Take it slow: Minnesota's Low celebrated 10 years of "Slowcore" beauty this year. A three-disc retrospective is set for release in 2004.

For such an auspicious year in the history of Low, the Minnesota trio is keeping a profile that perfectly suits their name. The band that redefined the Slowcore genre after their 1993 formation has taken a spartan approach to celebrating their 10th anniversary, and although there are big things in the works for next year, 2003 has been a year of both boredom and drama for Low.

The boredom has been of the welcomed variety, as the band finished up the touring cycle for last year's Trust album and took some time off to start writing and considering a direction for their next release. The drama came in the form of an inadvertently public controversy over longtime Low bassist Zak Sally's status with the band. A recent posting on Low's web site (chairkickers.com) from Low frontman Alan Sparhawk apologized for the unintentional passion play and explains it as merely a garden-variety band misunderstanding.

"I wish I could say there was a fistfight or something," says Sparhawk from the Duluth, Minn., home he shares with his wife, Low drummer/vocalist Mimi Parker. "It was simply that none of us really knew what we wanted to do, and after we had some time to think about it and sat back down to talk, we found we were all on the same page."

With the trio's sense of purpose renewed, Low opened a series of shows for Radiohead earlier this year at the band's specific request, an experience Sparhawk says was "amazing." Upon returning home, the band has played a few local dates and subsequently accepted offers for shows in Chicago and New York and then decided to fill a few dates in-between, in locales where they hadn't been for awhile. This spate of shows isn't really a tour since the band has only just begun to think about their new material and the next Low album is nearly a year down the line. Still, they will be performing some new songs on this short jaunt, just to road test the tracks and get a feeling for them as performed pieces.

"There's something that adds a three-dimensionality, at least to me, when you've actually played it in front of people," says Sparhawk. "It's not necessarily that you need, 'Oh, everybody loved it,' as much as it's kind of the 'birth' part of the song. You've had this thing forming and then lightning strikes and puts life in the monster when you've performed it in front of people. Even if it's frustrating and you later change things, at least it's had that moment where it lives. There's something more permanent to a song once it's been played out."

Although this year actually marks the anniversary of Low's beginning, 2004 looks to be the big year for the band. Sparhawk is currently assembling a three-disc retrospective that will compile a good number of Low's B-sides, tribute tracks and demos into one collection, many of which will make their CD debut with this release (the set will also feature a DVD of Low videos and a documentary about the band). Anytime Sparhawk is confronted with his band's history, he comes away from the experience a little dazed.

"It's really surprising to look back at all the little stragglers that went out there," says Sparhawk. "It's kind of disturbing. I feel bad when we run into some fan or stay at someone's house who's a big fan and you look on their shelf and there's a whole row taken up with Low compilation CDs and singles and the ridiculous pile of things we've been on. I'm like, 'I'm so sorry that my hard work has imposed on your lifestyle.'"

At this point in the band's history, after a fairly good major label experience with Virgin's Vernon Yard imprint and an extremely positive relationship with their current indie label Kranky, Sparhawk feels like the band could easily put in another 10 years, further imposing on their fiercely loyal fan base.

"I'm glad that we've created a music that won't sound stupid if we're playing it when we're in our 40s," says Sparhawk. "Not to ridicule any specific band, but if in your twenties you start a band that's about drinking beer and what a bummer it is to break your skateboard, it's going to be tough to sing those songs in your thirties. I think we've created a band and a language and a music that I foresee being able to say just about everything I'm going to ever say in my life. Every concern that comes along and everything I care about is very easy to filter through or put through what is Low. At this point, it's getting too late for me to make a career change, so I hope it lasts in some form or another."