Pitchfork: Low Add Dates, Sparhawk Solo

Low destroyed everything last year by recording their big guitar record with Dave Fridmann and leaving Kranky to release their seventh album on Sub Pop. Bassist Zak Sally left the band and was replaced by Matt Livingston of Low leader Alan Sparhawk's side project Retribution Gospel Choir. All that and the band had to cancel their Spring tour due to Sparhawk's health problems.

This year has been far less eventful, but it seems that the Low machine is cranking up again. They have a summer full of festival dates scheduled, including two July shows in London as part of All Tomorrow's Parties' "Don't Look Back" series, in which they will perform their 2001 classic Things We Lost in the Fire in its entirety. And though the specific dates have yet to be confirmed, both Low and Retribution Gospel Choir will be playing the Green Man Festival in Duluth this July.

Leave your monkeys at home:

06-17 Stillwater, MN - Square Lake Solstice Festival
07-07 Winnipeg, Manitoba - Birds Hill Provincial Park (Winnipeg Folk Festival)
07-14 Minneapolis, MN - Orchestra Hall (Sommerfest: Macy's Day of Music)
07-15-16 Duluth, MN - Green Man Festival
07-26 London, England - Koko (Don't Look Back)
07-27 London, England - Koko (Don't Look Back)
07-28 Athboy, Ireland - Ballinlough Castle (Midlands Music Festival)
07-29 Antwerp, Belgium - Open Air Theatre
08-21 Minneapolis, MN - Loring Park (Music and Movies in the Park)
12-08 Chicago, IL - Old Town School of Folk Music *
12-09 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue

* with the Astronomer

In addition to his full band commitments, Sparhawk will also be releasing his first solo full-length. Recorded live at Duluth's Sacred Heart, the creatively titled Solo Guitar will be officially released August 1 on Silber Records but ships immediately to those who order from the label's website. The record features a drawing of a guitar by Sparhawk's young daughter Hollis Mae on the front cover, and we're guessing the sparkles covering the package were her idea as well. Solo Guitar is described on the Silber Records website as "reverb driven ambient guitar experiments," and while most of its nine songs are under three minutes, the third and fourth tracks run for 13 and 17 minutes, respectively. Talk about a dinosaur act!

Oh, and there's also a cover of Van Halen's "Eruption", which, let's face it, is every guitarist's wet dream.

Tracklist:

01 How the Weather Comes Over the Central Hillside
02 Sagrado Corazón de Jesú (First Attempt)
03 Sagrado Corazón de Jesú (Second Attempt)
04 How a Freighter Comes Into the Harbor
05 How the Weather Hits the Freighter...
06 ...in the Harbor
07 How the Engine Room Sounds
08 Eruption by Eddie Van Halen
09 How It Ends