Low With Loney, Dear In Concert

Low performing at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. Joel Didriksen for kingpinphoto.com hide caption

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Joel Didriksen for kingpinphoto.com

The music of Low is dark and mysteriously haunting with a sonic depth that radiates well beyond its brooding, spare arrangements. On their latest CD, Drums and Guns, the trio offers a stark examination of war, grief and regret with songs like "Murderer," "Your Poison," and "Violent Past." The band showcases its new album, along with selections from a back catalog spanning nearly 15 years, in a full concert from Washington, D.C.'s 9:30 Club. The concert, which featured an opening performance by Loney, Dear, originally webcast live on NPR.org Apr. 10, 2007.

Formed in Duluth, Minn. in 1993, Low features Alan Sparhawk on vocals and guitar, Mimi Parker on vocals and drums and Matt Livingston on bass. Sparhawk and Parker met in the fourth grade, are now married and have two children. They're devote Mormons and tell Fresh Air's Terry Gross they attend church whenever possible while touring. But the band isn't a Christian rock group and their faith appears only on occasion and indirectly in their music.

Known for hypnotic live performances, Low's songs are at once intensely epic and quietly beautiful with Parker and Sparhawk singing in closely knit harmonies. Drums and Guns is the band's eighth full-length album and second for the Sub Pop label.

Loney, Dear is the one-man indie pop project of Swedish multi-instrumentalist Emil Svanangen. Recording most of his music on a home computer and minidisk microphone in his living room or parents' basement, Svanangen has self-released four albums in Sweden. Loney, Dear's 2005 album Loney, Noir was recently picked up in the U.S. by Sub Pop records and reissued in January of this year.