The Low Anthem sent this message to their mailing list subscribers today…
Dear conspirators, lovers, friends,
It was nearly 3 years ago when we first self-released “Oh My God, Charlie Darwin.” Since then we’ve been pretty lucky. We’ve been signed to two of the finest record labels known to man, toured the globe with world class musicians, and been allowed (paid even) to play hundreds of shows to you. It’s a life we could only have dreamt. From the beginning, we’ve been a local music outfit, nearly oblivious to the avalanche of trending watery bullshit known as indie music.
All along, we’ve just wanted to play. Music that was simple. Music that we connected to. With the same spirit we started with as a duo in bars and open mics. We were obsessed with sound and gave ourselves a mission. We’ve been working to perfect our craft, the palette of instruments, rhythm-breath, harmonic saturation, a certain style of writing…mournful, drunk, angrily obsessed with justice, yadda yadda.
After 451 shows, we feel we’ve come pretty close to answering our own question. We know the “Darwin / Smart Flesh” material inside and out – better than a prominent birthmark…like swimming in bathwater…It’s really dialed in. Maybe some artists reach this point and become safer more refined imitations of themselves. We’re not interested.
So…we’ve decided that this upcoming tour will be the last tour of the chapter. The last tour devoted to this material, this incarnation. A final hurrah. A sweet goodbye. The refined completion of three years of work. It’s anything you want it to be, but it will be the last for a while.
It’s not the end. There is no end. But it’s the last one for a while. We have too many unfulfilled ideas in the works to stay out on the road. We’ve got 40+ new songs in the wings. Two very different albums to record. Blueprints for a handful of electro-light sculptures. But it’s going to take some time back home, to turn the page and build a new sound world. To burn the furniture. To decipher the new questions. So with all our hearts and all our thanks, we hereby declare in the words of Nathan Moore, this fall 2011 tour in US and Europe…
This is the last one
The last one ever°
This is the last one
We swear it
This is the last one
How dare it
Keep on giving ’til the end
Here’s the updated tour below. We’ll see you out there.
Love love love,
yours,
~Low Anthem
°that’s how the song goes
The band will be playing in Leeds on November 14 and in London on November 16th. More news as we have it.