Red House Painters was an alternative rock band from San Francisco, CA, United States, formed in 1989 by singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek with drummer Anthony Koutsos. The band is described, along with Low and American Music Club, as one of the founders of the slowcore movement in indie rock.

Kozelek used this group primarily as a vehicle for personal songs of despair, pain and suffering. Most of Red House Painters’ albums were released through the influential British label 4AD, which helped define the band’s ethereal slowcore sound. Their albums Down Colorful Hill and the self-titled Red House Painters (referred to as Rollercoaster) are widely considered their defining works.

In 1994, they released their only EP, Shock Me, followed by Ocean Beach in 1995. These projects marked a shift toward solitary, acoustic-based songwriting from Kozelek, embracing a folk-influenced sound and moving away from the lengthy, dreamlike epics that defined the group’s first two records.

He would depart from 4AD with the album Songs for a Blue Guitar, signing onto Island Records sublabel Supreme Records. With this album Kozelek had essentially turned Red House Painters into a solo project. However, drummer Anthony Koutsos, guitarist Phil Carney, and bassist Jerry Vessel would remain close collaborators with Kozelek into the 2000s.