Retribution Gospel Choir - S/T - March 18th, 2008 (Alan Sparhawk's other band)

track 3 = "breaker"

??

― StanM, Thursday, 10 January 2008 20:42 (5 years ago) Permalink

track 2 is also from Drums and Guns

― stephen, Thursday, 10 January 2008 20:47 (5 years ago) Permalink

seen them a couple of times at bars in the twin cities.

good stuff...almost like a dub crazy horse live...they use this crazy spinning light ball too.

― M@tt He1ges0n, Thursday, 10 January 2008 21:28 (5 years ago) Permalink

So it's around...

― Herman G. Neuname, Thursday, 21 February 2008 23:39 (5 years ago) Permalink

They play the Drums and Guns songs as souped-up rockers. I liked the live clips on YouTube. This has potential.

― Daniel, Esq., Thursday, 21 February 2008 23:41 (5 years ago) Permalink

i haven't heard this but "Retribution Gospel Choir" sounds awesome

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 21 February 2008 23:44 (5 years ago) Permalink

Their version of Breaker is up on the label's website, too.

― Daniel, Esq., Thursday, 21 February 2008 23:50 (5 years ago) Permalink

The version of Take Your Time on this...fucking hell, it's like the pent up part of Low just got unleashed. So good to hear Sparhawk really battering his guitar too, I mean I love Drums and Guns but the idiosyncratic production stifled some of his <ahem> chops...

― Bill A, Monday, 23 June 2008 21:41 (4 years ago) Permalink

This sounds great, I just wish I liked the songs more. "The salvation army / Is all out of ammo" = worst Sparhawk lyric ever, and the opening line of one of the best songs on the record, too

― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Sunday, 29 June 2008 20:39 (4 years ago) Permalink

i listened to this a couple times and it didn't really grab me (and i'm a huuuuge Low fan). i'll have to give it another chance.

― stephen, Sunday, 29 June 2008 21:14 (4 years ago) Permalink

2010-01-26

― LaMonte, Monday, 16 November 2009 04:02 (3 years ago) Permalink

Want this.

― Daniel, Esq., Monday, 16 November 2009 04:03 (3 years ago) Permalink

Hide it Away

― LaMonte, Friday, 25 December 2009 18:54 (3 years ago) Permalink

So the new album kills. Very 70s rock in places. Boston meets Low. In the very best possible way.

― Jamie_ATP, Friday, 22 January 2010 18:21 (3 years ago) Permalink

saw them live in mpls about a month ago and it was godlike...sparhawks' crazy horse basically...he was going off on guitar...much more 70s rock, less dub echo but was still pretty trippy

― you forgot what a hardcore blogger is (M@tt He1ges0n), Friday, 22 January 2010 18:58 (3 years ago) Permalink

yeah there's an 8 or 9 minute long one near the end of side 2 that fits that description. looking forward to the euro tour.

― Jamie_ATP, Friday, 22 January 2010 19:01 (3 years ago) Permalink

I saw them on their first tour, when Mark Kozelek was in the band, and they were a mess, just not very good, but both the records are fantastic. I think the only really good thing they did when I saw them was a cover of Carpet Crawlers and I'm not even sure that was good, I just liked it.

― akm, Saturday, 23 January 2010 06:52 (3 years ago) Permalink

Oh this is so beautiful - I managed to completely miss that there was a new record out, or that they are playing Manchester in March. Super hyped for this now!

― Bill A, Saturday, 23 January 2010 12:16 (3 years ago) Permalink

This is great.

― President Keyes, Saturday, 23 January 2010 18:09 (3 years ago) Permalink

fingers crossed, I am opening for them in SF and maybe Santa Cruz....so you SF people better show up if I do

― akm, Thursday, 28 January 2010 23:18 (3 years ago) Permalink

!

― Salvador Dali Parton (Turangalila), Friday, 29 January 2010 01:03 (3 years ago) Permalink

Really liking this one...

― that's not my post, Monday, 1 February 2010 07:05 (3 years ago) Permalink

hmmm...

1/31/10 8:08 PM

Fans of Minnesota's Low probably never expected they'd see a day when there was only one degree of separation between Alan Sparhawk, the trio's frontman, and Britney Spears.

Thanks to Sparhawk's (kinda) new outfit, Retribution Gospel Choir — which also includes drummer Eric Pollard and Low's Steve Garrington on bass — everyone's favourite slowcorist is also now in the same company as Paris Hilton.

The pop connection doesn't end there. Up-and-coming producer Matt Beckley (Vanessa Hudgens, Avril Lavigne) produced Retribution Gospel Choir's new album, 2.

"I've known Matthew for a number of years; his father is one of the members of the band America," explains Sparhawk. "He lives in L.A. and he's had this quiet career of being a pitch corrector and engineer for a lot of these big projects, like Britney Spears and Maroon 5...

"I met him years ago, before I knew what his job was... I thought it would be interesting to see what he'd do with some rock tracks."

― i get mines the fast way, the balaclava way (M@tt He1ges0n), Monday, 1 February 2010 21:31 (3 years ago) Permalink

man this album sounds bizarre in terms of mix and mastering.

great songs...but...damn i wish sick mouthy liked these guys enough to hear it, love to know what he thinks.

― El GarBage (M@tt He1ges0n), Sunday, 14 February 2010 01:03 (3 years ago) Permalink

he would hate the mastering, the whole thing is slammed into the reds. may have been done in the mixing, not sure. it's pretty bad as far as loudness goes. alan has done questionable things on all his albums for a little while (well fridmann was the guilty one with great destroyer). luckily the quality of the songs is so high that this doesn't bother me to the extent that it could; this is my first favorite album of 2010. It's the equal to any Low album.

― akm, Monday, 15 February 2010 21:59 (3 years ago) Permalink

When the CD first arrived I put it on when cooking and it just washed over me, but on headphones commuting the next day it was *immense*. Getting better with every listen now, Sparhawk is a fucking genius.

Got to agree with you akm, it's mastered a bit hot for my taste but the songs really do make up for it.

― Bill A, Monday, 15 February 2010 22:39 (3 years ago) Permalink

yeah i love the songs.

dave fridmann is such a horrible producer

― El GarBage (M@tt He1ges0n), Monday, 15 February 2010 22:49 (3 years ago) Permalink

ugh yes

― Salvador Dali Parton (Turangalila), Monday, 15 February 2010 22:51 (3 years ago) Permalink

if you have a record player i would say that, like a lot of times these days, the vinyl version seems a lot less squashed (but still pretty squashed for vinyl)

― El GarBage (M@tt He1ges0n), Monday, 15 February 2010 22:58 (3 years ago) Permalink

love this record

― rinse the lemonade (Jordan), Thursday, 18 February 2010 17:30 (3 years ago) Permalink

GREAT GREAT in studio performance at Radio K in Mpls:

http://radiok.cce.umn.edu/instudios/retributiongospelchoir/

― El GarBage (M@tt He1ges0n), Friday, 19 February 2010 23:47 (3 years ago) Permalink

^white hot guitar. I'd bet it's helping him stay sane.

― that's not my post, Saturday, 20 February 2010 08:17 (3 years ago) Permalink

I'm a *HUGE* fan of everything he's done with Low and this leaves me cold. Thought the first album was shrug-worthy, haven't heard the second but these radio sessions are not really drawing me in like I wish they would.

Surely I can't be alone?

― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Saturday, 20 February 2010 14:15 (3 years ago) Permalink

Yeah, this 2nd album is very disappointing. I wasn't thrilled by the first one--as I have been with almost everything Low has done in the last decade, 'Great Destroyer' and Sparhawk's solo guitar thing aside--but it was a nice minor addition to the oeuvre. On this one, the songs seem weaker, slightly tossed off.

But frankly, it's hard for me to tell, because the production is just god-awfully wrong-headed in every way I can think of--if you specifically set out to come up with a more boring, alienating, and just plain crummy-sounding production style (especially for this sort of music, which begs to be produced simply and raw, like the first album) you couldn't "hit" the target more precisely than this. The radio performances are much more appealing, but make me feel like I'm right to think the songs are just plain weaker than the first LP.

― Soundslike, Saturday, 20 February 2010 14:43 (3 years ago) Permalink

I love the flesh-ripping guitar sound Neil Young also uses sometimes. Poor Man's Daughter, e.g. - it SHOULD sound like they're playing too loud and they broke their amps. No point in comparing to Low though, if there was he'd released these as Low albums.

― StanM, Saturday, 20 February 2010 20:58 (3 years ago) Permalink

Woah, that last performance on the radio session is killer. I'd love to hear the whole album recorded that way.

― Simon H., Saturday, 20 February 2010 21:05 (3 years ago) Permalink

StanM--I guess what's odd to me is that the sheen and sparkle, the almost late-90s Stone Temple Pilots production methods employed here actually manage to make the oh-so-loud drums and guitars actually sound impotent, rather than loud. It's a disappointment after the variety of interesting and (in my opinion) successful production methods Sparhawk has employed over the last dozen+ years. It seems to me that this wanted to sound like a mid-80s 4AD album--thinking especially Dif Juz, but louder--but instead it just sounds like the sort of sub-U2 constipation-rawk that is the 2000s progeny of "alternative rock".

― Soundslike, Sunday, 21 February 2010 07:52 (3 years ago) Permalink

I don't think this wants to sound like Dif Juz, I think it wants to sound extremely over the top and in your face. I'm not saying I like the production though (I'm not a huge fan) but I'm surprised you don't like the actual songs, which are really strong. But I can see how it's hard to get past the compression.

― akm, Sunday, 21 February 2010 09:09 (3 years ago) Permalink

OK, you're not wrong, Soundslike. Whether or not this production works is very, VERY dependent on the kind of system you listen to, I'm discovering. Way more than most, somehow.

― StanM, Sunday, 21 February 2010 09:42 (3 years ago) Permalink

But the songs still shine through, if you've gotten to know them before you pay attention to the production, I think.

― StanM, Sunday, 21 February 2010 09:43 (3 years ago) Permalink

sounds better on vinyl on a good player but yeah not ideal

i guess they recorded a version with albini, hope that ends up leaking like the albini version of in on the kill taker

― for HOOM the bell tolls (M@tt He1ges0n), Tuesday, 23 February 2010 21:21 (3 years ago) Permalink

Confirmed: I (well my band, Carta) am/is playing this show in SF. April 9th at the Hotel Utah. Do not ask me why this band was booked into there, it is going to be packed (hopefully) and ear-bleedingly loud (certainly). If you are local please come!

― akm, Wednesday, 24 February 2010 22:45 (3 years ago) Permalink

you're gonna have fun, they really bring it live.

― for HOOM the bell tolls (M@tt He1ges0n), Wednesday, 24 February 2010 22:59 (3 years ago) Permalink

hey i like your band akm...def hear some low but also the song glass bottom boat reminds me of espers a little, at least the voice of the female singer

― for HOOM the bell tolls (M@tt He1ges0n), Wednesday, 24 February 2010 23:11 (3 years ago) Permalink

i wish there were more songs like 'hide it away' on the record...it's basically dub trio + low

― rinse the lemonade (Jordan), Wednesday, 24 February 2010 23:12 (3 years ago) Permalink

awesome drumming too

― rinse the lemonade (Jordan), Wednesday, 24 February 2010 23:12 (3 years ago) Permalink

i wish there were more songs like 'hide it away' on the record...it's basically dub trio + low

― rinse the lemonade (Jordan), Wednesday, February 24, 2010 11:12 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

they stretch out quite a bit live....when they first formed it was even more like that...like they had a space echo unit and a strobe light and were doing a lot of almost dub crazy horse kinda shit....it's a little more regular form rock now but still great IMO

― for HOOM the bell tolls (M@tt He1ges0n), Wednesday, 24 February 2010 23:22 (3 years ago) Permalink

cheers m@tt; I just uploaded the 'sequel' song (Descension) on our myspace page, new vocalist is not nearly as espers like.

i'd be excited about this show even if I weren't playing it. That said, this is NOT really the best venue for RGC, the sound in there is pretty raw and the room is incredibly tiny (like, your living room tiny). so I expect it all to be earbleedingly loud. But I'm sure it will still be good. This is easily my favorite album of the year so far.

― akm, Wednesday, 24 February 2010 23:54 (3 years ago) Permalink

Howdy, this show is tomorrow in SF, locals please come so I can get paid and pay my babysitter. Thanks.

― akm, Friday, 9 April 2010 03:53 (3 years ago) Permalink

I'm a *HUGE* fan of everything he's done with Low and this leaves me cold. Thought the first album was shrug-worthy, haven't heard the second but these radio sessions are not really drawing me in like I wish they would.

Surely I can't be alone?

― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Saturday, February 20, 2010 8:15 AM (3 months ago)

Update to my post above: I've picked up the second album and it's been in rotation recently and I'm enjoying it a lot. Really really enjoyable songs. Not sure I can judge the production as I've not listened on a nice stereo yet (maybe that's the intent?).

― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), Thursday, 3 June 2010 21:28 (3 years ago) Permalink

I prefer the dirge-y atmosphere of the first one. 'Holes in our Heads' still destroys me.

― silence is a rhythm too (Turangalila), Thursday, 3 June 2010 22:07 (3 years ago) Permalink

So, apparently Eric Pollard was convicted(?) of 5 felony counts of selling pot last year: http://www.startribune.com/printarticle/?id=164763796

― LaMonte, Monday, 1 October 2012 03:09 (8 months ago) Permalink

Q: How do you follow-up a four-song 7”?
A: With a two-song full-length.

One song per side, this radio-format-challenged record will come out January 22, 2013 on Chaperone Records. Side A “Can’t Walk Out” is the crown jewel of recent RGC live shows with it’s repetitive, building, almost free, freakout – so far, probably the most accurate recording of what the band brings to the stage. Side B “Seven” sees the more sprawling side of the band – haunting, epic, and enhanced throughout by guest guitarist Nels Cline. These songs were tracked live, playing together in the same room, one take each.

A friend of mine used to play Frank Zappa’s “Uncle Meat” at 16 rpm all the time. How do you recover from that?

You don’t.

stay warm – Alan Sparhawk

https://soundcloud.com/chaperonerecords/seven-w-guest-nels-cline

― This Is Not An ILX Username (LaMonte), Monday, 17 December 2012 23:50 (6 months ago) Permalink

sparhawk's total embrace of the jamband is such a hilarious/sweet conclusion to the earlier concentrated austerity & restraint of low

― kristof-profiting-from-a-childs-illiteracy.html (schlump), Tuesday, 18 December 2012 03:41 (6 months ago) Permalink

Just getting to hear this. "Seven" is a stunner.

― EZ Snappin, Monday, 14 January 2013 03:27 (5 months ago) Permalink

So the album is out, and I'm listening on Spotify. "Can't Walk Out" is just as good as "Seven". Easily the best record I've heard from 2013 thus far, and it sets a damn high bar.

― EZ Snappin, Tuesday, 29 January 2013 13:44 (4 months ago) Permalink

Damn, this '3' 7inch is so insanely good. Both songs are so epic and full of Neil Young-ish face melting guitar solos.
Turn it up!!!

― scubasteve, Tuesday, 5 February 2013 19:15 (4 months ago) Permalink