Chords for The Beautiful Music of LOW

I've been wanting to make a video about unknown bands that influenced the mainstream for a while.
On my channel I've talked about some indie rock bands in the past, bands that are favorites of
mine like Swerve Driver for example, where I interviewed the singer Adam Franklin, made videos
about them or made a video about them a couple years ago, but I haven't really done anything
_ lately.
_ You guys know that I do a lot of contemporary music and things like that and a
lot of historic music on here, but of well-known artists and I don't really give enough time to
indie artists.
When I talk about underground bands that were influential I think of Velvet Underground,
Wire, Pavement, The Pixies, Swerve Driver, My Bloody Valentine, Big Star, Television, a lot of bands
that historically were really important and influenced bands that end up becoming huge huge
bands, whether it's The Pixies, then Nirvana or REM and Nirvana or the bands that influenced those
bands, the bands that influenced bands like [A] REM.
And the passing of the drummer and singer Mimi
Parker of the band Lowe this weekend [D]
made me want to visit some of their music _ and talk about them
as a tribute.
I've been a fan of the band for years and years.
Their type of music is described
as _ slowcore.
_ Slowcore is indie rock, slow tempos, breathy vocals, they have kind of dissonant beautiful
chords in them, very dreamy, you know, slow tempos though, that's the whole thing about slowcore.
Or dream pop is another way you could describe their music, which is really like shoegaze music.
Dream pop and shoegaze, although I wouldn't say Swerve Driver is a dream pop band because they're
a rock band, but that's the thing that have these bands that have these beautiful sonic palettes
that they use or sonic youth that they use interesting open tunings with beautiful distortion,
things like that.
Let me play you some. _
Mimi was the drummer and singer of the band along with her
husband Alan Sparhawk and when I heard that Mimi passed away this past weekend I had heard that she
had cancer and I went back and looked for an article.
She had done an interview in 2020 when
she talked about her diagnosis _ and this is a quote from her it says, I think it's important to when
people get a diagnosis some people have the tendency to ask why, why me?
Parker said at the time.
I never
had that I was always like why not we're all subject to the same random this and that that
happens and she continued our time can be cut short and what do we do with that time that we have
we try to make each day mean something and I would say it's a really sober and profound way to look
at things.
I want to play you some of their [F#m] music they have records dating back to the 90s
you can find it on Spotify.
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [Am] _
I love that [D] progression _ it [G] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
already has [D] this melancholy [G] vibe. _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [F#m] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ _ [F#m] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ [D] inside _ the [Am] dream _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ [G] _ _
you _ [D] _ take a [Am] step.
I love that _ [D] _ melancholy [G] sound.
The progression is _ [D] _ sad.
[Am] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ _ [F#m] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
_ That's Try To [F#m] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ Sleep.
[A] _ _ _
_ That record is a great record.
It came out 2011.
I think Steve Albini produced it.
Their first big record came out in 1994. _
It's called I Can Live In Hope and there's a song
[B] called Lullaby on there that's [C#] one of their [D] biggest songs on Spotify but listen a little bit.
_ _ _ be _ [Bm] _
soft
_ _ _ [C#] _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ [F#m] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ [Bm] _
_ [F#m] _ _ _ _ [C#] _ _ _
_ [A] you _ notice those dissonant chord voicings this [G] is really
part of this _ slow core _ slow tempo _ once [D] again
_ [B] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [C#m] love [G] that _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ if you want to get into a vibe this is this is why I'm such a fan I love indie rock I love things that
are sonically _ rich to have dissonant chords you guys know that I always talk about that I'm always
talking about the kind of guitar work for example in this and this is why I like bands like My Bloody
Valentine, Swerve Driver.
I love things that are that have dissonances and Lowe is a band that
that _ Alan's guitar work is just beautiful he comes up with these great chord progressions and they
always have these melancholy dissonant kind of guitar parts like that now through the years their
sound changed they have a record that came out in 2021 and it's called Hey What this is a song
called More it's a really great guitar sound check it [B] out
_ _ _ [D] _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ _ [B] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ _ [B] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ [A] _ [D] _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
_ _ [B] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [B] _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _
_ [B] beautiful
_ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ [A] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ [B] hey
_ _ _ [D] _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _
I love those heavy guitars there it sounds like the guitar has a pog on it or something has an
octaver that goes with it's heavily distorted but once again it has this beautiful sound that's got
when it gates cuts right off like that but it has this kind of sonic energy _ that to me is just
really beautiful this it has a beautiful distortion right and then this this ethereal
melody that Mimi is singing over it just [E] great _ [A] _ _
_ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _ [D] _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [B] _
_ _ _ [D] _ you _ [A] _
_ hear that real sub bass there it sounds
[G] massive on the low end when I was going through some old videos of theirs I found a tiny desk
performance from 2011 that I had never seen before I think that they actually just put it on
YouTube a couple years ago I think it's only three songs I think _ Try To Sleep is definitely
one of them that I played earlier she and Alan were married and lived in Duluth Minnesota
where they're from there's some cool interviews with them on YouTube _ that I was _ looking at when
I was going back through and I wanted to see if there was anything _ from them recently but _
_ _ _ Robert Plant did a dedication to the band _ this past weekend after he heard the news and I thought
it was really important to mention that's the band Lowe go check them out on Spotify Apple Music
go buy their LPs and want to dedicate this to Mimi Parker thanks for watching _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _