I’m a lazy blogger today… I spent the weekend in grungy, hot-tub laden self-exile from the world. Even took a sick day yesterday to continue the binge of out-of-touchness. Thanks to my buddy Palmer, I didn’t miss the good interview/story about Low in Sunday’s Star Tribune (Low’s All Time High, by Chris Riemenschneider)
It’s a pretty good piece, showing a knowledgeable, trust-inspiring interviewer who took some time. Thank God we already have our tickets to Saturday’s show, if it’s not sold out now, it will be soon. But, yeah… I’m lazy. The most I can do is excerpt the interview and throw in some bolding. Knock yourself out.
Parker’s brand of sluggish, brush-hit drum rhythms and Sparhawk’s soft electric-guitar chords — branded “slowcore” early on by critics — had become a trademark they couldn’t shake. They started to pull away from the sound on their powerful 2001 album, “Things We Lost in the Fire,” but critics continued to insert that word into reviews.
“I don’t even know what slowcore means,” Sally said with a laugh.
“In the early days, it was incredibly tense and interesting playing so minimalistically. It really was something innovative and exciting, I thought. But eventually we started moving away from that toward simply challenging ourselves to be as good a band as possible.”
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“Tonight the monkey dies,” Sparhawk and Parker sing forebodingly over flared-up guitars and tribal rhythms on the album’s opening song. While he’s elusive about other songs’ subject matter, Sparhawk makes no bones about “Monkey.”“There were things this band had to get out from under, like a monkey on the back,” he said.
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Sparhawk is quick to insist that these sonic leaps were not preconceived or reactionary. The singer-guitarist, who usually does the initial work on songs before turning them into a group effort, started showing his affinity for louder guitar rock a few years ago with his blues-punk side band, the Black Eyed Snakes. Sally, too, often gets his rocks off playing with local group Kid Dakota.Even Parker — who’s typically stoic and pacific compared with her bandmates — got drawn into the louder, stormier sound.
“It never felt forced, or anything but natural,” she said. “We’d be working on the songs and sort of looking at each other like, ‘Where did that come from?’ ”
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Poneman said he believes that Low’s past few albums have sold “remarkably well” on the small, Chicago-based indie label Kranky and through a European deal with Rough Trade Records (which is still in place). He said, “I think we can push them a little farther.”Sub Pop’s involvement already helped land two raves for the album in Rolling Stone and Spin magazines. It also helped pay for a pair of music videos and maybe a few more (Sparhawk wants one for every song).
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Both raised near a small town in northwestern Minnesota, Clearbrook, the couple has never led a decadent rock life. They are Mormons — a fact that usually draws a gasp when mentioned in a punk bar — and they have always avoided performing on Sundays, as well as consuming alcohol and drugs. Like other well-known indie-rock couples (Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo), they stay well-grounded and all-out normal despite the weirdness of their band.
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In addition to the Black Eyed Snakes, which just finished a third album, Sparhawk is involved with his own record label, Chairkickers Union, which has released albums by Minnesota buzz acts such as Kid Dakota and Haley Bonar. Sally is starting a publishing company for comic-book-type artists, with its first book coming soon by ‘zine favorite John Porcellino.
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