Low: Classic or classic?

I think they're alright, I think their obvious dedication to their sound and art is fairly admirable, but the resulting records don't move me (the Christmas one is quite nice).

In some of the praise of them there's an undertow of virtues-of- simplicity stuff, and I can see why - when I listen to Low the word that often comes to mind is 'quaint'. You feel a little better for owning a Low record, I suppose, like a piece of handmade furniture or something. They're not classic.

ha I never said on this thread that 'the curtain hits the cast' is one of my few most favorite albums ever.

i watched that low documentary on cable last nite. maaaaaaaan, was that boring. not even two members of napalm death could pep things up. HOW IRONIC LOW DUDE THEY ARE IN NAPALM DEATH AND YOU ARE IN LOW AND YOU ARE IN THE SAME BUILDING WHAT ARE THE ODDS. on the other hand, it made me want to listen to low records. i do like low. and watching low live from my couch is, if you ask me, the best friggin' place on earth to watch low live.

hahah, interesting post. a boring documentary that made you wanna listen to the records. i can see that. good documentary i guess, rather slow, i own it but have only watched it once, so far.

the live footage is indeed superb.

that's the Low In Europe thing, right? I've got that DVD too, should really watch it again too

they should have set up the most boring people alive premise even more than they did. they sould have called the doc: HOW LOW CAN YOU GO:THE DIRTY DULUTH 3 LAY WASTE TO EUROPE! with girls gone wild cover art.

Maybe the sequel will be even lower

Low & Lowerer, with new bass player Jim Carrey

ultimately characterless and forgettable

lol. Heard Drums and Guns?

it hadn't been released back then

i have "low in europe" and only got halfway through it. hmm. and as you all know, i adore them.

vvv tickled to see the original post -- it was alex who got me into low, some ... fucking hell, 12 years ago now. christ.

which album do I listen to right now if I've never heard any of them before? quick!

I think The Great Destroyer is very accessible, so that may be a good entry point. But I guess Things We Lost In The Fire might be a more representative disc.

A handful of songs on the new disc (called Drums and Guns) are also an excellent introduction to the band. Try, for example, this killer (no pun intended) version of Murderer, from a live, in-studio performance last year.

Things We Lost in the Fire is a great introduction. I'd also recommend Secret Name, which was my intro, also very good.

Things We Lost in the Fire, definitely. Worked for me at least, from the first chord change.

Anyone see that film about Low that's now showing on Pitchfork.tv? It's called You Might Need A Murderer. I didn't know how troubled Alan Spearhawk was. Semi-boring film, but a totally compelling band.

Oh it's on Pitchfork.tv? Sweet, I saw it in the local record store today and passed on it ($20 brand new) but i'll totally watch it for free. One of my all time favorite bands, love these guys.

npr interview with the sparhawks a while ago that touched on his issues

Catch it now, Stephen. It's the "One Week Only" feature on Pitchfork.tv.

That NPR interview is fascinating. Sparhawk dances around his problems some, but this is the first time I've heard he was suicidal.

Thanks Daniel, I'll be sure to check it out Sunday morning when i get up :D

Retribution Gospel Choir (Alan's new, catchier, LOUD, rock band) played a sparsely attended show in Montreal on Friday that was fucking amazing. PLayed their hearts out for we seated folk, left my ears so happily ringing. Was sad to see him loading up the van alone in the street afterward (last time I saw Low it was at ATP with another 1000 people). If Retribution Gospel Choir come to chez toi, go go go. terrific.

Low have subtley crept, over the course of about ten years, into the position of being my favorite existing band.

"subtly"

Some good discussion on this thread, methinks.

Retribution Gospel Choir (Alan's new, catchier, LOUD, rock band) played a sparsely attended show in Montreal on Friday that was fucking amazing.

ARGH I was on the list for this but couldn't go, damn you, job.

I've seen them 7-8 times since 1997 and have observed as the venue/audience size has grown in tandem with the expanse of the band's dynamic (louder choruses, distortion pedals and such). The songs from their last few records are perfectly suited to the mid-size theatres they play these days. But my favorite gigs were one in the mid-to-late 90's, when they would come through the Ann Arbor/Detroit area quite regularly and play at little hole-in-the-wall spots: The (small) audience would generally sit on the floor and remain dead silent until the band finished playing (save for the occasional applause). There was a communal reverence, churchlike almost, unlike anything else I've experienced at rock gigs (even a "seated" Yo La Tengo show from their And Then Nothing.. tour, in which the band/venue provided the audience with folding chairs, didn't come close). It was a beautiful thing to be a part of, really.

I totally get that. I'm sure you'd agree, though, that they deserve all the additional attention -- and higher audience attendance at shows -- that they now get. I'm with you: Low has become one of my favorite, if not my absolute favorite, band of the moment.

I'll third that. Best band going today.

i saw RGC a few years back with Kozelek and they were alright but the drummer was really stiff; if it's the same guy I'm sure they've loosened up a bit. I'm assuming Kozelek isn't on this tour.

the best thing they played though was a crazy ass cover of "the carpet crawlers"

I'm sure you'd agree, though, that they deserve all the additional attention -- and higher audience attendance at shows

Yeah, it has actually been very rewarding to watch a humble little band like Low build and expand their aesthetic over the years, and at the same time gain popularity because of the sheer quality of their art. Even thought I have those fond memories of tiny quiet shows, I have no problem sharing Low with The World.

Strictly in terms of popularity, though, I know Low is bigger in Europe than The States, at least circa early-2000s. Was it that way in the mid-to-late 90's too? I'd been used to Low concerts being generally as described above. But then, in 2000, I moved to Dublin for college and twice saw Low in sold-out concerts at The Olympia, a fairly large theatre (fantastic shows both, one with cello!).

"thought" = though

stop all the clocks, quieten all the whisperings about low's republican tendencies:

low are playing an obama benefit somewhere.

they're also doing christmas shows in the uk, in november.

Let alone any sort of counter (intentional or not) to grunge or Seattle or whatever.

It drew contrasts where there weren’t any (as in the grunge example cited) and also didn’t get a lot of the history correct, also mentioned. Just a strange and lazy obit

…and frankly, I know Alan means well, but his quote about Mimi not singing for or to anyone felt weirdly denigrating?!? As if he was trying to accentuate her humility but instead it came off as “she wasn’t that great a singer.” Am I reading too much into it?

Why would there not be a contrast? Low were an American indie band that came out at the same time as other American indie bands, but were very different from them. Seems a fair enough point to me.

Because Low was different from a thousand bands, but no one would cite them as a contrast, let alone a contrast to an unrelated scene. I think it makes more sense, rather than contrast them with something they're not (grunge, pop, IDM, whatever), to do what most obits did and cite their peers and antecedents. Galaxie 500, Codeine, Bedhead, etc.. But even that doesn't really do a band justice that also toured with Soul Coughing and Radiohead.

The irony is that Low is actually as much indebted to Neil Young, the so-called Godfather of Grunge, as Joy Division or the VU, which probably gives them a stronger claim to "grunge" than the Seattle groups, who were often more metal-derived, anyway. (Though of course Alan is into metal, too). Anyway, it's dumb. Low was on Sub Pop. So was Saint Etienne.

write up about the funeral from the Duluth paper

https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/lifestyle/arts-and-entertainment/duluth-celebrates-lows-mimi-parker-with-laughter-tears-at-funeral

This quietly broke me:

After the service concluded, attendees were presented with what Davis described as gifts from Parker's family. Each family in attendance was invited to take a rose, a printed cartoon drawn by Tony Husband in Parker's memory, and a square cut from a quilt.

"When Mim and Al were first married," said Davis, an aunt sewed the quilt for them. "The quilt was a vital part of their lives, keeping them warm, bundling their children, sitting out on the lawn in the sun, and it provided comfort during the last days of this long, hard journey."

Because Low was different from a thousand bands, but no one would cite them as a contrast, let alone a contrast to an unrelated scene. I think it makes more sense, rather than contrast them with something they're not (grunge, pop, IDM, whatever), to do what most obits did and cite their peers and antecedents. Galaxie 500, Codeine, Bedhead, etc.. But even that doesn't really do a band justice that also toured with Soul Coughing and Radiohead.

No one is comparing them to IDM or pop, but I don’t think it’s totally unfounded to compare them to grunge, which was the dominant alternative rock sound of that era. Only comparing them to Bedhead or Codeine is artificially narrow and does a disservice to all three bands who existed in much noisier scenes in their respective parts of the country. For a short time Zak Sally was simultaneously in a band with the guys from godheadSilo, for instance. Low’s music was their form of punk in that it was purposely meant to contrast against the noisy punk/indie scene of Minnesota. Those are the kinds of bands they shared the stage with.

Touring with Soul Coughing in 95 (though not a noisy band) is a good example of their attitude—they did that tour knowing full well their contrast was going to agitate the audience. (I was in that audience and can attest to the fact that SC fans *hated* Low.) They we’re definitely proactively challenging audiences back then.

Now I'm envisioning the impossible insanity of Low somehow being on AmRep.

Bedhead were on Trance Syndicate which is probably the closest you’ll get to that fantasy

They seemed just a tad annoyed to have to play in between my stupid band and soul coughing at the show we did with them. It was an amazing experience that I'll never forget, but I'm not sure Low was really loving playing in front of a restless rock audience.

It may or may not have been fun for them but i do think they knew what they were getting into.

I didn't mean to say that Low had to be compared to any particular cohort, just that I never heard them as oppositional to anything, really. Maybe at first oppositional to any loud, fast bands? But of course Low did get noisy early on. Still, comparing them to grunge? Like, why? Most bands in the '90s not aiming for the radio sounded nothing like the Seattle stuff. (If anything, Nirvana's Unplugged was them shifting gears to sound more like a band like Low.)

Anyway, the only two I acts I personally ever thought of when I listened to Low was, at first, Galaxie 500 (superficially, mostly because of Kramer) and then later Neil Young (c. Things We Lost in the Fire). But Low mostly ever sounded like Low, which maybe partly explained how they managed to always be good.

tbh -- more as a sometime professional magazine editor than as any kind of expert on low -- i think that nyt obit reads the way it does bcz a higher-up said to the writer re an earlier draft "look, you probably know why this person is important but you have to contextualise it better to readers who have never heard of her and don't really know the world she's from"

the "context" is like a super-basic thumbnail of the broadest idea of a time as a way to position the band to said reader

and it's not a good solution to my guessed-at request for redrafting but it looks less like laziness to me than panic :(

Love this photo of all of Low's bassists at Mimi Parker's funeral. pic.twitter.com/O0n3DLYhzx

— Join a union (@Jonnyishh) November 11, 2022

That was originally from Scott "Starfire" Lunt's IG, the pirate and later college radio DJ from Duluth who inspired the song

Okay that photo is A+.

yes

just for completeness' sake, from left to right:

Liz Draper (2021-2022)
Steve Garrington (2008-2020)
John Nichols (1993-1994)
Zak Sally (1994-2005)
Matt Livingston (2005-2008)

Alan just posted a message from Zak on IG and it is really incredible, definitely wept reading it.

Truly.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ClAGlhGIiAE/?hl=en

Man.

everytime i think i'm done getting teared up over her passing...

yep, that wrecked me

"All of the things that inhabit (and sometimes define) damn near every artist you’ve known and loved: some desire to be recognized, paid attention to and lauded - she didn’t have it. In fact, I’m sure she didn’t want it when it came her way

What she did have, and what you heard and saw - it poured out of her so naturally that she didn’t identify it as “talent” or a “unique ability”, and she found it strange when others viewed it as such"

I just read Zak's tribute. It's beautiful. Midway through I thought "omg Mimi was a Virgo" and I googled it and yes she certainly was

Just got an automatic notification of a refund for what would have been the March show. Even knowing subconsciously it would come doesn't make it any better.

Talking about Low in the past tense is so sad

Yeah, really is. I almost haven't felt this much of a past/present divide in talking about an artist now gone since Bowie.

Guardian obit today:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/nov/18/mimi-parker

this paragraph jumped out at me because a. first sentence is wrong lol but also b. didn’t know this bit about TRW (i was only 9 or 10 when it aired so i never watched that season):

Low’s 1995 LP, Long Division, included the single Shame, on which Parker sang lead for the first time. Picked up by the MTV reality show The Real World: San Francisco, it soundtracked the story of a gay man living with HIV. Parker told the Guardian in 2018 that it “became kind of a gay … I won’t say anthem. But a lot of gay men come up to me and talk about that song. They say that it really spoke to them.”

Just got an automatic notification of a refund for what would have been the March show. Even knowing subconsciously it would come doesn't make it any better.

My friend got the same message today (assuming you had tix for the Chapel show, Ned) and hadn't realized Mimi had passed until reading it and shared condolences via text with me.

I think it's always interesting to see how far a band's impact can reach. For example, I never would have expected Rick Beato to chime in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5Mj4Nv_ip0

There should be a word for the empathyless triggering of human pain by automated systems. I feel the same way when Facebook reminds me of the birthdays of dead friends.

someone recently uploaded this 2004 documentary about the band to youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6BkD5ivYww

i think most of it was shot while they were touring 'trust'. there's a sweet clip of alan singing 'little surfer girl' to baby hollis in the SPIN offices. also, an unexpected but delightful celebrity cameo at the 29-minute mark!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXxBE1qi_24

also, an unexpected but delightful celebrity cameo at the 29-minute mark!

I sent this to my wife and asked her to guess who it would be and she somehow guessed immediately before watching it lol.

Re: Trust. I only listened to it for the first time a couple weeks ago but it struck me as “countryish”. I’ve been going through the catalog chronologically after writing them off as slowcore way back in the 90s and then idly checking out Double Negative a couple years ago and being blown away.

Has any band had such a subtle stylistic evolution over as long a period as these guys? Like album by album over almost 30 years they slowly morph into something else, like watching day by day a tree change colors in the fall.

That's pretty apt. Though with Low, I want to say the ingredients were all there from the start; famously, Alan supposedly heard both Joy Division and the Velvet Underground for the first time the same night in college, which adds up. The country element that you cite, I think that's maybe the Neil Young influence, which does start to creep in more prominently a few albums in.

Looks like Alan is returning to (local to him) live performance. He also posted a link to this 2021 music store set he did:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DaU8X7yBt0

I have tickets for tonight's show, will be very interested to see what happens.

How was the show?

From last night. Thank you all for the joy. Most of our set is original instrumentals but this is such a fun song to play and sing. Have a great weekend everyone. ❤️🥁❤️ https://t.co/J2JatYhfLv

— LOW (@lowtheband) December 2, 2022

over almost 30 years they slowly morph into something else, like watching day by day a tree change colors in the fall.

I like this :)

ha that's my friend i went with, our table was front and center

fun show, no acknowledgment of anything that's been going on which i suspected. did some cool covers - roy ayers, funkadelic, gambino, curtis mayfield, sparhawk really got out there channeling eddie hazel on the funkadelic song

overall i like the vibe of it, definitely feels like they are still figuring out what they are, sometimes it could feel a little underbaked on certain jams. sparhawk was using an envelope filter, a pedal i have mixed feelings about. other jams were fantastic. sometimes reminded me of the budos band.

his son is a really great bassist! funky and clever lines. drummer and percussionist were great as well.

there was one song i should have recorded that felt like it took aspects of low and turned it into something totally different, was by far the most "song" song and less jammy.

overall, fun and very promising band but feel like they need to figure a few things out.

Funny you say that Trust feels "country-ish"— I think it's one of their most aggressive and noisy records, but with a few country songs on it.

As an avid poster collectors I was kicking myself for not having a Low poster. Then I saw on the Chairkickers site a limited edition foil tour print from this year designed by Zak Sally and I immediately remedied the oversight.

I am a rare ilx poster but sadly not sought after. It's a pathetic contradiction.

Limited edition of one, don't undervalue yourself.

We're getting that framed as I type, actually— we got one on the tour.

The Low in Europe documentary has popped up recently.

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

This is a worthwhile recommendation. I rewatched it on YouTube a few weeks ago after Mimi passed away.

Also worth checking out is Low: You May Need a Murderer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WjuOc0Mhc0