Low - "Drums and Guns" (album title updated)

Hadn't heard about this (i.e. the new album) before, thanks for the heads up!

! i wonder...

Why do I find this line funny? Is it the dark humour? Is it because he's making casual suppositions about his own music? "Near as I can tell ...", you wrote it Alan, well what do YOU think it's about? :)

Considering how much I loved the last seven, I do as well.

'dragonfly' missed the cut for 'the great destroyer', so it'd be a surprise if it wasnt on this one, which is good, because its excellent, as is 'violent past'.

really looking forward to it. shame the london show came and sold out without anyone knowing about it.

'violent past' is my favourite of the new songs, I guess, although it's not as good as murderer.

We have recently finished a new full-length recording that will likely be released in March on Sub Pop Records. We tracked and mixed it with producer Dave Fridmann. It's called Drums and Guns.

too bad they fucked up and changed it

She should only use it every few bars, but it should be there.

which is no bad thing, of course.

"pissing" just gets better and better. musically, it's like a sequel to "john prine".

so yes, i'm beginning to be excited about this.

"Violent Past" still rules, though.

this is, of course, a product of hearing the material on stage for a few years beforehand and falling in love with that, so is more hindsight rather than a serious fault with the record.

still makes for a bit of a disappointing listen.

"It sounds very different," the singer/guitarist said of the band's eighth studio album. "We're using samples in a loose way. Many of the song structures are based on a recurring, raw sound. The technique is closer to the way early hip-hop records were put together than the way we've made albums in the past.

"The best hip-hop artists take a self-effacing, yet self-aggrandising tone. They acknowledge that they're speaking to someone. Indie rock sometimes forgets that. This album feels more like I'm speaking to someone," Sparhawk said.

"We're always trying to make something unique and listen to different things," he said. "Lately we've been listening to a lot of reggae and dub, which has had an influence on this album. So has hanging out with local hip-hop bands. It's opened my eyes to new things."

Sparhawk said that the main theme of 'Drums And Guns' is "murder and the justification of it. But it's not just a bunch of murder ballads - it grapples with questions and tries to find some answers".

And melodically: gorgeous.

if this is the final mix, it'll be a bit annoying for headphone listening, and i'm not really sure there's anything gained from it. but it's not a huge issue.

I'm intrigued to see how the album stands up by the end of the year. Right now I can't believe I've never fallen for them before.

If we were to have a bona fide intergalactic Battle Of The Bands, Low should represent our dear Earth, I think.

Listening to Drums & Guns a lot. Pretty People doesn't do much for me (at least it's the opening track so easy to skip) but the sequence running Belarus - Breaker - Dragonfly - Sandinista - Always Fade is brillant. They've got a healthy undercurrent of the menacing, machinery sounds Eno used in some of his Another Green World tracks. I'm sure there more recent reference points but that's what I hear. Anyway, it works really well with the otherworldly vocals.

"Maybe you're right"

Something went wrong and they didn't come to the venue here they were supposed to. I don't think they came here at all.

We saw them play a free show in a pizza place in Duluth last week. They were pretty great - didn't play all that much from Drums and Guns though, I think just Dragonfly/Belarus/Murderer/Violent Past.

vvv nice session tracks here:

http://www.daytrotter.com/article/910/free-songs-low

blazingly good stuff there, especially Sandinista - thanks for the heads up StanM!

thanks Stan, those are fantastic.

Yes, those are amazing, "Sandinista", sure, but "Violent Past" even more so.

http://scheduletwo.com/video/low

Live videos of Low from scheduletwo.com Filmed at the Drums & Guns record release show in Minneapolis.

Includes:

Dragonfly
Point of Disgust
Pissing
Murderer
Last Snowstorm of the Year
Dinosaur Act

ooooooh, thanks!

They really are unable to suck live, aren't they?

I heard they were pretty shit in Dublin. Although that may have just been to make me feel better about not being able to go.

they've never been less than fantastic when i've seen them, i have to say (including 5 times in 06-07, i guess).

Finally getting around to a listen here. (Yeah yeah, I know.) I'm surprised people aren't talking about "Hatchet" more -- is it the most unstereotypical Low song ever? Sure feels like it!

Hatchet is my 2d favorite song on the disc (just behind Murderer). It's like a surprisingly loose update of Bela Lagosi's Dead.

This album is more or less dead to me now with the exception of "Violent Past", and occasionally "Murderer".

I still wish "Breaker" was in both my headphones :(

I still wish "Breaker" was in both my headphones :(

I used to feel the same way, but I've come around. I like the way the vocal slice-in from one side of your head.

I hate "Hatchet" so much that I deleted it from the directory. I can't handle the baby boomer vibe to it, if that makes any sense.

I like Belarus, Always Fade, Murderer still, but this album did get tired fast.

tired fast??

PFFT

ALBUM OF THE YEAR (for me, probably)

I can see someone saying that. It's a bleak, relentless disc (except for Hatchet, actually), which for some people won't invite repeat listens. But, hey, it's the band's muse, and it's a really artful, compelling, intense album. I respect the fact that Low seems to care about the integrity of their work, not just its commercial prospects. They released what I thought was their most commercial work ever in 2005, but instead of continuing down that path with their follow-up, they release Drums and Guns, which doesn't at all seem designed to get radio play or mainstream acceptance.

Sorry, first sentence should read "I can see someone saying that Drums and Guns got tired fast."

last time i listened, i loved it; haven't done so in a while. i'm doing a lot of travelling about right now ... i'll try to cue it up tomorrow.

Funny, I just listened to this a couple of days ago after sort of forgetting about it for a while. Something I noticed (which echoes Daniel, Esq's point re: integrity) is how -- unlike so many full-lengths these days -- Drums And Guns isn't at all front-loaded. It finishes incredibly strongly, with two of its best songs ("Murderer" and "Violent Past") rounding out the album sublimely. The overall sequencing is quite exceptional, in fact, with a three-song swell early on ("Belarus", "Breaker", "Dragonfly") a relative lightening of mood and (arguably) quality ("Hatchet"*) before the sublime finish I already mentioned.

*I think I'm undecided on this song, but I do wish they'd replaced the album version with this one.

Weird, I don't even like the word "sublime" and yet I used it twice just then.

Transcendent gig in Austin TX last night, highlights too many to count. Setlist in rough order:

In the Flesh? (Pink Floyd cover)
Cue the Strings
Sandanista
In Silence
Take Your Time
Dragonfly
July
Hatchet
Pissing
Point of Disgust
Belarus
Violent Past
Silver Rider
Murderer
Breaker
------
In the Drugs
Over the Ocean
When I Go Deaf

* Sandinista

gah i wish they'd done 'over the ocean' in SF last week. it was an excellent show though, better than the last two times i'd seen them. liked the organ stuff that the bass player played.

Point of Disgust

!!!!!

damn, i would love to hear them do that one live. how did they do it: with a piano/keyboard, or re-cast for guitar?

Matt Livingston on some sort of keyboard (not facing the audience, so couldn't tell what sort) and Mimi on vocals, and Alan harmonizing as the song built up. incredible.

wow.

Is it common for Low to start shows with a 20+ minute version of 'Do You Know How to Waltz"? First time to see them live, despite having been into most of their music since 1996 or so. They seemed to be playing awfully angrily--which was impressive, just not exactly what I'd imagined.

No, it isn't :-( They've played it a few times this year, but not at any of the shows I've been to. I'd love to see them play it...

I've still got it in my CD pile, right here.

From way upthread:

Unearthed this little treat for fans yesterday too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhJAR6UZsCk

Which I only am now watching/listening to. ARGH SO GOOD. Thank you.

this is the low album for me, so good.

I still haven't heard this one, not sure why.

yeah, i just got around to it today.

Best album of 2007.

One of, yes. And sadly underappreciated in Year End polls.

maybe this one can do it some justice....i i had it at number 6 for the year...im pretty sure...5 or 6

i don't think this is a bad album, but coming after trust and destroyer, both of which i adore, it was a bit of an unpleasant surprise. it certainly stands on its own, but expectations are always the kicker.

having said that, it's probably #5 of all their records for me, the other two being long division and curtain. to this day i find it hard to get so interested in the period from dead pilot to lost in the fire, even though i like all the singles..

Has anyone heard that Gospel Retribution Band thing that Alan Parker does? Apparently the new album has a re-done version of "Breaker" on it (which I love, but I hate that one-side-of-the-stereo-vocals thing with a mad passion).

Yeah, that Breaker version is online here: http://www.caldoverderecords.com/

still cant completely get behind this record. the ditching of the 'low sound' and experimentation is very welcome and an interesting way forward. but i still think that some of the material suffered a lot by being on this record.

its good that 'belarus', 'murderer' + 'dragonfly' were left off their respective records and recorded definitively for this lp, but tracks like 'breaker' and 'sandanista' were definitely denied the gravity and 'low sound' that they really deserved to do them justice.

the RGC version of breaker is getting there, but still missing something from the sheets of sensory overload that low delivered live.

a good live EP/LP would go a way to fixing this.

Great 54 minute documentary (with Dutch subtitles), on Dutch VPRO TV a couple of weekends ago:

http://sites.nps.nl/jerome/templates/uurvandewolf/welcome.html
(click "LOW: bekijk de uitzending")

Guys, I apologize for bumping this again, but this documentary is really really really recommended. I know it's long and subtitled, but check it out anyway.

it is really good, certainly a good companion to 'low in europe' and the one on the boxset dvd. its nice that alan seems relatively okay these days.

ooh nice! i'll be watching this soon.

excellent documentary, many thanks for the pointer.

Just discovered it's out on DVD too, by the way.

This album is fucking STUNNING on headphones.

^^^^ This. Low is still very underrated. They should get some attention in those forthcoming "Best of the Decade" lists focusing on indie-rock albums.

(i.e., those of the forthcoming "Best of Decade" lists that focus on indie-rock).

Key word, "should," unfortunately. xpost

is Low underrated? They're much bigger these days than I ever expected them to be. They opened for RAdiohead in NYC!

So, I know it's sacrilege, but I stopped listening to Low after TGD because I despised the rockiness of that record. Now I'm listening to D&G for the first time, on headphones, and I am SO ANGRY at myself for abandoning this band for a few years.

D&G is still one of my favorites (like out of anything ever).

and listening to the new one made me realize how great C'mon is too.

i saw them a couple of days ago in front of a retty small audience - i was about 3 meters from allan - in frankfurt. the concert was so and so. the new record does not touch me like c'mon did. but actually the main problem wasn't even the new album. they didn't play a lot of it. somehow there wasn't this awesome spiritual almost holy atmosphere this time. it was just a normal rock concert. i bought d&g at the end and i was really disappointed by that album. lots of superfluous songs like belarus and sandinista. i am really angry with myself. after all these years i still listen to critics praising records before listening to them myself. after 50 bloody years!

pretty, alan

lots of superfluous songs like belarus and sandinista

!

what does rockiness mean in relation to the great destroyer, cookie chef? just listening to silver rider, def. one of their ultimate songs.

AIM, rockiness because, compared to Trust (which is, imo, their must consistently underrated album) and TWLITF, there is much more distorted guitar and traditional "rock" song structure. comparing "(that's how you sing) amazing grace" to "silver rider" is difficult for me, because while i like both, i appreciate the former so much more than the latter because it inhabits a sound that is a bit more unique. i first got into Low because of the comparative sparseness of their sound, and with TGD, that sparseness was put to the way side in terms of production. anyway, maybe that's just me, but i just find the production of much of TGD to be too full, too "un"-Low for me, even when i'm comparing it to D&G and the new one.

oddly enough Trust, TGD and Drums & Guns are my three favorite Low albums

so, Drums And Guns walked so Double Negative (and arguably Ones and Sixes) could run, right?

really enjoying all the low-went-weird praise when this was clearly the first marker. "murderer" into "violent past" is all time.

oddly enough Trust, TGD and Drums & Guns are my three favorite Low albums

― da croupier, Wednesday, May 22, 2013 11:40 AM (five years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

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