Warpaint

I think they are good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOFxb0F2F2A

They're very good -- had to miss a recent show of theirs around here, which bummed me out greatly, but I saw them last year around this time opening up for School of Seven Bells and they were fantastic.

Like.

Whoa. Wow. That's pretty great.

Huh, apparently they were just in town last night opening for the lol xx.

decidedly unimpressive, alas, opening for xx in Montreal.

i liked it. a bit. but, the vocals on youtube stream sounded all messed up like they are being pushed thru fx badly.
are they really like that on their records (and with a hi-production video like that i am assuming they have some backing), or fucked up just for the online world ?

the lol xx.

Am desperately trying to picture a Lol Tolhurst fronted xx right now.

eh, I think they're kind of blah, and this from a guy who likes the xx

Can't bring myself to click Play on the YouTube embed. The girl looks like someone from an MTV reality show -- windswept hair, white laced shirt with black bra intended to show through. Am I out of my mind?

just click on it u corny indie fux0r

Hmmm, moderately attractive girls playing unoffensively mediocre 'post rock' - yep, they'll be huge, all right.

Dude you missed: also one is wearing a bedsheet and another is half-nurse, half-Obi Wan Kenobi. Siiigghhh...

also one is wearing a bedsheet

A common feature of girls on MTV reality shows, naturally.

Song's alright, btw.

Wait. Half-Nurse, Half-Obi Wan should be amended to 1/3 nurse, 1/3 obi, 1/3 kurt cobain.

Downloaded their ep last night and I like it a lot, mostly. Mark e won't like it - the vocals are slightly processed throughout, from that buzzing to some tremelo and toggled-sounding bits. I don't really listen to a lot of contemporary indie, so I can't say whether it's "mediocre post-rock" as if asshole could fly says, but most of the traacks are really good as far as I'm cOncerned. I did see some live videos on youtube however and they have zero stage presense in comparison to the video. But the ep is good, at least.

there is a youtube of them doing a song at reading or something earlier this year and they can certainly sing, the vocals on the record are processed but it seems to be an aesthetic decision more than anything else.

also wtf shannyn sossamon was their drummer.

heard them for the first time here in Portland opening for Zola Jesus a few weeks back and was quite impressed by their immense live sound and neo-shoegaze aesthetic, but i don't think the EP really reflects their current vibe at all. it's a much tamer affair, and a tad disappointing (note: was at EXACTLY the same level of intoxication in both cases, so of course my opinions here are scientifically valid).

see they have a disc coming out on Beggars Banquet soon, hopefully it'll display their recent sound better....i'm willing to give it a shot.

see they have a disc coming out on Beggars Banquet soon, hopefully it'll display their recent sound better....i'm willing to give it a shot.

yes to what alexph said. although when it came on the radio i did wonder if it was an obscure early 90s american take on shoegazing. arresting nonetheless.

and the sheets and wind machines notwithstanding, the video for elephant is similarly arresting.

consider me convicted.

I am totally sold on these girls (women). Tix go on sale for their DC show on Friday.

give me a break.

You mean you'd like them more if they were all Salemed out?

Really excited to pick this up later today, even with the disappointing (and slightly offputting) Dusted review today.

how is it? i completely forgot it was coming out today. Wish i had wireless here so i could pick it up.

I'm curious to hear this as I liked the mini-album/ep thing last year.

But seriously WTF @ that review.

Perhaps I should just stop reading any reviews of any musicians I like, ever again.

Yeah, what a horrible review. I was really uncomfortable at first, thinking it was a guy writing the review, but even after seeing it was (apparently) by a woman, it still felt ten kinds of awkward.

What on earth do Warpaint have to do with The Slits?

What on earth do a woozy sprawling psychedelic band have to do with a dub-influenced post-punk band? In what universe are these two bands even remotely alike? Next up, in incongruous genre comparisons, Magnetic Man taken to task for not sounding like Television.

Apparently the reviewer felt it was of the utmost importance to compare them because they all have vaginas.

That's a fucking horrific review.

Very uncharacteristic of Dusted too.

Only really came into this thread because of that review TBH. Not really sure what L. Edmonds was attempting here at all. Entirely too many references to zeitgeisty talking points that are not dealt with in any type of satisfactory way.

It is just surprising coming from Dusted, which is pretty dependably not shitty (I have no idea what this band is about, but the streaming song did not seem as uninteresting as the review made them out to be at all, just based on the guitar work and changes etc.).

I guess it is not surprising that this is L. Edmonds first review for Dusted. I commented recently that I didn't understand how Dusted managed to keep the quality level so high while providing 3 reviews a day that most assuredly are unpaid. Touche.

Uhh, what Jon said.

I like the part where music is only valid if you are making "sharp noises about heroin or shoplifting or forced mutilation", but not if you just sing about broken hearts.

The weird thing is, when I first heard Warpaint, I thought "hey, this sounds a bit like Slumber Party" and then immediately thought it was unfair because of the "is it because they are women" thing - but to be honest, "woozy post-Velvets psych with female vocals" is a lot more of a cohesive genre signifier even though Warpaint are a lot more expansive and sprawling and epic while Slumber Party are more intimate and concise and perfect pop.

x-post I missed it completely because I saw "sharp noises about heroin or shoplifting or forced mutilation" being some kind of Velvets reference because I was so tunnel visioned on "woozy post Velvets psych"

Seriously that was a horse shit review.

i kinda like that dusted occasionally has batshit terrible reviews

i generally like dusted a lot, but that review was strange, and uncharacteristic.

that song up top kind of reminds me of angel'in heavy syrup if they were lifting more post-punk and less psych

angel'in heavy syrup is the jam btw, you should all listen to them.

this band is pretty good too. i'll probably pick this up based on the two songs i've now heard.

majesty is good. digging this so far.

Really love this album, so good. The closer, "Lissie's Heart Murmur" is so solid. Some really lovely textures throughout.

Really like this. It's weird, the songs themselves aren't that and I could imagine being bored shitless by them live, but the SOUND of the record is fantastic and manages to pull them up. The guitars sound so great.

*it's on Spotify now!

And wow, this is *LUSH*... (in the OMG amazing hugeness swoony beauty kind of way, naught to do with the band) They do have that guitar tone and that dreamy feel - funnily enough, I was listening to all those really early Verve singles recently because of the shoegaze poll and really, this band manage to capture that sense of warm woozy spaciousness.

Yeah, I was listening to this and thinking about Lush, but also thinking a little about Ut too. Especially Ut ca. Griller.

No, I don't think they sound like Lush. I think they sound lush. I meant the adjective not the band.

Well er, Lush sound kind of lush sometimes...

In quite different ways. Lush (band) were much spikier than this, they had much more going on in the drumming, they tended to use a quite blocky guitar sound, lots of solids and bold colour washes - this is much more strings and filaments of sound. Much more meandering than Lush ever were.

Getting deep into the second half and yeah, I see what you mean.

After the album, Spotify just decided to play me a Warpaint cover of Ashes To Ashes that I never even knew existed. Wow, this is really quite something. I didn't think it would work, but wow, it really does, brings out an even dreamier side of the song. This is sending shivers down my spine that has nothing to do with the air conditioning.

keep meaning to listen to the rest of the album but am stuck on listening 'undertow' on repeat tbh

The weird burbling synth noises on Majesty, oh yes!

Huh - Wikipedia says that Shannyn Sossamon used to be in this band (her sister is the bassist), as did Josh Klinghoffer, and John Frusciante produced their first album.

that song up top kind of reminds me of angel'in heavy syrup if they were lifting more post-punk and less psych

― call all destroyer, Tuesday, October 26, 2010 11:00 AM (2 days ago)

would never have listened to the youtube if it weren't for this. thanks, CAD.

They were on 6Music just a few minutes ago, playing a live session. Sounded alright, imho.
True story.

Wish they'd pushed their sound more into the spooky, off-kilter, spectral realm really, they're a little too polite.

like almost everything about this, based on "elephants". song, structure, textures & tones, and the GUITAR. holy shit, so many brilliant little moments in that one song. especially love the riff from abt 1:45 - 2:00. reminiscent of "baby song" by the raincoats (an all time favorite of mine), and not just cuz they all have girl parts. love everything except the singer and the name. singer isn't awful, but a bit too mannered for my tastes, and the band name is just horrid. but whatever, i can live with that.

and i can totally hear angel'in heavy syrup, especially in the spacier/quieter moments. nice.

I like the politeness, it brings this edge of surreality to it, much like Parlour Psych, that the contrast between the wild and strange and the comfortably familiar hides something bigger than you initially perceive. In a kind of "monster you don't see is scarier than the monster you do see" - it makes it a more subtle listen, what they are holding back is as interesting as what they show. It's what keeps them from straying too far into that eyerolling "kooky" territory so dangerous for ye ethereal womyns. It is the restraint that shows their true power.

^ interesting post. not sure i agree. 2nd vid posted here ("undertow") is less appealing to me because the parts are more orderly, less wildly discontinuous. thus lacks the sense of adventure i get from "elephants". i miss the squalling noise punctuation, the blissed-out interludes. extremity suits them, not least because the singing gives me the impression that they'll very quickly be moving towards a more pop friendly sound. nothing wrong with that, but i like the post punk psyche thing they've got going on atm.

majesty is fucking ace.

Wishing their U.S. tour in December was swinging through Chicago, hopefully in 2011.

and i can totally hear angel'in heavy syrup, especially in the spacier/quieter moments. nice.

― naked human hands and a foam rubber head (contenderizer), Thursday, October 28, 2010 7:32 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

glad!!

Bought this yesterday, played it this morning. Interested to note that Andy Weatherall mixed a couple of tracks; there's certainly a danciness to it. Reminds me a bit of The XX in the heavy-breathing minimalism, and Electrelane in the girls-jammingness. The danciness is very welcome, almost... Primal Scream-ey, but not at all Primal Scream-ey? If that makes sense. Groovey indie rock with dance elements as psychedelic tool? That Dusted review is even more fucking incongruous now I've heard it.

NME front cover, I see...

They certainly had several copies in Exeter HMV, and I was quite surprised by that, so there's obviously a certain amount of push behind them. And fair play. Vaguely grossed-out by Guardian live review suggesting that it's the kind of music that David & Samantha Cameron like to fuck to.

If there's a dance element it's textural rather than rhythmic.

The other thing I keep getting reminded of is early 90s female fronted grunge-era alt-rock. Maybe a bit PJ Harvey in the vocals, when she flattens her voice and uses it as a pivot around which the rest of the music revolves. Undertow especially.

Also, "please don't call anybody else baby..."

Um, it's mainly textural, and they're not playing straight or obvious 'dance' 'beats', but there's something in the fluidity of the rhythm section that's several steps beyond regular indie bollocks. It's not Friendly Fires or Delphic, obviously, but... I think if I played it at a time other than breakfast, and turned it up, it'd make me want to move.

The rhythm section is a bit Stone Roses-ish, maybe?

A bit of the more psychedelic end of Baggy? Maybe. Dunno. It still reminds me most strongly of the first Verve album.

It's a load more fluid than bleeding Delphic.

Live, they do hit the 128bpm house pulse quite frequently ...

Yeah, Stone Roses circa Somethings Burning, first Verve album, that kind of groovey, post-dance psychedelia.

You're making it sound way too British.

Well that was a kind of British that desperately wanted to be playing in a groovey smokey club on the Sunset Strip with the Doors playing softly on the jukebox or something, so it's not completely off the mark.

Aye, definitely. Remove the frontmen from those bands and you've got some kind of Doors / CAN interface.

Verve yes, Roses no. But it still sounds more like post-rock + 90s alt-rock + Telepathe-style Brooklyn indie to me.

Actually I made the ill formed decision to listen to some Stone Roses on this thread. I can no longer stomach the self titled album. I think Nick means the kind of Fools Gold / One Love 12"s with all their B-sides, it totally has that kind of groove.

(Still kind of shocked I can no longer listen to that album any more. I feel like a part of my youth has truly died. The 12"s between the albums are still ace, mind you.)

Yeah, I'm talking about Fools Gold / Somethings Burning / One Love, the tantaslising glimpse at a Krautrock/psychedelia/acidhouse interface that they gave us before sodding off to take cocaine and fall off mountain bikes.

Yeah, back recently I managed to get the Deluxe (as opposed to the Collectors) 2CD+DVD of the Stone Roses' debut for a fiver in HMV, and tbh i'm tl;dl/meh about the DVD, played the 'interesting demos' once, and the main album I sort of didn't need to.

Still, it's now taken the place of the previous format on the shelf.

What about those "sacriligeuos" remix 12" versions of Waterfall and Res?

Or is the wrong thread?

So, erm, Warpaint, eh?

Dunno, will have to check them out.

Question is, actually, did you hear that "dance" influence before or after you read that Andrew Weatherall produced a couple of the tracks? ;-)

The vocal harmonies and stylings actually quite remind me of early Throwing Muses more than anything else, could that be what you're hearing in that "early 90s alt-rock" thing, Matt?

Maybe, although I haven't actually heard much Throwing Muses.

I don't have the new record, but the vocals on the earlier ep reminded me at times of PJ Harvey, Bjork, Damo Suzuki, the Bangles.

I think mostly it's Baby that has that whole spooky haunted house quality of the first Kristin Hersch album, for mé.

If we're talking 90s indie, I was kind of reminded in places of the Cat Power of 'Cross Bones Style' or 'Nude As The News'. But yeah, Telepathe and Throwing Muses are good reference points too imo.

Glad to see Sick Mouthy bring up the Electrelane influence! I was thinking that myself just the other day and I actually almost posted about them very nearly working to fill the Electrelane hole in my life.

I was kind of reticent to bring Electrelane up because I didn't want to just go "oh, 4 girls with guitars, Electrelane", and I'm not sure I'd say Warpaint share the same postpunk-ishness that some Electrelane had, but there's a definite groove / Kraut connection, and something occasionally in the ethereality of the vocals (although Electrelane's ethereality came pretty much only with the choirs).

A couple of great live-in-a-studio videos

Finally made the connection that the chorus on "Undertow" reminds me of the "just don't ask me... what it was" bit of the chorus to Suzanne Vega's "Luka."

Another reference that has been popping into my head for the last couple of days in terms of texture is Pinback.

Yeah that Luka connection drove me mad for about 2 weeks.

Yeah, it's funny - the "What's the matter / you hurt yourself" part echoes the "Let me clip / your dirty wings" part of Nirvana's "Polly" exactly in the notes and phrasing, then it goes into the uncanny "Luka" thing. It's like a bunch of old familiar tunes stitched together. I really like it, anyway.

A ton of the rhythm stuff on the album conjures the slower tracks of the last couple of Fugazi albums in a big way - I wouldn't be surprised if the bassist was a big Joe Lally fan (the opening track lifts the bassline from "By You" completely).

ugh I actually bought the NME for the first time in ... years.

I can't actually remember the last time. Oh wait, I can, it was when they published those naked photos of 120 Days.

Was it some kind of fluke that the interview actually, like, printed *quotes* about *music* instead of just talking about a band's clothes and haircuts? Astonishing.

was on-the-fence about downloading this, but the rabid supporters on this thread have convinced me.

warpaint is soon to receive a cool $1.16 in royalties from my emusic purchase.

Yeah, on it's second play already, liking it.

Yeah, it's funny - the "What's the matter / you hurt yourself" part echoes the "Let me clip / your dirty wings" part of Nirvana's "Polly" exactly in the notes and phrasing

Thank you for clearing this up, it had been bugging me for ages. I was almost thinking that with a different arrangement, Undertow could have been a Courtney Love dirge but the real connection was even more obvious.

Also Polly has its own "hurt yourself" bit.

i forgot I started this thread. anyway the album is very good. there are some curious production decisions; it's obviously a protools job, it kind of sounds like not very good mics were used, and compensated for in the mix (baby is the exception which sounds really clear to me), I can't tell if I dislike this or actually like it; I do prefer the sound of the John Frusciante produced EP on the whole, I guess. but the songs themselves are all awesome. I listened to the record maybe 20 times this weekend? I hardly ever listen to any new music now because I don't have the time but I was in the car a lot for two days.

my favorite moment though is the 'long long long' reference in Baby though. that kills.

maybe not enough is said about how innovate the band's songwriting is. there are incredible, unpredictable melodies in this, chord changes....I don't think a single song on this goes in a simple progression, the way i'd write it in my head; it's always, always surprising.

They were speaking on 6music this morning, apparently while riffing on a bassline that would eventually become 'Undertow' one of them started singing 'Polly' over it. Instead of doing a cover they incorporated it.

Listened to this again over the weekend and I think the quality drops a bit when the tempo rises - there are a few too many tracks that feel kind of aimless and waily. That said, the good songs are *really* good.

This is rapidly becoming one of my favourite albums of the year (too late for any polls except ILX, sadly) - if Elephants and Billie Holiday from the EP were on it too it would be even better.

Billie Holiday is such a jam.

love this record so much. sounds like I need the EPs

Just one EP, right? Exquisite Corpse is the only one I'm aware of. Fantastic stuff though and, yes, the album would be even better with "Billie Holiday" and "Elephants" on it.

i agree its on my top 10

my favorite warpaint song is "cherry pie"

The album proper lacks hooks. As soon as the song's over, you can't remember what it did. Nice atmosphere at times, but the songwriting's shit.

Few easy hooks /= shit songwriting

lack of hooks ⊆ shit songwriting

LA Times writeup today

"Undertow" did not place in this year's trax poll, but there was discussion of it on the thread & so I checked it out: it is fantastic! <3 the bass guitar sound, muted drums & reverb-saturated vox. Do their other songs sound like this? I'll find out soon enough..

This is my favourite new band of last year. Smh at ILX for not placing Undertow. Try the album Pillbox, and also the Exquisite Corpse EP - Elephants is amazing.

Love "Undertow". ppl who post on ilx don't know what they're talking about imo!

"Undertow" wouldve been my #2 song had I voted. I group Warpaint in with stuff like Anika and that new Pocahaunted album, but I think Warpaint is the best out of this kind of stuff...

I'd see them live (bc they r prity) but this has been my "most-wanted-to-like-but-severely-disappointed-by-each-and-every-time" album of 2010. the label mongering of "chillout psychedlic all girl assemble" seems like a way to excuse how absolutely boring they are - oh, but how novel it is that it's an all girl band, and oh, how laid back their sound is. you can still be laid back and possess even just a semblance of identifiable melody - see: boards of canada. i guess you can call that comparison an unfair one but i can really think of no better an example of "boring" done great.

(bc they r prity)

I can't defend them too much, bcz Undertow is the only thing I've heard but being in an all-girl band is not that novel dude

I'm in full realization of that, but all-girl bands tend to attract a little more attention than they deserve. I can't even get this across w/out feeling like full fledged troll bait w/ the sexism card but I see this band nowhere on the radar had every member but the singer been replaced by a tight-jeaned indie dude.

i can't even deal w/ myself after saying that. this is not an argument i enjoy having, or find particularly enlightening. it's dull and overdone and makes everyone in party appear stupider than usual. but it's like a dude being able to name more female tennis players than male. there isn't exactly anything uber-feminine about their song-writing either, aside from obv female vocals;a so i still back my argument that in a gender-less world this still remains a boring band.

I totally disagree, because I heard three songs before I even knew it was an all-girl band. And, I think you are wrong about there not being anything "uber-feminine", because the whole album has this total "don't fuck me over" vibe. I love this album.

Name a male band that sounds remotely like Warpaint, Wilcoboy.

the Yardbirds

as for me I am digging the whole 'Roches for the xx set' vibe personally...

(^of Undertow, that is. Cursory listen of Elephants in the OP indicates the whole album might not be like that...)

actually, this is going to seem WTF to all of you, but Elephants kind of sounds like something off f White Pony almost. It's very alt-rock!

loving this album

Amazing in London last night. A pleasure to watch them interact. They put chemistry before ego - the bassist and drummer are more compelling than the supposed frontwoman. Billie Holiday and Undertow were the highlights.

I've actually heard the album, and agree with a lot of folks who are saying that the songs are too long + amorphous...will be giving it more listens for sure, but I think Anika and Pocahaunted both put out better albums this year...

anyone going to the 3/31 show in nyc?

i'm at home alone on a saturday night and about half the songs on the album are totally flooring me.
will see them in montreal

Did not get tickets for the Chicago show in time goddamnit.

seeing the wednesday show in SF (it is sold out). also they are playing amoeba earlier that evening (not making that though).

NY show was sold out too but I scored on stubhub for 35 total, not bad.

Show was good though short, was missing Shadows and Lissie's.

In W. DC Saturday night

I'm still utterly addicted to the track "billie holiday"

Fuck it. Where's my shit?

saw some interview with them from a few months back where they said the next record will be more 'cohesive.'

they're playing here in 4 weeks which is a v big deal because whenever any band comes to hawaii it is a v big deal

I think that is the last show on their tour. Go see them if you can!

<3 this

Picked up Exquisite Corpse today; really, really good. Would happily listen to album after album of this band.

I heard EC first too. Then I heard the Fool and drank til I passed out.

Jesus Christ, I am absolutely crazy about this band.

They are a "girl band" as much as the smiths were a boy band... Couldn't be less relevant!

The Smiths were TOTALLY a boy band. Good grief.

3 Howards and a Robbie

"Jesus Christ, I am absolutely crazy about this band."

no shit they are quite addictive

I haven't listened to the album in a while, and this thread has reminded me that I must do so soon! Great band. Can't wait to see what their next album is going to be like.

yes yes yes

I'm growing to like The Fool, even though it's darker and slower in places. Exquisite Corpse is a wall-to-wall banger though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPkD0OfCGXE

digging through warpaint related tumblrs today. I came across this tidbit, which made me think of that shitty Dusted review that said that Warpaint weren't good because they weren't the Slits.

Viv Albertine (The Slits) & Jenny Lee

“Just recorded a track with Jenny Lee Lindberg from Warpaint. I had a wistful guitar part which I played to her with a drummer called Marcus who I only met that day, so none of us had met before the studio date. She just sat down and started playing along. A lovely understated, counterpoint to the guitar. She really anchored the piece. She only had a few hours off between shows, I was honoured that she spent them recording with me. Now I am going to write some new lyrics to go with the music as the original words don’t suit it anymore. It sounds beautiful – I’ll keep you posted”.

Love, Viv

http://camyya.tumblr.com/post/6902868855

Warpaint weren't good because they weren't the Slits.

tbh this is the problem with many non-all-female bands

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1j3wcqeYdY&feature=share

Favorited!

http://camyya.tumblr.com/image/42022222209

http://instagram.com/p/VFhT0KRg86/

In the studio at present, apparently.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/a25f60ae26edb4c1e20cd5460a51976b/tumblr_mhjpqc1qPC1qhwso8o1_1280.jpg

http://25.media.tumblr.com/960874b022347709557df593c4291140/tumblr_mhfc96TvLl1r6g8zao1_500.jpg

In the studio at present, apparently

Finally. Really was hoping for a new album from them this year.

source?

Can't wait!

xp: I found them making the rounds on a few fan tumblrs, like warpaintwarpaint and camya. The color pic apparently traces back to Emily's instagram.

http://instagram.com/p/VFhT0KRg86/

here's the drum machine line, from Stella's instagram

http://instagram.com/p/VDR0TBsLbw/

http://instagram.com/p/VDR0TBsLbw/

http://instagram.com/p/Ue0eXfMLU4/

do we have a thread for pix of bands in the studio cuz that wd be rad

http://24.media.tumblr.com/6d90cbe4e4e79365f614c4be9dfaded1/tumblr_mnbtshfWIp1qa95emo1_500.jpg

http://24.media.tumblr.com/783da96174add30e9f31aef2e065388b/tumblr_mnbud6OafU1qcmby6o2_500.jpg

http://24.media.tumblr.com/4c3a7e5fa1f7763f06b8b9bc34217a5b/tumblr_mnbud6OafU1qcmby6o1_500.jpg

Apparently final days in the studio?

Source?

source?

― calstars, Friday, February 1, 2013 8:11 PM (3 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

short answer: I found them on the same tumblrs I linked a few months ago. but then I went looking for the original source and they were tweeted by this dude

https://twitter.com/Herberto

who I can't figure out who he is.

short answer

Stella tears it up

http://youtu.be/Jc3dE-b4Z1o

Really cool to see her develop from sorta the 5th entry in a never-ending series of drummers into a prolific session musician.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/acrosstheline/9659743712/

Teresa's had some extra rig-out at recent shows.

(via http://camyya.tumblr.com/)

Better view

http://www.flickr.com/photos/acrosstheline/9659749234/

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3820/9659749234_ecf9882d16.jpg
Warpaint by ATL (Across the Line), on Flickr

Any info re a new album?

No, but they've changed up their website for the first time in two years and it reads "Coming Soon"

http://warpaintwarpaint.com/

Sounds like a good sign to me... maybe later this year or early next year, then?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnnhHvS32Xc

Teresa's had some extra rig-out at recent shows.

james blake remix

Oh shit, I forgot about that.

"We're not about to play a jazz odyssey in front of a festival crowd"

"You are witnesses to the birth of Warpaint Mark II...we hope you like our new direction"

"On the keyboards...Theresa Wayman...she wrote this..."

can't tell much from this teaser, tbh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRGmTs7VTQE

Not sure how I missed this. Not too bad. I'm unfamiliar with the original. Even if they're not really the featured artists, it's cool to see them backing these two on vocals.

http://pitchfork.com/news/52417-watch-martina-topley-bird-mark-lanegan-and-warpaint-cover-the-xxs-crystalised/

Oh, and now this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnuFYYJHaY0&feature=youtu.be

Rough Trade is excited to announce Warpaint’s new self-titled album, set for release on 20th January 2014. ‘Warpaint’ is the follow-up to the LA four-piece’s critically acclaimed debut album ‘The Fool’ (2010). ‘Warpaint’ was co-produced by Warpaint and Flood (PJ Harvey, Sigur Ros, New Order, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Foals), and mixed by Flood and Nigel Godrich (Radiohead).

the first time the chorus hits is full on O_O killer

looking forward to seeing em on wednesday

love it

gonna hold out to hear this until the album comes out or I'm in a better location. love this band so much

Hear a track from the LP, "Love Is to Die", below, and watch a teaser for the album directed by music video luminary Chris Cunningham. He also designed the cover art, above. Cunningham filmed and photographed the album recording process over the course of two years.

!

Super into this. I was a hesitant at first, because sounds like they went through something different in the songwriting process from the last two records, but my reservations fell away after a few listens. Hope the album has more guitars on it though. Really into these guys as a guitar band. When they resurface at the end, they sound like something straight off of Disintegration. Jenny Lee Lindberg's bass sounds great, like really well-defined and up front.

goddamn they were amazing last night

stella and jen are just 0_0 as a rhythm section, heard stella doing some lovely jaki-esque drumming along with another drummer today

Stella tears it up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc3dE-b4Z1o

https://m.soundcloud.com/warpaintwarpaint/biggy-1

I'm not really latching onto this one. I like the fuzzy synth bass, but other than that, it just kinda plods along.

Yep

the beat is so '90s (which i've been hearing coming back lately, but idk).

ie the part of trip-hop that it's best to leave behind

Yeah, it definitely has an unremarkable 90s feel. But it's track 5 on the album, so maybe it's like a palate cleanser of some sort.

Seems like a weird choice to throw out there ahead of release date though.

I like it. But I have to be in a warpaint mood to listen to it, and that involves a lot of alcohol.

some snippets up on the german amazon

http://www.amazon.de/Warpaint/dp/B00HPX9X8K/ref=sr_1_5?s=dmusic&ie=UTF8&sr=1-5&keywords=warpaint

I think this record is going to sound a lot like Slowdive's "Sing"

here's some crappy cellpwn pics I forgot to post from Warpaint @ The Whitney NYC 2010

http://imgur.com/a/hJksK

New record is streaming...

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jan/13/warpaint-album-stream

Thank you!

Not sure if Biggy is different on the album than on the leak, but I like it better in context. Disco/Very is pretty great. So far really into this.

How the world does adore its rich white California girls

O_____________O

this is really pretty

That it is.

Gorgeous, subtly unsettling stuff here. I'm really going to enjoy this album if I remember to return to it.

This is a great album. Can't wait to own it on vinyl.

So this is basically what I imagine Savages might sound like when they grow up. Something very Too Pure about it.

You know, like Laika or Long Fin Kilie?

First album I'm really enjoying this year. They have this great balance of having obvious reference points but mix them in a way so it doesn't matter, at least to me.

Tried in vain to get tix for tonight's show in Brooklyn

I get the same kind of vibe from Warpaint as I do from early Verve... in the sense that my preferred listening mode for them is lights off, headphones on, horizontal, relax and just focus on nothing else. New album is no exception.

A couple of things:

1. The album is definitely frontloaded to my ears. I don't think the album really keeps up the momentum of the first 7 tracks, although 'Drive' is definitely one of my favourite things on here.

2. 'Go In' strikes me as being the weakest track here. It's the one track on the album which I'm struggling to care for, and might rank as one of the weakest things Warpaint have ever recorded.

3. The 10th track is called 'CC', meaning that on the track listing, it's listed as '10. CC'... is this some kind of witty pun/in-joke on the band of the same name?

Overall though, I'm liking this record more than their first one, and I liked that one plenty enough!

had a quick listen to the stream, gonna get proper copy as that only revealed.... it's gonna take a lot more listens (like the first). Do hope it's a grower,I couldn't love them more based on their past stuff.

agreed. I LOVE the Fool, messy weird production and mix choices included; but this isn't grabbing me the same way. There isn't anything on here as memorable as the best moments of the Fool. But it might have other charms, which will show up over time.

Stella's album

Still really liking this a lot, and it opens up nicely with repeat listens. The last three or four songs might be my favorite stretch of the album. They're much tighter and more pointed than the dubby opening tracks; it's a really satisfying payoff. "Son" just floors me.

i read

"soon" just floors me

there and had to think about old threads from around 2001/2002 when ned wrote about the last song from loveless...

Huh, between that and the 10CC thing it makes me wonder if the similarity is intentional, and if there are other track title tricks going on here. Most of the song titles are short, vague and not necessarily indicative of the songs.

The anticipation is killing me today. Could only listen to the guardian stream through my office earbuds, of which only one bud is functioning.

this thread made me listen to this band (the fool) for the first time

holy shit this band is great, where have i been.

for some reason i thought they were more of the 2 ding-dongs and some old keyboards indie synth bullshit like chvrches and chillwave type shit

this is really striking, such great basslines and drumming

preview from the chris cunningham doc:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHKPdYX_OLQ

xp some good stuff on the exquisite corpse ep too so check that out. i'm hoping this is the album where they kinda put it all together.

this album rules.

eagerly anticipating dog latin and imago's opinions on it exactly one year from now

It will get nudged from the 77th slot by a new Deafheaven album.

Oh, if only Deafheaven were putting out a new album this year :P

Oof. I@n Coh3n really didn't like this.

Even those sympathetic to what Warpaint are doing have all but admitted this album lacks hooks, grooves, or even a pulse most of the time

I've only given it one cursory listen but it did seem very lethargic and druggy. That's kind of their vibe, tho.

I've listened to it a few times. There are some songs that feel like filler to me (Go In, off the top of my head), but I'm happy with most of it! Definitely fewer guitars than I'd been hoping for though.

I initially thought the review was especially and unnecessarily mean-spirited but then I remembered how much I hate this band

Why do you hate this band?

that pfork review is pretty brutal.

album is 'nice' but I feel like it's a little too nice. and I dislike the 'disco' song immensely.

that Pitchfork review really can't decide whether to knock the album for being too hip or too out of touch.

I'd never heard (or heard of) Warpaint before this album, so maybe there's a stigma I'm missing?

the criticisms are 'no hooks' and 'weak vocals', and the review acknowledges that the strengths are playing and production. maybe the problem is that they're not a pop band, but had the misfortune of getting the budget + hype as if they were?

failed pop record vs successful art rock record i guess

btw does anyone else have the embarrassing habit of checking an artist's twitter when they get a shitty pfork review to see if they acknowledged it in any way?

I hadn't, but I might start.

Oh, I thought you were hinting that there was something there.

ha sorry. nah almost everyone is too cautious for that these days, but every now and then it's entertaining.

there is often a lot of this type of action going on in the RA comments section.

seeing is a rare feat. not surprised dude couldn't see the goodness.

Why do you hate this band?

― I can still taste the Taboo in my mouth when I hear those songs (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, January 22, 2014 11:15 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Saw them live before their first record came out and couldn't remember ever seeing a band with less personality making a bigger impression on a room full of smitten indie dudes; guys who probably couldn't tell a rack tom from a djembe talking about band's "amazing drummer," etc. I listened to The Fool though, because I wanted to see if I was missing anything, and found it bland and lacking anything resembling an original idea. Conspicuously "disaffected" LA malegaze shit no one will care about in three years.

What does "malegaze" mean?

Wow.

Like, seriously, I have the most completely legitimate teengirl reason to HAAAAAAAAAAAATE Warpaint with the heat of a thousand suns jealous Beliebers, so I have been avoiding this album, but it keeps seeping into my listening space (through Tumblr, through sodding *ads* on YouTube) with this insistent whispering of "Go on, you knooooooowww you want to adore us. We are pretty much made from your ILM posts about wibbling dronerock circa 2001, just go on and drink the potion, we have cooooookies...."

So if you hate them because "other dudes like to look at them" for real, grow up and go away.

But really, please come back and explain at length what you mean by "malegaze" because if you can take a political concept like "the male gaze" and turn it into a diss against female musicians rendering their art as meaningless because men apparently sometimes look at them, I would really like to hear the logic behind that convolution.

I hoped I'd read it wrong because that term could be applied to any female musician that some male fans enjoy looking at, ie all of them.

To be uncharacteristically serious for a moment, you know, every time I start to think that I'm being heavy-handed and OTT with my whole semi-parodic satire of "refuse to judge critically acclaimed male indie-rock sacred cows by any other criteria than their haircuts" thing... I come back and read posts like that, and realise that no matter how far I go, it will never be far enough, it will never be quite as far as the way that men treat female musicians every fucking day. Which takes a little bit of the fun out of it.

I have been off ILM too long. I had forgotten.

I am gonna go discover the new Warpaint album on mine own, because this kinda discourse has just become so wearing.

I'm baffled by that.

Not BB or DL, obviously.

The Fork review was pretty wrong-footed, I felt, as would be any review of this album that complains that the drums are mixed as a lead instrument and that the bass carries the melodies. And: so? That's partly what makes the band so interesting. Though I suppose what he hammers as trip hop or whatever is what I heard as Too Pure. Same era, I guess. I know that writer is pretty smug about hating on anything from LA, his beat, but really, he's hating on this record for the wrong reasons. There are cases to be made both pro and con, but this doesn't quite work it out. Like, you know, landing Flood and Godrich as an implied criticism. Most bands wish, you know? I'd take this band's intriguing lack of charisma over Savages compelling redundancies any day. The latter is less boring but somehow still ... boring. But maybe I'll take the stronger con side re: Warpaint after I see them next month.

I do want to understand Cunningham's obsession, though. He's pretty selective.

Cunningham's married to one of them, isn't he? Which explains that.

Also, they're good.

The Pitchfork review is weird but not really that weird if you know the writer; IC used to write for Stylus so I've been aware of him for years and, at Pitchfork especially, I don't trust his ears, his opinions, or his reasons. Example: he complains that neither Flood nor Godrich were able to bring out any 'dynamics' on Warpaint's songwriting (well Godrich only mixed two or three tracks so he won't have had any effect on the songwriting whatsoever), but neither Flood nor Godrich are actually known for bringing out 'dynamics' anyway; both of them to my ears bring a smooth, technological, modernist sheen to the stuff they work in.

But that's just one example of many things that don't make sense to me about that review. Likewise the Quietus review didn't make any sense to me either; neither piece feels at all as if it's about the record I've heard.

BB, fwiw, I think you'd really, really like this record. I totally hear it as a Too Pure thing too, like Josh says, or like really early Verve with the skyscraping guitar mixed out. it's not pop or rock; it's dreamy somnambulist wooze music.

We don't mention CCunningham marrying any Dirty Drone Girl Bassist that isn't me! We just don't, OK?

This hurts me, in my heart. So we don't discuss thissssssss! *stamps feet and wails inconsolably*

Sorry!

I'm not familiar with Too Pure at all, but I usually pull this band out alongside the Cure.

BB, I'm sorry for your loss. :(

also lol at Warpaint and all their djembes or whatever.

or that pitchfork review and all their ryan gosling soundtracks.

It's OK. I hear Richard D James has recently divorced so I'm OK holding out for the OG. *sniff*

I do need to give this album a proper listen, because the thing is, I loved Exquisite Corpse, I really got that "mineminemine" precious feeling about it, like it was designed explicitly and only for me, it was a very intimate and immediate obsession. But I did not get the same feeling from The Fool apart from a couple of songs - maybe Majesty and Undertow, from memory? - and I don't know if I didn't give it enough of a chance to captivate me. But the two songs I've heard off the new one, immediately hit me in that sonic happy place. (Early Verve is much more likely to get me than "The Cure" because "The Cure encompasses so many things, like, if we're talking Pornography and A Forest, or if we're talking Friday I'm In Love? I think it's the guitar effects, though, they *luuuuuurve* that heavy chorus + Fender reverb guitar tone, which is one of those signifiers people always mean when they say "The Cure)

eagerly anticipating dog latin and imago's opinions on it exactly one year from now

― |$̲̅(̲̅ιοο̲̅)̲̅$̲̅| (gr8080), Wednesday, 22 January 2014 06:00 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

have repped for Warpaint before; this album's begun brilliantly

absolutely no comparison to the dullard Savages

I have never fucked with the Verve before. Will take this opportunity to check them out. Probably up my alley.

To be honest, I would not expect anyone with a greater understanding of the stylistic differences between various sub-genres of indie-rock than, say, Lex, to attempt a comparison between Warpaint and Savages based on their *music*. So please, let's not go there unless you really wanna discuss how much Nick McCabe sounds like East Bay Ray?

The comparison I got when I saw Savages live was specifically that the rhythm section is great and carries the group, while the guitar provides atmospherics. But I would never confuse the two bands. I am confused however at the amount of hype Savages earned vs. this band, which seems to be doing more interesting things with fewer rewards.

Flood nor Godrich are actually known for bringing out 'dynamics' anyway; both of them to my ears bring a smooth, technological, modernist sheen to the stuff they work in.

Actually, Flood's been one of PJ Harvey's go-tos, and on her grungier, less sheen-y albums, no less.

i didn't get the Savages hype until i saw a video of them playing live, then i totally got it.

Actually, Flood's been one of PJ Harvey's go-tos, and on her grungier, less sheen-y albums, no less.

TBYML is considerably more sheeny and modernist and technological, I'd argue, than Ride Of Me, which is the most dynamic and raw and dramatic, I'd say. (It's obviously still not Keane, you know, but it's a much bigger, richer, more produced sound than ROM).

Ride of Me. Indeed.

I thought the 'malegaze' thing was pretty clear; it was my maybe-not-totally-clever but certainly-not-meant-to-be-offensive conflation of both the way I've noticed male writers describing bands like Warpaint, Savages, etc (I'm guessing you don't need examples here) and the fact that their sound obviously touches on the, err, impressionistic aspects of shoegaze. I just find this band a complete non-event. To be fair, though, music "pretty much made from...ILM posts about wibbling dronerock circa 2001" was never, on its best day, bound to win me over.

TBYML is considerably more sheeny and modernist and technological, I'd argue, than Ride Of Me

True! But since then Flood has been involved with Is This Desire?, White Chalk (!), A Woman and a Man Walk By and Let England Shake, most of which don't pass the modernist/sheeny/tech test. Just sayin'.

True, true.

So they don't sound like a more polished Siouxsie & The Banshees anymore?

ok so

this is basically a masterpiece

fuck Pitchfork, fuck all the cunts who want you to write accessible indie-dance hits, make whatever music you want to, especially if it takes you down this sublime rabbit-hole

Today, I came to terms with the songs in the middle of the album that I had previously characterized as "filler", but now I get kinda hung up with with "Son". I'm saying this as a rabid Warpaint fan here.

kinda ridiculously the album kinda got even better after I posted that, culminating with 'Drive', which is srsly giving The Cars an impromptu streetrace for best song of that name

This album is blossoming more and more for me with every listen.

Son is a nice woozy closer, def not a highlight but the shoddy Byrds guitar at the end is sorta genius

It's astonishing how one person can have the talent to make me almost hate music I should otherwise love, by casually taking swipes at other music I also love. Can you please leave out the boring Drowned-In-Sound-isms of treating music as some kind of rival contest between righteous taste and whatever it is you're demonising this week. It is possible to love many different things.

Cosign. It's not a fight.

saw them last night in brighton, they were excellent. stella the drummer is a monster.

That's an Interpol song, right?

Stella Is A Monster And She Is Always Drums (pompously)

(Warpaint's drums are actually the opposite of pompous; I just can't stop saying that.)

yr totally projecting there - what swipes do I take, other than saying that the band doesn't have to adhere to blogosphere type?

Pitchfork isn't a band, you know (thank fuck)

I happen to like "indie-accessible dance hits" and your tedious grumbling against them was played out already 3000 posts ago on the EOY tracks list. When you put that music in opposition to e.g. Warpaint in your nasty little imagined feuds you do neither yourself nor the music you are supposedly advocating any favours.

In fairness, the attempt at an accessible indie-dance song is by some margin the worst thing here.

I listened to this at low volume while reading the other night and it really worked for me as ambient, to the extent I got annoyed when Disco/very broke the spell. Whether it'll reward repeated/closer listens I don't know, although I still don't like the singer's voice when she hits high notes.

I'm not saying indie-accessible dance is per se a bad thing, just that Warpaint don't have to make it, and that their talents clearly lie more sublimely with a comparatively contemplative, atmospheric, surreal music

Even those sympathetic to what Warpaint are doing have all but admitted this album lacks hooks, grooves, or even a pulse most of the time

direct quote from Pitchfork - just saying, there's an enemy to fight

This is inane, no one wants them to make indie-dance and no one has ever claimed to. Even the Pitchfork review isn't saying that. Another pointless false-opposition.

Now why on earth would I get the idea that saying "fuck X" was implying something negative about X? I mean, really. Fuck imago, then, I guess.

Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the warpaint room!

hooks, grooves, or even a pulse most of the time

^indie-dance, by my reckoning.

I said 'fuck those who', not 'fuck indie dance', different clauses yo. Also, by God let me restrain this hand from typing further

(except a li'l lol @ how's life)

to chill you all out here is a shit photo i took last night.
http://distilleryimage8.s3.amazonaws.com/b091257284c611e39d6d127553f729f8_7.jpg
annoying person behind me last night was all "I don't like the new album and ooh this is the first time I've seen them not play in a diamond formation" which again proves you never eavesdrop anything worth hearing at a gig.

their vocals were really, really fantastic last night, too. I'm impressed how they can recreate the vibe and timbre of a geodesic dome in Joshua Tree to venues of all shapes and sizes.

hooks, grooves, or even a pulse most of the time

^indie-dance, by my reckoning.

Yeah because those three elements are only ever present in indie-dance...

Also, by God let me restrain this hand from typing further

yes God, please restrain that hand

lol

"So they don't sound like a more polished Siouxsie & The Banshees anymore?"

they never did.

The lead vocal reminds me of Siouxsie although yes the instrumentation is not Banshees-like

I'm really liking this....actually I think a lot of the observations about how the music is constructed in that Pitchfork review aren't necessarily wrong, but to me they are positives...esp the sort of drifting, diffuse groove parts an the bass handling the melody, which is a weird thing to slam them for seeing how I'd imagine Pitchfork holds a certain obscure Manchester post-punk band called Joy Division in high regard.

I keep finding myself coming back to 'Hi', I love that groove.

yeah this album is excellent. i mean yeah it meanders but thats cool. they're not a band i listen to for tight songwriting anyway. its more about that enchanting VOIB and atmosphere. the rhythm section are incredible on this too. "keep it healthy" and "disco" are my faves so far.

Still haven't heard the second half. Saving it for something

Sexing?

they're not a band i listen to for tight songwriting anyway

2014

well not everything HAS to be tight verse-chorus-verse yknow. they have a nice sound thats good to get lost in

I'm a lucky charm.

this record is fascinating. the word "elliptical" doesn't even sum up how they handle every instrument that's not bass, drums, or vox.

i think what the pitchfork review missed is that this is less a collection of 12 songs than 1 song with 12 movements.

agreed i really really enjoy this album

this record is hypnotizing

The Pitchfork review is hilariously off the mark, but a perfect example of why many Pitchfork reviews are hilariously off the mark: the reviewer is more concerned with writing a mini-essay about his pet thesis (i.e., Warpaint is a modern version of a late-90s alt rock album) than he is with actually reviewing the music on the album he was assigned to review.

Despite the reviewer's insistence that Nigel Godrich mixing this album somehow makes it into OK Computer 2.0, it reminds me far more of the Slits' Cut in that it seems to reflect a uniquely female rejection of standard rock conventions, and of standard musical conventions, such as resolution, verse-chorus-verse song structure, etc. And, although it's not a jazz record, it stands in the same relation to rock that Miles Davis's Nefertiti does to jazz, in that it's almost backwards or upside-down music, with the drums taking the role of lead instrument and everything else providing the rhythmic pulse.

But, beyond the argument about which other records this sounds like, I agree with ciderpress and call all destroyer that the record is fascinating on its own terms. The first few times I listened to it, I did think it was a formless mess with a great mood, but repeated listens do reveal structures, hooks, melodies, etc. They may not be conventional structures, hooks, and melodies, but they are there.

spot on, driver 8

2nded, esp the slits reference.

jah great post

I ibject to the idea that its a "uniquely female rejection". It's simply dream pop taken to its logical conclusion of somnambulant wondering. That critical appraisals are influenced by the gender of the musicians largely reflects a very long cultural history of dream-like females (as muses, goddesses etc.).

object, not ibject, obv.

DING DING DING DING DING

(OTM bell)

I ibject to the idea that its a "uniquely female rejection". It's simply dream pop taken to its logical conclusion of somnambulant wondering. That critical appraisals are influenced by the gender of the musicians largely reflects a very long cultural history of dream-like females (as muses, goddesses etc.)

I guess I'm going to contradict myself to some degree here, but a female-dominated dream-pop/shoegaze band such as Lush didn't really reject conventional pop song structures so much as they played conventional pop song structures through a battery of effects pedals.

I don't know enough about Warpaint to know whether they have the same sort of "we're a band of feminists" manifesto that I think the Slits had, or whether they simply view themselves as a band that just happens to be four women. Certainly their all-female such as Savages doesn't take the languid dream pop approach to music, I don't think women have to take that approach to music by any means, but I do still think that there is something uniquely female in the approach taken by the Slits and Warpaint, almost like that of the Shaggs, to some degree: they have made up their own way of playing their instruments, one that has very little to do with conventional notions of how rock music ought to be played. And for better or for worse, "conventional notions of how rock music ought to be played" largely equals "male notions of how rock music ought to be played."

Meant to type "their all-female contemporaries Savages"

Please, just stop.

OK, will do. Fantastic record regardless.

this record definitely has hooks, to me, it's just harmonically slippery, often just tracing out the chords rather than filling them in. there's plenty of other records that do the same thing though the only ones i can think of at the moment do it via production/timbre rather than via arrangement like they're doing here (e.g. loveless)

his record definitely has hooks

The moment where the singer (by the standards of this record) shouts out "I … just … need … a … BREAK!" is one of them.

I don't think it has anything to do with the fact that both groups of women, but I think both Warpaint and The Slits have a similar sense of space and dub in their music, though they do different things with those elements.

both groups ARE women, not OF women

are both of?

Women don't 'have' to do anything, whether they're in a band or not. And Carole King objects to you denigrating her songwriting.

So whilst your correct that the P4K review was about someone's undergrad hypothesis more than the music qua music, you then immediately did EXACTLY THE SAME THING by trying to cast their songwriting as 'feminine'.

You're.

Also, FUCK LOADS of male dreampop / jam bands.

Y'know, 'The Slits and Warpaint have a similar sense of space and non-linearity in their music, informed by dub, creating a dream-like effect' is a really good, strong, cogent argument which tells me a lot about both bands and their musical aesthetics.

'The Slits and Warpaint, (and some other totally unrelated female bands I can't quite shoehorn into my argument) have a poorly thought out ~mysterious lady-way~ of Not Being Rock Male' is garbage, it's sexist, it's not even wrong. Try again.

Of *course* gender informs artists and their worldviews, and some bands make a feature of that, including but not limited to The Slits. But to go from one particular female artist's experience of how their gender affects their music, to generalising about how ~all ladies be dreamlike~ and do and don't and should and shouldn't do with regard to "rock conventions"? You're not going to get away with that lazy, bad, determinative kind of thinking on ILX.

Warpaint is coming from a different place but sometimes they remind me of Doves, just the way the records kind of drift off at points

So whilst your correct that the P4K review was about someone's undergrad hypothesis more than the music qua music, you then immediately did EXACTLY THE SAME THING by trying to cast their songwriting as 'feminine'.

You're correct, I am guilty of the same thing as the Pitchfork reviewer. However, if I wrote for Pitchfork (which mercifully I don't), and I was assigned to review an album, I would try to focus more on the musical merit of the album and less on underaged hypotheses about music in general. On a message board, I will share my undergrad hypotheses about music. I'm sorry that I seem to have pushed Autotelic's buttons, but I do see parallels between the musical approaches of the Slits and Warpaint, although I never said that all female rock musicians do or must take that approach, and I'm not sure where that straw man argument came from.

As I said once above, where I fundamentally disagree with the Pitchfork reviewer is with his artistic assessment of the album as an album, I certainly don't think it's a "5.7' album, or whatever number score he assigned to it. It's one of the better albums I've heard in a long time, and I'm sorry I brought up the gender issue at all and pissed Autotelic off, because ultimately what's important to me is that this is a very good album on its own terms

I'd love to see a poll asking is this a good album y/n. I'm still crazy about it, and it seems like most of this thread is, too, but a lot of my critic friends and music lover friends (including ones that liked the first Warpaint album, which I still haven't heard) wrote this LP off after just a listen or two. As much as I'd disagree with a 5.7 score, I think it might be the consensus.

I like this one a lot more than the previous one, which I think I played twice before going "well that's neat" and then ignoring it

Intro -> Keep It Healthy -> Love Is to Die ropes me into a full album listen every time. I can tell this is informed by dub bc my instinct is to play it at a party. and those dearest to me tell me that they hate the sleepy dub music I always try to play at parties.

a lot of my critic friends and music lover friends (including ones that liked the first Warpaint album, which I still haven't heard) wrote this LP off after just a listen or two

This is truly an album that takes more than one or two listens to get. I kept listening beyond that because I liked the mood of it, but it took me more than two listens to grasp what they were trying to do and begin to differentiate the songs from each other.

I'd love to see a poll asking is this a good album y/n. I'm still crazy about it, and it seems like most of this thread is, too, but a lot of my critic friends and music lover friends (including ones that liked the first Warpaint album, which I still haven't heard) wrote this LP off after just a listen or two. As much as I'd disagree with a 5.7 score, I think it might be the consensus.

― Evan R, Tuesday, February 18, 2014 2:07 PM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think everyone was expecting them to tighten up. the other album and ep have some cool stuff but lots of dull moments. they sort of flipped the script by loosening up, a lot. thus you get these reviews working of a preconceived narrative.

i mean i was expecting them to tighten up too and i posted in this thread to that effect, but it didn't take me more than one listen to realize they were up to something else entirely and it was something i was more or less down with.

This would be a very boring album if they tightened it up.

Anyway, I thought I detected a bit of anti-L.A. backlash and resentment in a few of the reviews when this came out, which I thought was weird and unfair. Bands using inflated budgets to make expensive, unexpected, non-commercial albums was one of the most exciting things about the '90s imo

loving this! listened to it several times yesterday on spotifify, after buying the vinyl as an apt decoration. it's loose and a bit abstract but by no means songless, hookless. vibe can suffice, and while this thing's got that in spades, it's not trying to get by on mood alone. "love is to die" got stuck in my head on the first pass and has stayed there locked in tight (weird key jump tho). "biggie" and "disco/very" are pretty immediate too. i'm not gonna claim it's got a lot of pop potential, cuz it clearly doesn't, but that's hardly a sin, right?

a bit surprised on my initial listen by the all the slits drop. opening tracks put me in mind of the xx more than anything else, a blurred out version anyway, along with recent blonde redhead albums and perhaps the raincoats (if we have to reach for gender-matched postpunk equivalents). by the time "disco/very" and "go in" roll around, of course, the slits comparisons start to make sense, but that's only part of what the album's up to.

are there any good positive reviews of this record i can read? it's such a self-evidently good record to me.

i know! like if you like post-punkish type music how can ppl not like this???

in fairness, I feel the same way about Savages and half of you guys were not about that album at all

savages isn't bad per se, but just such slavish duplication & i never ended up wanting to listen to it.

i might have been to harsh on them, i shouldn't discourage England when they have a big indie band that at least tries not to be as weak as wet toilet paper.

this feels pretty distinctive

w ums on this

i was reading the liner notes this morning and realized that one of them is married to chris cunningham, who took the photos used in the album art.

Gonna listen to Savages for the next hour now just to spite you all!

i was reading the liner notes this morning and realized that one of them is married to chris cunningham, who took the photos used in the album art.

― call all destroyer, Wednesday, February 19, 2014 4:03 PM

WE DON'T TALK ABOUT THIS OR BB GET VERY VERY VERY UPSET.

Cunningham has also filmed a forthcoming documentary about the making of the album.

wld watch

HOW DARE CHRIS CUNNINGHAM MARRY A DIRTY DRONEROCK BASSIST THAT ISN'T ME. HOW DARE HE.

Wait, no, sorry, I forgot, I'm married to Interpol's haircuts now, never mind.

i love the fact that they got all these a-list music dudes involved so they could make a completely insular and weird record. well done, ladies!

o weird, did not know that! i did notice jenny's thank you to "cc" while reading the liners ("my beautiful husband and best friend"). stuck out because she's the only band member to so pointed thank a significant other.

does this mean that the song "cc" is about chris? suppose it must...

xp back to cad on the thank yous

OMG, women in having individual tastes independent if their "a-list music dudes" partners shocker!

i was talking about flood and nigel godrich more than cc but please feel free to never respond to my posts

xpost

that's not what anyone said

i guess i'm surprised that any album involving flood and nigel goodritch in 2014 could be actually interesting

yeah that too, lol

You mentioned neither Flood nor Nigel Goodrich before that post, CAD, but talked about her husband at length. I am a post-reader; I am not a mind-reader!

you read what you want to read

I also worried when I saw Flood was producing because in recent years I've come to associate him with horribly misjudged glossy crossover attempts (Glasvegas, Editors etc) but I forget that he's often just a great facilitator - almost transparent in the way that he helps get the artist's ideas across.

yeah i forgot he did the last pj harvey record which was fantastic of course, and totally in keeping with your use of "transparent"

wonder how much (if any) james blake influence seeped into this record

yeah i forgot he did the last pj harvey record which was fantastic of course, and totally in keeping with your use of "transparent"

― call all destroyer, Wednesday, February 19, 2014 10:33 AM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^oh really? ok that was great

yeah, i love LES and didn't realize it was a flood production. guess i like his work more than i thought.

he also did To Bring You My Love which is my fave

Flood (ft Warpaint)

Flood needs to just do the straight up dub album he's always had up his sleeve (at least since his lower profile 80s work like Bird Wood Cage.

this album would lend itself pretty well to dub or remixes of any kind really

i guess i'm surprised that any album involving flood and nigel goodritch in 2014 could be actually interesting

I think Godrich is a more talented producer than Flood, but I don't really understand this comment at all.

i was skipping around on this while driving around in the snow and finally realized what made disco/very seem so familiar to me--it is one of the few songs not made by liars that sounds like it could have been made by liars. the vocal sneer on the "we'll kill you line" (and the line itself) is so angus andrew.

also, no boston date on their tour, dammit.

So good live. Amazing rhythm section even when the bassist is ill. And surprisingly tight in terms if not really jamming things out; I was half fearing full Grateful Dead jamness but 90% was played exactly as on record, which has altered my perception of their compositional deliberation somewhat.

did they do the I Feel Love cover?

No! Didn't know that was a thing. Sadface.

They did it in Brighton in January, it was immense.

How did Flood manage to get Stella to sound like Larry Mullen Jr?

Saw 'em live in DC last night. Some songs I loved (atmospheric, nice guitar sound, effective bass), some (mostly ones that emphasized faster programmed beats from the keyboard underneath, rather than the drummer) seemed underwritten.

I mean some songs seemed quickly written and less than fully developed idea-wise--lets just add miscellanous sounds ontop of these beats, while others felt more fully composed and developed.

I thought my wife would like this, but she said it sounded like an indie version of Lorena McKennitt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc7Ke9Org9U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc7Ke9Org9U

I see the resemblance. It's the drums + breathy reverbed vocals.

This is better with the lights out

or long walks at nite in cool temps

or in a bus on the motorway in the pouring rain

this album super rules

"Up all night..."

http://pitchfork.com/news/55005-warpaint-criticize-beyonce-and-rihanna-for-hyper-sexual-music/

Um, plz shut up.

yeah. Apart from the fact that calling music hypersexual as a pejorative is horribly outdated and basically just stupid, the most sexually charged songs on the Beyoncé album describe interactions between a man and a woman in a 10+ year relationship - yes, it's shamelessly sexual, but it's also an album about love and devotion and the triumphs and pitfalls of a relationship. It's not the portrait of a "slut".

And also, Warpaint aren't exactly prudes themselves. Pretty sure a lot of people were fascinated with them early on because of that topless picture of the bassist that did the rounds, as well as the very suggestive video for "Elephants".

Theresa's clarification. News items say she was "misquoted" but she seems smarter and more honest than that.

https://www.facebook.com/warpaintwarpaint/posts/10152319640790186

Chal Ravens ‏@chalravens 21m
Warpaint apologise (read: grovel in face of mighty Beyonce) and claim to have spoken as 'fans and consumers, not card-carrying feminists'

Chal Ravens ‏@chalravens 20m
PSA: Feminists must carry their cards AT ALL TIMES. If you are speaking in public or to a journalist, FLASH YOUR CARD.

The weird thing is that Q obviously doesn't think the comments were a big deal because they're not in the standfirst or pullquotes - they're just an aside really, and the writer is possibly the most upbeat and least devious interviewers I know.

"A journalist came on our bus and casually asked us..."

Hmmmm. Maybe I give musicians too much credit for knowing what is and what isn't an interview situation, but this strikes me as disingenuous.

I can certainly relate to "complex arguments and commentary taken out of context and reduced to simplistic and misrepresentative ones" but that whole "oops, forgot my Feminist Card that day" is a bit weird.

On the other hand, not having read the Q interview in full, I have no idea if the agenda is on the part of Warpaint or on the part of a journalist who wanted to represent them a certain way. "White Feminists (tm) Are Racist" is certainly true in many, many cases. But I'm also aware of how "White Feminists Are Racist" is a trope much used by white males who are not actually anti-racist but just anti-Feminist in order to discredit any woman with an opinion. It really comes down to who the journalist is, and I dunno, but hmmmm.... because it's Q Magazine, I'm guessing the journalist in question was probably a white male and not a black woman? Unless Q has vastly changed its hiring practices?

I don't know who to side with here. Warpaint don't come off well either in the quote or in the apology, but, y'know, Q Magazine are hardly standard bearers for gender or race issues, so I am really fucking suspicious of the way that this is presented.

Journalist was Sylvia Patterson, white but not a man. Feels to me as if a longer conversation was condensed for space reasons and as a result feels more strident or simplistic than Wayman intended, but she doesn't claim she didn't say the words.

Oh, it was Sylvia Patterson. Never mind. x-post

Also, the fact that Lily fucking Allen is on the cover means that has just lost Q any credit I may ever have granted them.

tbh of the multitudes of people, both self-identifying as liberal feminists and not, who STILL hold these slut-shamey opinions, warpaint are hardly a blip - it's more illustrative of how deeply entrenched these ideas are that remarks like this can be made as asides by a marginally famous indie band

Surprised she used the word slut tbh but it's OK to express disappointment with certain decisions made by artists you generally admire. I still have problems with Drunk in Love because of Jay-Z's Ike Turner lines, which is a pisser because it's such a great song.

"White American Culture is deeply imbued with racism and racist ideals" is news to fucking no one. But I'm just suspicious of the way that "White American woman is deeply imbued with racism and racist ideals" becomes a tool not to decry racism or White American Culture, but to decry A Woman, or better yet to discredit Feminism itself. I am not arguing that these ideas aren't pretty terrible, or that remarks like this aren't indicative of a deeply racist culture. But again, it's that thing of picking up an individual and going "X is a racist!" ignores the problem that racism and slut-shaming and misogynoir is not *just* a problem of A White Woman, or White Women or White Feminism. It is a problem of all of White America (and White Europe, too.) But when it becomes a discrediting tool to specifically dismantle A Woman, or the concept of Feminism, rather than addressing racism and misogynoir.

It's disappointing that Warpaint said the things, in whatever context. But having the nous to apologise (even when she veers into apolosplaining) shows way more self awareness than Lily Allen ever did. "What would popular female artists present like if they weren't facing the societal pressures of sexualisation?" is an interesting question that *every* female musicians comes up against, whether it's applied to Rhianna or Warpaint (topless bassist photos and all. Why do sexualised bassist photos count against Warpaint but not against Interpol? That's an interesting question, too.) but recognition of the racalised aspects of sexualisation is way too complex a topic for Q, I guess.

But this whole thing is probably too subtle an argument for ILM, let alone Q Magazine or P4k, who are looking to generate outrage for maximum pagehits and "White 'Feminist' Says Something Outrageously Racist" is a massive page-spinner on many fronts right now. Warpaint are a blip, but the blip is gonna count against them, not against the massive fucking wall of White American Racism.

Warpaint are a bunch of stoner-ass hippies. Of course they're gonna think that people's talents could be put to a higher use than the waggling of butts.

Also, from the interviews I've seen of them, they aren't particularly adept at handling the press. Stella is usually able to handle herself passably well. Jenny kinda. Teresa and Emily have never looked comfortable in an interview I've seen of them.

Hoping to get tickets to see them open for Nick Cave in Milwaukee. P excited.

Still think the new album rules.

It does, but 'Drive' rules especially hard. Buried as penultimate track, where so many of the best songs seem to be. That change-up halfway through! Oof. One of the best songs of the year.

just remembered i'm seeing them on the 20th!

drive is awesome, esp. on an album that is totally in need of a climax.

Wardrobe

man...

saw them open for nick cave this weekend about as disappointed i've been by a band i was excited to see

obviously not sure if a bigger venue is really right for them and the sound was a bit swampy but yeah at least in a theater setting they came off as kind of half-assed and disjointed

they did a "jam" at the end that was just super sloppy and not engaging at all, they just don't have the musicality to pull something like that off

reminds me of when i saw the Blank Dogs who i was in love with and they were so lame and i've never been able to really dig them the same way again :/

aw :/

i'm not super surprised for some reason tho there are some great-sounding live videos of songs from the new record on youtube. maybe just an off day.

yeah it's hard to say, was really excited (though there's also the effect that bad seeds basically dropped a nuclear bomb on the venue after and 99 percent of bands would have suffered in comparison)...

but yeah...muddled is the best word

p large venue though, maybe a better small club band?

I've never seen them, but I've watched a few live shows on youtube and listened to a few bootlegs. Sometimes they're amazing, but sometimes they really don't have it together. Totally agree that the onstage jam sessions don't do them any favors.

Who else besides me is going to see them Thursday in Prospect Park?

i've heard bad things about that jam for a few years. i keep missing them when they play sf.

pretty sexy with the strange brew at Pickathon. Hope they won't change because I said that.
http://new.livestream.com/pickathon/events/3228592

Some excursions, not too jammy. Think they've delicately excised certain effects from Television/solo Verlaine, but not too much.

Kind of Bush Tetras now. Bass gets a chance to shine more here; drums have consistently sharpened focal points too.

Okay, here's a jam, at the end. They like them some Raincoats, Slits, and shoegaze too. Pretty cool.

reminds me of when i saw the Blank Dogs who i was in love with and they were so lame and i've never been able to really dig them the same way again :/

lol never seen warpaint, but had precisely the same exp w/ blank dogs

vmic EOY bump because this album is great

vmnic didn't listen to this album since about a month after it came out. I owe it to them to revisit.

man i wish i'd never seen them live ;_;

yes I bought the vinyl yesterday after taking a long break from it. It's even better this time.

gonna be my #1 most likely

i like this, tho not anywhere close to the first record and ep; relistened to some of it today to try and pinpoint why -- its a little to loose and aimless feeling i think, like in biggie esp as an example, idk tho really

agree, EC and the fool were more cohesive and consistent.

This remix of Biggy is nice:

https://soundcloud.com/warpaintwarpaint/biggy-baardsen-remix

<iframe width="100%" height="450" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/131800288&;auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true"></iframe>

oh well.

see imo in this record they embraced not being cohesive and its so much better for it.

I agree

Haven't listened to this for a good few months, think I should dig it out again. I listened to it a hell of a lot in the first part of the year.

Just listened again. Still prefer all the cool interlocking guitar parts from the first two records. Mostly just like Love Is To Die and Drive.

This album p much exists at the exact halfway point between I Do Not Want What I Have Not Got and Hail to the Thief, and I like it every bit as much as I would expect to like an album like that.

my favourite album of 2014.

new songs on spotify today

Nice! I've been checking for these ever since I heard "No Way Out (Redux)" a little while ago.

!

Already liking this better than much of the self-titled material.

no way out is very cool, could have fit well on the album. the other song is a little b-sidey but nice to hear them play something a little more active.

Jenny Lee Lindberg working on her solo ish

http://krimsonkrimson.tumblr.com/post/120504602315/making-ma-album-and-its-real-fun-heres-a

http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=2&v=wYRWTZUK-OY

ooh nice

I wonder if Stella is playing on the album

http://shopusa.roughtraderecords.com/right-on

Jenny Lee Lindberg of Warpaint announces her solo debut album as jennylee, after hinting to fans with studio photos via social media. right on! will be released by Rough Trade Records on December 11th, 2015.

Co-produced by jennylee and Norm Block, the 10 songs on right on! were all written by jennylee, and recorded earlier this spring at Happy Ending Studios in Silverlake, CA.

Joining Jenny on the album are: Norm Block (Plexi, Mark Langegan), Dan Elkan (Them Hills, Broken Bells) and Warpaint’s Stella Mozgawa. Additional players include Tony Bevilacqua, Kris Byerly, Katie Burden, Kirk Hellie, Jonathan Hishcke and Cedric LeMoyne.

While right on! retains some of Jenny’s signature Warpaint groove, she incorporates New Wave and Goth elements into her solo work. Her breathy voice and her meticulous bass playing create a new aura that is hazy and dreamy, and essentially all jennylee.

xp: Answer: yes.

nice

And more bitchin' news:

http://www.nme.com/news/warpaint/89280/

Great, another album to add to ever growing list of albums to look forward to in 2016!

Anyone heard the Jenny Lee single?

They haven't released it as an early download for pre-orders yet.

http://thelabel.co.nz/jennylee-shares-first-single-from-debut-album-right-on/

jennylee album is great. very much in the vein of the last warpaint lp.

Excellent news.

They started album sessions yesterday, according to their fb.

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtp1/t31.0-8/12716389_10153602344105186_6516831497837773083_o.jpg

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtf1/v/t1.0-9/12715697_10153611862120186_5374848951670106197_n.jpg?oh=1278a4c539f1350f4c4ad0e5438555e7&oe=575B1807

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xlt1/v/t1.0-9/12832335_10153669765170186_2442968632096432978_n.jpg?oh=35939161506573cbd026e02c5504f81b&oe=5799419C

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/13161684_10153803781935186_6235851549704895346_o.jpg

final night, final mix... bringing the ship in for a landing...

Tour dates

http://www.warpaintwarpaint.com/#top

I have a small crush on this band, so sexy

New teaser video on their fb page that I can't figure out how to link to. Not enough music for me to even have an opinion about yet, but it sounds like they're changing things up a bit.

Album Sept 23rd.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PhAMlJDMeI&feature=youtu.be

sounds like BRONCHO

Sounds like shite, and I like this band.

I don't hate it, but I think I prefer the depressing, moody Warpaint to the dancey, happy one. I need something to soundtrack candle-lighting and tapestry-hanging, etc.

I guess I prefer it when it sounds like they're jamming out, rather than when they try to write a verse-chorus type of song.

That barely sounds like them. It has this very generic "let's try something more pop" sound that I feel like a lot of indie bands go for after a few records.

I'm listening to The Fool right now and there's a world of difference. Jeez.

Yea this isnt terrible but like man alive said its a stab at a generic pop sound and it doesnt suit them

Naturally, I am digging the hell out of this.

the song is fine. also the album has 10 other songs that we haven't heard yet.

https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/el-regreso-de-warpaint

I've bought a lot of records the last couple years but the Warpaint LP is the only one I regret buying. It lost the appeal for me pretty quickly. Maybe the ltd ed. red vinyl will pick up in value so I can offload it without losing money.

I've got pretty low expectations for this one. Hoping for two, maybe three keepers.

I've actually grown to really like New Song. It is extremely corny, but kinda reminds me of HAIM or something - that 80's pop by way of 00's indie vibe. I think there's enough of the original Warpaint vibe in there to make it distinct though. One of Jenny's basslines really reminds me of one from Elephants off their first record.

it's leaking all over the floor

I've got pretty low expectations for this one. Hoping for two, maybe three keepers.

― calstars, Monday, September 12, 2016 9:19 PM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yup, this is pretty much how I'm feeling about it.

I started out my initial listen thinking "eh, it's okay" and by the end of the album I was in love with the whole thing; my turning point was "Dre"

on listen #2, the whole thing is clicking for me

i like the stall, need to listen to the rest more

really not digging this at all. this band had a certain sense of...i dunno mystery or something to me or a certain vibe that i thought was very intriguing and now i don't really feel anything about them.

Totally agree about the sense of mystery; the last album nailed that. I like this one, though. Think of it as a summer record and it really works.

I like the first song a lot. I haven't listened through all of it yet.

Liking this better than the self-titled.

I never really glommed onto that album. I really liked Love Is To Die, and some of the other tracks were pretty good, but I don't remember them. And there was quite a bit of it that seemed like leftovers filler to me.

Heads Up, on the other hand is really propulsive and magical throughout. I didn't expect to like this after New Song dropped, but I've grown to like that song and it has it's place in the album. There's so many great sounds here. Cellos and horns or synth approximations thereof? One song had really great subharmonic bass. The songs are memorable and I can get lost in them. I love this record.

:)

I still haven't heard the new album yet, but I'm giving the self-titled record a spin again and it still holds up. The new one'll have to be something special to dislodge Warpaint as my favourite album of theirs.

So yeah, finally getting around to hearing the new one and, yeah, it's clear that they've attempted to make more of a song based record this time around, which I have no problem with, but I think the previous record was more them.

New record feels like a no man's land between their usual atmospheric tendencies and trying to create more structured songs. This feeling of not going all the way comes off as endearing to me.

I've come around after a full listen, not allowing myself to skip anything. Even "New Song" sounds pretty good.

I can understand why someone would say it's a halfway house between what they were doing and taking a full-on pop approach, but I don't find this album to be anywhere near as atmospheric as the previous two. If they could somehow combine the jamming of the second album with the more tangible vocal melodies of the new one, they'd be onto a winner. At the moment, though, the second LP is still the one to beat.

I tried to give the self-titled another shot last night, but I still didn't like it. Different strokes I guess!