Low
Low – “What Part of Me” and “No Comprende” live on the Current
Low perform “What Part of Me” and “No Comprende” during the band’s Sept. 18 session in the studios of 89.3 the Current. Click here to listen to the full session.
First Listen: Low’s Ones and Sixes
The new album by Duluth band Low is available to stream above, via NPR’s First Listen. CDs, LPs and mp3s will be in stores on Sept. 11.
Low – “What Part of Me”
Ones and Sixes, the new album by Duluth band Low, is scheduled for worldwide release on Sept. 11.
Low song “No Comprende” from upcoming album Ones and Sixes
Ones and Sixes, the new album by Duluth band Low, is scheduled for worldwide release on Sept. 11.
Stereogum previews the album:
A Low Profile: Alan Sparhawk & Mimi Parker on their new album Ones And Sixes (more…)
January 2005 in Review
- Low releases The Great Destroyer. (Video by Starfire.)
- The Twin Ports Music and Arts Collective closes.
- Nutty Meg’s closes.
- Eric Ringsred and his son Miles plan to open a drinking establishment called the Cider House at the old Snyder’s Superstop. (It never happens, and instead Dubh Linn Irish Pub opens there in 2006.)
- The Red Star Lounge is under construction at the Fitger’s Brewery Complex.
- Mike Neal opens Splash Beach Club in the former Western Tavern. It briefly serves as Duluth’s only alcohol-free weekend dance club.
- Management of the NorShor Theatre transfers from Chip Stewart and Craig Samborski to J.P. Rennquist.
Video Archive: Low – “Fear”
Ten years ago Starfire posted this video he made for the Low song “Fear,” from the 1994 album I Could Live in Hope. The video was produced as part of the Crash Ballet Contest put on by Coudal Partners, a design, advertising and interactive studio in Chicago. Participants were asked to edit original NASA footage to music. Starfire’s video was named a runner up in the contest.
Robert Plant and Mike Simonson
Hey Duluth. It’s been awhile.
Two radio-related things happened today I heard here in Madison and thought you might be interested in.
1) Robert Plant gave a nod to Duluth’s own Low in a CBC interview on their show Q (it’s towards the end).
2) WPR announced the death of Mike Simonson, a journalist for whom I have the utmost respect and enjoyed hearing on the statewide news whenever his stories showed up. He cared about reporting what needed to be reported and unpacking the news in a very authentic way. Looks like Final Edition has had its final edition. He’ll be greatly missed.
Set lists for Low @ Brewhouse
While I’d be very happy to get to the Brewhouse every Thursday for Low’s play-it-all sessions, I just can’t do it … but it would be great to know what they played so far. Any fans out there who happened to record the set list from 1.16.14? If you’d care to share it (maybe even each week?), I’d guess that there is more than one fan in PDD-Land who would appreciate your effort. Thanks!
Manheat Eats Low Breaker
Rough video from the Duluth Does Low concert — Dec. 12, 2013.
Merry Christmas.
Low covers Rihanna’s “Stay”
iTunes proceeds go to Rock for Kids.
USA Today Gets ‘Low’
The new Low documentary got a mention in USA Today‘s pop culture blog “Pop Candy” yesterday, written by uber-cool pop junkie Whitney Matheson.
‘Low Movie’: Indie band gets its own doc
Here’s the writeup:
Despite having been together for 20 years, the band Low has managed to remain pretty under the radar. This year the lo-fi Sub Pop artists are being celebrated in a documentary that looks as good as it sounds.
Low Movie (How to Quit Smoking) is directed by Phil Harder, who has been documenting the band for the last two decades with a 16mm camera. His film includes lots of never-before-seen footage from the band.
I admire Harder’s dedication to getting a good shot – which sometimes means persuading the band to get on frozen Lake Superior when there’s a 30-below wind chill.
Low’s latest record, The Invisible Way, was released earlier this year. Last week Pitchfork debuted a compelling performance video for the song “Clarence White.”
Low Movie screens July 29 in New York’s Film Society of Lincoln Center before showing in more than 20 cities, including San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles and Portland, Ore. For screening info and more, head to the official site.
Video Archive: Low video “Over the Ocean” premiere on MTV from 1996
MTV’s Matt Pinfield introduces the premiere of Low’s “Over the Ocean” video during the program 120 Minutes. The video was directed by Philip Harder; the song is from Low’s album The Curtain Hits the Cast.
Dispatches from the Low/Radiohead tour, Green Man, skinny dipping and other happenings from July 2003
July 2003 is the first complete month of archived posts on Perfect Duluth Day. It was a time when Facebook didn’t exist and the word “blog” was still a year away from being named Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year.
PDD was a pretty different thing back then, both in appearance and attitude. Founders Barrett Chase and Scott “Starfire” Lunt used the Blogger publishing platform initially (until August 2004). If you look at the archive, it’s getting sloppier all the time as many of the images that were hosted on other sites aren’t there anymore and most of the links are dead.
Blogger didn’t support commenting in those days, so Barrett and Scott found some other thing to use, but the company behind it went out of business years ago, so all the comments from the posts on Blogger are long lost.
Since it was pre-Facebook, and was started among a group of friends, PDD initially was used a bit like Facebook, with a lot of inane daily updates — many of which stand the test of time and are cool to revisit, while others … not so much.
So what were the major happenings ten years ago as far as PDD was concerned?
- Starfire was a rock-and-roll nanny in Europe, traveling with Low and Radiohead (photos above).
- The second annual Green Man Festival was held at Spirit Mountain, featuring a giant gob of bands — the Big Wu, Wookiefoot, Shannon Wright, Heiruspecs, the Black-eyed Snakes, Ol’ Yeller, Pleasure Pause, Mark Mallman, White Iron Band, Cry on Cue, Spider John Koerner, Sweet Potato, Charlie Parr, Haley Bonar and so on.
- PDD achieved the number-one ranking on Google for the search term “skinny dipping pics.” Quoth Starfire: “I can’t tell you how proud I am of all of you.”
Low drones the Garden
So, as many of you have probably heard, Low played the “Rock the Garden” show at the Walker Art Gallery on Saturday and caused a bit of a ruckus by playing just one 27-minute song.
Now MPR asks, “What do artists owe you?”
Low – “Just Make it Stop”
Video by Phil Harder.
Spring and plants and snails will come. Just wait.
Low at 20
In yesterday’s story in the DNT, Alan Sparhawk, sound engineer Eric Swanson, musicians Marc Gartman, Amy Abts and Tony Bennett, and Low’s former nanny Scott “Starfire” Lunt all weigh in on the band’s 20 years of music.
It’s a great conversation and it’s one I think is worth continuing here as Low commemorates its second decade in the business and its 10th studio album, which hits the shelves on Tuesday.
What are your favorite Low memories, whether you know the band or you’re just a fan of their music?
Low Deconstructed
Duluth band Low is featured in the lead article at stereogum.com.
Deconstructing: Yo La Tengo, Low and the Creative Potential of Domestic Bliss
Low — The Invisible Way album trailer
There’s a new Low album coming out on March 19. It’s not titled Exceptional Peaches, and it’s hard to know how they resisted that urge and went with The Invisible Way, but that’s really no matter.
(more…)
Low’s 2005 performance of “California” on Last Call with Carson Daly
This video was posted on PDD back in 2005 as a QuickTime Movie, but now it has been converted for YouTube, so here it is again. And here’s a link to Chris Godsey’s coverage of it all on mnartists.org.
