Let's get slow

November 5, 2008 9:02 PM

It's been a hectic and exciting week and it's barely half over. Let's slow down and take a trip over the ocean...

Little connects the following bands aside from being called slowcore. Regardless of how how much or little noise they make, they share the ability to conjure atmospheres of danger and mystery out of little more than playing rock very, very slowly...

Galaxie 500 has been retconned into being slowcore, songs like Tugboat helping their rep. The appropriately-named Codeine had a great song in the early 90s with Loss Leader but only lasted for a couple albums. The brothers Kadane have had a fruitful career, first with Bedhead (The Dark Ages) and later with The New Year (Disease). Ida takes a folksier approach in The Weight of The Straw. And coming from nowhere, Sister Ray offers a good, strange ten minute long video called Death.

Low is one of the best and longest-lived of them all, making quality music slowly for fifteen years. So here's Sunflower, Words from their first album, Point of Disgust, Because You Stood Still, and a remarkable live performance of Murderer.

posted by ardgedee (18 comments total)

Slowcore sounds awesome right now... MAYBE its the vicodin, I'm not sure, but thank you.
posted by sir_rubixalot at 9:18 PM on November 5, 2008

Maybe after you've had some of that you'll like some Deep Blue Day to keep going.
posted by Burhanistan at 9:22 PM on November 5, 2008

Ah, I was just listening to Luna's Bewitched today. Man, I love Tiger Lily.

Seam is another slowcore band I used to listen to, way back when.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:38 PM on November 5, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

The best mistake I ever made was buying Curtain Hits the Cast when it came out in 1996. I thought I was buying an album by a different band that I can't even remember now who someone had told me sounded like the Jesus Lizard. It took a while for the album to grow on me as it obviously wasn't what I was expecting but I realized pretty quickly that it was one of those rare perfect 10/10 type albums.
posted by The Straightener at 9:50 PM on November 5, 2008

That's a really sweet video. Thanks!
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 9:52 PM on November 5, 2008

I was expecting this to be a lead into the NZ parliamentary elections, being both slower and across the sea from just about everywhere, but still having some drama.

But that'd be too obvious.
posted by electronslave at 11:33 PM on November 5, 2008

I've always been partial to the bleak, bleak video of Low's 'Words'. There's something about the imagery of three characters struggling to navigate a lifeboat across a frozen tundra that still gets to me fourteen years after I first saw it on the Matt (barf) Pinfield (BARF) era 120 Minutes.

Fuck, I'd forgotten how much I hated Pinfield. Barf. Really, really hated the guy - I was in high school at the time & can remember sending him a lengthy, threat-filled hate letter composed with the one friend I had that was crazier than I was. I remember freaking out after I sent it, worried that maybe we'd pushed the envelope (har!) a little too far & the feds were going to track me down & hang me out to dry.
posted by Item at 12:24 AM on November 6, 2008

No love for Slowdive?
posted by jbickers at 3:34 AM on November 6, 2008

Man there was another band called Sister Ray from Ohio. This isn't the same one. Those are the facts.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 3:46 AM on November 6, 2008

I kept waiting for the drummer in that first video to get crushed by a chifferobe.
posted by medium format at 4:38 AM on November 6, 2008

> Man there was another band called Sister Ray from Ohio. This isn't the same one.

There are a couple different bands naming themselves after the Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray", but none that I could find info on seemed like bands that would make something like this. I'm stumped.
posted by ardgedee at 5:56 AM on November 6, 2008

I've never heard of any of these bands, but this stuff is fantastic. Thanks for posting this.
posted by owtytrof at 7:37 AM on November 6, 2008

I don't much care for Low's last few albums (rarely have i disapproved of Dave Fridmann production, but Low should have remained Low), but their early stuff is pretty close to perfect. I haven't listened to them in a while, so thanks for the post.

I'd add American Analog Set to the list of bands. I saw them once at SXSW, and ended up sitting down and reading a book during the show, just because that's what I always did when I listened to AmAnSet.
posted by Bookhouse at 7:47 AM on November 6, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Tons more Low here. (Flash; isn't working in Firefox for some reason.)

They really are ridiculously good.
posted by greenie2600 at 7:48 AM on November 6, 2008

ardgedee: Looks like this Sister Ray is from Vancouver and is pretty cool Portishead mixed with shoegaze.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:11 AM on November 6, 2008

Thanks. I love Low.
posted by tiny crocodile at 9:52 AM on November 6, 2008

Oh, and Drums and Guns (which Murderer is from) is a great album. Though if you're a long-time fan, maybe you'd need to hear it live so that you could see past the non-low-ish elements (loops and such). The songs are just as good as ever.

Last time we saw them, I turned to my friend and said "Low are just consistently amazing". No word of a lie. Also, such nice, polite people.
posted by tiny crocodile at 10:04 AM on November 6, 2008

Was anyone else excited for a cool accelerated video of a plane's view flying shallow over the Atlantic?

/a boy can dream
posted by Lacking Subtlety at 10:45 AM on November 6, 2008