction to the music world at large, and, considering the two bassists, the record is probably a sub woofer workout and a half.
The low end rumble of bass and squealing guitars that open album with a false start drum pattern that eventually gets going is potentially a risky way of opening the album, but it works to some extent with Rabid Rabbit, mainly due to wondering just where the band goes with the piece ("Welcome to the World" actually). In the song "Spider," the creepy sound effects that might come by way of either a saw or a theremin (or some artificial manner of producing those sounds); and the composition sounds very similar to parts of Brian Eno's "Baby's on Fire" with some weird jazz interludes. Songs like "Ephedrine" show just how tight that Rabid Rabbit can be as all of the musicians seem so locked into the music and nary a beat is missed by any single member. Easily, my favorite song to be found on Rabid Rabbit is that of "September" with its juxtaposition of calmness and frantic freak outs, the almost sweet vocal arrangement and performance (in a different language no less) by Andrea Jablonski (which adds that little something extra to the piece), and the tempering of the band's musical abilities with solid songwriting make this song.
Rabid Rabbit's self-titled album feels like a collection of jazzy jams and intense improvisational explorations that allows listeners to get a sense of the talent level of the musicians making the music on this record, but sometimes this display of musicianship can be rather heavy handed and overbearing. At times there is some rather excessive guitar noodling going on and too little riffing, and for the bass to have a real powerful effect, the stereo needs a sub woofer and the volume turned up pretty high. I do admire the direction that Rabid Rabbit seems to be heading; the band's mixing of jazz with elements of doom and noise outfits like Big Black and The Jesus Lizard brings out challenging compositions that work on several different layers.
