Video: WARGIRL, ‘Mess Around’

Kevin Bronson on November 20th, 2018

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Long Beach sextet WARGIRL seems to have put the whole world on one record album. And some of the world is embracing them — Europe, at least. Can everybody on their home turf be far behind?

To review: The band began in 2016 as the brainchild of musician and visual artist Matt Wignall, a guy who goes way back with artists such as Cold War Kids (he recorded some of their early singles) and who has a studio equipped with all sorts of vintage gear. “I knew I was capable of recording and writing good music,” he says. “But the idea of being in some band where there’s four guys playing and one of them singing lead just seemed incredibly boring to me.” Besides, Wignall’s tastes run the gamut, from old-school garage-rock to post-punk to Afro-beat to psychedelic funk to dance music. All of those flavors take a turn on the palate in the personal and political empowerment anthems on “WARGIRL,” which was released last month by Hamburg, Germany-based Clouds Hill Records but is not yet available in the U.S. (except on YouTube).

WARGIRL’s notice in Europe (where they toured earlier this year and some of their music is charting) follows an incubation period in the U.S. (where their “Arbolita” EP was released earlier this year). Well, that and some band drama. Wargirl’s original lead singer left the project. Enter Samantha Parks, who has stepped in to bring a dynamic presence to the band.

Like many of the musical projects that carry Wignall’s fingerprints, the album has a rawboned, vintage sound, one that still fulfills his creative intentions. “First and foremost, the songs should be fun and make you dance,” he says, adding that “it’s like the Clash. They could be consumed as a party band — but also as a source of information for revolutionary thoughts.”

After an L.A. show this week, WARGIRL returns to Europe for a tour in January.

||| Watch: The video for “Mess Around”