Divine Improvisation: Retribution Gospel Choir

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FOR MORE THAN a decade, Alan Sparhawk has been playing the guitar very softly.

As a founding member of the Duluth, Minn., band Low, Sparhawk — along with his partner and collaborator Mimi Parker — has made quiet, sad and beautiful music that can be admired, above all, for its restraint.

So what a relief it must be for Sparhawk to finally crank his amp up to 11.

Formed three years ago as a side project to his main gig, Retribution Gospel Choir is Low's wilder, jammier, irresponsible kid brother. Sparhawk still writes sad and beautiful songs, but they're more inclined to wander off into Neil Young & Crazy Horse-inspired outer limits and delay-heavy-dub homage.

Sparhawk talked to Express about letting loose on stage, his love of dub reggae and the unexpected benefits of having a drummer who really likes Phish. Retribution Gospel Choir plays the Rock & Roll Hotel on Monday in support of its eponymous full-length debut, out on Caldo Verde.

» EXPRESS: I didn't call too early did I?
» SPARHAWK: No, not at all. I do get up late but 11:30 is getting ridiculous.

» EXPRESS: When did you first start doing Retribution Gospel Choir?
» SPARHAWK: About three years ago. I had done what you call "side bands" before, like Black Snakes and a couple of different things. When this came together it was pretty dynamic and fun. We did a few tours and played around a lot in the region.

» EXPRESS: Who are the members of the band?
» SPARHAWK: Eric Pollard is the drummer and Steve Garrington on bass — he has also been playing bass on Low shows this year.

» EXPRESS: Do they do music full-time?
» SPARHAWK: Steve is young but he's a really well-trained bass player. He gets hired a lot for different gigs around the area. I guess that's what he does for a living, I don't know. Retribution isn't really a making-a-living kind of a band. Those guys are making a bit of a sacrifice to go off for weeks on end. They're putting up some time and effort for sure.

» EXPRESS: What made you finally decide to make a full-length record?
» SPARHAWK: It was sort of always in the back of my mind. We were grappling with the material. We tried little demos and made some attempts at different recording. We did some tour EPs that had some acoustic and instrumental stuff — they were kind of scattered. We needed to find a solid 35 minutes of ... something. We were kind of waiting around and seeing if that something presented itself. Mark Kozelek [Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon and owner of the Caldo Verde label] is a casual friend of mine. He just sort of got on a kick about trying to get us to come out and record. He kept asking me and working other members of the band. That's how that went down. It took some encouraging, but once we got out there and started going it went really well.

» EXPRESS: The songs on the record are pretty concise. I've read that you guys are a little looser live — a little more open to improvisation.
» SPARHAWK: The songs are pliable. Yeah, we work a lot looser live. There are some sections of improvisation and some of the songs just provide structure [for exploration]. Others are just a straight up two minutes, like the record. When we were making it the material seemed strongest when we stuck to the song — got in, got out. I've never really had very good luck with jamming on tape. When I have the chance to just let it fly and see what happens I usually end up choosing not to — or editing things out. The record's very tight. Most of the songs are "get in and get out."

» EXPRESS: How is touring with Retribution Gospel Choir different than touring with Low?
» SPARHAWK: A lot of it's exactly the same. It's still 23 hours a day of sleeping somewhere else and riding in a van that stinks. There are certainly things about playing live with this band that I didn't get enough of playing with Low — volume, improvisation. Improvisation is something I've always loved, or had a love-hate thing with. It's interesting to play that loose with that kind of volume swirling around the room.

Low is all about the atmosphere that happens when we play; it's really standing on very different legs. With Retribution it's sort of driven chaos. It plays itself. Hopefully it isn't too old hat for everybody listening. After playing with a certain restraint on guitar, understanding the way guitars interact with you on this subtle minimal quiet level [in Low], it's interesting to open that up and see what happens.

» EXPRESS: When you improvise, do you feel like you have any tendency to wander into the same territory or mood you hit, say, the night before?
» SPARHAWK: Whenever we go into something that's looser we're pretty determined to find something pretty new. Sometimes I'll catch myself. ... If something worked last night I'll try it again and it will fall down. You really have to fully let go or the chance of it working ... it won't happen. I usually try to trip myself up every time — to go in as ignorant as possible.

» EXPRESS: Have you guys ever fallen flat on your face?
» SPARHAWK: Oh, yeah, you kind of have to accept that that's going to happen sometimes. Hopefully we're so out there at the time that nobody really notices. Sometimes we paint ourselves in a corner. That's frustrating, but it happens. You just stand up and get rolling again. It's not as bad as people fear, going into improvisation. It's just kind of about letting go. It's not so much about being fearless; it's really sort of becoming a kid. It's about becoming a child and sort of being ... I want to say ignorant. To be able to improvise and not hate yourself; you just kind of have to trust that it's there.

» EXPRESS: Has the band always been focused on jamming or improvising?
» SPARHAWK: It always was. Early on there were some phases where we were even more improvisational. There were some shows where we played two and a half songs and somehow filled the set. Eric Pollard, the drummer, he and I interact pretty well. He's sort of an organic drummer. That sounds boring and cliche, but both of these guys come from jazz, they went to school, played a lot, and played a lot of different music.

Steve, the bass player, is way more into R&B, jazz and funk. Eric, the drummer, is a little more well rounded. He wasn't a complete college percussion major geek but I'm ashamed to admit that he spent a few years following Phish around. Definitely not my favorite scene. He's had his time "in the dreadlocks," so to speak. But it's interesting what he brings from that world. He also jokes about it a lot. Has a good attitude about the fact that I hate [Phish]. It's been a running joke.

» EXPRESS: Does it lead to tense arguments over control of the van stereo?
» SPARHAWK: No. Ninety-five percent of the time we listen to reggae and dub. That's definitely a common ground between us. If I take out Pavement or something, nobody wants to hear it. We listen to Neil Young and dub.

» EXPRESS: When did you start getting into dub?
» SPARHAWK: Maybe about three or four years ago I started getting a little bit of the vocabulary. It occupies a new part of my brain, it's exciting. It has so many of the primal things that I love about music. I'm a big fan of King Tubby, The Gladiators, Lee Perry — thought there's a few records that drive me crazy because the melodicas are so out of tune — Horace Andy, and [Radiohead's] Jonny Greenwood's comp for Trojan is really good. That was definitely a very reaffirming collection that he did; it had a lot of stuff that I liked and loved. Stuff that surprised me.

» Rock & Roll Hotel, 1353 H St. NE; with The Weather Underground and The Beanstalk Library, Mon., 8:00 p.m., $12; 202-388-7625.

Written by Express contributor Aaron Leitko

Photos courtesy Retribution Gospel Choir