Warpaint’s “Exquisite Corpse” + John’s involvement in recording process
This is a guest-article written by Carole la_kagol; with the goal to present the work of the band whose album John mixed to everyone who’s interested. The article is abridged and you can download the original version as a PDF file I have made by clicking here (size: 24.05 Mb, downloads so far) – on this page there’s only basic information and the excerpts of the whole piece that concern John’s involvement in the mixing process and support he gave to the band. Please, note that the PDF document contains web links that are clickable.
Warpaint is a psychedelic jazzy underground band, founded somewhere between 2003 and 2006 in the area of Los Angeles. It took up to March 2007 for the band to go public by picking a name and starting a MySpace page and up to May 2007 to start playing shows. Since its very beginning Warpaint has grown in popularity, thanks to gigs in famous LA-clubs like the Viper Room and the Troubadour, thanks to the MySpace community and – let’s face it – thanks to the celebrity factors surrounding them, even if they always wanted to get there on their own and to be an independent band. Warpaint was featured as a support act for John Frusciante, Josh Klinghoffer, Flea and Stella Mozgawa’s jam session at the Troubadour on September 4th 2008. Warpaint got interviewed a few times. The band’s members are Emily Kokal (vocals, guitar), Theresa Wayman (guitar, vocals), Jenny Lindberg (bass, vocals) and David Orlando (drums), while the original drummer was actress Shannon (formerly known as Shannyn) Sossamon.
In June 2007, Warpaint announced the recording of an EP on John Frusciante’s old tape recorder, also mentioning Anthony Zamorra and Chris Holmes. The recording of the EP was delayed until September 2007, but nothing happened until November 2007 when sound engineer Ryan Hewitt announced through MySpace that he actually did finish an EP for Warpaint. In Summer 2008 however, Warpaint clarified that they finished an entirely new project, because they had started another recording session on their own, taking all the time and space they needed to. The band is now crediting John for being involved in the production process, so not just for allowing them to use his recording equipment.
In January 2009, the band’s EP, Exquisite Corpse, formerly a home-release, now slightly more polished in terms of artwork has finally been digitally released on iTunes.
Tracklist:
- Stars
- Elephants
- Billie Holiday
(featuring Josh on drums and John on mellotron)- Beetles
- Burgundy
The EP was produced by Jake Bercovici, and mixed by John Frusciante and Adam Samuels.
As we all know, in the January 25th edition of Mike Watt’s Watt From Pedro podcast, John mentioned that not only he mixed the EP, but he also played mellotron on one song, Billie Holiday. For unknown reasons, John was only credited for the mixing.
International distribution for physical copies is done through the band’s MySpace page; and the Amoeba Music Store will be selling it off their website in April 2009 as part of the buy stuff -> homegrown selection of the month. Warpaint are currently spending time recording songs they wrote with their current drummer David Orlando, and are promising a new record the release of which would be faster this time. The year 2009 might be a lucky year for all Warpaint fans, as the band may also be touring the US.
The article was written by Carole la_kagol; who thanks EKAP for helping and regular heads-up. Once again, this is an abridged version, see the PDF for the full text; which contains much more information to everyone who’s interested to find out more about Warpaint
