Warpaint returneth!

I'll be at Austin City Limits on Friday and Saturday but couldn't afford to stay for the last day which is disappointing since it would be my fiancee's first opportunity to see Warpaint. However, sharing a bill with Young Mammals, the beautiful L.A. experimental-rockers Warpaint are coming back to Houston on the 10th of October, just in time for my arrival. The gig will be from 7-10:30 at The Orange Show, 2402 Munger St. Be there, especially if you've never seen them play before.

Warpaint takes on Bowie

One of my favorite up and coming bands, Warpaint, recently released a cover on iTunes of David Bowie's classic 1980's single "Ashes to Ashes" and it is phenomenal. While the cover definitely resembles the original, Warpaint shines in their ability to turn the glam-laden track into something they themselves could have written. It's a bit slower and much more mysterious and haunting. The proceeds of the sales will be donated to the War Child charity which fights to prevent and spread awareness about the enlistment of child soldiers in third world nations.

Warpaint's Triumphant Return to Houston

Friday night was my first time at Mango's Cafe in Houston and I must say that it's a phenomenal venue: the levels were good, the bands were great, and their vegetarian pizza was tasty. I went last night specifically to cover "Warpaint" but was impressed with all the other bands. No one sucked.

"Buxton" opened last time I saw Warpaint but I was kind of late so I missed ninety-five percent of their set; this time I came earlier. Buxton had a satisfying country-folk feel but with often played alongside loud, over-driven, guitar. The vocals were delivered in a folksy, yodeling, manner that sometimes went slightly off key and it accented the music well.

Buxton^

I was fortunate enough to talk to Balaclavas outside on the Mango's patio before the show and they were very nice guys. One of them even directed me to a website called "Trouser Press" which is a guide to alternative and underground rock music. I just bookmarked it a few minutes ago. Anyway, their live music nothing like I've ever experienced before. As soon as they went on, I was immediately entranced by the strange mix of noise and music that I heard. The studio versions of these songs I listened to, before the show on Friday, were good but during a live set, these songs explode into a fascinating flurry of feedback, drum machine, and dancy bass lines. Obviously, being a very loud band, it was difficult to make out the vocals of Balaclavas but on their studio recordings they sound a little bit like those of Peter Murphy from Bauhaus (as does some of their music). Balaclavas was definitely my favorite new find of the night and they're from Houston so I hope I can catch them again this summer.


To my surprise, Warpaint, who was headlining the entire show, went on in the penultimate time slot rather than Grandfather Child. Since Warpaint came on early, I rushed through the crowd, pushing, shoving, and issuing apologies for drinks spilled and elbows brushed. It's surprising how many people will let you through if you're holding a camera above your head. I finally got up to the very front though and started snapping photos of the band.



< "Elephants" Warpaint, for those of you who don't know, is an all female, experimental, rock band from LA and they seem to like Texas because they already played Houston once about two months ago and SXSW a few weeks ago. The whole set was excellent but my two favorite songs were "Stars" and "Elephants" which were both loud, dramatic, and captivating. Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman provided haunting, mournful vocals that only intensified the effect of the dark mysterious melodies the rest of the band played. Emily Kokal (guitar and lead vocals) and Stella Mozgawa (on drums) were hands down the best performers in the band. It was hard to take my eyes or camera off of Emily Kokal; she seemed to exude some kind of dark, beautiful, electricity during the performance. It's hard to explain to anyone who hasn't seen her live but she's an excellent performer. As headliners, Warpaint definitely brought it. "Grandfather Child" was the last act and regrettably I didn't stay for their entire set because I was sort of worried about whether or not my car was gonna get towed but I saw about five songs and thoroughly enjoyed them. They're a local band and I've seen them on a lot of different bills so I don't think it will be last opportunity to enjoy their music this summer. Grandfather Child's music contains elements of funk and blues with a generous helping of beautiful lap steel guitar playing. The vocals were bluesy and soulful which was a huge change of style from the Gothic, elegiac, style of Warpaint.



And luckily my car never got towed. Very Good night.

CD/mp3 Review: Elephants EP by Warpaint

I saw Warpaint a few weeks ago and I plan to see them again on the ninth of April at Mangos in Houston because their show with Akron/Family was so excellent. I have a copy of their Exquisite Corpse LP from 2009 but unfortunately that's back at my dorm room and I'm on spring break so I'll review that one later and for now I'll review their little Elephants EP that came out more recently, in March of 2010. There are two songs on the EP. Both are alternate versions of songs "Krimson" and "Elephants" off of the band's Exquisite Corpse LP.

Elephants starts off with a quiet, whimsical, lead guitar riff accented by soft singing and then crescendos into a flurry of high-hat rattling drumming, and intense distorted guitars and eerie cavernous reverb. The opening lyrics are more than a little sad: "I will break your heart to keep you from where all dangers start". The words are a melancholic refusal to risk the "danger" of trying to forge relationships and for some reason remind me of the lamentation of failed relationships in the Joy Division song "Means to and End": "I put my trust in you...in you". The dark, atmospheric, and deeply moving music coupled with these contemplative lyrics is a great gift to Warpaint fans eagerly awaiting the band's next full album.

Warpaint and Akron/Family live

Last week I had the fortune of finding out, last minute, about what sounded like a pretty cool show: Akron/Family and some band called Warpaint. Just to give you all some background, Akron/Family is an experimental indie rock band from Brooklyn that have been described by some as a low budget version of Pink Floyd or the Flaming Lips. Warpaint, I would find out in between sets via a Wikipedia app on my iPhone, is an all female band from LA that describes themselves as art rock. They're well-liked by a couple celebrities and their latest EP was mixed by John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. There was an opening band called Buxton too but unfortunately I all but missed their set.

Before Warpaint went on they held an impromptu jam/testing levels and equipment session and I was very impressed. I was very excited to hear this all female band rock so hard considering my bias against most all female bands. I normally kind of get a "girl-power" vibe from most them that I find sort of distracting (e.g. the Donnas). Their playing was a dark, atmospheric, but sort of dancy style which immediately conjured images of post-punk music but at the same they had an almost early Pink Floyd feel. Think of songs like "Eugene be careful with that Axe"

They were all phenomenal musicians but the drummer's skills in particular caught my attention and she was pretty cute to boot. Needless to say, the set was just as good as the opening jam. I even bought their debut album, Exquisite Corpse (which is also the title of a Bauhaus song; more post-punk coincidences) and got it signed by all the members. They were very friendly and even talked to me about their influences; one band member said they were influenced by many things but in particular, head bands. So I asked her what she meant by that and she said "you know, Radiohead, the Talking Heads etc." and I could totally hear that in their music.

Then Akron/Family went on and they opened with a very hippie, earth-mothery type, drum machine tom tom beat over which the long-haired, mustachioed, guitar player asked us all to do a dance. The dance consisted of waving our arms over our heads like an underwater field of kelp or something and we all obliged because for some reason he was very convincing. This exchange was cool and I always like it when a band asks for audience participation, especially if they way they do it is a little strange. They then played a mellow, anticlimactic, hippie-ish song and for a second I was worried that the show was going to suck but then screaming feedback cut through the air and from there the whole concert got weirder and weirder, but in a good way.

They played a couple standard but charmingly eccentric rock songs punctuated by occasional blowing of a tin whistle or the lead singer putting the mic directly in his mouth and making melodic ooowwoo noises: a bunch of little things that sound strange but that were definitely sort of neat. The guitar playing in particular was excellent but I think that the band's weirdness turned off some in attendance but that didn't bother me because I was definitely enjoying myself. At other times they asked us to clap or sing along to their strange ballads and those of us who stayed once again obliged. A lot of people left but I kind of think they did so out of close-mindedness so it was probably better that they did.

Near the end of the show, which was very long thankfully, the lead singer asked us all to close our eyes and imagine a green meadow which he described in great detail and a light that was far away. The light, he said, represented all the things we each wanted in life and he told us to visualize it coming towards us and filling our field of vision and overwhelming us. He delivered this five minute long speech all over a trippy, whirring, synthesizer chord and once he was done with this description I will admit that I felt very happy and at peace. Once the chord stopped and he told us to open our eyes he said "happy birthday!" and they sung a song of the same title. There was so much benevolence and a willingness to open up and share with audience during this part of the show that it kind of reminded me of the Who's scrapped, Lifehouse project which was supposed to be a tour during which music would performed with that intention of makinf the band and audience come together as one for the duration of the show (the only song that was produced under this project was "join together"). It was a beautiful ending to the show.

Here are some videos:

Warpaint

Akron/Family