7.31.2011

Professional Painters

Evening!


Just checking in on Sunday evening to see what's up! You been good? I had a great weekend - for example, my better half made mayonnaise from scratch. Yeah. My meals included homemade chipotle mayo. That's what's up. 


So I was kind of racking my brain about what's been good and worthy of shining a spotlight on, as of light. While I could write endless pages about alternative hits from the 90s or punk bands I have loved, I thought instead I would share something secret with the larger would. The secret I refer to is one of the sources of my favorite things - in a sense, if it turned out Stan Lee's best friend was telling him about his crazy dreams while Stan furiously scribbled notes and cackled to himself. I speak of the genius of Sam.
Sam is my secret weapon against boredom and mediocrity. He is responsible for most, if not all, of the things deemed awesome in my life. He introduced me to my better half in college. He has told me about countless bands. He introduced me to the local hip hop scene here in MPLS. His lifestyle of aggressive intelligence coupled with bikram yoga and liberal amounts of alcohol reinforce the notion that life is not only an ongoing experiential in ratios, it also can be just as awesome as you want it to be. So periodically Sam sends me an email or text with a band name and song title.


Every single time he does this, it's golden.


I won't bore you with a full list just yet, but I will share his most recent, and fully deserving, recommendation. It said, simply, "Warpaint - Undertow". He then called to explain that I should be warned the band sounded like The Breeders being channeled through some hipsters to play subdued, heady guitar-based alt-rock in our modern era. At this point in the conversation I had to interject to clarify his warning was only further piquing my curiosity. 
He was totally right - Warpaint are a fantastic band, and 'Undertow' is a great single that is exactly what he described it to be. The band is based out of LA, having released only an EP (Exquisite Corpse) and an album late last year, The Fool, which has been gaining steam as of late. There's quite a buzz around this band, and it is absolutely deserved. I adore the simultaneously laid-back yet tense sound they put down - it's cool and quiet, but menacing and a bit dangerous. The kind of band you'd see playing at a bar in a modern noir flick where the detective protagonist has to frequent seedy clubs to find a dame who chain-smokes and answers his questions with more questions. That kind of a sound. 
The buzz has only continued to build around Warpaint, as their album The Fool is rife with material for further singles. They're also young and ready to work, having barely scratched the surface of what they're capable of. This is just one of the many reasons I love Sam - he's got an ear to the ground, feeling these things out with an eerily drawn bead on me. The dude just gets me, so when he sends me a recommendation like this I have to pass it on.