Craig Lorentson passed away on June 4th 2010, he was only 44 years old. Craig was the singer for Lowlife, one of the best Post-Punk bands that not enough people have heard of, and one of my favorite bands of all time.
I remember dancing at Alchemy at CBGB’s in NYC and having to run to the DJ Booth and ask Jason, the resident DJ there, “What is this, it’s the best thing I have ever heard!” It was like the perfect mixture of And Also the Trees, Joy Division, and The Cocteau Twins, and rightly so, for the originally bass player for CT, Will Heggie, joined up with Lowlife after he parted ways with Robin and Liz (Joining up with Lowlife was actually at Robin’s request, as his brother Brian Guthrie was managing the band).
My favorite band is The Cocteau Twins, hands down. However, even without that connection, I would have still become obsessed with Lowlife. And that obsession led to the point where I coveted anyone who could get their hands on copies of the pre-Lowlife PsychoBilly band, Dead Neighbors, on vinyl.
It’s frustrating how bands like The Chameleons, Sad Lovers and Giants, and Lowlife never got the fame they truly deserved. Lowlife, however, was a low-key band, that never seemed to be about fame and rockstardom-and all the games that go with it. No, Lowlife were just some working class Scottish blokes making the music that they loved.
There is a upcoming documentary on Lowlife in the works, check it out below:
Bonus: Here is my favorite Lowlife song, Forever Filthy (I always spin this when I DJ)
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