ARTIST: The Low Lows
TITLE: Fire On The Bright Sky
LABEL: Warm Electronics Recordings
GENRE: Indie
BITRATE: 208kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 48m total
RELEASE DATE: 2006-09-12
RIP DATE: 2006-08-01
Track List
----------
1. Dear Flies, Love Spider 5:27
2. White Liner 5:29
3. Velvet 4:37
4. St. Neil 4:10
5. Wolves Eat Dogs 5:47
6. Lane Fire 3:45
7. Poor Georgia 5:29
8. (No Such Thing As) Sara Jane 5:20
9. Aquanaut 4:05
10. The Russian Ending 4:27
Release Notes:
It's been a year since the resignation of Lily Wolfe closed the books on NYC
dream-pop quartet Parker & Lily, and six months since the reconfiguration of the
remaining members into an Athens Ga trio named (after Parker & LilyÆs third and
final album) The Low Lows. The sonic safety net (and soundtrack atmosphere)
provided by Lily's bass and keyboards having been eliminated, what remains, in
the new band, are sparse, melodic, country Palace-isms on the one hand, & on the
other an evocation of the sweepingly noisy, anthemic styles of My Morning Jacket
& Galaxie 500.
Singer & guitarist P.L. Noon's voice - formerly a sort of crooning mumble û has
evolved radically over the past year into a high wail ("...epically
mournful...")* evocative of Neil Young or Jim James. His lyrics tell troubled
stories obscurely ("Biting turns of phrase... Noon has shaved his observations
into lyrics so concise, they reach haiku-like proportions of succinctness...
")** with an exacting, reductive prose style ("A precise, poetic minimalism that
says little and suggests everything, painting a radiant and desperate,
slow-rolling panorama of unflinching extremes...")***.
Meanwhile, the fractured and fragmented drumming of Jeremy Wheatley & the
distorted farfisa and sad baritone vocal harmonies of Daniel Rickard make The
Low Lows' debut album a study in extremes. Stark southern sweetness gives way
unexpectedly to great storms of guitar noise, bright walls of country narcosis
crumble into climactic, stomping feedback and distortion. Pure melodic
love-songs abound, made all the sweeter by virtue of being hemmed in by such a
stormy darkness ("àsweltering sorrow... a triumph of concentrated
mourning")****. The implicit tension, not to say violence, that underlaid Parker
& LilyÆs characteristically dense strata of organs and steel guitars has been
made overt, stripped down & fashioned into a weapon.
The Low LowsÆ live show is a more dishevelled but exhilarating beast, typically
faster & much noisier than the albums, and pre-release european tours have
already generated glowing response ("Monstrously sad & brilliantly
anachronistic... here are three sparkling, slightly surreal rock icons that seem
to have been constructed out of feedback and white noiseà Like werewolves
mutating, feedback drips from freshly exposed fangs... Then suddenly they return
to us, playing pretty, remorseful songs about the carnage they caused...")*****.
Having made a pact among themselves to record & release three records in the
space of a year, Rickard, Wheatley and Noon are currently in the studio putting
the finishing touches to their second full-length, "Tigers", slated for release
in January of 2007. The Low Lows will tour the U.S. in September/October (&
Europe in November/December) of 2006.