Warpaint in concert from Paris – part of The Black Sessions from Radio France International and recorded on February 24, 2011.
Always happens – you have to travel some 6,000 miles in order to hear a band from your own area code. In this case, this L.A.-based band have been up and roaring since 2004 – and from the sounds of it, the Parisian audience is solidly on their side – as I think just about everyone else is too.
A little background in case you’re not from L.A. or just don’t wander into to this world of Rock.
Warpaint formed in Los Angeles on Valentine’s Day 2004. The original lineup consisted of childhood friends Theresa Wayman and Emily Kokal alongside sisters Lindberg and Shannyn Sossamon. The band played in the Los Angeles area for three years, writing songs (“Stars”, “Beetles” and “Elephants”) which would eventually be on their debut EP. According to Jenny Lindberg in a 2011 Guardian interview, the band originally went by the name World War 4 and changed their name to Warpaint only after writing their song “Warpaint” (which they had been playing for years but first appeared on their LP, The Fool). “I’ve been asked a few times, ‘Oh, why did you name it [the song] “Warpaint”?’—as though we were naming the song after our band, when it’s actually the other way around.”
The band began recording their debut EP, Exquisite Corpse, in December 2007, with producer Jacob Bercovici. The sessions took over two months and concluded with mixing and mastering by John Frusciante, who was also Kokal’s boyfriend at the time. Warpaint self-released the EP in 2008, which quickly moved to No. 1 on the Los Angeles Amoeba Records local artist chart. In 2009, Exquisite Corpse was rereleased worldwide by Manimal Vinyl, to critical acclaim. The song “Elephants” featured in the 2011 independent horror film Siren, directed by Andrew Hull and released by Lionsgate.
Former RHCP guitarist Josh Klinghoffer performed drums and guitar on the EP in 2007.
Australian drummer Mozgawa (formerly of Mink and Swahili Blonde) joined the band in the winter of 2009. Shortly afterwards, Warpaint were signed to Rough Trade Records, and immediately began extensive touring throughout the United States and Europe, including an opening slot for the xx.
On December 6, 2010, the BBC announced that Warpaint had been nominated for the BBC’s Sound of 2011 poll and they were the cover stars of Beat magazine’s Winter 2010 launch issue.
The band began recording Radiate Like This in 2019. Due to the pandemic in early 2020, the members recorded their parts in their own homes and DIY studios throughout 2020 and 2021.[32]
On January 26, 2022, Warpaint released the song “Champion”. It is the lead single from the band’s fourth studio album, Radiate Like This, which was released on May 6, 2022 via Virgin Records.[2]
For the band’s 20 year anniversary, they released the single “Common Blue” on February 14, 2024 via their YouTube channel, followed by the single “Underneath” on March 21, 2024.
Warpaint’s style has been characterized as art rock, dream pop and psychedelic rock. NME has described their style as “intermittently emerging from plaintive moods into harder rocking, they play expansive, lushly-harmonic psych-rock songs with enough time-changes to satisfy even the most beardy prog-rock bong-tokers”. They have been compared to Cocteau Twins, Joni Mitchell, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Other influences include Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode and Public Image Ltd.
Okay – if you didn’t know before, you know now. So all you have to do is grab lunch, sit down and crank this puppy up and visit their website and grab some stuff.
Good times – they’re still around – the band and the times.
