Spare Change

"It may sound strange," Sparhawk notes, "but we've never actually shifted our goals in music. In a vague way we've always been shooting for the same thing, and I don't know whether we're getting closer to it now or whether we've already accomplished it and we're still fleshing that out and showing the possibilities." Probably both. He characterizes The Curtain Hits the Cast as "a wide spread of where we go, everything from very simple three-and-a-half minute pop-type songs -- 'Over the Ocean' -- to experiments in sound" (the epic fourteen-and-a-half-minute "Do You Know How to Waltz?"). As for Songs for a Dead Pilot, "We approached it as an opportunity to stretch out and try some things and not worry about which song we were going to do the video for," he continues. "With this album we took maybe a bigger step 'out there' than we have on our other records."

Given his way, Sparhawk would like to step even further "out there" by scoring music for film. "I'm much more interested in doing something like that than I am in ever having a song on the radio," he confides. "That just seems more real to what we're doing. That would be another chance to get completely away from 'songs' and work with textures while still understanding harmony and melody."

For the nonce, however, Sparhawk, Parker, and Sally will soldier on in the familiar rock routine of recording and performing. After some dates in the East, South, and Midwest this month, they will tour Europe in May, with tentative plans to record this summer, maybe back in the couple's basement, maybe some place bigger. According to Sparhawk, what you hear on Low's records is what you'll hear at one of their shows. "The core of nine out of ten of our songs is Mimi playing drums, Zak playing bass, and me playing guitar, and Mimi and me singing," he explains. "Generally, live, it's pretty easy to pull off. We're not ones to extend some section or go into some guitar solo on the spot or improvise. A few of the songs, like 'Be There,' are tougher to do, of course -- we don't have the washing machine on-stage."

Low performs with Swivel Stick and A Kite Is a Victim at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 15, at the Warehouse Cafe, 7181 SW 117th Ave; 273-0870. Admission is $7.