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First Watch: Lo Moon, 'This Is It'

Lo Moon seemed to come out of nowhere last year, and the trio of Matt Lowell, Crisanta Baker, Samuel Stewart have been steadily peeling back the layers ever since. What's been revealed to date is a neo-classic sound with cascading keyboard textures, rhythmic crescendos, shimmering guitars and cinematic lift. Our first taste of the band was "Loveless," a song with big sound that's as intimate as it is anthemic.

Their latest single, "This Is It," maintains the seductive ambient charm and pull of "Loveless," yet shows a steadfast rock side to the band, including touring drummer Sterling Laws. Lowell told me over email that the song is "built on three very different emotional stages of a relationship. For the video we felt it was best to keep the focus on the song." The piano in the video, Lowell says, "is a Crown Piano from the early 1900s. It's been played on a lot of world class records. The story has it Johnny Cash recorded 'Hurt' on this very piano. It's one of those instruments that has songs stocked up inside of it. You feel it the second you sit down to play. It's one of the most inspiring instruments I've ever played."

Lo Moon do intimacy extremely well, and it is well represented in the video for "This Is It." Shot in black and white and directed by L.A. director Kevin Slack, it features the band up close and personal. It captures the energy and interplay of the foursome during their live shows, as if you were on stage right in the center of the action.

Copyright 2017 XPN

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Bruce Warren
Bruce Warren is assistant general manager for programming of WXPN in Philadelphia. Besides serving as executive producer of World Café, Warren also contributes to Paste magazine and writes for two blogs: Some Velvet Blog and WXPN's All About The Music Blog.