Lowest of the Low took some long breaks between their albums in the '90s and '00s — but they've been working at a steady clip since 2017's Do the Right Now, amassing a quickly growing discography that now includes their ninth album, Over Years and Overnight, out tomorrow (May 2) through Sonic Envy. But even after all these years, "My focus and excitement is usually reserved for whatever I've written last week. and I think it'll always be that way," says singer-guitarist Ron Hawkins.
He continues, "But sometimes distance and perspective allow other songs to rise to the top and grow from ugly ducklings into beautiful swans. Other times you look back and think "what the fuck was I thinking?" If you've been lucky enough to have a lengthy career writing songs and playing for crowds you sometimes get a chance to become a fan of some of your own songs. No matter how you slice it it's an exercise in creative subjectivity."
To mark the arrival of Over Years and Overnight, Hawkins chronologically picked his five highlights from Lowest of the Low's discography — including response to "everything semi-fame entails," political anthems from the school of Billy Bragg, and a response to the "moronic freak show of the Trump administration."
"Rosy and Grey"
Shakespeare My Butt... (1991)
This song felt like a seismic shift in my writing. I'd been a songwriter for a decade prior, but this was the first time it felt effortless. And I think that may be because I'd finally accepted that my life was as worthy, as filmic, as ripe as anyone's, and that unvarnished stories about the poetry of the everyday were a galvanizing topic. I'd finally processed that most basic of tenets: write what you know. And the more personal I made it, the more universal it seemed to be.
"Black Monday"
Hallucigenia (1994)
Growing up as a punk obsessed with folk music, I was always trying to fuse the two. Can I write a beautiful acoustic song paired with an abrasive darker story and make it authentic? I wrote this at the height of the Low's climb to the middle, and was caught up in everything semi-fame entails — sacrifice, substance abuse and solipsism. A successful artist and a failed boyfriend. It was a plea for all the things I wished I could be, and a confession of all the ways in which I was falling short. And finally it was a renewed commitment to be there for Kate: "You can count on me… I see what you see."
"The Barricade"
Agitpop (2019)
As a leftist and an artist, I've grown up viewing political art from the shoulders of giants. It's a template that was created a hundred years ago and revisited by artists time and again: Woody Guthrie, Phil Ochs, Billy Bragg, Phranc — the list is endless. Three chords and the truth. I started out as a punk and a busker, so the immediacy of a song has always intrigued me more than flash and window dressing. In fact, the band tried several ways to change the arrangement of the initial song I brought in, but we kept coming back to the flesh and bones of a classic broadside against capitalism and political corruption. I wanted to write something you could chant through a megaphone from the hood of a car.
"On a Bad Day"
Welcome to the Plunderdome (2023)
Don't get me started! Phil Ochs and Billy Bragg taught me how to set up a political joke and deliver the punchline with humanity and a strong left hook. Every couple albums, the pot boils over and I can't keep it in anymore. I can't just write "songs about kissin'" (as Joe Strummer sneeringly said). The relentless bulldozer of capitalism generally, and the moronic freak show of the Trump administration specifically, led me to write this song. When the tap opens up, I have to get it all down before the flood overwhelms me. Originally, there were 12 verses to this one. I was particularly proud of the line, "Those whistles only dogs can hear, and certain fascist dickheads."
"The Seven Sorrows"
Over Years and Overnight (2025)
Every now and again, I'm struck by the sadness of the world. Not the obvious stuff — the political horror, or the inhumanity of it all — but the sweet sadness of just being alive. The beautiful, noble struggle of just getting through the day. Being in the rock star business, I have lost a few friends along the way to "rock 'n' roll misadventure." I also have many loved ones that are chained to the world and carry it with great difficulty. This song is for them. "Life's a mystery / A little sadness, a little history."