The Warning: Hope For the Future

Image from the vinyl edition of the album "Error" by The Warning

I can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love music.  I was born in 1982 with three older siblings that were born between 1974 and 1979.  When it comes to generational identity, I consider myself to be late Gen X.  This is especially true with my musical tastes as the first current band I remember liking was Def Leppard based on the excellence of their “Hysteria” album, which my brothers had on cassette and regularly played in the house.

I remember being a pre-adolescent in the glorious musical period when Grunge and Alternative Rock ruled the Billboard Hot 100 charts.  It was a wonderful time when bands like Soundgarden, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Weezer, Bush, The Smashing Pumpkins, and Foo Fighters weren’t just great staples of rock radio stations but also top sellers.

During that time I remember dealing with abhorrent Pop Music.  Particularly, The New Kids on the Block, Britney Spears, and a slew of later Boy Bands, as well as some subpar Rock music like the Rapcore (I prefer that to the term Nu-Metal) fad consisting of groups such as Korn and Limp Bizkit during this time, especially in the mid to late 90s when I was in high school.

For people like me who enjoy authentic music played with actual instruments, the type of music that has been “topping the charts” lately has really taken a nosedive.  I haven’t been interested in following current music for a long time, I think the last popular band to actually be good is The Black Keys, but I can’t help but be aware of the artificial and manufactured Pop, questionably named Country (what passes for Country Music these days is a far cry from the sound of luminaries such as Hank Williams and Johnny Cash and certainly doesn’t match the authenticity of what Harlan Howard described as “three chords and the truth”), obscene Rap (I had a warehouse job a few years back where some workers were allowed to listen to music and would play Rap, and it seemed like every other word was the f-word or the n-word), and asinine EDM/Techno that seems to be dominant.

To sum up, I love music but the quality (or lack thereof) of current music saddens me.  It seems to me that the popular music coming out is uninspired and mostly manufactured by machines or business people who aren’t musicians, with the intention to simply sell rather than to actually reach people or send a message.  This instead of being produced by real musicians who want to create real art and release it to the world.  The music is also largely created using loops and samples with drum machines instead of using real instruments played by people who have put in the effort to learn and master the craft.

I saw a video recently where Chad Smith, the longtime drummer for Red Hot Chili Peppers, went through some of his favorite drum riffs that he has played and talked about his participation on the Dua Lipa track “Break My Heart”.  I remember finding it disturbing that he said he became involved after someone working on the track said they should have live drums, as if that was some kind of novelty, abnormality, or general exception to the norm.  It seems that the music scene is dominated by formulaic and uninspired music  peddled by what Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan called “Plastic Pop Stars”.  The previous term describes interchangeable Pop Stars where the only thing unique about them is their different names.

The music industry as a whole appears to have drunk the proverbial Kool-Aid for this formula because it has embraced it.  I used to think that sales did not equal acceptance by the industry itself and could look to the Grammys when events such as Santana and Arcade Fire winning Album of the Year over flash-in-the-pan Pop acts that somehow got nominated for the same award displayed evidence of this.  This faith was destroyed in 2020 when Billie Eilish swept the major categories.

The purpose of this post is not to rant about how bad the music industry has become, although I might do that in a future post, but to talk about a marvelous ray of hope that came into my life last August.  The Amoeba Music stores in California have a YouTube channel that includes an award winning series of videos called “What’s In My Bag?” where musicians and other notable people will share what they found while shopping at the store.  The video I saw last August featured a three-piece band that I hadn’t heard of called The Warning, who were visiting the store’s location in Hollywood.

My first impression was that their selections demonstrated a wonderfully eclectic taste in music.  Their finds included, but were not limited to, the album Queen Rock Montreal and works by artists as diverse as Muse, Elton John, Depeche Mode, a Pop/Nu-Disco group from France called L’Imperatrice, Silk Sonic, and The Black Keys, along with Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” and the movie soundtracks for “The Sound of Music”, “Kill Bill, Vol. 1”, and “The Three Amigos”.

With that kind of taste in music, I was curious to hear their own.  I don’t remember which song of theirs I listened to first, but that initial exploration sent me down a proverbial rabbit hole out of which I hope to never completely emerge.  While most popular music now is banal, manufactured, and monotonous, The Warning is original, authentic, and performs with a level of true passion that is simply not seen in popular music.

The Warning consists of sisters Daniela, Paulina, and Alejandra Villarreal from Monterrey, Mexico, and the seeds for their musical greatness were planted pretty much in utero.  They were born to music-loving parents and all of them started learning piano and other instruments at very young ages.  After getting into the Rock Band video games, the sisters decided to form a band with Daniela choosing to play guitar, Paulina selecting the drums, and Alejandra opting for bass guitar.  They then learned to play songs and posted videos of them playing to YouTube.  Their video of them playing Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” went viral with Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammet commenting on it and singling out a then thirteen-year-old Paulina on drums as being particularly impressive.

Due to the recognition they received from their “Enter Sandman” cover, they decided to focus on creating original songs and making an album.  A GoFundMe appeal eventually resulted in the 2015 release of their six-song EP Escape The Mind, when Daniela was 15, Paulina was 13, and Alejandra was 10.  They performed during this time and appeared on Ellen DeGeneres's talk show.  With various donations, including from Degeneres herself, the sisters were able to attend a 5-week course at the Berklee College of Music and also gave two TEDx presentations at the University of Nevada.  This period was followed by the release of their first full album, XXI Century Blood in 2017.  Since this they have released three albums (at least two of which I plan on discussing in future posts) and played numerous concerts and festivals.

Original

One of the most important aspects of The Warning that I believe puts them above more popular artists is that they have only released original music on their albums that they have written themselves.  A lot of popular music, especially these days, is written by people who are not performing it, which creates a barrier between the performer and the material that shows in any performance.  The Warning could have easily performed this kind of manufactured Pop Music and become popular, but instead they have always been true to themselves by writing the kind of music that speaks to them and playing it themselves.

That music for them is excellent Hard Rock that hits the listener with the sonic force of a freight train.  These days it seems that the only Rock worth listening to is either the latest release from a band that has been around for decades, or stuff that came out about a decade ago, and listening to the radio has become frustrating for me because it seems that the Rock stations just play the same 1 or 2 dozen songs on loop.  Hearing The Warning, with their original and 100% genuine Hard Rock music, is a breath of fresh air that actually provides something current that is also good.

Authentic

A criticism that I hear about Nirvana is that they are overrated.  I can understand that as they sometimes appear to get excessive praise for their contributions, but something that I admire about that band, particularly their late front man Kurt Cobain, is that they were always authentic and true to themselves.

The Warning also radiates authenticity with their aforementioned originality and their stage presence where it is obvious that they are simply being themselves rather than trying to project a carefully crafted image largely meant to implement the “sex sells” approach.  For me, as a lover of music and a musician, an important part of their authenticity is that they really play their instruments and sing without lip synching or being touched up by Auto-Tune or another kind of pitch corrector in the studio (a lot of Pop Stars have a “tuning session” as part of their recording process) or on stage.

Another thing that really sets The Warning apart is that they are a true Power Trio.  By that, I mean that unlike some bands that are composed of three official members but will perform with those three members and some hired musicians who will occupy the stage the entire concert, it is just the three members of The Warning for entire shows with the occasional exception of a special guest or string section for one or two songs.  While there is nothing inherently wrong with using additional musicians in a live show, there is something particularly impressive with The Warning using a “what you see is what you get” approach.

The result of this is a performance that is stripped down and authentic, accentuated by pure power that will cause a listener to remark in disbelief that there are, as my Dad would say, only three people making all that noise.

Passionate

I mentioned earlier that a performer, or group for that matter, singing a song that was written by someone else will often result in a noticeable barrier between that song and any performance of it.  The Warning avoids that pratfall by not only writing and performing their own material, but doing it with a real passion that has them leaving their collective heart and soul on the stage.

Their performance of each song radiates that each one is meaningful and personal to them, rather than some drivel written by industry executives or analyst types with the express design of being something that merely finds its way onto the streaming playlist of someone addicted to their phone.

The level of passion that The Warning brings to their music, which is especially seen in their performances of it, is something that cannot be manufactured.  No matter how advanced AI becomes or how good of an actor some Plastic Pop Star may be, they will never be able to replicate the kind of passion that The Warning brings to every performance, or excitement that they bring to their audiences without needing to resort to using choreography, as is often found in Pop performances, to generate excitement and disguise an otherwise drab performance.

I love music, and since last August I actually have hope for its future.  Here’s hoping that The Warning continues on for decades, that they inspire others to follow their example, and that a wider audience will embrace their original, authentic, and passionate music and presentation.  

VIVA THE WARNING!