Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor is the name of yet another southern California band of ladies, very young & plainly very talented. Something About the Chaparrals is the title of their 4-song EP. Initially released, anachonistically, as a 12-inch which then promptly sold out. (I do realize this is like the current hip thing now, but teenage bands in 2010 making actual, vinyl records? Odd!) Anyway, you can download it all for 4 bucks & I think it's pretty cool stuff.

"Luv Goon" is the song that's been circulating for a little while already on the web. It's nicely exuberant & sunny, w/close harmonies & a perky, sliding bassline. I won't link to the other songs, since there's so few of them, but there is some healthy stylistic range here. I like "High Road," which is kind of trippy/dreamy, almost spooky in a way that reminded me of Warpaint.

There's more info about the band here, here, and of course here.

Download:

Luv Goon PH (mp3)

Warpaint

Speaking of nuevo iterations of the old Girl Group trope, there’s this band out of L.A. (well, Hollywood actually, I think) right now called Warpaint.

Knowing exactly nothing about the band, I came across this song of theirs called “Elephants,” & I rather liked it & listened to it for a couple of days. I liked the simple guitar figure & its rounded tone, I liked the way a new processing effect got thrown on the vocal every verse or so, I liked the random tempo changes.

Anyway, Warpaint turns out to be like a chick band kind of thing, their original drummer evidently having departed on account of her abject hotness impelled further pursuit of being a model or actress or some such. So that’s the backstory there. Warpaint has an EP out, called Exquisite Corpse, and it’s pretty good.

Elephants - Warpaint