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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (March 17, 2011)
music BY MOLLY TEMPLETON The Quiet Unquiet Sinking into the exquisite sounds of Warpaint S hifting, mercurial, affecting, sinister, rumbling, alluring, ominous, swirling, immersive, subtle, slinky, sneaky — Warpaint’s debut full-length album, The Fool, calls up giddy adjectives, sentence fragments and swaying submissiveness, not clear-headed criticism. It’s a record for sinking into, for experiencing on headphones that block out the rhythms of ordinary life. The quartet’s earlier release, the Exquisite Corpse EP, was a tease, a too-short set of polished but not yet shiny tracks that peaked at “Billie Holiday” and crested before a listener was ready for it to be over. The Fool is something else. The L.A.- based quartet — two members of which, I’m obliged to mention, are originally from Eugene — had been through multiple drummers before fi nding Stella Mozgawa, who you’d never guess just became a steady member of the band as they fi nished demos for The Fool. Cohesive and compelling, the record sounds like the work of a band that knows each other backwards and forwards, like they could pick up at any point in any song without missing a beat or a breath. Vocals overlap and repeat, and lyrics turn from promise to portent without the faintest shift in the singers’ tone. It’s disconcerting and promising, the way Theresa Wayman and Emily Kokal, who both sing and play guitar, weave a net of harmony and traded lines — a net that could catch you safely as quickly as it could tangle you right up. “Now I’ve got you in the undertow,” they promise on “Undertow,” the record’s fi rst single. “Why you wanna blame me for your troubles? You better learn your lesson yourself / Nobody ever has to fi nd out what’s in my mind tonight,” the song continues as a quietly insistent bass line builds and pulses, incredibly precise and impossibly fl owing. Warpaint’s songs crossbreed angular, laser-cut percussion and guitar lines with subtle bass and drawn-out, sweet-voiced sentiments that ring like gentle threats. They’re going to keep you, whether you like it or not. “Don’t you call anybody else baby / ‘cause I’m your baby still,” Kokal sings on the quiet, unnerving “Baby,” a lament, a plea and a promise. Her voice echoes over an acoustic guitar that’s a dramatic change from the rest of the record, where the comparisons are less clean-and- simple singer-songwriter than Britpop, shoegazer or post-punk: you might hear the atmospherics of the Cure, the moody darkness of Joy Division, the textures of a handful of 4AD bands, from early Lush to Blonde Redhead. Live, Warpaint is transfi xing and confus- ing: Where’s the time go? Which song is this? How many have they played? What happened? The songs uncoil and hang in the air, resonating with a peculiar certainty. But it’s not the introspective experience the beckoning guitars and aching vocals might suggest; in- stead, it’s mus- cular and confi dent, all that quiet building richly behind the band’s cheery, effortless stage presence. A strange chemistry, a sense that there’s something going on behind and beneath the music, makes the experi- ence unusually spellbinding. “What did you whisper in my ear? What was the answer you wanted to fi nd out?” Wayman cries on “Shadow,” a dynamic tease of a song with more questions than answers. “I adore your face,” one of them repeats on “Majesty,” spare and spacey, with a synth that bubbles up through the quiet, later to be joined by rich piano and that insistent, assertive percussion. “Could it be that you are my majesty?” Somewhere in the lyrics there’s a story about getting what you wanted, only to fi nd you don’t want it anymore. But the song is anything but wallowing; the vocals are matter-of-fact, distant and cool, and everything simmers and shifts, Mozgawa’s drums taking center stage as the singers repeat, “You could’ve been my king.” Warpaint doesn’t need a goddamn king. ew Warpaint , PVT, Yeltsin and Family Band Thursday, March 17 8 pm • WOW Hall $10 adv., $12 door. HAVE FUN MAKE FRIENDS PLAY TENNIS Sign up for Spring Break Tennis Camp! R egistration is going on now. Quick Start ages 4-10 March 21-23 M/T/W 3:00-4:00 A fun, engaging program to teach the fundamentals of tennis. Tennis Strategies 1 ages 10 & up March 21-23 M/T/W 4:15-5:30 Cost Y Members $10/ day or $25 for all 3 Potential Members $12/day or $30 for all 3 More information or register at the Y’s Tennis Center, or call 541 683 3410. Ask about our Adult Spring Break Camp too! EUGENE FAMILY YMCA 2055 Patterson, Eugene OR 97405 P 541 683 3410 www.eugeneymca.org 28 MARCH 17, 2011 EUGENE WEEKLY WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
