Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Warpaint's The Fool: My girl band dream comes true

Warpaint: Mozgawa, Lindberg, Wayman and Kokal
Not all that long ago, I wondered on this blog about the state of women in rock. When I looked out across the vast expanse of rock, I saw very few women in meaningful roles in bands.  My last favorite girl rock group was Elastica, which put out its best album in 1995.... A long time ago.

In the meantime, I'd settled with Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino, a nice songwriter with a record, Crazy for You, that I generally liked. But I wasn't in love. It wasn't her, it was me. Best Coast is, well, nice and all, but there's nothing dangerous or mysterious about the band.  You can only get so into a set of Beach Boys inspired tunes about lost boyfriends. Sorry, Bethany. (We're still friends, though.)

My eyes (and ears) had been wandering, looking for something new. And I'm happy to say that I've finally found what I've been looking for: a girl band to really be crazy for. Warpaint, a guitar-driven quartet of ladies from Los Angeles, released its debut record, The Fool, last Tuesday. It was love at first listen.