The Red Paintings

The Red Paintings are an experimental art rock band from Brisbane, Australia. The band consists of Trash McSweeney on lead vocals, guitar, sequencing and samples; Ellen Stancombe (violin, tin whistle, vocals); Amanda Holmes (bass), Andy Davis (drums), David Sue Yek (Cello).

The band is well known for their unique and confronting live performances, in which the band members dress in elaborate costumes ranging from geisha outfits to alien suits. They often invite members of the audience to paint on blank canvasses during their shows, and consider each gig an experiment as well as a performance.

History

The release of the Walls EP, came at a busy time for the band. They officially relocated from Geelong to Brisbane. They played a set at Livid 2003 (Brisbane) and Fuse Festival (Adelaide).

Following this was a National Tour that visited each capital city and all regional areas. With 2004 came the release of their single, "Rain". They, then moved to their second headlining tour. It began with Brisbane's Valley Fiesta which promoted their new release.

In 2005, the band released the 'Virgin Mary Tour Album, Your tears are warning signs which, without any distribution or label support was the most sold album for over two weeks in Brisbane CD stores^{[citation needed]}. Then came "Walls" with high rotation on Triple J and other commercial radio stations.

Then, The Red Paintings played Australian's Big Day Out Festival in front of thousands of people. They proceeded to tour China for the Your Tears are warning signs tour.

The band has created regular 'theme' shows, such as the 2005 The Nightmare Before Christmas show in Brisbane at the Judith Wright Centre, of which the stage was covered in sets harking from Tim Burton films. Other theme shows the band have created include Andy Warhol, Mark Ryden, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and more recently their "Destroy The Robots" trilogy tour.

In 2006 they released their latest EP Destroy the Robots that picked up high rotation on Triple J and other commercial and independent radio stations including UK stations. The band also headlined two Australian national tours and played to a packed house at The Great Escape Festival in Sydney, before supporting Scottish band Mogwai and then the The Dresden Dolls on their recent tour of Australia, New Zealand, England and the US.

In June of 2007 The Red Paintings released another EP titled 'Feed The Wolf' aswell as a DVD documentry on their tour around the world called 'Seizure and Synesthesia'.

On June 25 2007, on the band's official myspace, they posted a blog announcing they have plans to make a highly anticipated debut album titled 'The Revolution Is Never Coming', but they do not have enough money for it yet. They drew criticism from members of the Brisbane live music community when they asked their fans if they could donate $40 or more to help raise $40,000 so they could begin recording. Donors get credit on the new albums artwork if they donate a minimum of $40 and receive a copy of the new album sent to them anywhere in the world.

Discography

Albums

• The Virgin Mary Australian Tour Acoustic/Strings Album (2004)

EPs

• Angel Flummox EP (1999)
• Reality (Ahead of Schedule) EP (2000)
• Cinema Love EP (2002)
• Walls EP (2005)
• Destroy The Robots EP (2006)
• Feed The Wolf EP (2007)

Singles

• "Rain" (2004)

External links

• The Red Paintings

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