Low

This is a photo I took of Daniel Lismore:


This is where I'm DJing on Thursday:

and also Friday, which is going to be amazing:

Right now I'm listening to Low (the band, not the David Bowie album, though I do love Bowie).

About Low, and why I love them: Low are a band from Duluth, Minnesota, that formed in 1993 and consist of Alan Sparhawk on guitar and vocals, Mimi Parker (his wife) playing drums and also providing vocals, and (currently) Steve Garrington on the bass guitar. Their music is often labelled under the 'slowcore' sub-genre of rock, which is characterised by sparse and minimal arrangements and slow tempos, though the band generally show disdain for this term, and not all of their songs adhere to this style. What draws me to Low the most is the way Alan and Mimi conjure the most striking and powerful imagery from meticulously crafted but very simple and short lyrics, and this, coupled with their gorgeous vocal harmonies, creates some of the most beautiful and haunting music I have ever heard. It's been around six years since I discovered Low, and I still listen to them almost every single day. Unfortunately they're probably most famous for their cover of Little Drummer Boy which was used for a Gap Christmas commercial. They do seem to like Christmas though:


My favourite Low songs (click the song titles to listen):

Dinosaur Act
(all through the dust/you feel you must hear the strings of a dove/but it's a dinosaur act)

Closer
(hold me closer than that)

Starfire
(let's take a ride/starfire tonight/ten thousand miles away)

Immune
(does it taste like home/only when your eyes are closed)

Soon
(soon it will be over/I laughed under my breath over your shoulder)

In The Drugs
(breaking like dolls/singing like birds/we always get what we deserve)

Over The Ocean
(if I belong/then I'll be longer than expected)

La La La Song
(sometimes I could choke myself with laughter/sometimes everything's so true)

Two Step
(the light it burns your skin/in a language you don't understand)

Sunflower
(with your half of the ransom/you bought some sweet sunflowers/and gave them to the night)

They have released eight studio albums thus far, with a new one supposedly coming this year. Their best album, in my opinion, is Things We Lost In The Fire, followed by Secret Name. The Great Destroyer is interesting in that it's a big departure from their signature sound, and quite a noisy album, but it's probably their weakest, although it has some great songs on it. Their most recent album, Drums and Guns, was partially inspired by the war in Iraq, and featured quite a claustrophobic and tense sound with more electronic aesthetic influences.