Low: Classic or classic?

My wife came in and asked why I was listening to Pearl Jam. It’s not for me, but some bits sounded good.

Hideous Lump and Western, I am speaking only for myself, and also: I have not found much of his solo work that interesting, and also differ greatly from the ILX hivemind on the last few albums. I liked them, but Curtain, Things We Lost, and Secret Name will always be my favorites. About half of “Double Negative” is worth skipping afaic.

I do like HEY WHAT a lot better than DN, tho

I respect that Sparhawk needs to try new things to move on and find something that clicks, but I was not really into his set last night. Independently a lot of the ideas worked, more or less, but it felt indulgent in an uncomfortable way. About a third kind of a funk-soul thing (including covers of Roy Ayers and Childish Gambino), a few songs that fit sort of in the electro-clash mode (with electric percussion/drum machine and vocoder vocals), and a few songs that sounded a bit like electric Neil Young, so maybe more in his expected wheelhouse. But most of the lyrics were minimal, often just a few lines repeated, and the stylistic excursions felt a bit gimmicky to me (even though the playing was surprisingly solid). I assume this is what he's been up to as/in Derecho? The playing was all good, yet the set felt like watching a workshop. Which I guess it was, in a way, but if I didn't know he had the best intentions I'd almost call it trolling.

the funk/soul stuff, including the covers, is all from derecho yeah. the other stuff is unreleased new material but he seems to have a few different modes he's been writing songs recently in that are all very different which probably makes for a weird experience

i can't really blame the guy--glad he's still out there playing music.

i'm certainly looking forward to whatever solo album he comes up with, i think he's said he intends to keep working with bj burton

Yeah, I'm looking forward to whatever as well, it was just weird to see a guy who had worked with such laser focus for so many years suddenly come across a little scattershot.

I think he does really like playing with these guys (I mean, he better; his son is a great bassist, too), I'm just not sure I need any funk-soul from him, as fun as it is. I could imagine Derecho being its own thing and melancholy Sparhawk solo another. I could totally imagine a glitchy solo album from him, kind of like Neil's "Le Noise."

The playing was all good, yet the set felt like watching a workshop.

I'm guessing that he's literally workshopping material, before recording. Always hard to do if playing it live is part of your process, when people are coming out and paying for it (although playing bigger shows under his name instead of local gigs with Derecho does suggest that he's either more confident in it or could use the money?). And even harder when making a new body of work, as opposed to a band that can sneak in a few new tunes.

fwiw the audience was very supportive and receptive, though in my experience it's hard to get anyone to turn on an artist they love (let alone one who was recently dealt a tragedy). Not that anyone should have booed or anything, but after a few meandering or tentative genre explorations Sparhawk half-jokingly opened the floor to questions, and some dude yelled "yeah, how did you get so good!?!" And I thought, woah, slow down there, brown-noser. (Sparhawk's answer was, essentially, "practice.")

I think I would have preferred just a night of funk jams, tbh. They seemed to be having a lot of fun with that.

solo album from alan coming

Low’s Alan Sparhawk will release a solo album—titled White Roses, My God—under his own name this fall, according to a new interview ↓ https://t.co/D0rYOzbl5Q

— Pitchfork (@pitchfork) April 11, 2024

he has so many side projects locally it's hard to keep up. i'm not in mpls anymore but off the top of my head he's got derecho, retribution gospel choir, black eyed snakes, various neil young tributes, a ween cover band, and 2-3 i am forgetting atm. and sometimes he bills derecho as 'derecho rhythm section', not sure how/if that's different

sad i never caught him in NY mode before i moved

i also honestly admire that he also is a bigtime homer for and producer for local bands i'm too much of an asshole for. mpls heads will know who i'm talking about

anyway it's just cool that he's such a man about town. i've maybe posted this before but the last low show i saw was in a small forested grove exactly half a mile from my childhood home. pretty special experience, been listening to low since i was a teen stealing CDs from my big brother and i hadn't made it out to that area in a long time

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/alan-sparhawk-the-heart-of-low the full interview referenced in the Pitchfork news item

That's great. Funny that Bruce Adams is reduced to "music writer," but I guess it would be harder (or take a few more words) to describe the more important role he played. Though the article does bring up Sub Pop, so I dunno.

god, the detail of teenage Alan playing "Heart of Gold" and then Mimi joining in without asking broke me

i'm very heavily anticipating this album but i also don't know if i'm emotionally ready for it

their facebook got hacked and is currently posting ai generated garbage about cats

alan's debut solo single "can u hear" is out on tuesday!

pre-save here: https://music.subpop.com/canuhear

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhA4XSGwYXI

i get the feeling this is going to be a strange and divisive record

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47hi99Yxpu0

going through videos of his recent solo sets on youtube they're absolutely all over the place so i wonder how the record is going to fit together. his new material includes some very low-esque songs, some synth-heavy dance music, some more country-ish material, and some that sounds like neil young. there's heavy vocal processing on a lot of that too, and he's also playing songs by derecho (his disco band) & some of the covers he does with them (mostly disco) so it seems to make for very eclectic shows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47hi99Yxpu0

Oh that's fantastic.

I'm excited that the solo album release is moving forward.

(Oops, meant to put that link in quote markers. Same video as ufo linked just above.)

Here in East Asia it's almost Tuesday...

Really I only need Richard Dawson to announce a new record this autumn and I'll be allll set... so many acts I like readying something new.

First impression of Can U Hear: like The Age of Adz meeting Pharaoh Overlord 6. Promising. Doesn't have the "oh okay THIS, huh?" thrill factor that the Neil Youngesque song with the pitch-shifted vocals did. But definitely my kind of jam.

you have my attention

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7zxdC6bpHU

yeah it's quite a dramatic departure. it's interesting but not my favourite of the material he's played live and bj burton not being involved (nat harvie co-produced this track) is a shame - would have loved to see where he'd take something like this, it doesn't have the same intricate sound design as the last few low albums unfortunately.

White Roses, My God is out 27 september.

Get Still
I Made This Beat
Not the 1
Can U Hear
Heaven
Brother
Black Water
Feel Something
Station
Somebody Else's Room
Project 4 Ever

if you can't hear it yet it's the second live video i linked

Stoked for this, but honestly kinda baffled by the $29 price tag for the CD on Bandcamp when the vinyl is only $24.

press release mentions he has a second album on the way too, recorded with trampled by turtles as his backing band and featuring an alternate version of "heaven"

it suggests that's where all the neil young-esque material's ended up

So much good news.

Been replaying Can U Hear all day, can't get enough. I love those quieter interludes between segments, it's like the song suddenly takes a dip into the vibe of Hen Ogledd's Kebran Gospel Gossip.

Ok, I actually love autotune Alan. And as a Drums & Guns stan I love it when he gets his hands into programming & production. It's a little homespun, sure, but I'm here for it.

i love alan and whatever left-field madness he is plotting here will surely be audacious. but… trampled by turtles? “cmon”! i suppose his booster-ism for local acts i may scorn is forgivable but hoping the results will also be forgivable. i suppose they are all good players at least, so being coralled by someone with good taste might make something interesting

haha yeah, I was a little surprised to see that band brought up, but my implicit trust in Alan outweighs my skepticism about them.

Alan's making his own McCartney II. Count me in!

fwiw I emailed Sub Pop and they just got back to me that the $29 price for the CD was indeed a mistake and it's been corrected. pre-order complete!

Alan goes hyperpop

i love alan and whatever left-field madness he is plotting here will surely be audacious. but… trampled by turtles? “cmon”! i suppose his booster-ism for local acts i may scorn is forgivable but hoping the results will also be forgivable. i suppose they are all good players at least, so being coralled by someone with good taste might make something interesting

― global tetrahedron, Tuesday, July 16, 2024 12:09 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

haha yeah, I was a little surprised to see that band brought up, but my implicit trust in Alan outweighs my skepticism about them.

― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, July 16, 2024 12:10 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

duluth is its own country that probably outweighs any stylistic/aesthetic differences

trampled by turtles are not really my thing on their own either but alan's done some low songs live with them in recent years and they sounded great so i'm not too worried

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BAZRXwFPPU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggs4NEheG-E

the banjo player toured with alan a bit last year too, i figure this is one that will be on the album with tbt

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZwriY0HEaE

A deep read. https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/jul/19/lows-alan-sparhawk-on-the-death-of-his-wife-and-bandmate-mimi-parker-if-you-fall-in-love-you-know-this-could-happen

“If you can get your body to let go, you’ve let your mind go,” he concludes. “It’s the ultimate stage of surrender. Dancing doesn’t solve everything, but it acknowledges: ‘Yes, well, here we are.’ I don’t know what the truth is, but I know that if you keep dancing you’re going to get a lot closer to it.”

Beautiful words. His album is probably going to gut me. Seriously looking forward to it. It's interesting in how he's sparking creativity by trying things he's not done before to help with grief and moving forward.

Yeah, that's a beautiful piece. And though I can hardly understand a word of what Alan sings in Can U Hear, it communicates plenty.

so the answer is, no, we can't (hear what you're singing)

LOW
@lowtheband
Minneapolis/St Paul!!!

Join me at ELECTRIC WATERFALL today at noon at the Como Lakeside Park.

Bring a guitar and small amp or just come listen to the din!

sad I missed this, sounded cool

(yesterday)

I heard that it was much better in theory than in practice

makes sense. though now I see Circuit des Yeux was there??