Pitchfork

New name, same great taste! Low's forthcoming eighth album, coming out March 20 on Sub Pop, will not be titled The Violet Path, as Alan Sparhawk told us a month ago. Rather, it will be named Drums and Guns.

Given the new title, we assume that the album will retain the violent nature Sparhawk described to us. "Near as I can tell, it's all about killing," he said of the album. "I was kind of realizing the other day that a lot of the songs deal with either killing someone or dying. I don't know, it's kind of funny...maybe that's the big question. [We're] kind of living in a time when it's good to talk about killing and being killed."

Sparhawk also listed potential song titles as being "Murderer", "Breaker", "Violent Past", "Pretty People", and "Hatchet". At this time, the Drums and Guns tracklist has not been revealed. But we do know that it features bass playing by new bassist Matt Livingston, was produced by Dave Fridmann (who also helmed 2005's The Great Destroyer), and that "these songs feature new elements (looped vocals, drum machines, etc.)," according to Sub Pop's website.

Low have a handful of shows scheduled this week, as well as a few in the late winter and spring (including a stint at the Dirty Three-curated edition of All Tomorrow's Parties). The concerts this week are Christmas shows which will also double as fundraisers for the building of a school in Namuncha, Kenya, a project begun with money raised at last year's Low Christmas shows. For more information about the project, as well as photos from Sparhawk's trip to Kenya this summer, click here.

Low shows:

12-06 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom *
12-08 Chicago, IL - Old Town School of Folk Music #
12-09 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue @
02-15 London, England - Spitz
02-16 Bruges, Belgium - Concertgebouw (Music in Mind Festival)
04-27-29 Somerset, England - Butlins Minehead (All Tomorrow's Parties)

* with Death Vessel
# with the Astronomer
@ with Fog