Back in late 2004/ early 2005 a lucky Amoeba whim turned me on to a wonderful LA-based band then known as 1984. As word got out they would go on to be compared to “Low-era” Bowie, Air, and Morrissey. Perhaps, perhaps… but I’ll put more stock into a description involving the words “cinematic” and “intricate”. Since then the band changed their name, released a 2nd EP, lost their guitarist, and changed their name again, now known as Low vs. Diamond. Recently, the drummer (Howie Diamond) and I decided that Vodka on a boat1 was the order of the day, so we rented a small vessel, threw ourselves into the Pacific, and conversed:
SHRN: Life after Love is a great track. The video is really dynamic and simple, making a nice compliment to the chord progression in the song itself. How did the clip come about?
Howie: We actually took the video clip from a 70’s indy movie of this car driving around Paris at 6:00am called Rendezvous. Claude Lelouch bolted a gyro-stabilized 35mm camera to the bumper of his car and drove through the streets of Paris like a madman, careening up onto sidewalks and reaching speeds that reportedly topped 140 mph..
SHRN: That’s fucking insane. That’s the first thing I’m doing if I ever go to Paris. Any worries about that using copyrighted material?
Howie: We are not selling it so it is totally legal.
SHRN: (Laughs). That’s definitely a philosophy we subscribe to around here. So you guys used to be called 1984. Then you changed your name to Colored Shadows at the suggestion of a friend who had been experimenting with using lights to create “colored shadows”. Now you’ve changed monickers once again. Why the identity crisis?
Howie: The name change came beceause over the course of the last 6 months a bunch of negative things were coming at us and so we kind of wanted to represent those reality of events.
SHRN: So what exactly does Low Vs. Diamond mean? I can’t help but notice that your last name is “Diamond”…
Howie: Low represents the negative things coming at us and Diamond represents the band as an entity as my last name is “Diamond”. Its kind of like the battle of Good vs Evil (smiles). Also, Ben (former guitarist) left the band and he came up with “Colored Shadows” so we wanted to start things of with a fresh new name after he was gone.
This fresh start will be evidenced soon as Low vs. Diamond are in the studio recording their debut full length right this minute. They already have 2 quality EPs (as Colored Shadows) notched in the bedpost and available here and here. They’ll be playing some shows this August that I’d advise you to attend if you can (check their website for more info, ya’ heard). Remember, you need to check them out while they’re still relatively unknown and you’re allowed to be enthusiastic. If you’re lucky you’ll get a taste of their new-hotness LP material. And, yes, to be cool we all have to maintain that “the EPs were better”, but hopefully the full-length will be good enough that we can all secretly like it the best. They’ll probably change their name again by the time it drops, so stay vigilant.
Low vs. Diamond - Life after Love
If anyone is interested, the Swedish band Kent made (well, they didn’t make it themselves, probably hired a director) a video based on this “Rendezvous”-film a couple of years ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPIckC7UH9w
The birds fly away from the oncoming car so artfully…these must be the birds that escaped from Wes Anderson’s AmEx commercial (they seemed too well-trained not to be).
Addendum to Footnote 1: Dicks in a butt is also a good one.
love love it. and i love the birds. and everything. i love it.