Low Dose

Built from the ashes of a marriage gone sour, Philadelphia's LOW DOSE formed as an exercise in catharsis. Featuring the final lineup of cult noise-rock workhorses Fight Amp with the addition of vocalist Itarya Rosenberg of the late Legendary Divorce, LOW DOSE play heavy, grunge-tinged punk that is as visceral as it is infectious. Across their 35 minute, self-titled debut LP, the quartet bleed out ten emotionally fierce tracks, which deliver a loud/quiet/loud canvas for Rosenberg’s lyrics to lay bare the heartbreak and raw nerves of a broken relationship amidst rumbling bass, screeching guitar tones and dynamic drums that together signal the end of the world. LOW DOSE will surely hit all the right notes for those who enjoy the more melodic side of noise rock —especially fans of Metz, Unwound, Slint and early PJ Harvey.

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Picture this: You’ve just spent nearly a week in the hospital with a severe kidney infection only to find out your husband has cancelled your health insurance. On purpose. Because you finally left him for good—because of his alcoholism. And his mistress.

That’s the situation Itarya Rosenberg found herself in while she and her new bandmates—Mike McGinnis, Jon DeHart and Dan Smith—were in the studio recording Low Dose’s self-titled debut. “I had a 104-degree fever for two weeks,” she says. “I was sweating and shaking so bad. I recorded the first take of guitar tracks with a fever. So I went to urgent care thinking I could just get a prescription, but they were like, ‘You’re not leaving.’”

Eventually, Rosenberg got out of the hospital and the band finished the record. Then she began the slow, agonizing divorce process. “It took me months afterwards to realize it, but the cycle of abuse is fucking real,” she says. “I consider myself to be a pretty hard bitch—I don’t take shit from anyone—but I could never imagine being treated the way I was treated or have the shit done to me that was done to me. And still, whenever I saw even a glimmer of the person I fell in love with, it was like, “Yeah, here I am. What do you need?’”

Rosenberg documents that cycle—and all the hardship, emotional torment and manipulation that went along with it—in her lyrics on Low Dose. The album details her tumultuous relationship with her ex-husband, who was also a member of Rosenberg’s previous band, which was called—wait for it—Legendary Divorce. It’s an irony that’s not lost on the singer/guitarist. “I know, right?” she says with a laugh. “What’s hilarious is that in Legendary Divorce, I sang about how solid he and I were.”

It’s worth mentioning that McGinnis (guitar/vocals) DeHart (bass/vocals) and Smith (drums)—were all members of famed Philly sludge trio Fight Amp. “We pulled the plug on Fight Amp because we felt like it had run its course,” McGinnis explains. “We liked the band still and we were all on good terms, but we just didn’t wanna write another Fight Amp record. We wanted to branch out musically.”

And while there are some similarities between Fight Amp and Low Dose, one is definitely not the other. “We wanted to have different vocals and focus more on dynamics and melody,” McGinnis offers. “If we tried to do that with Fight Amp, it would just come off as too different for people to like it. We still had good chemistry and got along, so we just wanted to find someone else to play with. Itarya was the obvious choice.”

McGinnis, DeHart and Smith had all been friends with Rosenberg for years. In fact, Legendary Divorce played the final Fight Amp show. “We were always really big fans of her songwriting style and vocal delivery,” McGinnis says. “We knew she was the right person for the music we wanted to play.”

DeHart called Rosenberg while her marital troubles were in full dumpster-fire mode. “He said they were starting a new project and wanted me involved,” she recalls. “I was so fucking down, especially with all the shit going on in my life.”

At first, joining forces with the Fight Amp guys made her personal situation worse. “Things just completely snowballed and my ex was super resentful about me joining the band,” she explains. “In fact, he drunkenly decided to break up Legendary Divorce at practice one day because I had joined this band.”

It’s no coincidence that the closing track on Low Dose is called “Legendary Divorce.”
“That was super intentional,” McGinnis says with a laugh. “We actually thought about calling the whole record that, but then we thought it was a little too heavy handed. We’re not trying to smack anybody in the face or anything.”

Low Dose’s 35-minute debut will hit all the right notes for those who enjoy the more melodic side of noise rock—especially fans of Metz, Slint and early PJ Harvey. “I feel like people who like Fight Amp will like this band, too,” McGinnis offers. “In Fight Amp, we didn’t play with dynamics too much. The volume was totally cranked and we were playing either really fast or slow, sludgy shit. It was loud and heavy. The riffs were melodic, but we were shouting the vocals. In Low Dose, the vocals are sung. Dynamically, there’s stuff that Low Dose does that’s really quiet. Fight Amp never went into that territory. I never used clean guitars in Fight Amp, but I do in Low Dose. We focus way more on harmony than we ever did in Fight Amp. It’s just more musical, I think.”

Meanwhile, Rosenberg’s lyrics lay bare the heartbreak and raw nerves of a broken relationship. “It’s about going through a really fucked up divorce, but I wanted to have the lyrics be very obvious and pop-sensible so people can apply them to things that they’ve gone through personally,” she says.

In the end, Low Dose is the sound of transcending your circumstances and moving on with your life. “I’m doing much better now,” Rosenberg enthuses. “Playing with these guys and writing this record saved my life. It was so helpful and cathartic.”