Seven Things You Need To Know About Warpaint

As Brighton Dome shamelessly looks to establish a ‘Seven Things You Need To Know About…’ series of promotional blog posts, it is the turn of LA based Warpaint to step up to the crease. The female four-piece arrive on a slightly colder stretch of coastline for the first date in the UK leg of their European tour. Taking to the stage of our Concert Hall on Thu 23 Jan, and with the release date of their album scheduled for two days earlier, we are eagerly anticipating what promises to be an unforgettable performance by a band who are undoubtedly reaching their artistic peak.

FACT #1

John Frusciante, who achieved ‘guitar hero’ status as the lead guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers is undeniably, has a close connection to the band. Having dated guitarist Emly Kokal for three years, he is close friends with the band, and has even mixed their Exquisite Corpse EP.

FACT #2

The actress Shannyn Sossamon, sister of the bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg, was the bands original drummer, before leaving to pursue a career in film. It all panned out for Shannyn, as she found various roles in Hollywood, including starring in the much loved medieval caper A Knight's Tale.

FACT #3

The band formed on February 14th 2004, making them our favourite Valentine’s baby.

FACT #4

Spending their formative years in LA meant that there was a certain inevitability that they would carry celebrity endorsements. However, as celebrity endorsements go, it doesn’t get much better than that of the late Heath Ledger, who was a stalwart fan of the band. Excellent news, as this allows us to continue to feature clips of A Knight's Tale on the blog.

FACT #5

As a three piece, the band performed under the name World War 4 before finally settling on Warpaint once they had taken on the final member. In the words of Jenny Lee Lindberg (bassist): ‘because World War 4 seemed kind of stupid with four people’.

FACT #6

Carrying a range of influences, the band has received a slew of comparisons to a wide range of artists - The Guardian once described them as ‘like Sonic Youth’s Teenage Riot sung by the Shangri La’s’ in a classically nonsensical example of popular music journalism. However, it might surprise you to find that during interviews the bands have been know to praise early Shania Twain and Mariah Carey as influences on the sound

FACT #7

To continue the theme of A-List endorsements, the band have had a number of famous faces form parts of their audience when touring, including Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA and Justin Timberlake, who wrote an unabashed appraisal of the concert he attended on his blog (to be found here ).

This draws the obvious question of which of Brighton’s many famous faces will be in attendance for Warpaints’ visit.  

By Alastair Cooper