Sad13 – “Less Than 2” Video

Sad13 – “Less Than 2” Video

Speedy Ortiz frontwoman Sadie Dupuis is releasing Slugger, her solo debut album under the moniker Sad13, in November. We’ve already heard her consent-pop lead single “Get A Yes,” and now she’s shared “<2," another off-kilter pop anthem that sounds much more like a Speedy Ortiz song. The accompanying music video, co-directed by Dupuis and Catherine Elicson, is framed as a series of colorful makeup tutorials and features cameos by Shamir, Field Mouse's Rachel Browne, All Dogs' Amanda Bartley, and Empath's Emily Shanahan. Here's what Dupuis herself has to say about it:

“Less Than Two” is about choosing to be glossy AND caustic. It’s abuot know you’re smart, knowing you’re doused in glitter, and refusing to see those two bits of self-knowledge as conflicting. My high school rival was a bigoted Eagle Scout, furiously confounded at the reality that a girly teen (me!) was his academic superior. Ten years later, as an adult human who lurks around the “feminine” quadrant of the gender map, I STILL come up against ignoramuses who conflate feminized personal style with anti-intellectualism.

Being “in the less than two” is about finding balance between two selves, exterior and interior. It’s about allowing those selves to coexist in alliance but not in interdependence and about loving yourself in a world that doesn’t want you to. What’s less than two? A singular person, who is by definition their own number one. Life is booby-trapped with boring nepotists who mistakenly equate professional competence with utterly rigid reproductions of masculinity. If you don’t/won’t/can’t fit that role, self-obsession becomes a radically necessary preservation tool.

The “Less Than Two” video is an homage to YouTube and Instagram MUAs, via a series of makeup tutorials that become increasingly surreal. Undergoing dissimilar cosmetic transformations fit with the song’s theme of self-determinism, while also celebrating aesthetic mutability. Plus, we wanted to make me look like a reptilian and glue a bagel to my head. Some of these looks adhere to conventionally feminine beauty norms, some embrace masculinity, more often than not they treat the face as a gender-neutral canvas, letting cosmetics be Art-for-art’s-sake.

Watch and listen below.

Sad13 tour dates:

10/28 Brooklyn, NY @ Alphaville
10/29 Philadelphia, PA @ PhilMOCA
11/05 Allston, MA @ Brighton Music Hall
11/12 Pittsburgh, PA @ TBD
11/13 Toronto, ON @ Smiling Buddha
11/14 Columbus, OH @ Double Happiness
11/16 Northampton, MA @ 13 Queen
11/17 Hamden, CT @ The Space
11/18 Washington, DC @ Songbyrd
11/19 Jersey City, NJ @ Monty Hall
11/21 Cleveland, OH @ Malhall’s
11/22 Detroit, MI @ El Club
11/23 Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen
11/25 Omaha, NE @ Milk Run
11/26 Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge
11/27 Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
11/28 Boise, ID @ Neurolux
11/29 Seattle, WA @ Vera Project
11/30 Portland, OR @ Bunk Bar
12/02 San Francisco, CA @ Hemlock Tavern
12/03 Los Angeles, CA @ The Bootleg
12/06 Dallas, TX @ Double Wide
12/07 Austin, TX @ Mohawk
12/09 Atlanta, GA @ Drunken Unicorn
12/10 Durham, NC @ Pinkhook
12/11 Richmond, VA @ Strange Matter
12/13 Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right
12/14 Boston, MA @ Middle East

Slugger is out 11/11 via Carpark.

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