Tag Archives: Sub Pop

Low will release Jeff Tweedy-produced record in 2013

Here’s the album trailer for The Invisible Way:
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Via Sub Pop:

Sub Pop Records is excited to announce that Duluth, MN, trio Low are releasing their 10th record, The Invisible Way, on March 19, 2013 (the 18th in the UK). The record was produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, engineered by Tom Schick and recorded in Wilco’s studio in Chicago, IL, during the fall of 2012. Coincidentally, the release marks Low’s 20th anniversary as a band.

“While driving through Chicago on tour, we finally stopped to visit Wilco at their studio, The Loft,” says guitarist/vocalist Alan Sparhawk. “They had invited us to come check it out several times over the years, but this would finally be the day… What really converted us was hearing the new Mavis Staples tracks they were working on – big, simple, raw and intimate. Plans were made then and there.”

The Invisible Way finds Low’s majestic melancholy in full bloom yet distinguishes itself with its starker, unadorned soundscapes, layered harmonies and drummer/vocalist extraordinaire Mimi Parker singing lead on five of the 11 songs. The album tackles large issues (“the songs are about intimacy, the drug war, the class war, plain old war war, archaeology and love,” says Sparhawk) in a manner that plays a stunning counterpoint to the sublime hush of the music.

MP3: Shearwater – “Breaking the Yearlings”

When I spoke to Shearwater‘s Jonathan Meiburg last fall, he already had a title and vibe in mind for the follow-up to the Palo SantoRookGolden Archipelago triptych. Meiburg explained it this way:

I’m gonna try to make the next one pretty different from these last three. I think I want it to be a lot more ecstatic and emotionally immediate. Less of the green floating head and more of the man-behind-the-curtain thing. I have a tendency to write songs that seem a little bit disembodied, or where my voice is kind of disembodied, and I wanna have a body on this next record. I feel like I’ve gone about as far as I wanna go in that direction. I wanna make something that’s earthier and tougher.

On “Breaking the Yearlings,” from the forthcoming Animal Joy (Shearwater’s first for Sub Pop), the band stuck to that vision. Meiburg will always have somewhat of a floating quality to his voice, but he’s more visceral here, and the band sounds more like a rock band than an eerie symphony in the clouds. (The album press release even makes it clear that “No strings or glockenspiels were touched during the making of this album”). For those who prefer Shearwater’s more propulsive tunes (“Rooks,” “Black Eyes”), you’re gonna love this. I like both sides of Meiburg, and I’ve had this on repeat today.

Animal Joy comes out Feb. 14, the same day Shearwater and Sharon Van Etten play the Wexner Center. Bring yer sweetheart.