The Verse’s Kate Horrobin previews Warpaint, playing at the Brighton Dome on Wednesday 29th March 2017
In the era of the mon pubis bodysuit pop icon and the Miley Cyrus foam finger, for female artists in the music industry it has seemed the increasing reality that to make a pop hit, your booty’s gotta touch the floor. However, Warpaint, the all-girl, indie-rock four piece from L.A, offer reassurance for the 21st century feminist that all is not lost. Health, naturalness and music that longs for the good times. Those are the characteristics for this indie rock group. And they have proved that you don’t have to be squeezed inside a sequinned leotard to produce hits.
In the band’s highest viewing video on YouTube, Disco//Very – Keep it Healthy, the Warpaint girls are filmed dancing down a road in the sun wearing jeans, T-shirts and trainers. They’re comfy, they’re laughing. And we need more of it.
Their new album Heads Up, released November 2016, also took a new cogency from their former sound. The previous, self-titled album is characterised by a lo-fi mix of synthadelic grooves from guitarists Theresa Wayman and Emily Kokal. Creating brooding, intense atmospheres. When interviewed, the free-spirited girl group have said they wanted to encapsulate some of the energy created during their live shows into their music.
There is something very invigorating about watching them perform live. Just four musicians rocking out with their instruments. And so the new album is adventurous. It has hip-hop influences and a song ode to hip-hop icon Dre. By Your Side is also an adulation for female friendship and fittingly the cover of the new album shows a silhouette of the four, (including drummer Stella Mozgawa and bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg), linking hands.
The Warpaint girls will be playing the Brighton Dome on Wednesday the 29th of March. I’ll be eating my words should they arrive with sequinned leotards, foam fingers and breaking out some booty busting moves. But if they do, hey, power to you sisters.
