Newtopia

Jennylee from Warpaint's latest single Newtopia is a catchy, jingle- jangle, folk- pop record, a bit of a departure from her usual post- punk, Cure influenced music. The usual half- drawled, heavy lidded vocals are there but the harmonies and upbeat strumming make this an uptempo, autumnal treat. 

I Said Never

Warpaint's bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg released a solo album in 2015, an album steeped in post- punk and gothic influences. Stella, Warpaint's drummer, played on it and as a result the album is very bass and drums led with Jenny's voice layered on top. The single Never was the best moment, a clattering, splintered Cure- indebted song for 2015, the guitars sending little shards of light into the monochrome rhythms. One to dance to in the Batcave.  

Never

In 2017 Jenny Lee wrote a song with Danish producer Trentemoller. This version, the so called Blissed Out Mix, is sparse and spectral, the synths adding texture rather than tunes, the goth psychedelia of Siouxsie recast for the 21st century. Less overtly pop than the main mix and rather good. 

Hands Down (Blissed Out Mix)

I'm So Tired

Events are moving very fast at the moment- the government is reactive, constantly running to catch up with the virus. The announcement about schools yesterday means we'll all be at home from after school tomorrow. I don't feel any elation about this, there's no real joy in having time out of work under these circumstances. I feel some relief- it's been difficult coping at school this week as staffing numbers have fallen and those of us in school have been more and more stretched. Staff and children feeling anxious with an impact on the behaviour of some. Not an easy situation to manage.

Record Shop Day 2020 has been put back from April to June, another casualty of the Coronavirus. One of the announcements I was interested in from the initial lists was this single from Jennylee, Warpaint's bassist- a cover of Fugazi's 1999 song, a piano ballad from a band who played hardcore US punk. 'I'm so tired the sheep are counting me' Ian MacKaye sings before checking out with a bleak final line. Jennylee doubles the length of the song, picking out the melody on the bass and the two voices, hers and another, entwine around each other.



Back in January Warpaint sneaked a new song out on the soundtrack to a film called The Turning. The Brakes seems to be evidence that Warpaint are still a going concern and harks back to the sound of their early records, sparse and brittle but with that liquid, rolling groove and slightly stoned vocals they do so well.

The Brakes

Jennylee sang on a song on Trentemoller's album last year, a very mid- 80s synth pop homage, Depeche Mode and New Order via Copenhagen and L.A. in the 21st century. I hadn't heard this until I heard the RSD cover (or the soundtrack song) so I got three new Warpaint related songs in one go. Which is nice, as that man on The Fast Show used to say.

Sister Dubbed

I was making a cd of remixes from this calendar year by Andrew Weatherall to listen to in the car and scrolled back through my posts from this year tagged Andrew Weatherall to check I hadn't missed any. There are plenty of memorable ones, remixes of Field Of Dream, Marius Circus, Craig Bratley, the roof raising one of Confidence Man, two super smart versions of a Noel Gallagher song, the recent jerky, punk funk audiobooks one and the weird dubbed out Eyes Of Others one. But I found that I'd forgotten that at the start of the year he provided two remixes of Sister, a standout song from Tracey Thorn's album Record that featured the talents of Tracey, Corinne Bailey Rae and Stella and Jenny Lee from Warpaint. The dub mix posted here is very chilled, spacey and right up my alley.

Sister (Andrew Weatherall Dub)

Sister

Tracey Thorn's new single Sister,  described by TT herself as 'an eight minute feminist groove anthem' with vocals from Corinne Bailey Rae and drums and bass from Stella and Jenny Lee from Warpaint, is out now. As the player below shows there are also two remixes from Andrew Weatherall, both long and spacey. The dub mix is particularly intense.



While we're here Tracey's vocal for Massive Attack's Protection is right up there. All the mixes and versions are among the best things Tracey and Massive Attack ever did. This version, the Eno mix, from the 12" single is nine minutes of ambience, warmth and protection.

Protection (The Eno Mix) 

Hands Down

This came out on line on June 1st and is what happens when Danish dance producer Trentemoller gets Warpaint bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg to sing on one of his tracks. You could argue that this is so in thrall to The Cure, Siouxsie and early 80s goth-rock that it's almost a Batcave tribute act but that would be churlish because this is so well done and so good that you should just let it push your buttons while you career around flapping your arms like a chicken. It wins, yes, hands down.

Never

Jenny Lee Lindberg, Warpaint's cool as fuck bassist, has a solo album coming out (under the name jennylee, all lower case). This song is the attention grabber to get you interested. Dominated by one of her trademark slinky basslines it's got guitars that point towards The Cure, skittering drums and an overall feel of the early 80s- what the record companies called New Wave. More labels for you- dark underbelly of LA, post-punk, early goth. I've got to say, I like it.