Zak Sally - Why We Hide

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4...according to our Business Lady on Fri 17 Jul, 2009.

Zak Sally played bass with Low for twelve long and, most probably, magical years. I'd like to think he got chucked out for drinking booze on tour or something trivial like that but the truth is he probably tired of the band and touring and decided to call it a day. He's a damn good illustrator and i assume he's been busying himself drawing Sammy the Mouse comics (Sammy the mouse and other Zak Sally comics are available from Fantagraphics books for anyone interested, that's at www.fantagraphics.com) which i would highly recommend you check out. His solo material has more in common with his illustration work than with his previous exploits as a Low bass player. 'Why we hide' is a powerful alternative american rock single of the best kind, dairy, simple and fully rocking!! It's sort of like 'The great destoyer' era Low (i.e: Low at their heaviest) or maybe early Shellac with the addition of cheap casio organ sounds. It's mint. B-side 'When I said I Missed You I Just Meant My Aim Was Off (The Quiet Life)' is equally as dirgy and sinister that builds out of repetitive groove and rotating vocal line. It ends with a strange selection of sweary out-takes. This bit ain' t worth explaining but it's damn funny!! It's well fucky sweary!! Ace single, beautifully packaged in an embossed sleeve with frosted pink vinyl. YES!! 'Oh yeah, oh my god!!'

When Zak Sally left his position as bassist for the minimalist rock band LOW after 12 years, he was pretty certain he was done with music, choosing instead to concentrate on his cartooning (Recidivist, Sammy The Mouse), and his small-press venture, La Mano 21. However, he remained absolutely terrified by music, and so found himself drawn back into the basement with the self-imposed rule to write/play/sing/make every sound in every song—no matter what. Eventually he brought the whole mess over to his friend Ben Durrant’s (Andrew Bird, Dosh, Shearwater) Crazy Beast studio and they made a record out of it. That record is called Fear of Song, and it’s not elegant, literary, graceful, virtuosic, pastoral, clever, or compositionally astounding; it’s the sound of one man clanging.

This single is one song from that record (to be released this summer by the aforementioned La Mano 21 as a handmade and signed, limited-edition CD) and another that’s not. And they’re both great. Music is clearly not as willing to be done with Zak.

TRACKS Why We Hide, When I said I Missed You I Just Meant My Aim Was Off (The Quiet Life)

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