A lot of great psychedelic music has come out of California, and I would argue that Warpaint are no exception. The Los Angeles group distinguished themselves with the release of the Exquisite Corpse EP in 2008, which featured contributions from Red Hot Chili Peppers and (more importantly) Ataxia members John Frusciante and Josh Klinghoffer. The latter band’s brilliant Automatic Writing certainly exerts influence on Warpaint, but it’s more of a blueprint for building upon than a rigid set of rules. There are definite nods to Ataxia’s noodling feedback painting, but Warpaint color in their sound with unexpectedly melodic finishes, making for a sound that is simultaneously lush and jarring. Subtracting Klinghoffer, the group morphed into an all-female quartet that released The Fool to critical acclaim in October 2010.
The Fool sits at the unlikely intersection of Can and Cocteau Twins, loping krautrock grooves infused with angular post-punk, then overlaid with velveteen vocals. Lilting ballads like “Undertow” and “Baby” show a surprisingly restrained side of the band, contrasting with huge guitar jams like “Warpaint” (which features an especially epic bassline—more on that later) and dizzying opener “Set Your Arms Down”. Or sometimes, the mood swings wildly within a single song, such as the claustrophic tempo shifts of “Composure”. One of the best aspects of the record, in terms of both performance and mixing, is the bass. Jenny Lee Lindberg’s confident, bouncy bass-lines are strongly reminiscent of Carlos D going apeshit all over Turn on the Bright Lights—individualistic while still fitting in and augmenting the group as a whole (in addition to the aforementioned “Warpaint”, “Bees” features a truly nasty fuzz line). Even with the sometime-chaotic performances and flying vocals, The Fool retains a visceral quality—four people in a room, totally locked into one another. That’s the heart of this band, the thing that places them in the upper tier of whatever genre descriptor you choose to file them under, is that Warpaint are a unit in the most basic sense of the word, a single entity. That’s why they’re my most anticipated act of this weekend—they can play.
When they’re together on stage, Warpaint hit a musicial free space where within the confines of a song, almost anything can happen. It’s the same group chemistry that makes albums like Future Days [LINK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Days] and In a Silent Way [LINK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_a_Silent_Way] so infinitely replayable, why the guitar solo from Television’s “Marquee Moon” is the best one ever recorded, and the reason people love roadtrips and the Grateful Dead. You may know where a musicial exposition is going to start and end, but there’s so much space and territory to cover between those points that you’re guaranteed to have a good time. So to an extent, I recommend that you interpret Warpaint as a jam band. It’s not the basis of their sound, but certainly colors it in. After a recent quiet period, the band are currently showcasing new material slated for their eagerly anticipated second full-length, which is theoretically coming out in early 2014. Four years is a long time for a fanbase to wait between albums, but if the new songs popping up on Youtube (which seem to be noticeably synthier than previous material) are any indication, it’s been worth it:
Warpaint close out the Canopy on Thursday, along with bluegrass-punk act Larry and His Flask and Pygmalion veterans Murder by Death. The Dirty Feathers round out this outstanding bill, which starts at 9:30 p.m. Following the Head and the Heart over at Krannert, I strongly recommend that you make the half-block walk to Canopy for this show. Its only the first day of the festival, so you’re not allowed to cite being tired (or hungover). And really, lineups this good don’t come around too often.