The playing was all good, yet the set felt like watching a workshop.
I'm guessing that he's literally workshopping material, before recording. Always hard to do if playing it live is part of your process, when people are coming out and paying for it (although playing bigger shows under his name instead of local gigs with Derecho does suggest that he's either more confident in it or could use the money?). And even harder when making a new body of work, as opposed to a band that can sneak in a few new tunes.
― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Friday, 5 April 2024 14:14 (one month ago) link
fwiw the audience was very supportive and receptive, though in my experience it's hard to get anyone to turn on an artist they love (let alone one who was recently dealt a tragedy). Not that anyone should have booed or anything, but after a few meandering or tentative genre explorations Sparhawk half-jokingly opened the floor to questions, and some dude yelled "yeah, how did you get so good!?!" And I thought, woah, slow down there, brown-noser. (Sparhawk's answer was, essentially, "practice.")
I think I would have preferred just a night of funk jams, tbh. They seemed to be having a lot of fun with that.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 5 April 2024 14:26 (one month ago) link
solo album from alan coming
Low’s Alan Sparhawk will release a solo album—titled White Roses, My God—under his own name this fall, according to a new interview ↓ https://t.co/D0rYOzbl5Q— Pitchfork (@pitchfork) April 11, 2024
― global tetrahedron, Thursday, 11 April 2024 16:24 (one month ago) link
he has so many side projects locally it's hard to keep up. i'm not in mpls anymore but off the top of my head he's got derecho, retribution gospel choir, black eyed snakes, various neil young tributes, a ween cover band, and 2-3 i am forgetting atm. and sometimes he bills derecho as 'derecho rhythm section', not sure how/if that's different
sad i never caught him in NY mode before i moved
― global tetrahedron, Thursday, 11 April 2024 16:28 (one month ago) link
i also honestly admire that he also is a bigtime homer for and producer for local bands i'm too much of an asshole for. mpls heads will know who i'm talking about
anyway it's just cool that he's such a man about town. i've maybe posted this before but the last low show i saw was in a small forested grove exactly half a mile from my childhood home. pretty special experience, been listening to low since i was a teen stealing CDs from my big brother and i hadn't made it out to that area in a long time
― global tetrahedron, Thursday, 11 April 2024 16:32 (one month ago) link
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/alan-sparhawk-the-heart-of-low the full interview referenced in the Pitchfork news item
― fpsa, Thursday, 11 April 2024 17:16 (one month ago) link
That's great. Funny that Bruce Adams is reduced to "music writer," but I guess it would be harder (or take a few more words) to describe the more important role he played. Though the article does bring up Sub Pop, so I dunno.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 11 April 2024 17:30 (one month ago) link
god, the detail of teenage Alan playing "Heart of Gold" and then Mimi joining in without asking broke me
― Murgatroid, Thursday, 11 April 2024 18:38 (one month ago) link
i'm very heavily anticipating this album but i also don't know if i'm emotionally ready for it
― ufo, Friday, 12 April 2024 11:17 (one month ago) link
their facebook got hacked and is currently posting ai generated garbage about cats
― ufo, Sunday, 5 May 2024 04:33 (three weeks ago) link