Low: Classic or classic?

what DO you do in his place? I fully support his decision to continue making music (and involving Cyrus) but Low is over, he said so himself, and finding another style that pleases the former fans isn't going to be easy any time - (I shudder to think of the alternatives: continuing Low with another female singer? Hologram Mimi?)

dude looks like thom yorke now & the band sounds like radiohead

I don't think it's weird, it was always the two of them. I mostly care out of goodwill for Alan, and out of curiosity about the music that comes out of this.

There is a lot of goodwill and I hope he can make it work for his family. I was however always much more into Mimi's voice.

I'm definitely curious to hear what he does next. if only because Retribution Gospel Choir was a fantastic and criminally underappreciate band and that was without Mimi.

I feel the world for him— I mean, my life has been utterly altered by cancer and death and pain in my family. So, I extend my love and support to him— I just don’t really want to listen to the music he makes, it simply makes me want to listen to Low

Yeah, cosign. There's more than enough beauty and pain in Low to keep me enthralled, I don't need to hear anything new from him.

I get it. I just consider it a testament to Low being one of the truly great, truly special bands of our times. I can't be duplicated or bettered. but I'll still keep up with him.

I think he’s had enough of a track record of making music outside of Low, and it has been varied, that I’m eager to hear whatever he releases next. And I don’t have any expectation that he’s going to make something that is supposed to be a, uh, new low.

I’m very at peace that Low’s catalogue is now complete. It’s a beautiful discography to behold.

Let's see... Their last few albums are some of the best reviewed and experimental of their career, and his side projects span a wide range of styles and sounds. Yeah, I can't see why anyone would be interested in what comes next. Ho hum.

idk why anyone would not want to hear what alan might put out at this point. absolutely no way he isn't capable of putting out his own "tonight's the night"

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