Red House Painters was a slowcore band from San Francisco, CA, United State… Read Full Bio ↴Red House Painters was a slowcore band from San Francisco, CA, United States, formed in 1988 by singer/songwriter Mark Kozelek, who is currently active in the band Sun Kil Moon, with part of the original RHP line-up.

The band is described, along with Low and American Music Club, as one of the linchpins of the slowcore movement, a subgenre of Indie Rock characterized by downbeat melodies, slow tempos, and often minimalist arrangements. The genre was shaped by musical influences like Folk Rock, Contemporary Folk, and later on, Indie Folk, creating a subdued atmosphere that clashed against most of the comparatively brash Alternative Rock that was popular at the time. Kozelek used this group primarily as a vehicle for his very personal and emotional songs of despair, pain and suffering.

While in Atlanta, Kozelek became friends with Anthony Koutsos, a drummer. He then moved to San Francisco, adding guitarist Gorden Mack and bassist Jerry Vessel to complete the line-up for Red House Painters. After forming, the group played the San Francisco scene extensively, and recorded demos from 1989 to 1992, building up an impressive amount of material. Once they were signed to 4AD Records in 1992, they put out five-and-a-half LPs worth of material in two-and-a-half years--between September 1992 and March 1995, they released three LPs, one double LP, and one EP on 4AD.

Their first 4AD release was an album made up of select demos titled Down Colorful Hill. It was a compilation of haunting melodies complemented by Kozelek's eerie yet rich and emotional vocals. In 1993, the group came out with two self-titled records (now commonly referred to as "Red House Painters I" or "Rollercoaster" and "Red House Painters II" or "Bridge" (based on their cover artwork), solidifying Kozelek's reputation as a talented songwriter with their harrowing autobiographical tales of his troubled life and errant living with no punches being pulled. The music, which ran the gamut from beautiful acoustic folk-rock to intense, dissonant, lengthy soundscapes, effectively conveyed the sadness of the lyrics.

In 1994, they released an EP entitled Shock Me and in 1995, the introspective Ocean Beach, which saw Kozelek's songs becoming more acoustic-based and folk influenced, and featured far less of the lengthy, dreamlike epics of the group's first two albums. His lyrics also showed a considerable shift in tone, as he increasingly began to write about the power of memory and the significance of geography, a subject that would become an obsession in his subsequent recordings.

While Kozelek was beginning work on a solo project, he parted ways with 4AD Records after a somewhat tumultuous relationship. Entitled Songs for a Blue Guitar, which was released on Island Records subsidiary Supreme Recordings in 1996. It was more of a guitar-driven rock album that they released under the Red House Painters name to give the album more publicity. A year later, they came up with Old Ramon, arguably their most accessible, optimistic recording to date. However, major label mergers during the late 90's would leave them without a record label, and it wasn't until 2001 that they were able to release the album on Sub Pop.

Prior to the release of Old Ramon, Kozelek released a solo six-song EP entitled Rock 'n' Roll Singer in 2000. The record was comprised of three original acoustic compositions with minor full-band arrangements and three covers: two AC/DC covers from the Bon Scott era and one John Denver cover. Following the release of the first solo EP, Kozelek released his first solo album six months later. The record, entitled What's Next to the Moon, was released in January of 2001, but would greatly surprise fans. What's Next to the Moon was comprised entirely of shimmering, melancholy acoustic AC/DC covers from the Bon Scott era. The record was also greatly uncharacteristic of Kozelek (though he was prone to enjoy covering songs by his favorite artists) in that it is the shortest full length to date clocking in at just over thirty minutes. Even the first Red House Painters album with only six tracks was more than 45 minutes in length. Both solo albums were released by Badman Records.

4AD would release the best-of package, "Retrospective", on a double-disc in 1999. Kozelek subsequently organized and appeared on a John Denver tribute album, played a part in Cameron Crowe's film Almost Famous and also appeared as a rock musician in the Steve Martin vehicle Shopgirl. He contributed to both a benefit album for AIDS and an album of classic rock covers.

In 2003 Kozelek and Koutsos, along with Geoff Stanfield and Tim Mooney, reformed as Sun Kil Moon, releasing the acclaimed album Ghosts of the Great Highway on Jetset Records. In a 2005 interview with The Onion's AV Club, Kozelek confirmed that he considers Sun Kil Moon essentially the Red House Painters, but that he changed the band name to grab the interest of critics who had gotten bored with, or stopped paying attention to, the Painters. The move was successful, as Ghosts of the Great Highway would be his best-selling album yet, while garnering extremely positive reviews.

San Geronimo
Red House Painters Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Somewhere, up fifteen miles
Sifting through crackling vinyl
Lost memories of my youth
Are coming into view

Between lost hills divide
Quietly we sleep inside
Lost summers of my youth

I spent them all with you

Take ways by withered creeks
Lizards sunning in the streets
Small kitten stretches through
Green, empty yards you knew

Weekend in San Geronimo
Love how the starlit skies show
Weekend in San Geronimo
Sentiments within me glows

Somewhere, up fifteen miles
Barefoot on kitchen tile
When nights are warm and true
I'll spend them all with you

Weekend in San Geronimo
Love how the starlit skies show
Weekend in San Geronimo
Sentiments within me glows

Weekend in San Geronimo
Love how the starlit skies show
Weekend in San Geronimo
Sentiments within me glows

Weekend in San Geronimo
Love how the starlit skies show
Weekend in San Geronimo
Sentiments within me glows

Weekend in San Geronimo
Love how the starlit skies show
Weekend in San Geronimo

Sentiments within me glows
Weekend in San Geronimo

Overall Meaning

The song "San Geronimo" by Red House Painters is a nostalgic reflection on the singer's past, specifically his lost youth spent in San Geronimo, a small town around fifteen miles away. The opening lines convey a sense of searching and reminiscing, as the singer sifts through old records and memories of his past. The second verse describes a peaceful scene of sleeping inside, surrounded by the hills and the memories of the singer's youth spent with someone special.

The chorus, repeated three times throughout the song, emphasizes the important memories made during a particular weekend spent in San Geronimo, with its starlit skies and glowing sentiments. The final verse returns to the present, where the singer imagines a future spent with his loved one, barefoot on the kitchen tile, enjoying warm nights together.

Overall, the song evokes a sense of longing for the past, while also celebrating the enduring power of memories and love.

Line by Line Meaning

Somewhere, up fifteen miles
There's a place that's about 15 miles away from here

Sifting through crackling vinyl
I'm going through a collection of old records

Lost memories of my youth
Memories of my younger years that were forgotten

Are coming into view
Are becoming clear again

Between lost hills divide
A separation between hills that have been misplaced

Quietly we sleep inside
We sleep soundly indoors

Lost summers of my youth
Those summers from my younger years that have been forgotten

I spent them all with you
I spent all those summers with a loved one

Take ways by withered creeks
Journeys taken along dried-up streams

Lizards sunning in the streets
Lizards basking in the sun along the road