Meet the Best Band in the World

The best band in the world is the Californian quartet Warpaint. Of course, this is highly subjective, and you probably disagree, but let me make my case.

First, talking about bands reduces the number of candidates more than you would expect at first glance. Bands are a quaint concept these days. Even if a group of musicians records and performs under a common name, it is often more a loose collective behind a single mastermind. And you raise the bar even more if you expect the whole to be more than the sum of its parts. For example, a song by Thom Yorke solo or just with Johnny Greenwood still fits nicely on a Radiohead album. On the other side, Queen would not have achieved their eclectic body of work if only Freddy Mercury had written all songs.

Warpaint goes even a step further. The band collectively takes credit for all songwriting, and many songs are developed in jams with all band members. Each of them has equal weight on the music, and you can hear that in every track.

Then let’s talk about longevity. Keeping a great band together for one album is one thing; doing so for 18 years is another. For Theresa Wayman, Emily Kokal, Jenny Lee Lindberg, and Stella Mozgawa, this meant keeping the will and energy to make music alive from their 20s up to their 40s and counter all life-changing events on the way. Warpaint is not particularly prolific, with four albums and one EP. Still, every release has been full of fresh ideas and the desire to bring their art to the next level.

A great band also has to be culturally relevant. When Warpaint was founded in 2004, all-female bands were a novelty. They often had to justify their existence as an explicit feminist statement. Warpaint defied that expectation and helped usher in a new era where women in rock music don’t raise an eyebrow anymore. Being all-female has never been at the core of their identity – they even had occasionally male members (see ”Elephants”). On the other hand, it is hard to imagine how a band of only men could have achieved Warpaint’s stable creative equilibrium for such a long time.

Last but not least, a brilliant band has to put on an engaging live show. That does not necessarily mean pyrotechnics and laser; it means that the artist can connect with a room full of people through music.

Having seen Warpaint yesterday at Brooklyn Made, I’m happy to report that, if anything, they have upped their game. We want to create a unique experience with every show, said singer/guitarist Emily Kokal during the show. And they did precisely that, in a way only a band can do that is in love with their own material – they featured four songs from their 2008 debut EP – and deeply enjoys playing with each other.

I could go on, but it is time to let the music speak – just give their latest album, “Radiate Like This,” a listen.

Song Picks of The Day

Listen to all our daily song picks on our playlists on Spotify and Apple Music.

Ana Arts - Slow

Ana Arts is a musician from London who just released her second three-song EP "Cried So Hard I started To Laugh." Our Song Pick of the Day is the middle track "Slow," a future pop song with an intriguing production that matches perfectly with Ana's unique vocal timbre.

Listen to "Slow" below on YouTube:

Lola Kirke - All I Had to Do

Dividing her time between Nashville, New York, and Hollywood, singer/songwriter and actress Lola Kirke released the utterly gorgeous "All I Had to Do," a brand new single that didn't make it onto her sophomore album Lady for Sale, out via Third Man Records. That's Jack White's label, who Kirke cites as a huge inspiration. She's no stranger to the arts, coming from an artistic family with her father, Simon Kirke, being the drummer for English rock bands Free and Bad Company.

Here's a fascinating artist who also made a name for herself in "Mozart in the Jungle" and a flurry of cool movies, too many to mention, plus more highly anticipated TV projects on the horizon. Asked about "All I Had to Do," Kirke says:

On the way to discovering the more 80s/90s country sound I wanted to capture on Lady for Sale, producer Austin Jenkins and I experimented with other inspirations too. "All I Had to Do" is a very personal song that takes its cues more from Hejira than The Judds but I love it just the same. I am so happy to get to share it with you all.

While "All I Had to Do" follows a beautifully quiet and tender build, with striking vocals and a clear country feel, it also offers an exhilarating modern vibe similar to the one in Fever Ray's "When I Grow Up." The combination of something familiar with something unexpected made me truly dig Lola Kirke's newest song.

Listen to "All I Had to Do," our Song Pick of the Day:

Connect with Lola Kirke here.

Siobhan Sainte - Didn't Lie

We are happy to report that New Zealand dark pop musician Siobhan Sainte is back with new music after five years. "Didn't Lie" is a scorching hot song about a love that "could rip you apart, but it’s so good you’d let it" put over a cinematic future pop soundtrack that lets you feel the twisted emotions of the protagonists.

Listen to "Didn't Lie," our Song Pick of the Day below:

Deathcruiser - Night On Fire

When I first came across Deathcruiser, I didn't quite know what to do with the moniker, having just returned from a funeral in Germany and contemplating death a good deal. Turns out, behind Deathcruiser isn't a heavy metal band or a sulky emo crooner but Nashville-based singer/songwriter Adam Roth aka Deathcruiser, who creates effortlessly enjoyable music in the vein of Tom Petty and with the panache of Bruce Springsteen. Heck, there even is a real Heartbreaker on board, with Steve Ferrone on drums!

"Night On Fire," the focus track on the self-titled Deathcruiser, might very well be the EP's most dazzling song, yet all five tracks are alluring and just absolutely enjoyable.

But what's with the moniker? While working on his debut solo album, Roth was sitting in the studio staring at an image of a Calavera (a decorative skull often used in the annual Mexican celebration of the day of the dead), reflecting on what music has meant to him during difficult times. He recalls:

A lot of this music was written during a time when I was grieving. Music’s always been a vehicle to help me get through the hard times and struggles, and it’s always sort of been a salvation, away from pain and suffering, whether it was a breakup when I was younger, or whether it’s death. Music has literally been my Deathcruiser.

And just like that, it all makes sense and becomes beautiful and life-affirming. I might just as well take this as a personal prompt to revisit my own take on skulls (which I had quite a fascination with) and death. As for "Night On Fire," essentially an American protest song, Roth says:

It's a call to arms, to keep the fires of personal liberty burning despite who you are, where you are, or what you stand for. Just stand for something. Everybody's got a reason to fight.

I wholeheartedly support the idea that we cannot allow ourselves to be indifferent to topics that affect all of us, individually and globally. "Night On Fire" is a glorious anthem that reminds us to keep on working on what's truly important.

Listen to "Night On Fire," our Song Pick of the Day:

Connect with Deathcruiser here.

Xades - Shaded

Under the name Xades (pronounced "Shades") Berlin-based DJ MSJY sings to her own music. Her second track, "Shaded," has plenty of nocturnal club vibes but hints at more ambitions than just being a DJ's side-project. We cannot wait to hear more from her!

Listen to our Song Pick of the Day, "Shaded," on your favorite streaming service or below on YouTube:

The Kooks - Cold Heart

When I learned that The Kooks have a new album coming out, my heart did a little happy jump because these Brighton indie-pop rockers are one of my favorite British bands, hands down. Earlier this year, we already got a taste of the album with the three-track teaser Connection - Echo in the Dark Pt. 1, and now, we can enjoy all ten songs on the fabulous 10 Tracks to Echo in the Dark.

Ever since The Kooks' debut album Inside In/Inside Out, I was hooked, and without the many streaming possibilities that are available now, found myself spinning the CD (yeah, vinyl wasn't a thing in the '00s either!) countless times. The Kooks' fourth studio album Listen even made it into my favorite albums of the decade, so of course, I am featuring their new single and video "Cold Heart" today, and happily so.

Directed by Polocho and shot in London, the visuals find the band inside a futuristic space station when alien beings begin ‘experiments’ on them. Clearly, an homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey, the video incorporates an AI ‘cold heart’, which trembles in frustration when the aliens find themselves warming to the ‘humans,' eventually getting lost in dance as the band plays their music.

The Kooks were coming back from a whirlwind worldwide tour, and frontman Luke Pritchard vowed to take it a bit more slowly. But life writes its own stories, as Luke explains:

I started going to Berlin for three or four days at a time. I was really affected by Brexit and I wanted to make a bit of a statement by creating a European record. We’re a European band, we practically lived out there and have so much love for Europe, so we wanted to keep that connection.

Luke teamed up with Tobias Kuhn to co-write and produce the bulk of the record, but then along came COVID, and things took yet another altogether different turn. Luke and Tobias finished the album via Zoom sessions until the rest of the band, Hugh Harris (lead guitar, synths, bass), and Alexis Nunez (drums), could contribute as well. In the meantime, Luke also got married and became a father for the first time, which both affected him positively. Luke says furthermore:

I really hope that sense of inner peace comes across,I really want to have fun with my life at this point. But also – it’s kinda a reflection of what I was feeling in real-time in a pre-and-post COVID world. I was reading a lot of sci-fi – like Philip K. Dick, Azimov and surreal stuff like Boris Vian – which is obviously really distracting from what’s going on in the world, but helped me be imaginative with the songs.

Luke concludes:

In the pandemic, I had a good amount of time to look over our albums and feel proper proud and lucky. This album is a real thank you to our fans for sticking by us for so long, we hope you love it.

Thank YOU! I love the album and cannot wait to enjoy it later tonight, as a kick-off into a weekend filled with music and a long-awaited live show of another glamglare top favorite band... but I digress. Listen to "Cold Heart," our Song Pick of the Day, and watch the cinematic video:

Connect with The Kooks here .

Blondshell - Kiss City

Blondshell is the new project of L.A.-based singer/songwriter Sabrina Teitelbaum. Her second track, "Kiss City," under the new name, comes with a surprise around halfway: the song explodes like complacency turning into defiance.Sabrina says about "Kiss City:"

"I was sick of pretending I didn’t care about love. The song is about wanting to be seen as an entire person, the fear of not being seen at all and being compared to other women – all the things that come up when you don’t trust the person you’re with. Writing alone in my apartment, I could voice my most vulnerable desires, which turned into demands over the course of the song. I think the song itself made me more confident and able to ask for what I deserve. I got angry as I was writing it because I realized that care is a very basic demand for someone you’re romantically involved with.

"Blondshell will be on tour in September (Tour Dates). Listen to "Kiss City," our Song Pick of the Day, on your favorite streaming service or below on YouTube:

Favorite Albums of the Week

• The Kooks - 10 Tracks to Echo in the Dark
• Spacemoth - No Past No Future
• Deathcruiser - Deathcruiser

Albums that stick: Warpaint - Exquisite Corpse

The first time I heard of Warpaint was in fall 2010, weeks before the release of their first full-length album, The Fool. I immediately checked my streaming service and found their 2008 EP Exquisite Corpse. It's a big EP with six songs totaling 34 minutes, and I fell in love with it at first listen.

Coincidentally CMJ Music Marathon happened at the same time in New York, and it was the first time Elke and I went out to see a few shows. Warpaint didn’t play that year (they did the year before, which led to them signing with Rough Trade Records), but nonetheless, their music inspired us to discover more new bands.

Exquisite Corpse and the follow-up The Fool both contain tracks that Warpaint has been developing since 2004. There are great songs on it, which they still like to play at shows. My favorite is Billie Holliday, a somewhat nonsensical semi-cover of Mary Well’s My Guy. Elephants was the closing jam in many shows, and they like to play Burgundy and Krimson as a merged double feature – they are variations of the same song.

All my life, I’ve been into music, but Warpaint inspired me to go a step further and actively look out for new music and write about it: first on Twitter, then on Tumblr, and finally here, on glamglare.

This is a slightly edited and shortened version of a post from February 19, 2005.