I’m surprised as you to see activity here, but here I am writing this post on the site of my way-too-long-on-hiatus podcast.
Why? Well, it’s because I’m extremely excited about a band I’ve recently discovered — Los Angeles-based Lo Moon, featuring Matt Lowell (lead vocals, guitars, keys), Crisanta Baker (bass, keys, vocals) and Samuel Stewart (guitars, keys, vocals). When 88.5 WXPN out of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia recently started playing Lo Moon’s only available track — the epic, undulating “Loveless” — I was immediately hooked.
What drew me in so quickly, you ask? Well, I’m a pretty big fan of Talk Talk and that band’s founder/frontman Mark Hollis, who greatly influenced another band I admire, Elbow. Well, Lowell does an amazing job of channeling Hollis while not sounding like an imitation (it’s all in the lyrical content, cadence and delivery). And with Hollis being mostly retired from the music industry for many years, it is so damn cool to hear someone picking up that torch.
Anyway, Lowell recently did a guest DJ spot for an hour on WXPN and, when it had been announced a few days earlier, I tweeted to the morning show host Kristen Kurtis that I was looking forward to hearing Lowell play some of his influences because I was convinced they included Talk Talk/Mark Hollis. What I did not expect was for her to bring up my tweet while she was talking to Lowell. After playing “Red Rain” by my all-time favorite artist, Peter Gabriel, who Lowell said was his favorite singer, Kurtis asked him who some of his other favorite vocalists were.
The next name he mentioned?
MARK HOLLIS!!!
And then he said a Talk Talk song was next on his playlist.
At that point, Kurtis said to him, “I’m so glad you have a Talk Talk song on your playlist because one of our members, Brian, tweeted…that he was looking forward to your guest DJ spot because “Loveless” reminds him of late-era Talk Talk.”
Lowell responded with something to the effect of “Really? Oh wow!” (Matt…if you somehow see this, I don’t remember exactly what you said because I was a) driving at the time, and b) still laughing to myself that Kristen brought up that tweet.)
Later that night, Lo Moon played a set at the WXPN/World Cafe Live-hosted NonCOMMvention that was live-streamed by VuHaus.com so I was able to hear a few more of their songs (spoiler: they are also awesome) as well as the amazing “Loveless.” You can read about this particular performance here and watch a live performance of “Loveless” at Fordham University’s WFUV in the embedded video below.
I’ve been listening to “Loveless” practically non-stop for the past couple of weeks…it’s actually been therapeutic for me during what has been a very stressful time for me.
Lo Moon has been very deliberate about releasing new music. “Loveless” has been the only track officially out there for a number of months now, although the band says new music will be released soon. Lowell has said he wanted to give “Loveless” time to get discovered and digested before putting more music out there. Now, this could be a risky approach for many bands, but a song as brilliant as “Loveless” can be listened to repeatedly for months and still surprise you with something upon each listen.
More importantly, it leaves you wanting more.
And I, for one, cannot wait to hear more from Lo Moon.
Tandem With The Random 