Low: Classic or classic?

Aw, that's bad news. Hopefully she's getting the treatment she needs, even if that's what is keeping her from playing.

They just cancelled the UK and Europe dates in November. Send your positive thoughts and energies Mimi’s way.

RIP Mimi :(

Friends, it’s hard to put the universe into language and into a short message, but

She passed away last night, surrounded by family and love, including yours. Keep her name close and sacred. Share this moment with someone who needs you. Love is indeed the most important thing.

— LOW (@lowtheband) November 6, 2022

so fucking sad, what a voice

holy shit, so awful. RIP

oh no, that's awful. Knew she was ill, but was hoping for good news.

*shakes head*

I've not the words.

fuck

RIP, this is really sad to hear.

No.

this is heartbreaking. it's pretty hard to put into words what her voice and presence meant. one of the greatest bands of all time full stop.

gutted

this is heartbreaking. it's pretty hard to put into words what her voice and presence meant. one of the greatest bands of all time full stop.

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, November 6, 2022 10:02 AM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

<3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdH3mTpjq-U

Holy shit

So awful, so young. Hard to think of another band that had kept it going with such perfect alchemy, pushing themselves to new heights, for as long as they have been. She was the core ingredient, just angelic in the music so often.

So glad I saw them at Big Ears. This hurts bad

god damn this is sad

so sad, one of my all time favourite singers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=069qtEqtDJc

this is fucked up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdH3mTpjq-U

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), 6. november 2022 17:13 (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

In Metal was the one I went to as well. This is hard.

Won’t ever forget when I saw them this past March and they played “2-Step,” and when she came in, it felt like life might be worth living— her voice had that kind of emotional heft and potency.

Absolutely devastated. RIP.

I will let these words stand for my feelings.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/to-memory-of-74305024

“Weight of Water” and “Laser Beam”

This is the kind of news that makes me never want to listen to music again. Or only listen to music.

Fuck. RIP. Really genuinely sad.

Once I was lost
To the point of disgust
I had in my sight
Lack of vision
Lack of light
I held hard
I held fast
Mercy me
Never last

Then in the dust
All the things
We discussed
Were thrown to the wind
So at last
We begin
So we fall hard
We fall fast
Mercy me
Never last

I felt so lonely and isolated during the lockdowns in 2020 but the band’s weekly IG Live concerts gave me something to look forward to when everything else seemed so bleak, a way to experience something beautiful together with other people. A salve at a time when I dearly needed it.

So sad. Really feel for Alan, their kids and all of us who gained so much from their music.

I would like to share a small gift. Here are my notes:

During summer 1995, Low toured America with the band the Glee Club, playing a show one evening at UC Irvine, where I was attending graduate school. They needed a place to crash that evening and I happily volunteered, having fallen in love with their music on an earlier date on campus in late 1994. The following day they performed live in studio on my campus radio show. The sound quality of this performance, copied from a source cassette onto a further cassette and then digitized by me a long while back at 320 mp3 quality, may not be the best, but I hope it suffices. Please note Al's between song comments are at a much lower volume than the musical performances. Watermarked promo photo from the era originally taken by Daniel Corrigan.

Mimi Parker's passing was announced today, November 6, 2022. I wanted to share this gift to all who might enjoy it. They were remarkable from that first album alone. There was so much more to come. May she rest well. May all the memories of her time here sharing her gifts be strong.

https://soundcloud.com/nedraggett/sets/low-live-on-neds-musical-dustbin-on-kuci-889-fm-july-1995

This is so sad. Just devastating.

Low is the greatest Minnesota band, but they can only be understood as a Duluth band. The North Shore of Lake Superior is such a powerful and beautiful place, if you've ever been there in late fall or winter you can't stare out at the vast, grey, forbidding lake and not feel the weight of geologic time and be in awe. Duluth in winter can feel like the last outpost at the end of the world. The band was part of that place and that place was a part of the band.

Also, they stayed. But not like Prince, holed up in Paisley Park, but -- unlike most Minnesota music legends save Grant Hart -- they were among us. They played so many small, local shows, benefits, etc. Alan was much more visible than Mimi, but I put that down to their personalities. But as legendary as they were, they felt like a part of *our scene*, not above it.

The last time I saw them was at the Square Lake Festival. It's a small festival, my friend puts it on at his father's farm northwest of the Twin Cities. The stage stands next to an old-fashioned windmill. It always been a close-knit, DIY festival, only a couple hundred people. But despite the fact they could have played much bigger venues for the Hey What release show, they chose to do it there.

It was a beautiful fall evening, just a touch of chill in the air. During the quiet parts, you could hear the breeze through the trees in the grove that surrounded the farmstead. Throughout the show, the sounds of geese honking as they flew south over the farm would drift in and out of the mix. It was one of the the greatest shows I ever saw, and the most perfect Low show - the band as part of the natural world, of Minnesota.

I envy you. But I appreciate that ultimately it was a show for those who were truly there, always.

<3 amazing post ums

bless you ums

thanks so much for that ums

omg

wow beautiful post, ums

Carrie Brownstein, from the Sleater-Kinney FB:

We are devastated to hear about the passing of Mimi Parker from @lowtheband. I first saw Low play in 1997, on September 26th, backstage at the Capitol Theater in Olympia, Wash. At midnight, I turned 23, right as they were playing my favorite song of theirs at the time, “Venus,” a 7” single I’d listened to on repeat for days on end. My friend turned to me and mouthed, “Happy Birthday.” It remains one of my favorite birthdays ever, and hearing Low play is one of the best gifts I’ve ever received, because like love it is a gift that has never left me. Earlier this year, Corin and I stood side stage at a festival in Minneapolis and watched Low perform, playing songs off their most recent album, which is among their best. We stood in awe of Mimi’s voice and her drumming, and the soft power of her presence. Afterwards, we caught up with her and Alan, laughing about the years in music we’ve all put in; we talked about aging, parenthood, and of course, effects pedals. You know, all the important stuff. We are grateful for every note Mimi sang and played, notes that changed our lives, and we’re thankful for Low’s music, which will eternally be singular, stunning , staggering. Sending love to Alan, their children, past and present bandmates, family, friends, and fans. We count ourselves among the latter. Forever.

Low covered "Dance Song '97" on the Dig Me Out tribute issued last month.

ums nails it, they felt 'of' us. my childhood home was less than a mile away from the square lake show ums mentions. so a special show imbued with even more meaning to me now. it was a little easy to take them for granted here given their ubiquity and approachability. a real mistake given how much regard and love they're getting today

thanks ums—

Beautiful post.

I don’t have the proximity, nor did I know them beyond promoting a couple of their shows in AZ circa 99/00. But I still feel a closeness to them that I don’t necessarily feel with others.

Unlike other long-loved bands it’s not simply a matter of saying that I grew up with them—I was 17 when I first heard them, I’m 45 now. But also, they grew up with me. As a fan I remember learning about the birth of Hollis—they put her on Songs for a Dead Pilot and sang about her on Things We Lost in the Fire. Knowing their kids are grown (but not grown enough to lose their mom), is a testament to how amazing Low were are inviting you into their intimacy. And also why this is so heartbreaking.

Low have a lot of songs about parenthood, and motherhood in particular. They were writing them well before they had kids and many are some of their most brutal songs. As I’ve grown in my own life those are some of the songs that have stuck with me the most. Their meaning has mutated as I’ve had my own kids and also watched from afar as Low built their own family.

I’ve also talked in this thread before about the way so much of C’mon hits me. If you take it as the aftermath of everything laid out in the “Murderer” documentary, then a lot of Mimi’s songs read like documents of loyalty and hope—lifelines to her husband when he was in a dark place. That album really sticks with me.

The real trick of Low—the thing that sets them apart from every other band who has tried to exist within the genre they helped to create—was that Alan and Mimi had a closeness that could not be replicated by others. Every mundane detail of their whole lives was imbued in their songs. All the unsaid experiences and feelings that lay under their words and music elevated their songs to a profound level. This was the magical ingredient, their lifelong love and shared moments going all the way back to their childhoods—that freed them from every aesthetic constraint they applied to their music. The beauty of low was not their pace or their volume but their beauty and their deep understanding of each other. It transcends everything.

RIP. I have no words right now. Totally gutted.

i knew when i saw all the posts but hoped i was wrong...

the worst news. devastated.

Such terrible news, I hadn't heard about her diagnosis. What a voice and a presence on stage. RIP.

Ah shit no. Thanks for your post UMS. What a band.

Such incredibly sad news, <3 to you all. I was never really a full-on fan, but I cherish the albums I cherish and admired the fearlessness of how they moved in whatever direction they wanted. The thing I always loved most about them was hearing their voices together—I'm listening to "Two Step" right now and it's devastating

I was talking with my husband about it— they really changed the direction of my life. I saw them on my 18th birthday when I was visiting the college I ended up going to, and I still remember just being absolutely blown away by their music. They were one of the reasons I made the decision I did re: school, if I’m being honest— I’d never heard anything like them before, and I figured if they were playing there, then a lot of other amazing music was coming through, too, probably.

So many memories: of listening to “Trust” on headphones while riding miles and miles through cornfields on my bicycle. Being depressed and high on painkillers and blasting “Curtain Hits the Cast” on repeat. Driving around on snowy days listening to all the rarities. Seeing them on this past tour in March and breaking into tears when they started “Two-Step.”

My favorite band, always.

Nothing to add to the great posts by ums and pgwp, Low have always been one of those rare bands who avoided the traditional descent into creative obsolescence. I saw them in the mid-90s supporting Come in London at a shitty rock dive venue, the more the audience talked over them the quieter they played, which was a victory of sorts. RIP Mimi and good thoughts to everyone who knew them and/or their music.

This is devastating news :(