Watercolor Paintings - "Telephone Wires"

HANK ALTOGETHER:

Without sounding too stalker-ish, the minute Watercolor Paintings started doing recording at UCSB, I knew about it. It had more to do with the fact that the Santa Barbara music scene was so small that we all had our hands in each other's proverbial pockets. Or knew who had pockets, or...you get the picture. At first Watercolor Paintings sounded like a goof. A bunch of kids getting together trying to carve melodies out of toy instruments. By the time they were banging around outside the last show at the Hard to Find -- Xiu xiu, The Dirty Projectors, & Grouper -- the group had been thinned down and now it's even thinner. Composed of brother sister combo Hoshwa and Rebecca Redman (Joshua is also the god of the Santa Barbara music scene), Watercolor Paintings have released a 7" on YAY! Records called With the Light on (order here). What's immediately obvious is how much Watercolor Paintings have fallen into their own voice. With simple instrumentation and Rebecca's cadence, you might write them off as a more elementary Joanna Newsom, but if you listen closer, the craft of the melodies comes out. It's undoubtedly positive sounds ala Paul Baribeau. And while that can be somewhat grating, Rebecca and Hoshwa make it work with a strong songwriting core, solid playing, and enough tongue-in-cheek winking back at us that we wanna go along for the ride.

Here's "Telephone Wires" from the forthcoming Open Your Mouth. It was recorded by If You Make It.

Watercolor Paintings - Telephone Wires from If You Make It on Vimeo.

Download "Telephone Wires"