The Low Anthem
The Low Anthem is a band from Providence, Rhode Island, formed in 2006 by friends Ben Knox Miller and Jeff Prystowsky. The current lineup consists of Knox Miller (vocals, guitars, trumpets, saws), Prystowsky (vocals, drums, double basses, synths), Bryan Minto (vocals, guitars, harmonicas) and Florence Grace Wallis (violins, vocals).
The Low Anthem
Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.
2006–present
Ben Knox Miller
Jeff Prystowsky
Florence Grace Wallis
Bryan Minto
Dan Lefkowitz
Cyrus Scofield
Jocie Adams
Mat Davidson
Tyler Osborne
Mike Irwin
Andy Davis
The Low Anthem have written, produced, and recorded five albums: What The Crow Brings (2007), Oh My God, Charlie Darwin (2008), Smart Flesh (2011), Eyeland (2016), and The Salt Doll Went to Measure the Depth of the Sea (2018). They were Mojo Magazine's Breakthrough Artist of the Year in 2010.[2][3]
History[edit]
2006–2007: Formation, early years, and "What the Crow Brings"[edit]
Founders of The Low Anthem, Ben Knox Miller and Jeffrey Prystowsky met while DJing an overnight jazz radio show for Brown University's WBRU. They became friends and teammates for a local wood-bat baseball team called the Providence Grays (Providence, Rhode Island), that Prystowsky was player-managing, while teaching baseball history at a local high school. Miller and Prystowsky played in various ensembles together ranging from classical and jazz to electronica, and The Low Anthem was formed in 2006. In the fall of 2006, Dan Lefkowitz, a bluesman from Strasburg, Virginia, joined the band and contributed to the development of their earlier sound by writing "This God Damn House". Early in 2007, Lefkowitz left the band to pursue simple living in a yurt in Arkansas. Ever since, the band continues to play the song in their live sets, ending the arrangement with the cell phone trick, where feedback loops create a haunting reverb that the whole audience participates in. The band became a trio again in late 2007 with the addition of classical composer and clarinetist Jocie Adams, then, a fellow student, who joined the band after a late-night recording session for the band's album "What The Crow Brings".[4] She appears on vocals and clarinet on the album's closing track, "Coal Mountain Lullaby".[5]
"What the Crow Brings", The Low Anthem's first full-length studio concept album, was recorded in Miller and Prystowsky's third floor apartment in Providence over several months in 2007, with mostly a single microphone, and was self-released on October 2, 2007. The band took on every aspect of manufacturing the album including dumpster diving for empty cereal boxes to fold into album sleeves, creating the silkscreens for the album art, and hand painting and serial-numbering 600 copies of the album.[6][7] The first band to take them out on tour was Surprise Me Mr. Davis, a side project of The Barr Brothers.[8]