Mimi Parker

The dreadful news that Mimi Parker had died aged just fifty five came via her husband Alan Sparhawk on Sunday. Mimi, vocalist and drummer in Low, had undergone both chemotherapy and surgery after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer in December 2020. My social media feed and the blogs yesterday were full of genuinely bereft tributes, many people saying that live gigs by Low were among the best they'd ever been to. I never managed to see Low live, something which I regret. 

Growing up in rural Minnesota Alan and Mimi met, bonded and started playing music together, covering Neil Young songs. They moved to Duluth, later saying in an interview that the inspiration for their music was 'Eno, Joy Division and the boredom of living in Duluth'. I first encountered them on 2000's Things We Lost In The Fire, a record of hushed, intense, quiet, minimalist, glacial songs, a style that became known as slowcore. It was one of those records that left you changed by listening to it.  I bought the louder, gnarlier 2005 album The Great Destroyer and the follow up Guns And Drums. Their recent albums saw them turn the electronics and distortion up on 2018's Double Negative and last year's Hey What.  

Hatchet, from Drums And Guns, and sung by Mimi was released as a single with a remixed version, the Optimimi version, vinyl crackle and a 60s Southern soul sound Mimi sings, 'You be my Charlie and I will be your George/ Let's bury the hatchet like The Beatles and The Stones', a nod to the quieter and less showy members of those bands, and later, 'You be my Marianne and I'll be your Yoko', a nod to two women who are often reduced to stereotypes within the stories of the two groups. 

Hatchet Optimimi Version

Disappearing is from 2021's Hey What, Mimi and Alan's voices in unison over a wall of distortion and noise, 'Every time that ship goes out/ It feels like everything's complete/ But somebody, somewhere is waiting/ Some other ocean at her feet'. The song finishes with the overdriven guitar ever more distorted, Mimi and Alan aah aahing together and then the wrenching final verse, 'That disappearing horizon/ It brings cold comfort to my soul/ An ever present reminder/ The constant face of the unknown'. 

Disappearing

R.I.P. Mimi Parker. 

Sunflowers

These sunflowers have been growing in a neighbour's front garden, just up the road from us. The tallest is over six feet tall. Walking home in late August they seemed perfectly framed against the sky. The picture I took was a bit overcast, the clouds and lowlight making it very heavy so I added a bit of a filter. 

We've been taking sunflowers to Isaac's grave all summer as well. There is something magical about them. 

In 2001 Low released Things We Lost In The Fire, an album recorded with Steve Albini that put them on the map of US indie rock royalty, a record that was dubbed slowcore. The first song on the album is Sunflower, a gorgeous, slow paced guitar song from a similar emotional space as Yo La Tengo (see last Sunday's post). 

Sunflower

Paul Weller's Sunflower is from 1993, a, maybe the, song that marked his creative rebirth. Sunflower is a thunderous, reverb drenched song with a stop- start, dynamic, the guitars and drums summoning late 60s psychedelia but in a very early 1990s way. Over massive drum fills and rolls from Steve White and ringing, circling guitar lines, Weller sings to his love, 'I don't care how long this lasts/ We have no future we have no past'. A song about being in love, about losing love and being in the moment. 

Sunflower

Witches

This song by Low took me by surprise the weekend before last. I was sorting through a pile a freebie CDs that had built up near the pile of records that has built up. I've got several albums by Low but not the one this song is on (an album called C'mon released in 2011). Having listened to and skipped a few songs on the CD I let Witches play. The opening guitar chords, clanging and distorted were enough on their own, but then the ensuing menace coming through the speakers, Alan and Mimi's vocals, and the natural echo provided by the Sacred Heart studio in Duluth, Minnesota (a former church). There's what sounds like a banjo in there too.

Witches

I don't know what Witches is about, facing your fears maybe. Like the music the lyrics are foreboding and full of shadows.

'One night I got up and told my father there were witches in my room
He gave me a baseball bat and said here's what you do...

All you guys out there trying to act like Al Green...'

Sleigh Bells

I've pretty much avoided Christmas this year on here, no seasonal songs at all, so I'll try to enter into the spirit of things by posting these two today (and giving the Monday Long Song a rest for a week or two). Low's Just Like Christmas is a thing of beauty, a song I've posted several times before but which is always welcome. The sleigh bells and the sleigh ride rhythm are are joy, as are the lyrics- the band in the van travelling from Stockholm to Oslo seeing the snow fall.

Just Like Christmas

Sleigh bells ringing are the opening to Darlene Love's Winter Winterland, one of the songs on A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector album from 1963. If you have to listen to an album of Christmas songs, it should really be this one (although I'll make a shout for Wild Billy Childish's Christmas 1979, the title track of which I've also posted before).

Winter Wonderland

And if you need something longer Steve Cobby has put together this mix, just over an hour of lesser known festive songs from the crooners and shakers including Dinah Washington, Dean Martin, Julie London and Nancy Wilson.



Whatever you're up to, wherever you are and whoever you're with, have a happy Christmas. Peace and love and all that.

Top Of The World

The Christmas edition of the NME used to be a big thing. Now the NME is given away for free by the doors in Top Shop but it was always a big deal back in the day. Double sized (88 pages!), albums and tracks of the year, alternative rock stars and indie bands in fancy dress, Shaun and Bez pissed and stoned... enough to keep you going through the long hours when there's nothing to do at a family Christmas.

In 1989 The Stone Roses were the NME's band of the year and it flew them out to Switzerland for photographs on top of a mountain. That year they had done a nationwide tour picking up converts on a daily basis, put out their debut album plus 3 singles, and played two era-defining gigs (at Blackpool in August and Ally Pally in November, plus Top Of The Pops). The two album based singles had B-sides that were as good as most of the album tracks (Made Of Stone in March had Going Down, She Bangs The Drum in July had Standing Here and Mersey Paradise). In November they put out the double A-side of Fool's Gold and What The World Is Waiting For, a game changer if ever there was one. They would never be that good again and in some ways 1990 would do for them- they stalled and lost the lightness of touch and sureness that in 1989 had put them on top of the world.

This Is The One

A year later NME's writers crowned Happy Mondays as the band that made 1990 tick. In the summer Step On made them pop stars. In November they put out Kinky Afro, produced by Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne, a move that found them with a sound perfectly suited for the times and with a lyric that is unmatched. The extended Euromix (by Oakenfold and Osborne) made its way onto various releases (the USA and Australia both got the Euromix). My mp3 version is from The Factory Tape that came with Select magazine in 1991.

Kinky Afro (Euromix)

I've not posted Low's Just Like Christmas yet this year, something I have done most Decembers at Bagging Area. It is a delight, from the rattling drums and sleigh bells to the sweetly sung words describing the band travelling from Stockholm to Oslo in the snow while on tour.

Just Like Christmas

I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas, whatever you're doing and wherever you're doing it. See you in a few days for the post-Christmas lull.

We Felt So Young

I've posted this song almost every Christmas since the blog began and its definitely worth another go. Low's Just Like Christmas with sleigh bells on and everything. It's pretty much perfect, especially because of the pay off in the lyric...

'But you were wrong
It wasn't like Christmas at all'

Just Like Christmas

On Our Way From Stockholm It Started To Snow

We're getting our tree today so it seems like a good time to post a Christmas song, no matter how much I try to avoid it. Low's Just Like Christmas a a cracking little tune- sleigh bells disguising the fact that by the time they got to Oslo the snow had gone and it wasn't like Christmas at all.

Just Like Christmas

Christmas Post

Time for a Christmas post- aside from the obvious (The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl) Christmas songs are in limited supply at Bagging Area. This one by Low is a perennial favourite though and the funny thing about it is, it's not really about Christmas, it's just that driving to Oslo it started to snow and it was just like Christmas. It wasn't really Christmas at all.

Just Like Christmas

Advent Post Number Four

Now this is a proper Christmas cracker and no mistake- Low's Just Like Christmas. I posted it last year but make no apologies for putting it up again.

'On our way from Stockholm
It started to snow
And you said it was just like Christmas
But you were wrong
It wasn't like Christmas at all

By the time we got to Oslo
The snow was gone
And we got lost
The beds were small
But we felt so young
It was just like Christmas'

Just Like Christmas

No Hope, No Harm

I said a few weeks ago that there aren't many cover versions of Smiths songs that are any good, or at least that Smiths covers can't usually get near the originals. Here's an exception. Minnesota's slowcore trio Low with a 50s tinged, drama filled cover of Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me. Desolate yet warming.

Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me

On The Way To Oslo It Started To Snow

A perfectly formed little Christmas themed song from Low.

Just Like Christmas

Shut Up And Drive

Earlier today we had Low's Hatchet (Optimimi version). Low can be very quiet (see their three sides of vinyl Things We Lost In The Fire album), very lovely (the aforementioned Just Like Christmas) and very cool (see the also aforementioned Hatchet). Low can be also dark, noisy and menacing too. This is Monkey from their The Great Destroyer album. Bleak and dark and dark and bleak. I guess winter in Minnesota goes on for a while.

'Tonight the monkey dies'

monkey.mp3

I Know You Got A Thing For Ordinary Guys

I was going to post Low's Just Like Christmas, a wonderful, spine-tingling record but Davy H at the Ghost Of Electricity blog beat me to it (and if you haven't heard it get over there and get listening), but it led me back to this. In 2007 Minnesota's best slowcore trio released the bleak but brilliant Guns And Drums album. Initial quantities came with a free 7" single, a re-modelling of that album's song Hatchet. Hatchet is a tale of making up-

'You be my Charlie
And I will be your George
Let's bury the hatchet
Like The Beatles and The Stones'

and later on...

'So you'll be my Marianne
And I'll be your Yoko
Let's bury the hatchet
Like The Beatles
The Beatles and The Stones'

The version on the 7" is sung by Mimi and features some lovely 60's style pop organ and sounds like a lost gem. Which it is.

hatchet optimimiversion.mp3