Low's new album has a dance song. Once that would have been unimaginable for a trio that, over more than a decade and a half-dozen albums, has built cult adoration for its chilly exercises.
April 14, 2007 (Press Release) --
But longtime fans needn't worry that their favorite mopers have gone all Justin Timberlake. Even though Low's new album, ''Drums and Guns,'' features the occasional funky beat, it also has a preoccupation with violence and death that's more menacing than anything the band has done.
''All the soldiers, they're all gonna die. And all the little babies, they're all gonna die,'' Low's leader, Alan Sparhawk, sings in the album's leadoff track, ''Pretty People.'' Where past Low efforts were hushed and meditative, ''Drums and Guns'' is edgy and paranoid, with songs like ''Murderer'' and ''Violent Past'' accompanied by buzzing guitars, twitchy bass lines and ominous keyboards.
Only Low, long known for challenging the patience of the casual listener, would drastically remake its sound only to come up with a record that can be more off-putting than ever. But then defying convention comes easily to a band led by a married Mormon couple who have risen to indie-rock royalty from their unlikely home base in Duluth, at the tip of Lake Superior in northern Minnesota.
''It was kind of an exercise in shedding everything and seeing if it would still be us,'' Sparhawk said.
Amid all the mayhem and discord on the album, there's ''Hatchet'' -- a bouncy ditty with lighthearted (for Low) lyrics comparing a fractured romantic relationship to the late-'60s rivalry between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
''We had this song that we'd tried a few different ways,'' Sparhawk said. ''It just felt like such a happy, funky song and the more we went in that direction, the more it seemed to come alive. We just thought, let's go all the way with this and see if we can get away with it.''
Low earned its rock cred in the mid-'90s as a trailblazer of what was dubbed ''slowcore,'' a subgenre of bands like Codeine and Mazzy Star that turned down the amps to play sad, dreamy music. Early in Low's career, audiences would sit cross-legged on nightclub floors during their shows, concentrating intently on the music.
Low's members hated the slowcore label, and over the years transcended it as they built critical regard and a small but influential following.
''They're known for conjuring up somber moods, but that to me has always been subordinate to the fact that they're just phenomenal singers and songwriters,'' said Jonathan Poneman, founder and president of the legendary Seattle-based indie label Sub Pop, which signed Low in 2004.
Another fan is Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke, who gave Low the opening slot on a 2003 European tour. The group reached perhaps its widest American audience in 2000 when the Gap featured Low's hymn-like recording of ''The Little Drummer Boy'' in a Christmas TV
''All the soldiers, they're all gonna die. And all the little babies, they're all gonna die,'' Low's leader, Alan Sparhawk, sings in the album's leadoff track, ''Pretty People.'' Where past Low efforts were hushed and meditative, ''Drums and Guns'' is edgy and paranoid, with songs like ''Murderer'' and ''Violent Past'' accompanied by buzzing guitars, twitchy bass lines and ominous keyboards.
Only Low, long known for challenging the patience of the casual listener, would drastically remake its sound only to come up with a record that can be more off-putting than ever. But then defying convention comes easily to a band led by a married Mormon couple who have risen to indie-rock royalty from their unlikely home base in Duluth, at the tip of Lake Superior in northern Minnesota.
''It was kind of an exercise in shedding everything and seeing if it would still be us,'' Sparhawk said.
Amid all the mayhem and discord on the album, there's ''Hatchet'' -- a bouncy ditty with lighthearted (for Low) lyrics comparing a fractured romantic relationship to the late-'60s rivalry between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
''We had this song that we'd tried a few different ways,'' Sparhawk said. ''It just felt like such a happy, funky song and the more we went in that direction, the more it seemed to come alive. We just thought, let's go all the way with this and see if we can get away with it.''
Low earned its rock cred in the mid-'90s as a trailblazer of what was dubbed ''slowcore,'' a subgenre of bands like Codeine and Mazzy Star that turned down the amps to play sad, dreamy music. Early in Low's career, audiences would sit cross-legged on nightclub floors during their shows, concentrating intently on the music.
Low's members hated the slowcore label, and over the years transcended it as they built critical regard and a small but influential following.
''They're known for conjuring up somber moods, but that to me has always been subordinate to the fact that they're just phenomenal singers and songwriters,'' said Jonathan Poneman, founder and president of the legendary Seattle-based indie label Sub Pop, which signed Low in 2004.
Another fan is Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke, who gave Low the opening slot on a 2003 European tour. The group reached perhaps its widest American audience in 2000 when the Gap featured Low's hymn-like recording of ''The Little Drummer Boy'' in a Christmas TV
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