Duluth is the county seat of St. Louis County, Minnesota, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 86,918. Taking account of the growth of the city and its boundaries, there are around an extra 92,000 people on the outer boundaries, making the population (including outer suburbs and villages) 184,000. It is a seaport at the westernmost point on the north shore of Lake Superior. It is linked to the Atlantic Ocean 2,300 miles (3,700km) away via the Great Lakes and then either the Erie Canal/New York State Barge Canal or the Saint Lawrence Seaway; it is farther from the ocean than any other deep water port. Duluth forms a single metropolitan area with Superior, Wisconsin, together called the Twin Ports. The two cities share a harbor and are one of the most important ports on the Great Lakes. Among the items shipped out are iron ore (taconite) and grain. Both cities have museums devoted to the local nautical heritage, and Duluth has America's only all freshwater aquarium, the Great Lakes Aquarium. A major destination for tourists is the Aerial Lift Bridge spanning the short canal into Duluth's harbor.

The city is named for Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut, the first known European explorer of the area.

Low is an American indie rock group from Duluth, Minnesota. The group was formed in 1993, by Alan Sparhawk (guitar and vocals), Mimi Parker (drums and vocals) and original bassist John Nichols (bass guitar). Zak Sally replaced Nichols after Low's first album and tour. In 2005, Sally quit the band; Matt Livingston replaced him shortly thereafter, creating the current lineup of Sparhawk, Parker and Livingston.

Their music is commonly described as "slowcore," a subgenre characterised by slow tempos and minimalist arrangements. They are one of the earlier bands to adopt and popularize the style, making them considerable contributors to the slowcore movement. (It is worth noting that the band dislike this tag. In an interview Alan Sparhawk says of descriptions of their music: "What's the cheesiest? Slow-core. I hate that word. The most appropriate is anything that uses the word minimal in it, but I don't think anybody's made one up for that." In another interview, Sparhawk claimed that a friend of his coined the term: "this friend of ours in a record store was always joking around...and he said, 'I got it! You should call it "slowcore"!'...It was a total joke, and I think I mentioned it at one of our interviews.") Parker and Sparhawk's striking vocal harmonies represent perhaps the group's most distinctive element; critic Denise Sullivan writes that their shared vocals are "as chilling as anything Gram and Emmylou ever conspired on -- though that's not to say it's country-tinged, just straight from the heart."