Credit: Photo by John Anderson

Warpaint

Zilker Park, Oct. 10

The XX on the same stage some 18 hours earlier had meted out for the ocean masses a pointillistic 1980s minimalism running deep through the UK trio’s national music heritage. To an initially tiny fraction of that number Sunday morning coming down (11:45am), L.A. foursome Warpaint practiced a similarly delicate sonic effusion. Evoking 1990s 4AD groups like Mojave 3 and Throwing Muses, the all-female quartet warmed up an atmospheric strum and bash. Dual guitar and vocal tandem Emily Kokal and Theresa Wayman found oneness in the tom-tom time of drummer Stella Mozgawa on “Undertow,” from Warpaint’s upcoming full-length debut, The Fool. Wayman closed her eyes, gripped the mic, and, in a Hope Sandoval murmur, emoted with the bass drum molesting the audience’s collective sternum. Meet indie rock’s Gregorian chant. When bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg shuffled her string dance over to Wayman, the two undulated in unison like an inlet. A sole boosted tempo closed the morning dew set, a ruminating hip bump running headlong into a drum-and-bass breakdown. War cry.

This article appears in October 15 • 2010.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.