8449 - THE LOW ANTHEM - SMART FLESH (BONUS TRACKS) (2011)

THE LOW ANTHEM
''SMART FLESH (BONUS TRACKS)''
FEBRUARY 21 2011
66:06

1 Ghost Woman Blues 04:14
2 Apothecary Love 04:19
3 Boeing 737 02:38
4 Love And Altar 03:06
5 Matter Of Time 03:50
6 Wire 03:41
7 Burn 05:14
8 Hey, All You Hippies! 04:40
9 I'll Take Out Your Ashes 03:26
10 Golden Cattle 03:00
11 Smart Flesh 07:22
12 Maybe So (Bonus Track) 04:36
13 Vines (Bonus Track) 04:06
14 Dreams Can Chase You Down (Bonus Track) 02:38
15 Roses In A Mist V1 (Bonus Track) 03:41
16 Old Cedar Tree (Bonus Track) 02:29
17 Roses In A Mist V2 (Bonus Track) 02:59

Ben Knox Miller
Jeff Prystowsky
Jocie Adams
Mat Davidson
Additional musicians
Ben Pilgrim - harmonium ("Smart Flesh")
Anton Patzner - violin ("Boeing 737")
Louis Patzner - cello ("Boeing 737")
Robert Houllahan - flickering film ("Boeing 737")

REVIEW
by Andrew Leahey, AMG
While scoping out locations for their third album, the Low Anthem stumbled across a vacant pasta sauce factory in Central Falls, RI. For a band whose instruments include WWII-era pump organs and other antique items, the factory -- with its label-strewn floors, big empty spaces, and semi-crumbling appearance -- must’ve felt like home. And it was home, at least for the three winter months in which the Low Anthem took up temporary residence inside the place, recording the bulk of their third album with Charlie Darwin producer Jesse Lauter. Smart Flesh, the result of the so-called “Pasta Sauce Factory Sessions” and an additional session in Providence, makes good use of the building, which often functions as a fifth member of the band. The songs are deliberately loose and minimalist -- intricacy tends to get lost in the booming, resonant halls of a factory -- but the substance that remains is strong, potent stuff. High-lonesome folk, bare-boned Americana, and old-timey harmony numbers are the name of the game, and although the band’s use of vintage instruments makes for some fun Wikipedia sleuthing (what are “crotales,” anyway?), the spotlight remains on the songs themselves. Frontman Ben Knox Miller sings with a troubadour’s voice, a combination of Bob Dylan and early James Taylor that lends a pleasantness to anything he sings, even when the lyrics revolve around death. He feels like the obvious leader here -- although everyone sings, he’s the only member to own the frontman role -- but Smart Flesh’s best songs are those that revolve around the band’s four-part harmonies, including the gorgeous “Love and Altar” (a close cousin to Oh My God, Charlie Darwin’s title track) and a cover of George Carter’s “Ghost Woman Blues.” the Low Anthem may be Ivy League grads, but Smart Flesh doesn’t feel like the work of overeducated Generation Y kids thumbing through their parents’ folk LPs -- it feels like the real thing.

BIOGRAPHY
by Andrew Leahey, AMG
The Low Anthem's unique brand of Americana makes room for gospel, folk, and blues, a blend that began taking shape in their hometown of Providence, RI. Ben Knox Miller and Jeff Prystowsky -- both students at Brown University, as well as late-night DJs at the school's radio station -- formed The Low Anthem in 2006, drawing upon their background as classical composers to help mold the group's eclectic music. Jocie Adams joined one year later, and the group began widening its arsenal of instruments accordingly, utilizing everything from World War I pump organs to crotales in the process. After making its independent debut with 2007's What the Crow Brings, the band rang in 2008 by temporarily relocating to Block Island -- a remote location 12 miles off the Rhode Island coast -- to record an album with producer Jesse Lauter. The stark, serene environment proved to be appropriate for the music, which the band initially self-released under the title Oh My God, Charlie Darwin.

As their buzz continued to build, The Low Anthem signed a contract with Nonesuch Recordings and reissued Oh My God in 2009, supporting the release with a string of performances at summer festivals. Multi-instrumentalist Mat Davidson was added to the lineup later that year, joining The Low Anthem's ranks one month before they headed to Central Falls, RI, to record a third album. Setting up a makeshift studio inside an abandoned pasta sauce factory, the group recorded Smart Flesh over a period of three months, making good use of the building's carvernous, resonant spaces. The album was released in February 2011.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

8448 - THE LOW ANTHEM - OH MY GOD, CHARLIE DARWIN (2009)

THE LOW ANTHEM
''OH MY GOD, CHARLIE DARWIN''
JUNE 9 2009
41:19

1 Charlie Darwin 04:28
2 To Ohio 03:15
3 Ticket Taker 03:04
4 The Horizon Is A Beltway 02:48
5 Home I'll Never Be/Jack Kerouac, Tom Waits 02:45
6 Cage The Songbird 03:59
7 (Don't) Tremble/Jodie Adams, Ben Knox Miller 04:35
8 Music Box/Jodie Adams, Ben Knox Miller 01:49
9 Champion Angel 05:31
10 To The Ghosts Who Write History Books 03:27
11 Omgcd 01:52
12 To Ohio (Reprise) 03:39
Tracks By Ben Knox Miller, Jeffrey Prystowsky, Except As Indicated

REVIEW
by Andrew Leahey, AMG
The Low Anthem cover all their Americana bases with Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, an album that alternates between old-timey country, secular gospel, and harmonized folk. Few bands handle such wide swaths of music with grace, and even fewer manage to steer clear of sepia-toned pastiche in the process. Charlie Darwin is that rare exception, a hybrid of old traditions and contemporary flourishes that sounds at once earthy, ethereal, and uncalculated. Led by frontman Ben Knox Miller, the band resurrects old genres like folk anthropologists, using acoustic instruments (as well as some more esoteric additions, including a refurbished pump organ from the first World War) as their tools of choice. "Charlie Darwin" and "Cage the Songbird" are vocal showcases, padded with three-part harmonies and thick layers of reverb, while a cover of Tom Waits' "Home I'll Never Be" eschews intimacy for ramshackle energy, sounding like a field recording from the late-night hours of a country jamboree. The band makes multiple stops in between those styles, pitching their tent closer to the alt country-rock camp with "Champion Angel" before going to church for the gospel-tinged "Omgcd." Miller steals the spotlight throughout -- he's a falsetto crooner during the opening track, a boot-stomping bluesman on "The Horizon Is a Beltway," a Dylan disciple on the folksier tracks -- but this is still a group effort, with string contributions by Jocie Adams and a flurry of instrumental activity by co-founder Jeffrey Prystowsky. There's a lot of ground covered here, of course, yet the band never loses sight of its destination, and those who can keep up are in for a tuneful trek.

BIOGRAPHY
by Andrew Leahey, AMG
The Low Anthem's unique brand of Americana makes room for gospel, folk, and blues, a blend that began taking shape in their hometown of Providence, RI. Ben Knox Miller and Jeff Prystowsky -- both students at Brown University, as well as late-night DJs at the school's radio station -- formed The Low Anthem in 2006, drawing upon their background as classical composers to help mold the group's eclectic music. Jocie Adams joined one year later, and the group began widening its arsenal of instruments accordingly, utilizing everything from World War I pump organs to crotales in the process. After making its independent debut with 2007's What the Crow Brings, the band rang in 2008 by temporarily relocating to Block Island -- a remote location 12 miles off the Rhode Island coast -- to record an album with producer Jesse Lauter. The stark, serene environment proved to be appropriate for the music, which the band initially self-released under the title Oh My God, Charlie Darwin.

As their buzz continued to build, The Low Anthem signed a contract with Nonesuch Recordings and reissued Oh My God in 2009, supporting the release with a string of performances at summer festivals. Multi-instrumentalist Mat Davidson was added to the lineup later that year, joining The Low Anthem's ranks one month before they headed to Central Falls, RI, to record a third album. Setting up a makeshift studio inside an abandoned pasta sauce factory, the group recorded Smart Flesh over a period of three months, making good use of the building's carvernous, resonant spaces. The album was released in February 2011.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

8447 - THE LOW ANTHEM - WHAT THE CROW BRINGS (2007) (REPOST)

THE LOW ANTHEM
''WHAT THE CROW BRINGS''
SEPTEMBER 21 2007
45:49

1 The Ballad Of The Broken Bones 03:52
2 Yellowed By The Sun 03:20
3 As The Flame Burns Down 04:54
4 Bless Your Tombstone Heart 03:57
5 This God Damn House 03:33
6 A Weary Horse Can Hide The Pain 04:10
7 Scavenger Bird 04:40
8 Sawdust Saloon 06:58
9 Keep On The Sunny Side 03:01
10 Senorita 04:29
11 Coal Mountain Lullaby 02:52


ABOUT THE ALBUM
By Jim Vickers, Motif Magazine
Ben Miller and Jeff Prystowsky were once tabbed a "folk-rock" duo, but their music journey has them traveling further down Americana's back roads.

What the Crow Brings, their 11-track minimalist masterpiece, resonates with profound beauty, depth and sadness. Low Anthem's stripped down sound and hoarse whispered vocals empower a rare set of poetry rife with pain, peace and longing, found only among the finest traditional folk bards.

The self-produced disc opens with "The Ballad of the Broken Bones," a metaphor Low Anthem uses to create a reality of ideas from their experience. Jeff explains the metaphors point of reference: “There's a bar in the east village, NYC called McSorley's. Behind the swagger of the young men who sit drinking with their red-haired dolls, there is a web of dust that begs discussion, but frequently goes unnoticed. Through that web, hanging on an old chandelier, one can see the unlikely shape of protruding bones. Aged bones the color of soured heavy cream. No one dares to touch these hanging artifacts of collective memory. Barely visible through the thick layer of dust that surrounds them, the conspicuous bones were placed there by newly drafted soldiers during the first World War. These men, upon safely arriving home, would take down their bone and break it with a long-awaited beer close at hand. The bones that still hang today, by contrast, are veritable tombstones, inundated with the repugnant fog of historical truth.”

The song sobs:
So my friends if you're worried
Don't worry about me
The grasses are green here
The winters are mild
And the hunger is passing
It's just a sensation
And over the world am I

Up in the city it's panic and toil
In every fiber and vein
All dressed up like kings in their folds of desires
The poets are going insane

While such poetics can easily be labeled "pseudo-intellectual" or "passé," Low Anthem bring an authenticity folk aficionados find sacred. Without climbing on a soapbox, Low Anthem speak matter-of-fact through music, humbly acknowledging the limitations of their crafts and meager existence: "Now I will not play forever, so why would I play for keeps / Don't play for keeps, we are only for awhile." The eighth track -"Sawdust Saloon,"picking up on the Broken Bones notion, may be the most surprising song, given America's seething anti-war fervor. The nostalgic and poignant piece of prose opens in 1971, with a young man and friends going off to Vietnam and tells of friends past:

With Jimmy Tassone, I used to play ball
Now he sits here beside me and talks like a man
He looks like a man, says he shoots like a man
But no medal of honor could make his
Mom move back in
So he said my drunk father, I'll be back for you soon
But Jimmy still hangs in the sawdust saloon

The song goes on to profess patriotism and throws a curve when giving reasons why the character "showed up on time to join his platoon." "Sawdust Saloon" laments unapologetically, increasing 10-fold its anti-war strength by telling a tearful tale and painting vivid images of loss. This one belongs on Neil Young's Living with War list (www.neilyoung.com/lwwtoday).

Showing respect for their antecedents and traditions, Low Anthem pays homage to The Carter Family by covering the 1928 hit, "Keep on the Sunny Side," among their 10 originals.

As genre-defying as many a youthful band fancies themselves, Low Anthem's Jeff Prystowsky talked about finding his music roots with a sense of reverence, playing old vinyl records such as Skip James’ Hard Time Killin' Floor, Tom Waits’ Swordfishtrombones, Woody Guthrie’s Hard Travellin', Leonard Cohen’s Songs of Love and Hate and Hank Williams’ Ramblin' Man.

Jeff also spoke of Low Anthem's artistic commitment, sporadically working odd jobs to pay the rent, never straying from the project, What the Crow Brings. The band has even hand silkscreened the first 500 record packages to achieve exactly the look that they desire, which entails using cut up cereal cartons. The copy I have appears to be a Honey Nut Cherrios box.

Maybe that's where things have a tint of the postmodern or avant garde, if you will. Jeff and Ben play more than 25 different instruments on the record - not prominently or showily - subtly, in order to serve each individual song. Unconventional instruments include pump-organ, tongue drum, tube harp, marimba, toy-piano and cell-phones.

The album, however, stays grounded through the use of traditional folk instruments.

Music comparisons will be drawn to Low Anthem's latest project, but if I had to make one, I would choose Ernest Hemingway. Low Anthem's What the Crow Brings demonstrates a masterful control of language, an ability to tell precise stories and create concise imagery with simple common words. It's a brilliant piece of Americana.

BIOGRAPHY
by Andrew Leahey, AMG
The Low Anthem's unique brand of Americana makes room for gospel, folk, and blues, a blend that began taking shape in their hometown of Providence, RI. Ben Knox Miller and Jeff Prystowsky -- both students at Brown University, as well as late-night DJs at the school's radio station -- formed The Low Anthem in 2006, drawing upon their background as classical composers to help mold the group's eclectic music. Jocie Adams joined one year later, and the group began widening its arsenal of instruments accordingly, utilizing everything from World War I pump organs to crotales in the process. After making its independent debut with 2007's What the Crow Brings, the band rang in 2008 by temporarily relocating to Block Island -- a remote location 12 miles off the Rhode Island coast -- to record an album with producer Jesse Lauter. The stark, serene environment proved to be appropriate for the music, which the band initially self-released under the title Oh My God, Charlie Darwin.

As their buzz continued to build, The Low Anthem signed a contract with Nonesuch Recordings and reissued Oh My God in 2009, supporting the release with a string of performances at summer festivals. Multi-instrumentalist Mat Davidson was added to the lineup later that year, joining The Low Anthem's ranks one month before they headed to Central Falls, RI, to record a third album. Setting up a makeshift studio inside an abandoned pasta sauce factory, the group recorded Smart Flesh over a period of three months, making good use of the building's carvernous, resonant spaces. The album was released in February 2011.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

5484 - THE LOW ANTHEM - What The Crow Brings (2007)

THE LOW ANTHEM
''WHAT THE CROW BRINGS''
SEPTEMBER 21 2007
46:54

1 /The Ballad of the Broken Bones/3:58
2 /Yellowed by the Sun/3:26
3 /As the Flame Burns Down/4:58
4 /Bless Your Tombstone Heart/4:05
5 /This God Damn House/3:37
6 /A Weary Horse Can Hide the Pain/4:15
7 /Scavenger Bird/4:46
8 /Sawdust Saloon/7:04
9 /Keep on the Sunny Side/3:09
10 /Senorita/4:33
11 /Coal Mountain Lullaby/3:02

BIOGRAPHY
by Andrew Leahey
The Low Anthem's unique brand of Americana makes room for gospel, folk, and blues, a blend that began taking shape in their hometown of Providence, RI. Ben Knox Miller and Jeff Prystowsky -- both students at Brown University, as well as late-night DJs at the school's radio station -- formed The Low Anthem in 2006, drawing upon their background as classical composers to help mold the group's eclectic music. Jocie Adams joined one year later, and the group began widening its arsenal of instruments accordingly, utilizing everything from World War I pump organs to crotales in the process. After making its independent debut with 2007's What the Crow Brings, the band rang in 2008 by temporarily relocating to Block Island -- a remote location 12 miles off the Rhode Island coast -- to record an album with producer Jesse Lauter. The stark, serene environment proved to be appropriate for the music, which the band initially self-released under the title Oh My God, Charlie Darwin.
As their buzz continued to build, The Low Anthem signed a contract with Nonesuch Recordings and reissued Oh My God in 2009, supporting the release with a string of performances at summer festivals. Multi-instrumentalist Mat Davidson was added to the lineup later that year, joining The Low Anthem's ranks one month before they headed to Central Falls, RI, to record a third album. Setting up a makeshift studio inside an abandoned pasta sauce factory, the group recorded Smart Flesh over a period of three months, making good use of the building's carvernous, resonant spaces. The album was released in February 2011.
DoWnLoAd