HOW I WON THE WAR

There’s a mystery to the music of WARPAINT and it’s a mystery that shouldn’t be unraveled. Their songs are questions without answers, riddles without clues, jeux sans frontiers and war without fear. We don’t want to examine their motivations – we just need to listen to their songs, and wrap ourselves in the cloak of their secrecy.

Of course, longtime readers of this blog – both of you – will know that this is patently untrue. Of course we want to examine their motivations. Of course we want to know everything about them. We want to interview them, to ask them stupid questions about their desire (or lack thereof) to cover “Spill the Wine,” to know what makes them tick, to read them our favorite poems and show them our collection of astrological sign black-light posters.

We want to – we don’t need to. The push-pull between our wants and our needs can be heard as the heart that pumps the blood through their wonderful debut full-length, “The Fool.” “Set Your Arms Down” sets the pace as the opening track – magical, yearning and while you may or may not be able to dance to it, you can certainly sway like a motherfucker.

WARPAINT – “Set Your Arms Down”

No strangers to mystery themselves, fellow Californians APACHE have given the world a gift, the size of which is enormous – even if the title and run time are not. But if you can figure out how to have a better time in less than two minutes – the time it takes to watch their video for “Pint Sized Punker – then I’m guessing your idea of fun doesn’t include angry girls, knives and playing guitar with a cheese grater. I’m happy that Apache are all the way across the country from the “Revolt of the Apes” headquarters in Virginia. This way, I am less inclined to become an Apache groupie. Marginally less inclined.

Speaking of the home front, things continue to be highly awesome. You could do yourself a favor by heading over to see Richmond’s most mysterious man, Mr. Atavist, and download the superior Halloween edition of his mighty “Sunrise Ocean Bender” radio show. The only thing spookier than a DJ who goes back-to-back-to-back with Pink Fairies, Black Sabbath and Monster Magnet is trying to figure out how I stole his Kinski shirt.

And if THAT weren’t enough, Thanksgiving comes early for Richmond-dwellers, with local venue/restaurant/arcade Strange Matter playing host to more than their fair share of great shows in the month of November. Not only do you have the death-of-reality combination that is NAAM and LA OTRACINA together on November 13 [which … is actually at local venue/restaurant/billiards room, The Triple … ], you also have the opportunity to cleanse your psychic palette on November 21, when the must-see-to-believe SPINDRIFT saddles up and brings their guns to town, flanked by local locos THE DIAMOND CENTER. What could be better?!? Word is that some clown who does a blog – a blog! – called “Revolt of the Apes” will be providing the soundtrack for the evening. Yikes. Pack up your T. Rex albums and go back home, old man!