Rabbit Junk
Rabbit Junk is a Seattle-based industrial rock, electropunk, and digital hardcore band that formed in 2004 by former The Shizit frontman JP Anderson and his wife Jennifer "Sum Grrl" Bernert. Taking influences from such diverse music genres such as hip hop, nu metal and new wave, JP has called this sound "Hardclash".[1]
Rabbit Junk | |
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Origin | Seattle, Washington |
Genres | Digital hardcore, industrial metal, industrial black metal, punk rock, electropunk |
Years active | 2004–present |
Labels | Glitch Mode, Full Effect Records |
Associated acts | The Shizit The Named Cyanotic NuMantra Fighting Ice With Iron Wolves Under Sail Ovter God |
Website | Official website |
Members | JP Anderson Jennifer "Sum Grrl" Bernert |
History
Formation, self-titled album and REframe (2004–2006)
Rabbit Junk started in 2004 after the dissolution of JP Anderson's former band, The Shizit. After adding additional vocalist Jennifer "Sum Grrl" Bernert to the band, the husband and wife electro-rock duo released their self-titled debut album titled Rabbit Junk in 2004.[2] One year later, the band signed to Glitch Mode Recordings and released the follow-up to their debut album called REframe, which gained the band a stronger and more broad fan base.[3]
They showcased heavier sound and influences from different styles, such as black metal and industrial metal/digital hardcore band The Mad Capsule Markets. A video for the song "In Your Head No One Can Hear You Scream" was produced by the Kandycore Design Company. The project would later become a Live band, as JP added live guitarists and percussion to live shows.
After REframe was released, Rabbit Junk contributed the song "Industrial Is Dead" to the Glitch Mode compilation CD Hordes of the Elite. Later, a cover of Atari Teenage Riot's "Start The Riot" appeared on the D-Trash Records Atari Teenage Riot tribute album called "The Virus Has Been Spread".
This Life and Project Nonagon (2007–2010)
In October 2007, the first two Rabbit Junk albums were remastered by Tom Baker (who has worked with Marilyn Manson, Nine Inch Nails and The Bloodhound Gang), when the band signed onto Full Effect Records. The band released a follow-up to REframe entitled This Life Is Where You Get Fucked on April 28, 2008. The album is a concept album, which consists around three 'suites', having their own themes drawing from specific influences for each facet. "Ghetto Blasphemer", "This Death Is Where You Get Life" and "The Struggle" are the three separate pieces that formed the album This Life is Where you get F*cked into an entire presentation.[1]
In September 2008, Rabbit Junk released 3 new songs on their MySpace page for download, titled "Power", "Blood" and "Home".[1]
The second part of Rabbit Junk's "Ghetto Blasphemer" suite, based on the works of HP Lovecraft, were released in July 2009 on their official site. The full Project Nonagon album was released in 2010. JP Anderson criticised his time on Full Effect Records, stating that although the label did nothing intentionally wrong, he felt "isolated" by the label's control over Rabbit Junk's image and interaction with fans.[4]
"The Lost Years" (2011–2013)
After the band's departure from Full Effect Records, Anderson focussed his efforts on various side projects throughout 2009 including steampunk-inspired Fighting Ice With Iron, folk metal Wolves Under Sail and a revival of his old band The Shizit, later rebranded as The Named due to contract disputes with his former members in The Shizit. From 2011 to 2013, Rabbit Junk released a series of singles which Anderson claims were keeping the project "on life support" after the experiences with Full Effect. After the release of "Break Shins to This" in 2013, and the positive feedback that followed, Anderson decided to move Rabbit Junk's music direction into an altogether more electronic direction. The band released "From the Ashes" (which contained a sampled riff from "Dead Embryonic Cells" by Sepultura) on a 2013 Christmas sampler by Glitch Mode Recordings, who they would from then on work with on a regular basis, however the more theatrical metal direction was rejected for future releases. This era of the band would come to be known as "The Lost Years".
Pop That Pretty Thirty and EPs (2014–2016)
After the feedback Anderson received from the Rabbit Junk singles, he decided to start work on a new EP, entitled "Pop That Pretty Thirty" which was released in 2014, shortly followed by their first live EP, "Live 2014". In January 2015 the band released the "Invasion" EP, with Anderson has since stating in interviews that Rabbit Junk will no longer release full-length albums and will only release extended plays, aiming for 2 per year, as it allows for more creative freedom and not being confined to fixed concepts.
In July 2015, Rabbit Junk's Facebook page changed its imagery to tease their next release, "Beast", released on October 28 2015. On February 9 2016, the band released "Singles from the Lost Years 2011–2013", which contained remastered and alternate versions of all the singles that were released in between "Project Nonagon" and "Pop That Pretty Thirty".
Rabbit Junk Will Die: Meditations on Mortality and Xenospheres (2017-present)
In late 2016 Rabbit Junk began teasing images with the phrases "Rabbit Junk Must Die 2017" and "Rabbit Junk Will Die 2017" across their social media. Shortly afterwards, they announced that, contrary to previous claims, they are working on a new full length album for release in 2017 or early 2018. They have also announced a remix EP due that year.
Like The Flesh Does The Knife, an EP of remixes from Beast, Invasion, and Pop That Pretty Thirty, was released in 2017. Rabbit Junk officially announced the release of Rabbit Junk Will Die: Meditations on Mortality, their first full-length album in eight years, in late 2017, and released it January 2018. Anderson has confirmed the preparation and release of a remix album for Rabbit Junk Will Die for mid-2018.
In July 2019, Rabbit Junk confirmed that they had re-obtained the rights to their pre-2011 recordings and would be re-releasing the original albums Rabbit Junk, Reframe, This Life Is Where You Get Fucked, and Project Nonagon through Bandcamp with new original artwork by frequent collaborator Andrew Tremblay, and proceeded to release them over the next few months, alongside the Reveal EP. In December of that year, Anderson announced another album with a tentative release date for 2020, later titling it Xenospheres. The first single "Bits & Razors" was released in April of 2020.
Members
- JP Anderson – vocals, guitars, bass guitar, drums, keyboards, programming
- Jennifer "Sum Grrl" Bernert – vocals
- Live band
- JP Anderson - vocals, guitar (2004–present)
- Sum Grrl - keyboards, electronics, vocals (2004–present)
- Amelia Arsenic - keyboards, electronics, vocals (2018)
- Coleman Thornburg - guitar (2006–2011)
- Dan Gardner - guitar (2006–2011)
- Kent Ames - drums (2006–2015)
Discography
Studio albums
- Rabbit Junk (2004, remastered 2008, re-released 2019)
- Reframe (2006, remastered 2008, re-released 2019)
- This Life Is Where You Get Fucked (2008, re-released 2019)
- Project Nonagon (2010, re-released 2019)
- Rabbit Junk Will Die: Meditations On Mortality (2018)
- Xenospheres (2020)
Extended plays
- Hare Brained: The Remixes (Unofficial release) (2005)
- Project Nonagon: The Struggle II (2008)
- Drek Kick: Cyanotic vs Rabbit Junk (2009)
- Project Nonagon: Ghetto Blasphemer II – From the Stars (2009, reissued 2016)
- Pop That Pretty Thirty (2014)
- Invasion (2015)
- Beast (2015)
- Like the Flesh Does the Knife (Remix EP) (2017)
- Reveal (Extended) (2019)
Live Extended plays
- Live 2014
Compilations
- Singles from the Lost Years 2011–2013 (2016)
- Consolidate (2016)
Remix albums
- Modified Mortality (2018)
Singles / Others
- Industrial is Dead (2006)
- Start the Riot (2007)
- What Doesn't Kill You Will Make You A Killer (2011)
- Lucid Summations (2011)
- Bubble (2012)
- Boy With the Sun in His Eyes (2012)
- Own Up (2012)
- Break Shins to This (2013)
- From the Ashes (2013)
- T Minus Everything (2018)
- Zero (2019)
- We Saw the End (2019)
- Bits and Razors (2020)
- Prismatic (2020)
See also
- Digital Hardcore
- Mindless Self Indulgence
- Atari Teenage Riot
References
- Rabbit Junk Official MySpace Retrieved on April 19, 2008
- Glitch Mode Recordings - Rabbit Junk
- Interview With ReGEn Artist Spotlight
- JP Anderson on RABBIT JUNK and other projects: “The full-length album is dead” RockSins, September 10 2015. Retrieved September 19 2015.