Artist description A fabled account of choosing your climactic nature mostly scented under hypnotic adventure... Low-beaming is night-driving along the river road on the long way there, navigating by moonlight, almost into the river sometimes. Or out to the lake in a traveling party and shutting the lights off behind the lead car. And full moon motorcycling through the woods, the visual soundtrack equivalent to a CCR song or maybe Elvis in the ghetto. The Beams are clear together on producing a sound called from the gut. Rock with a grandeur with voiced group sensitivities, honest specific comment sworn over the bible of shared experience. It's the gift of yankee roots grown on the oldcoast. Low-Beam may sound like Joy Division and Mazzy Star all at once. As a name, Low-Beam sounds like an automotive design outfit from Japan working brands for a future past. Band as team is the goal - a reason to wear numbered jerseys. A friendly attack and a backyard competition like fast-pitch whiffleball on a Sunday afternoon. A lil' R&R on the waves of vibrato and chord.

Music Style indie rock / lo-fi / high-fi

Musical Influences post-punk, 60's psychedelia, garage, sonix

Similar Artists spiritualized, modest mouse, built to spill, sonic youth, galaxy 500, echo and the bunnymen, pernice brothers, spoon, azure ray

Artist History Low-Beam began operations in New London, CT eighteen months ago with Jaimee on voice and keys, C.J. on guitar and voice, Richard Martin on bass and Rich Freitas playing drums. Group members have, as often do, played plenty of music together in other formats and outfits over many seasons. Now the balance of voice and instrument offers the drama we’re looking for. The band was fast out of the shoot, playing shows up and down the New York-Boston corridor, including stops at Pianos, Southpaw, Toad's Place and The Middle East and offering support to the likes of Superdrag, the Styrenes, Aaron Espinoza of Earlimart and Adam Franklin of Swervedriver. In the Spring of 2002, the band began recording “Fashionable Driving Songs” at their State Street Studios in New London. The piece arrived Fall 2002 to very satisfying reactions in the press as well as receiving significant play on internet & college radio around the country. Time Out New York/ Issue #39 offered, "the band’s debut CD 'Fashionable Driving Songs'shows promise, if not brilliance." Performermag.com recently wrote, "The soft-yet-intense sound of Low-Beam is a constant atmospheric presence, like the damp feeling immediately following a rainstorm." (7/03). The band is currently mastering material for the follow up “Industrial Light & Magic,” scheduled for release in Fall 2003. The single “Airstream” is out this August and will also be featured on the ep. This recording is less minimal, or more blown up, and suggests a wider palate (and fascination with retro-tin vehicles). Also coming down the turnpike, the band will be heading to Studio .45 to begin work on a full length LP, targeted for Spring 2004 release. The excitement level is high.

Group Members jaimee weatherbee, cj stankewich, rich freitas, richard lee martin

Instruments vox jaguar, gibson rd artist,

Albums Fashionable Driving Songs

Press Reviews a review of 'Fashionable Driving Songs' by Jack Rabid, the Big Takeover: This minimalist New London, CT group reminds me a little of The Bats, with a more fuzzy, dirty guitar sound, with their quaint keyboards and boy/girl vocals (these two are the kicker), moody post-New Order bass burble, and Velvet Underground-esque few-chords aspects. “AWOL” in particular sounds like that kind of repetitive Velvets thing that’s never gone out of style. the kind Jonathan Richman obsessed over on “Roadrunner,” and thousands of others have since. (You can even sing a little of “Roadrunner” to it.) Were it not for the swirly keyboards, they’d be a little too homage-prone, but you can’t miss that element, cheering up each song like an implanted smile chip. Jaimee Weatherbee and CJ Stankewich’s vocals are always hushed or sugary, a fine contrast to the rawer music behind them. This is real close-your-eyes music. Just don’t do that if you’re taking up this band on its title suggestion. a review of 'Fashionable Driving Songs' by Jenn Sikes, Splendid Ezine: Singing about '72 four-doors and riding at night in cars with the windows down, Low Beam introduces in their very first song the influences that'll haunt them for the length of this album -- and let's face it, probably their entire career. They're focused on the night, bittersweet romance and wryly literate ideas; they've been called Joy Division on antidepressants, though I'd describe them as more of a cross between Cinerama, VU and the Sundays. That still probably doesn't rate them high enough out of the doldrums, but the kernel of the idea is there. Shoe-gaze mixed with post-punk is a faster shorthand, and dang, they've got the genre nailed down tight: "You're angry 'cos I'm angry 'cos you're angry, but that's what I'm for", they mumble sweetly together in "Angry", as the guitars speed up and growl, and the drummer taps time like jangly bells on the high hat. The whole track list is tight, with no song particularly repetitious but all of them necessarily similar enough that you're never jarred by their juxtapositions. Hopefully Low Beam will keep going long enough to make this self-released disc a collector's item. Fashionable Driving Songs is worth going the distance. a review of 'Fashionable Driving Songs' by Jennifer Dauphinais, State Street Primer : Revealing the true definition of "sub-pop": mellow vibrations that maintain easy momentum below the usual fast paced bubbling of top forty hits; Low-Beam stays true to their laid back name. They are as sublime as Yo La Tengo, with a sense of melancholy on the road to happiness like Joy Division on anti-depressants. Their debut release, ‘Fashionable Driving Songs’, is filled with edible, streamline melodies, and clean male and female harmonies that travel across the shades of love, and the moods of human emotion. Jaimee’s and CJ’s vocals on “Low Beaming” sound like they were recorded while the two were eating honey sticks on a Ferris wheel in June. “Angry” builds beneath heavy bass that slowly gains momentum and increases in volume, but seems as angry as a soft pillow. “AWOL” deals with a little bit more vinegar through increased guitar work, while "Roses"dances through an empty ballroom of minimal lo-fi luxury and layered dream like vocals. ‘Fashionable Driving Songs’ is a crisp, and calm record without complicated changes, or hesitation to keep you feeling relaxed. a review of 'Fashionable Driving Songs' by Christopher Arnott, New Haven Advocate: I listened to Low-Beam's CD four times today. The first time, it sounded a bit trendy and derivative, albeit genuine. The second time, it sounded like a respectful toast to the Velvet Underground (somewhere between White Light White Heat and Loaded), and I have no problem with that. The third time, I realized how in-synch the four musicians are--a generous and truly collaborative humming throb of keyboards, drums, bass and guitar and two different lead voices. Fourth time, I really heard the lyrics--fascinating anxious observations on the languishes of love and the limitations of humanity: "So glad you have run away/With your cigarettes and a magazine/Your room is your new foxhole/Pull your helmet down." Low-Beam doesn't drone, doesn't mope, doesn't grind, but speaks like bands that do. Low-Beam is sweet and clean in a strange way, amiable in its confusion and despair. If you were at the Ideat Village outdoor festival in June, you know Low-Beam is intriguing rather than dour onstage. The band's native New London knows it better--for now. Live at Sailfest 2002, New London, CT - July 14, 2002 by Dan Pearson, the New London Day: With their use of keyboard and their interchange of male and female vocals, Low-Beam called to mind the propulsive minimalism of Stereolab or Neu!. But there was also an angularity to the music, and a manner of building and layering, which reconstructed the band's simple refrains into something more textured and hypnotic. There is an urgency to Low-Beam's music that underlies the vocal harmony. Low-Beam songs start with a note or a melody, which is repeated like a chant. The melody, whether initiated by Rich Martin's bass or Jaimee Weatherbee's keyboards, is then combined with Rich Freitas' drums and C. J. Stankewich's guitar so that the melody breaks like a knuckleball, curving but somehow suspended in air.

Additional Info booking: 860-857-6337 or rlm@hozomeen.org

Location New London, CT - USA

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