6 Burst results for "Alan Spark Hawk"
Sound Opinions
"alan sparhawk" Discussed on Sound Opinions
"See everything by low on sound opinions Alan sparhawk. Mimi Parker Steve garrington on base and Eric Pollard sitting in over there on keyboards, usually the drummer in retribution gospel choir, a band that you guys have toured with. Yeah, yeah. It's the drummer in that band. So he mentioned before. Do you guys don't talk much about an interview, but you're both spiritual people. How does that play into your music? Well, I mean, the boring answer is that the same as anyone else. I mean, I think spirituality or religion sort of defines for each individual who they think they are and who everyone else is and why am I here? Why do I get up in the morning? To me, those are those are the core of why you make music as well. And so again, the boring answer is it just sort of is a natural thing, and I think everybody when they create draw upon their perception of who they are and what the world is and what another person is. But it always strikes me as kind of weird. You know, indie underground rock, which is supposed to be about no rules, no restrictions. No rules. But you know, if you dare to talk about Christianity or your beliefs, oh no, now you're Brandon. I mean, but seriously, you know, Pedro the Lion. Yeah. Great indie band. Definitely. He's pretty religious. Man, even Michael giraffe from the swans I've had really great intense intense situations. Very relation. That too. Spiritual relationship. Yeah. You know, I mean, most musicians are not spiritually agrees on. I don't want to call it that. But I think everybody has a sense of something more than themselves. And I think that's kind of yeah, you can't really play music without having a little bit of a humility for something something that's a little bigger than more beautiful than you think. One of the reasons I think that it doesn't come up a lot because I don't think you're really super overt about it. But there was the beautiful Christmas EP in 99, which
Sound Opinions
"alan sparhawk" Discussed on Sound Opinions
"Sound opinions, and this week we're remembering Loretta Lynn and drummer Anton fear. I'm Jim D regattas, and I'm Greg kott. But first, we're revisiting Lowe's interview and performance from 2011 in tribute to Mimi Parker. Greg listeners will, no doubt, remember that just a few weeks ago we paid tribute to Mimi Parker of low, who died on November 5th of ovarian cancer at age 55. As the drummer and sometimes vocalist in low, she had a huge influence over the band's 13 studio albums and many EPs and singles. Simply put low as Alan and Mimi without her, I don't know if Alan sparhawk, her husband is going to continue with low in any form, probably continue making music. But it remains to be seen what the future is for Lowe's music. What we do know is that they left behind an incredible discography dating back to the 90s. I mean, to my mind, there wasn't a bad album in the bunch. It was after the 9th album that we had them on sound opinions for an interview and performance, and that day the band was rounding up by Steve garrington and Eric Pollard. Let's go back to that 2011 interview and hang out with Mimi for a bit. Welcome to sound opinions. Thank you. A long time coming, I guess. Ellen Mimi, this band had a unique sound, almost from day one, came up in the middle of the alternative rock era. Remember that back in the early 90s and you guys sounded like no one else was strictly a case of, you know, if we're gonna be a band, we might as well do something completely different. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, I had played in more rock bands, but it's felt my interests and sort of my curiosity was more with minimalism and very simple stuff, some of the more simple things from, say, a Velvet Underground or Joy Division and yeah, it was more or less very against the grain of what was going on at the time, but that was sort of part of the challenge and the fun. I think kind of being true to that time to me meant more about doing something new and the freedom and the public that was suddenly aware of what could be done at the time, early 90s. How did it go over? Beautiful northern Minnesota. Well, it, you know, our first show. We played in Duluth for about what ten, 15 people. And some of them stayed. Yes. Yeah, now by the time we had written a couple songs and then played our first show and had a few people really react to it. We knew we were onto something. Yeah, the atmosphere was at the time, you know, grunge, Nirvana, soundgarden, really loud, aggressive, you guys come in really quiet and slow and moody and atmospheric and melodic playing a lot of the same clubs that all those bands were playing. And all the noise your bands. And later on in your career, you obviously proved that you could play loud and aggressive music, but Mimi, at the time, was it more a case of we're just happier doing this? My history, you know, my parents listened to country music and this is kind of the music that I think comes pretty natural to me, not that I don't like to rock out, but that is more of a strength. For my personality, has it ever been an albatross around your neck? Because as Greg said, when we look back now on this, what 9 album career. There are explosive moments and there are very experimental moments and they're very quiet moments, but the phrase slow core is on you guys. You're in the inheritors of what galaxy 500 had done at the end of the indie era. Sure, sure. I don't know. I mean, people are always going to need sort of simple definitions of what's going on. And subdivisions, black metal, slow core. You know, you know what you're getting into. But I don't know, we don't know that as much as maybe people think we do. We don't refer to ourselves in that way. But as long as they're talking about you, right? Yeah, that's all you need. Well, if there was a premium put on certain things, what were they? Well, minimalism for sure and from that sort of the drive to try to get as much of the essence of a song or sort of the spirit of a song. In their with as little with his little going on as possible, simple melodies very simple lyrics early on. It just really struck us as a very good vehicle for the spirit or the vibe of certain a certain vibe that would just sort of happen when we stepped into that realm and you know after a while it became very natural to us. We toured a lot over the years and that ethics sort of just becomes more ingrained and different times in our career. We would be even further down that road in her times early on where we were playing songs that were 5 minutes on the record for 8 and ten minutes long without adding anything because we were actually playing that much slower. And it was just it was a certain envelope. Yeah, it was weird, but I think you were the first band that I encountered that probably had to have a rider to allow people to bring pillows into shows. Like, sir, you can't bring that pillow in here. But it's low. But it's low. Are there deals? We're going to need to sleep at some point during this. It's nice playing places that people can sit down and there were years where we would play really even the dingy club people would decide to just sit down on the floor, but I don't know, you can't get too precious about the way people react to you. And if you try to stay shut up or come on, let's get round and never works. We've never told anybody to shut up. And you have worked with an amazing string of collaborators, producers, Steve albini, Dave fridmann, lately met Beckley, who people may not know. What's the lineage there on? Matt is actually the son of Jerry Beckley who's in band called America. Yeah. And as you'd expect, growing up in LA, he was a musician, come producer, mixer. He's worked with everything from us to Britney Spears to Avril Lavigne.
Sound Opinions
"alan sparhawk" Discussed on Sound Opinions
"Mimi Parker dead at the age of 55, died November 5th of ovarian cancer. I got word of this while I was traveling. And I got to tell you, it hit me so hard. I go, man, why am I so emotional about this? My wife noticed it too, and I was just one of those things where you feel like you know a person. Somebody had said to me, it was like losing a member of family member. You feel close to a person, even though you may not necessarily know them that well. But you know them through their music and it felt that intimate that you felt that loss in a different way than you would with a normal celebrity type of death. Well, and we had had the pleasure of talking with Mimi and Alan sparhawk, her husband. Several times on sound opinions, going back to our commercial radio days. Right, this band has been around since the mid 90s. You know, Mimi is a mom, a wife, and a quiet powerhouse of musical creativity. They formed Duluth Minnesota of all places in 1993. It was Alan sparhawk and Mimi Parker. Who had been a couple for a number of years already. The famed producer Kramer dubbed them slow core. They were at a time of grunge overkill. Here was the band was the exact opposite of that, playing as quietly as possible. When audiences would get restless and get louder, they would play quieter. You know, it was almost like a provocation in reverse. Continuing a tradition that began with galaxy 500, which began with The Velvet Underground's third album. And the thing is that could have been a one trick pony kind of deal a couple albums and then they quit. But they kept expanding their sound. They found more ways to express themselves within the template that they had originally created. It was basically Mimi and Allen. And a rotating cast of bases, but it was a sound that was minimal, minimalist music, at its finest, really melodic, a beautiful sounding, but at the same time starting to incorporate elements of noise in a more expansive approach to the arrangements. And they were beloved. I mean, their music, that little Christmas EP they put out, we just did an interview with one of the founders of cranky records and they started putting out records with cranky a Chicago based label. That little Christmas EP they did. It exploded. It got picked up in a TV commercial and suddenly people were finding out about this little band from Duluth Minnesota. Robert Plant was a huge fan. And he covered their songs. Covered them the other night in tribute to Mimi. He covered the great destroyer silver rider. Mimi, you as a drummer, I know appreciated her. She was standing up at mo Tucker style of The Velvet Underground, really minimal kit. Now let me see if I got this right, Jim. From what I could tell, a snare drum, a single symbol, and a floor time. And if she really. Turned on its side. Right. And if she really went crazy, she had a tambourine. I mean, she was selling out, man. You can't have all that stuff on it. But the vocals as well, Greg. What a beautiful singer, right? Yeah. What a voice. You know, the thing about Mimi is that every time she came in, she was saying a lot of harmony vocals. When she would come in with Alan, it immediately lifted the song to another level. But then she'd take the lead once in a while and just break your heart, how beautiful it sounded. The one song I want to play, people are saying, what song? From low, should I start with or what album? I would start with just make it stop from the invisible way record. They are actually recorded that with Jeff tweedy in 2013. And there's a part where all the instrumentation drops out and Mimi's voice basically holds is center stage. And she didn't necessarily like that. She was by nature as a kind of a shy person and played more of a background role. But when she stepped to the front, the resolve in her voice is just so amazing on this song. And I just love it to death. It is Mimi Parker with just make it stop from Lowe's the invisible way album on sound opinions. From a ten foot hole seeing nothing but blue sky shining on my soul as I enter the cold and untwist the night we can get where we're going if I could just make it stop if I had just made it just make it stop by low in tribute
Sound Opinions
"alan sparhawk" Discussed on Sound Opinions
"Night we can get where we're going if I could just make it stop all right, we're back. Greg, that was what you said on the radio was very, very moving. A couple of further points, I think, worth making. You know, Lowe was arguably at a high point in its career. In the last 6, 7 years. You know, ones and 6s in 2015, double negative 2018, hey, what? 2021. Here's a band after decades with a firmly established audience and people thinking they knew that man inside and out that was tossing up its sound in radical waves. That's a brave thing to do. It absolutely is. I think part of it was collaborating with BJ Burton, you know, who's worked with Bon Iver. I think the one of the things that I always liked about Alan sparhawk and Mimi Parker was their willingness to push themselves beyond their comfort zone. We obviously have a successful sound. People like it. Especially after the Christmas EP, they were a brand, you know? But they went beyond that, man. When people heard ones and 6s they were going like, what the hell, you know? They were kind of, they were kind of messing with people a little bit, but it's great. You know, keeping in the cotton Wheelhouse and I'll say that as radical or reinvention as wilco made with Yankee hotel foxtrot, loaded that three, four times in his career. It was kind of that stuff. Just when you think you know a band you realize, I don't really. They kept having this bottomless well of inspiration and ideas that they wanted to explore and did it wonderfully. I mean, double negative and hey, more extreme examples of that kind of stuff. I mean, just radical mixes of the quiet beauty with noise and static and these textures that were really shook you up. Music, concrete, or almost beef heart, route rock noise. I should not pay for more than one it would fall you had someone I could have had found all of what I'd give it all right, two other things I think I want to get from you with your deep knowledge of low. You know, we had them on the show several times. And we would discuss the importance of faith to them. Because they were both Mormon, correct? There were Mormon couple, faith was a big part of the like, but they were never preachy about it. Oh, no, no. I always thought they were wrestling with it. What faith means, how to live a life according to that faith. A moral life and regardless of the particulars of your belief there was a sense of spirituality that was, I think, welcoming to people of any faith. Yeah, absolutely. And the one thing I got out of that whole situation, because I think Alan had difficulties, you know, in terms of just having stability, you know, mentally, et cetera. Mimi was The Rock. She was kind of like the one who kind of held things together. The family, him, you know, the music. She was always going to be there. She was that foundation. And I don't mean this in a sexist way whatsoever, but the number of social media posts where she was described as mom to the scene. Mom to the scene in Minnesota, mom to the indie scene in general. In the very best sense of that. Nurturing. In the sense of somebody like mavis Staples, like you meet her and you feel comfortable around her right away. She wasn't a rockstar. She wasn't like, she was this famous person, but at the same time, just, you know, normal in the sense of she could be your next door neighbor. And you would be comfortable with her at any situation. The other thing I wanted to ask you about to expand on is the Christmas EP. You know, Marty Leonard's longtime Chicago radio personality on W XRT. We did the show there for 7 years before we moved to public radio about half a century ago. Marty had posted, I'll just quote him from Facebook. I remember the appearance when sound opinions was on XRT, and they played the stunning version of long way around the sea. Christmas chills, Mimi was really special. Lowe had come in and the EP had just come out, I think, right? Right. And they played that live long way around the sea. So tell people we are heading into the holiday season. Remind people about that Christmas record and about that performance, what you remember. I just remember it was magic. Well, I just remember when that EP came out, I don't think it was considered like a big deal by the band. It was just kind of like, well, you know, we're people of faith. A Christmas album can be such a cliche. But there's so many bad ones. Yeah, there's so many bad ones. But this was clearly beyond that. It was a mix of traditional stuff and originals. And to me, it just instantly became the one Christmas record I could listen to anytime. When it wasn't Christmas, she goes, it was just so beautiful. I mean, and Mimi really came to the forefront on that record. That was, I really associate that record with her voice. More than anything, you know? But it's such a beautiful, beautiful record, timeless songs, and that song, long way around the sea. That's just stuns me. You know, it's about the Magi taking the long trip around to see the savior, right? So that they wouldn't get caught and they wouldn't get arrested. So, I mean, it tells a biblical tale, but it makes it incredibly relatable. This is what happened. That's what they were. They were human. Humane and human. Well, I think they had an incredible ability to capture and evoke a time and place that is also timeless, ironically. You never been to Duluth, have you? No, I haven't actually. I've been to delusion. My roommate was there. I lived in Minneapolis twice. For two years each time, I don't know if there's a colder place on the face of this earth. It's at the very northern tip of Minnesota. Where you walk outside, your nose hair freezes, and your ears ring it is so cold, 20 below zero. And you feel like you're walking on the surface of the moon. Everything crinkles under you, you know? And it's like, I listen to low and I hear that. And never more so than on that crisp is EP. I don't know. Christmas cold, dark. The one star shining. I mean, that is a low got that. Yeah. Well, those harmonies will get you through anything. It did for them. A fitting tribute, I hope, Greg, to Mimi Parker, dead at the age of 55. I really feel for Allen and their family. There's a wonderful shot on Facebook. You mentioned revolving cast of bass players. Every one of those 5 or 6 bass players showed up and there was like a family picture. Yeah, yeah. And they were all wonderful people too. They contributed a lot to the music. I think it was more a case of, you're not talking about celebrity level touring here. We're talking about 30 years, they've been doing this stuff. Especially when they were touring with their family with kids. That is it.
Sound Opinions
"alan sparhawk" Discussed on Sound Opinions
"Yes, Jim sad news, indeed, Mimi Parker dead at the age of 55, died November 5th of ovarian cancer, I got word of this while I was traveling and I got to tell you, it hit me so hard. I go, man, why am I so emotional about this? My wife noticed it too, and I was just one of those things where you feel like you know a person. Somebody had said to me, it was like losing a member of family member. And I was like, you feel close to a person, even though you may not necessarily know them that well. But you know them through their music and it felt that intimate that you felt that loss in a different way than you would with a normal celebrity type of death. Well, and we had had the pleasure of talking with Mimi and Alan sparhawk, her husband. Several times on sound opinions, going back to our commercial radio days. Right, this band has been around since the mid 90s. You know, Mimi is a mom, a wife, and a quiet powerhouse of musical creativity. They formed Duluth Minnesota of all places in 1993. It was Alan sparhawk and Mimi Parker. Who had been a couple for a number of years already. The famed producer Kramer dubbed them slow core. They were at a time of grunge overkill. Here was the band was the exact opposite of that, playing as quietly as possible. When audiences would get restless and get louder, they would play quieter. Yeah, it was almost like a provocation in reverse. Continuing a tradition that began with galaxy 500, which began with the Velvet Underground's third album. And the thing is that could have been a one trick pony kind of deal a couple albums and then they quit. But they kept expanding their sound. They found more ways to express themselves within the template that they had originally created. It was basically Mimi and Allen. And a rotating cast of bases, but it was a sound that was minimal, minimalist music, at its finest, really melodic, a beautiful sounding, but at the same time starting to incorporate elements of noise and a more expansive approach to the arrangements. And they were beloved. I mean, their music that little Christmas EP they put out, we just did an interview with one of the founders of cranky records and they started putting out records with cranky a Chicago based label. That little Christmas EP they did. It exploded. It got picked up in a TV commercial and suddenly people were finding out about this little band from Duluth Minnesota. Robert Plant was a huge fan. He covered their songs. Covered them the other night in tribute to Mimi. He covered the great destroyer silver rider. Mimi, you as a drummer, I know appreciated her. She was standing up at mo Tucker style of The Velvet Underground, really minimal kit. Now let me see if I got this right, Jim. From what I could tell, a snare drum, a single symbol. And a floor time. And if she really. Turned on its side. Right. And if she really went crazy, she had a tambourine. I mean, she was selling out, man. I can't have all that stuff on it. But the vocals as well, Greg. What a beautiful singer, right? What a voice. You know, the thing about Mimi is that every time she came in, she was saying a lot of harmony vocals. When she would come in with Alan, it immediately lifted the song to another level. But then she'd take the lead once in a while and just break your heart, how beautiful it sounded. The one song I want to play, people are saying, what song? From low, should I start with or what album? I would start with just make it stop from the invisible way record. They are actually recorded that with Jeff tweedy in 2013. And there's a part where all the instrumentation drops out and Mimi's voice basically holds is center stage. And she didn't necessarily like that. She was by nature as a kind of a shy person and played more of a background role. But when she stepped to the front, the resolve in her voice is just so amazing on this song. And I just love it to death. It is Mimi Parker with just make it stop from Lowe's the invisible way album on sound opinions.
All Songs Considered
"alan sparhawk" Discussed on All Songs Considered
"That draws me in and having just watched all The Beatles stuff in a documentary. I was reminded of that. Growing up in New York and stuff in here in that X and knowing only that accent, but hearing then a British accent people speaking different way. Intonation in singing can come out in many ways and for her well she beautiful voice, beautiful intonation, but then there's also that accent that helps. It gives a different color to the songs for sure. But I don't know, listening to this, and this may happen several times during the taping of the show where I say the album. No, where as soon as you hit play on her, I got, yeah, definitely my album album of the year. But I will say you and I have to listen to a lot of music every year. We get to listen to a lot of music. We don't get a lot of time to just camp out with anyone record that man. If I could just camp out with one record this year, it would have been this one. And for those who have never seen it, there is a wonderful tiny desk concert home concert that we did with her in 2020 before this album came out really worth a watch and you get an insight into her personality. That's our little parks and number 17 album on our listener picks. Collapsed into some beams. And number 16 is church's album screen violence. It's a fourth album. And another one of those records it's a product of the pandemic. And we'll see that a lot through our list and a lot through our listening. People figuring out ways to record in this case across oceans between Glasgow and LA and figuring out how to make those things happen. It's both challenging and kind of very, very rewarding when you can make that stuff happen. Yeah, that's definitely where they landed with this one. It kind of a concept album as the name suggests with the word screen in the title. It's kind of a record about how we've been living our lives this past year and a half mostly through screens and what that sort of done to our state of mind. I'm glad you turned your camera off. No, I don't like looking at anybody. I'm going to do these shows. It's much better. That works as well. Anyway, number 16 is from church's screen violence. And number 15, here's a group that didn't have to look at each other through screens because they lived together. The music of low, the music of Alan sparhawk and Mimi Parker. They've been making music together for what a quarter of a century. Almost 30 years since their first record came out. I mean, it's incredible. And so adventurous, right? This record, I think it's where it is. Number 15 on our list because it was such a cool sounding album. Well, that's the thing. They've been doing this so long, but they keep coming up with a world of sound that I feel like I've never heard before. And that's what they do in this record. It's just incredible. Very cool sounding records. Engineered by this fellow named BJ Burton, a name. Some of us might not bony Vera, but lots of other projects. And he was nominated for best engineer for a non classical album. We should listen to some of that, right? What do you want to play? Let's hear a little bit of the.