Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Warpaint

Warpaint - Stars from Adam Harding on Vimeo.

Finally some Los Angelites doing something different AND doing it right! -- (yeah, all coming from a Los Angeles native, haha) -- Hate to be so critical but after the past year of the genre, that whole Southern Californian, noise-pop, surf-rock thing is really starting to wear on me. I'd been hoping that the region had more to offer than No Age, Wavvves, Abe Vigoda, Mika Miko and that neverending slew of bands and well, surprise, surprise, apparently they do. And it's not electro either. Don't get me wrong: each of the aforementioned bands seem like great people and all, especially the No Age guys, but it can get tiring seeing one sound and one small music scene dominate such a large and what-should-be much more diverse landscape.

Upon hearing the three young girls from L.A. that comprise Warpaint, it's apparent that their sound doesn't quite fit into that scene, at least not categorically speaking. At times they produce an airy, and ultra-reverby, Beach House-esque feel, most notably on "Billie Holliday" off of their recently released "Exquisite Corpse." On the album-opener, "Stars", however, they establish a more immediate and darker, Bat for Lashes or even Des Ark meets a sort-of early Sigur Ros shoegaze theme but without leaning too much towards either end of that whole spectrum. The majority of their debut EP is overwhelmingly moody and though we rarely ever see them produce too much buoyancy, the energetic "Krimson" is a discernable exception and proves that the girls are also cabaple of breaking out of their somber, dream-like state when the occasion presents itself. Another reviewer noted the possibility of them "usurping Chan Marshall's throne" at some point down the road and to be completely honest, I don't think it's really such a long shot unless of course they find themselves inclined to a remarkably altered sound from what is heard on "Exquisite Corpse," and damn, is it exquisite. Anyhow, they play in Tucson at the always great Solar Culture this Sunday, November 1st. Those of you in town should go.

2 comments:

leafless said...

these girls are awesome... i'm wide smiled about their album right now. sad i missed that show.

full beautiful.

AMIT said...

Their album is really good.

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