“60 Years On…” 02-13-25 playlist Hr.2
*Low-Beam – Low Beaming
*Low-Beam – Parabellum
Dinosaur Jr. – Feel The Pain
*Low-Beam – Angry
*Low-Beam – AWOL
Joy Division – Love Will Tear Us Apart
The Velvet Underground – Run Run Run
Smashing Pumpkins – Girl Named Sandoz
Echo & The Bunnymen – Pictures On My Wall
The Psychedelic Furs – Imitation of Christ
The Velvet Underground – All Tomorrow’s Parties
Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
*IMC ‘Zine #46 Feb. ’03 Feature CD – Low-Beam – “Fashionable Driving Songs”
26 years ago on Sept. 1, 1998 I founded IndepenDisc Music Club.
To Celebrate, during hour #2, we will revisit all the IndepenDisc Monthly Feature CDs/Artists from 1998 – 2013.
Issue #46 Feb ’03
Low-Beam – fashionable driving songs
Low Beaming: A gradual build to a grand and glorious implosion (sexual innuendos apply).
Slip behind the wheel of your ’72 four door, or ’60 ford galaxy – return to a time when all that mattered was cruisin’ with your girl/guy down by the shoreline at dusk. Slip in “fashionable driving songs” by Low-Beam and be carried back to when the most important thing in your life was clumsily getting it on in the back seat.
Low-Beam: Jaimee Weatherbee (voice, keyboards), CJ Stankewich (voice, guitar), Rich Freitas (drums), and Richard Martin (bass); who suck us in with an implosion of alt. Lo Fi – very intense, very smooth. A laid back assault of our senses that brings to mind Dinosaur Jr. It lies low, grooving, taking in life through such a mellow enraptured mood that by the time we realize the music is kicking ass – it is.
Implosion: a burst inward.
You know how a band will build a musical structure until they just explode and blow you away? Well, Low-Beam builds such an intricate sonic landscape (a la early Smashing Pumpkins and Psychedelic Furs, Joy Division, and Sonic Youth) that it carries us into an ultra-soothing, transcendental dreamscape until it implodes and sucks us inward. There we find that not only is Low-Beam an intense musical equivalent of a Quaalude – But, they also bring us inward with a variety of lyrical genius that gets us to feel and think the tales that are unfolded. For these tales are a total mental interaction experience set to a soundtrack that affirms the autoerotic mystique of Low-Beam.
Setting the stage with Low Beaming we are glided into the old cruisin’ cars of past summers, where there’s “room in the back for a kiss” and as the Fuzz guitar soars erratically above the controlled rhythm section, the Boy/Girl harmonies vocalize the passions that are tripping over each other – as each tries to calmly deal with each new experience as if they were hip to it all along. After all, that’s why we’re so cool – that’s why we’re along for the ride.
Once there, Parabellum plunges us into a soap opera of a relationship. It’s a bad pairing from the start “Your interests never seemed to follow mine/You’re eager to get into the shade of my heart.” But a sexual fire burns, it turns them both on so much that even though they can’t get along, they can’t get away either. Feelings so intense that a public display of their anger is un-acknowledgeable “What the hell’s the problem here/Why’s everybody stare.” Both are too stubborn to see anything but their own point and are fine parting because of it “You said it once/You never said it twice/You walked away and I walked alone/You were entirely wrong/I was entirely right/You walked away and I was fine.” As the tension builds, we can feel the underscore trying to reign in the sensibilities that will keep them both walking away – but the dam bursts and everything implodes “Set me on fire and I don’t say shit/Set me on fire and I don’t say half as much.” There is no walking away, they melt in their uncontrollable passion, forgetting the scene they created (and are climaxing while those who have witnessed this turn of events turn away). Expertly using CJ’s and Jaimee’s Boy/Girl vocals to characterize this emotional conflict and harmony, Low-Beam produces a song that mirrors this troubled mating dance – It isn’t until after the fall of the final crescendo and we hear the loud but weakening trumpet (sounding spent) that the imagery of sexual conquest is complete. Declaring victory, while succumbing to defeat.
Angry and AWOL continue to explore troubled relationships while the music takes on a much darker Velvet Underground texture to collaborate the subjects, all the while allowing Jaime’s girl vocals to soar over CJ’s boy vocals. But again it is the musical composition that allows us to be privy to these tales of passive/aggressive (Angry) and withdrawn/isolated (AWOL) individuals. Down and dirty, fuzz guitar chords flow in Angry and bounce off walls in AWOL. Both soar smoothly while assaulting the stories involved, lending an eeriness and passion that is as disturbing as it is consoling, all the while churning under the weight of the subjects.
Not to loose sight of the backseat sexual symbolism of the CD on a whole (Tracks 1 & 2 cruisin’ & parking, track 3 getting it on, track 4 implosion/climax, track 5 and 6 the wind down) the final two tracks lighten the subject matters a bit (still commenting on slightly fractured relationships) while clinging to a Lo Fi, Echo & The Bunnymen-esque structure. Noodling guitar, slightly buried keyboards, mixed once again with the conjugal Boy/Girl harmonies, and a solemn rhythm section, sublimely hold our interest while we reach for the cigarettes, pull on our clothes, and start the car.
Should we send roses?
Nah, just hit repeat, let’s go Low Beaming again.
– G.Gone
