Warpaint Rocks the TLA

4 Apr

Licking my wounds after not getting to do an interview with Warpaint, the all-fem quartet hailing from Los Angeles, California, I latched onto one reviewer’s labeling them as “hype-darlings.” It’s not hard to see why. Their original drummer was actress Shannyn Sossaman, which put them into the search engine lexicon from the onset. Their first EP, Exquisite Corpse, was released under John Frusciante’s label. He and lead singer, Emily Kokal, dated. Then, filling in on drums after Sossaman left was Josh Klinghoffer, who was also of Red Hot Chili Peppers fame (it’s been recently reported that Frusciante has formally quit the Chili Peppers…again, and Klinghoffer is his permanent replacement), and dating bassist (and Sossaman’s sis) Jenny Lee Lindberg at the time.

Get all that?

With all this name dropping and musical incest going on, it’s easy to see how Warpaint has caught media attention without releasing very much. However, saying Warpaint are hype-darlings would imply that the hype isn’t true. And that just isn’t true. Warpaint live up to the attention that’s been paid to them.

They rolled through Philadelphia this past Friday night, playing at the TLA, and the hipster crowd was out in force. Not surprising, since the ladies hail from Silverlake, California, a hipster mecca near Los Angeles. The wave of plaid and skinny jeans extended almost stage to door, which was a little surprising since Philadelphia can be so finicky when it comes to making bands feel welcome in our fair, fickle city. 

Although they’ve been put in the “psychedelic rock” classification, they cover a lot of ground on the sound spectrum. They can be ethereal and haunting, poetic and raw, but still sound playful and impish at the same time. Seeing them live, though, has proven that they can also be pretty badass rockers. Lindberg’s driving baseline coupled with Stella Mozgawa’s drumming gives them an edge not totally realized on their albums.  

And new drummer, Mozgawa seems to be the missing piece of the puzzle. After years of stops and starts and mismatched drummers, Lindberg, Kokal and guitarist, Theresa Wayman found what they were looking for in Mozgawa. There’s a cohesiveness now and a feeling that they can move forward as a united front, as if to say for the first time since they formed as an all girl band in 2004, “Here we are – this is Warpaint.”

During “Beetles,” and standing on opposite sides of the stage, Kokal and Wayman seemed a polarizing force, volleying vocal parts across the stage, an obvious bond likely the product of a friendship forged when they were kids. For an encore, “Elephants” was ridiculous. Wayman’s guitar hook at the beginning instantly had everyone on their feet.

I go back and forth about even uttering this next statement aloud, so to speak, but I’m gonna go do it – they sound like a female Radiohead. When my friend agreed, I felt a little less crazy at my somewhat bold comparison. Listening to Exquisite Corpse or The Fool, I don’t think the correlation is as easy to detect, but listening to them live really snaps it into place.

There were two opening bands, one memorable in its imitation, the other memorable for their talent. Family Band was first, and if I closed my eyes, I thought I was listening to Mazzy Star, and when I opened them, I thought I was looking at Sinead O’Connor. PVT came next and were the better of the two, by far. They were right on point with the resurgence of 80s music creeping across the airwaves.  They were a musically frenetic mash-up of The Cure meets Flock of Seagulls meets Joy Division. Yea, I went there, too.

I was already a fan prior to the TLA show, but Warpaint totally exceeded my expectations by exponential proportions Friday night, and if you haven’t given them a listen, I really recommend that you do. I’d heard an interview with Wayman once in which she said, “We want to be big in our intention and just to have it be earnest and always getting better, and always pushing ourselves to do better, to play better, to write better than the ones that came before…” Well, their live show proves that the girls of Warpaint are more than capable of topping themselves.

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Committing Idolatry: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

25 Mar

In  honor of Elizabeth Taylor, who passed away earlier this week, I just had to watch Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.  Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf was another option, but it seemed a bit too acerbic and not too uplifting since the film is largely a two-hour sparring match, pitting Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor against each other and saying such vicious and incorrigible things to each other it’s difficult to believe anyone could recover from such ugliness. There’s a bit of that going on in Cat, but the underlying sense of love, and hurt as the source of the anger, is there from the get go.

IMDB’s summary of the film is, “Brick, an alcoholic ex-football player, drinks his days away and resists the affections of his wife, Maggie. His reunion with his father, Big Daddy, who is dying of cancer, jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son.” Really, that’s just scratching the surface.

The film, an adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ play, heaps layers upon layers of insinuation and double meaning. So often, I think plays and musicals can translate poorly to film, proving over dramatic and almost caricature. Not so here. Cat is the perfect mix of melodrama, sarcasm and heart. When Maggie, played by Taylor, wails her first of many, “No’s”  to Brick, played by Paul Newman, it’s a deep and gutteral, three dimensional opposition – you’re ready to stick this out, fight the fight with her to get her marriage back and watch just how long Maggie the cat can stay on that hot tin roof.

Not that you’re unsure – I think Brick’s love for Maggie is obvious from the minute they appear onscreen together, but when Brick locks himself in the bathroom and clings to Maggie’s nightgown hanging on the door: you know for sure all love is far from lost between them. This is a love story with a lot to it. How could this couple have drifted so far apart but still agree to exist together, Brick pretending not to love Maggie and Maggie pretending to be okay with it? Layers. I love it.  

Then there’s Maggie. Maggie the Cat. At first glance, she’s set up to play the classic vixen. In the film’s opening, she pushes ice cream into an innocent, albeit annoying as sin, child’s face. What kind of woman does that? An honest one, that’s who. What’s really being said with that acid tongue of hers is genuine, originating from a well thought out, well-intentioned place, though it doesn’t always seem it, especially if you buy into what everyone else in the film is saying around her. If you really listen, which you must do throughout the film, Maggie is all about getting what she wants and you can’t really blame her.  

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof hits me on many levels. The insinuations, what’s really going on, what’s not going on portrayed in the action and relationships and dialogue are simply awe inspiring. “I’m not living with you, we occupy the same cage – that’s all!” Maggie spats at Brick. Everytime I hear that line it causes me to draw in a breath. Why can’t I write lines like that? When I die, I want to come back as Tennessee Williams.

I recommend everyone watch Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at least once in their lifetime. I know, I know – many people hear the words ‘old’ and ‘classic,’ and they’re already onto something ‘new’ and ‘modern.’ But this one stands up, I promise. It’s engaging, fast paced and not a three hour mosey along epic like Gone With the Wind – another classic must see, but that’s a conversation for another day. Point being, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is one of those timeless classics that still works today. Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor are stunning and amazing, have great chemistry and create onscreen sparks if ever there were some. The movie may be an oldie, but it is certainly a goodie.

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Man at Work: Jay Nash Goes On the Road in Support of Diamonds and Blood

16 Mar

Singer-songwriter Jay Nash is one busy guy. With the release of his sixth studio album, Diamonds and Blood, he is winding his way around the country, and soon, the globe, to promote his latest release, a deeply personal compilation of songs written by a guy who’s seen the world many times over and has the insight, scars and songs to prove it.

When I spoke with Nash he was loving the 80 degree weather the Arizona desert was blessing him with. Spending his first winter in Vermont after living in Los Angeles for nine years, he said, “I’ve literally spent the last three months shoveling out of my house – literally shoveling my house out of the snow. I’m talking so it didn’t come in through the windows.” Understandably, the desert heat and sun were a welcome change.

Nash was making the trek to Austin, Texas where he will perform, interview and mingle at what he estimates to be his seventh SXSW Music Festival. He’s performing three shows that he thinks are nicely spread out, leaving him plenty of time to network,  make new friends, catch up with old ones and check out as many of the 2,000 music acts as he possibly can in the four days of jam packed performances.

“I’m excited about SXSW this year. It’s such a great coming together of music,” he said, and when I asked who he was most excited to see he put Josh Ritter in the top spot. “I’m looking forward to seeing the luminaries I used to play with,” he said, referring to his days playing at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles, as well as Room 5 Lounge, a mecca for singer-songwriters, largely of his making.

The small town in upstate New York where Nash grew up wasn’t what he would call a super nurturing place for singer-songwriters by sheer virtue of the fact that there weren’t many. When he got to Los Angeles, however, he was exposed to a whole new world, “I was blown away,” he said. On a weekly basis he saw great acts like Pete Yorn and Gary Jules, another curator of great music. It was around the time Jules’ cover of Tears for Fears’ “Mad World” came out, and he was booking talent at the Hotel Café. There Nash saw talent like Joe Purdy and Jason Mraz, musicians who caught his ear and showed him what was possible.

Using Jules as a model, Nash found a place he could showcase his own talent, as well as seek out and showcase others like him. Room 5 Lounge was created out of Bar F2, an intimate bar located above an Italian restaurant on North LaBrea in Los Angeles. Before Nash took over booking talent, the cadre of artists who did play there came in fits and starts, and charging a cover seemed a daunting and non-lucrative task. The bar changed ownership, and Nash helped the new owners shape the intimate venue into what they envisioned it to be, which is the nationally recognized spot for the singer-songwriter set that it is today. After performing and booking talent for five years, Nash knew it was time to hand it over to someone else so he could concentrate fully on his own thing. He found a proper predecessor in Joel Eckles, a carpenter by day and singer-songwriter by passion, “He’s done a really great job with it,” Nash said.

Nash also became a fixture at the Hotel Café where, many nights, Nash said, “Would end with everyone playing together onstage.” Then the bar would close and everyone would hang out until five or six in the morning, writing, playing, libations flowing, “Making our significant others very unhappy,” he quipped.

The people he’s had the pleasure of playing with occurred in a wholly organic way, and Nash said, “It wasn’t because I knew someone higher up. It was because we were sharing the stage in this tiny room.” The list of artists he’s collaborated with is long, and many of the names can be found by glancing at a Billboard chart.  In addition to his great body of solo work, Nash has created some really great music with Colbie Caillat, Sara Bareilles and Garrison Starr, to name only a few. “A lot of those collaborations came out of artists I stumbled upon, I sought out, or they sought me out,” he said.

Nash had one good friend – a musician – who was at her wits end because nothing was breaking in terms of her career, no matter what she did. At the time, she was opening for Nash in New York, and she wasn’t sure what she was going to do in terms of pursuing her music. Not long after, his good friend, Katy Perry, became a household name.

Nash, too, went through a period of questioning what it was he wanted to do and say. “I went to LA for a couple of weeks and wound up staying for nine years,” he said after realizing Los Angeles was the best environment for him to exist in as a musician. Nine years, five solo albums and a lot of touring mileage later, Nash’s priorities began to shift.

“Five years ago I would have said that all I want is to be able to play music every single night, but having a family definitely changes that.” His touring schedule could reach 220 dates a year, but said his “sweet spot” hovers around 100 shows. With a family, he said touring has become very well-orchestrated, and periods out on the road are shorter and more focused, “It’s not easy being away from my family.”

But living in Los Angeles also took focus away from his family, “On tour, I constantly have to be ‘on,’ and then I would come home and be surrounded by this world of singer-songwriters and I would still have to be ‘on.’” It became a little much, coupled with the realization that Nash and his wife’s annual travel budget was spent visiting family on the other side of the country. Both hail from the East Coast, and it suddenly made more sense to flip-flop the way he’d been doing things, especially after the birth of his first child. Now, homebase is with his family in Vermont, and he commutes to Los Angeles intermittently when he needs to.

Still, on “Golden State Goodnight,” Nash sings about his mixed emotions over leaving LA and the complicated love he has for the city, realized only in the wake of moving on, “I think I love it more now that I’m not there because now, the novelty never really wears off.”

Jambase.com said, “Nash’s music recalls a Los Angeles thought to be long since extinct, a romantic dream land where inspiration flowed from one artist to another with songs about late nights, friends and lovers, songs which grew organically and were created spontaneously. He’s a throwback for sure, smart with a hook, and brave enough to bare the fragile truth in a song.” The description doesn’t just capture Nash’s thoughts on LA, it describes Nash’s entire body of work. Every song on Diamonds and Blood is an honest, deeply personal baring of the soul that showcases who he is, now, as an artist. 

And Nash is more content with his career choice. “I do love it,” he said. He remarked about those friends from growing up having walked the faster route to financial security by becoming doctors and lawyers, but Nash has no regrets, “I had to slog it out a little longer, but I never felt I had less than I wanted.”

He’s got a strong work ethic and isn’t content sitting around, “I’m always willing to work – I like working.” The goal is to keep growing as a musician, and said with a laugh that was only part tongue in cheek, “We all want to play an arena rock show.” Although, he doesn’t discount the joy he finds in playing smaller venues that are packed to capacity. He hopes to continue pushing forward and expanding his audience, and in 2011, he’ll have plenty of opportunities to do so.

In addition to Diamonds and Blood, Nash is releasing an EP with Caitlin Crosby in the spring and a full length CD with good friends Tony Lucca and Matt Duke as TFDI in the summer. “I’ll have my hands full,” he said. After SXSW, he’s off to Europe for a few weeks to play with British singer-songwriter, Greg Holden, who will be promoting his new album, I Don’t Believe You. Then Nash is off to Holland, France and Germany, “I know I have this whole fanbase over there, and I don’t want to let the fire die. Lots of work needs to be done here, though, as well.”

The key, Nash said, is to be honest, to listen to and speak from that true voice inside him that emerges from getting a little bit older and wiser. Otherwise, the words won’t sound genuine or resonate with his audience, “The whole point of music is to connect with people, isn’t it?”

As he made his way across the desert, White Michigan, Jon Elliot and the Hereafter, Josh Ritter and TFDI played on the radio, the latter of which was playing for business as well as pleasure, “We’re playing together at SXSW, and we haven’t seen each other in a couple of months. I need to make sure I know the parts.” Even when he’s content to sit and enjoy the desert drive, Jay Nash is hard at work.

Two days after the release of Diamonds and Blood, the devastating tsunami hit Japan. This week, 50% of the proceeds from itunes sales of the album will be donated to the Red Cross to assist with those affected by the tsunami.

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