Gig #165: Sebadoh (1987 – 1994) Chronological

 

Sebadoh Site
Sebadoh @ instagram
Sebadoh @ discogs
Sebadoh @ bandcamp
How ‘The Sebadoh’ Killed Sebadoh
Sebadoh @ Trouser Press
Lou Barlow/Sebadoh interview
Lou Barlow Site
Jason Loewenstein Site
Eric Gaffney @ Facebook

 

It’s So Hard To Fall In Love (1987)
‘In 1986, while Lou Barlow was tracking You’re Living All Over Me with Dinosaur Jr., he made a cassette of four-track recordings titled Weed Forestin’ in his parents’ basement*.* It was Barlow’s first collection of solo home recordings, released under the name Sentridoh in 1987 in an approximate edition of 100. It included versions of future Sebadoh songs like “Brand New Love” and “It’s So Hard to Fall in Love”. Later, in 1990, it was released by Homestead under the name of Barlow’s other band, Sebadoh.’

 

Jealous of Jesus (1987)

 

Close Enough (1990)
‘When Lou Barlow first started recording as Sebadoh with his pal Eric Gaffney in 1986, he was still playing bass in Dinosaur Jr., and the group’s early work practically defines the “side project syndrome” — since Barlow was already a member of another, more “serious” band at the same time, Sebadoh gave him the opportunity to be as silly, as cryptic, or as obsessively personal as he wished. Not long after Sebadoh’s The Freed Man first surfaced as a cassette-only release, Barlow was fired from Dinosaur Jr., and what was once his creative safety valve suddenly became his primary musical forum, and the rough, purposefully distorted textures of Sebadoh’s primitive early work (recorded on inexpensive four-track cassette decks and then dubbed down to even cheesier tape) would become the early hallmark of their music, along with the rage, puzzlement, and melancholy that defined Barlow’s lyrical world-view. However, on The Freed Man, while Barlow hardly sounds sunny most of the time, he was clearly able to embrace the playful side of the group’s music, and Gaffney was more than willing to bring his fair share of goofiness into the formula; add the periodic barrage of audio clips from television broadcasts, old children’s records, and assorted noise, and you get the template for much of what would emerge in the “lo-fi revolution” (and like thousands of bands that would follow in Sebadoh’s wake, much of The Freed Man was recorded in a college dorm room, with sounds from the adjoining rooms occasionally bleeding onto the tape).’

 

Your Long Journey (1990)

 

Crumbs (1990)

 

I Can’t See, Take My Hand (1990)
‘The Freed Weed is overstuffed and weird, studded with some duds, and entirely fitting. Part of the joy of early Sebadoh– this collection through Bubble and Scrape, aka the Gaffney years– is the clash of egos and brilliant songwriters. The two start smoking pot (“things sounded better slow…”), experimenting, feeling giddy with the results. This is a history I actually care about. It’s gorgeous on so many levels.’

 

Ride The Darker Wave (1991)

 

The Freed Pig (1991)
‘Sebadoh III added bassist/drummer/third vocalist/middle man Jason Loewenstein, solidifying the band’s prime formation. Song-wise, Barlow was still smarting about his unceremonious firing from Dinosaur Jr.– along with his anxious relationship with on-off girlfriend and future wife, Kathleen Billus. Accordingly, his best songs call out Mascis (“The Freed Pig”‘s insistently angular guitar jab) and/or pine for/praise his lady (the gorgeous “Kath”). Gaffney, on the other hand, displays a darker vibe, documenting his fucked-up family life (“As The World Dies, The Eyes of God Grow Bigger”, with his dad fried on liquid LSD, young Eric’s head hitting concrete, grandma getting stoned), “Violet Execution”, and “Scars, Four Eyes” (co-written with Barlow). Even the covers– the Minutemen’s “Sickles and Hammers” and a warped rendition of Johnny Mathis’ “Wonderful, Wonderful”– comfortably snuggle into the grainy, duct-tapped landscape. There are some Loewenstein-penned stinkers (see “Smoke a Bowl”) and average bits (the country jangle of “Black-Haired Girl”), but the lows are so fucked up and indulgent, they become an integral part of its imperfect charm. If you remove one, the structure topples.’

 

Truly Great Thing (1991)

 

Calling Yog Soggoth (1991)

 

Perverted World (1991)

 

God Told Me (1991)

 

Scars, Four Eyes (1991)

 

As the World Dies, the Eyes of God Grow Bigger (1991)

 

Brand New Love (1992)
‘Easily the most coherent and consistent album from these longtime pillars of the East Coast underground, Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock Wall may displease some longtime followers who reveled in the haphazard, homemade quality of the band’s earlier efforts. But by tuning down the self-indulgent nonsense and allowing for fuller production, ex-Dinosaur Jr. bassist Lou Barlow allows his hook-filled songs and the bitter longing in his voice to flourish. The guitars haven’t exactly been tamed or the ragged edges sanded down, but the music is more focused, the melodies more pronounced. “Good Things” sounds like a great, punky Who track from the “Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy” era; “Brand New Love” emerges as an anthem on a par with Sebadoh’s previous tongue-in-cheek masterpiece, “Gimme Indie Rock”; and there’s even a fairly lovely cover of David Crosby’s “Everybody’s Been Burned.”‘

 

Cecilia Chime In Melee (1992)

 

Pink Moon (1992)

 

Two Years Two Days (1993)
‘Fifteen years on, Barlow, Gaffney, and Jason Loewenstein are still performing their dysfunctional-family roles in the liners. Gaffney makes repeated credit-grabs; Barlow rationalizes Gaffney’s exile from the band’s fragile democracy; and Loewenstein offers what probably comes closest to verisimilitude in his account of Sebadoh’s prickly dynamics. Welcome to the indie rock version of Rashomon, Bubble and Scrape. He may have been reluctant to admit it, but Barlow was lucky to have a ballast in Gaffney, whose avant-garde impulses, skin-peeling screams, and unsentimental sentiments– served up blunt and bruising on “Elixir is Zog”, (Capricornnn rising!), “Emma Get Wild”, and the hardcore via rockabilly of “No Way Out”– dissipate any lingering self-pity fogging the windows. It’s Loewenstein, though, who turns in the most surprising, most effective songs on B&S. “Happily Divided”, a spare, dour, affectless folk-pop number is the best Barlow song Barlow never wrote.’

 

Elixir Is Zog (1993)

 

Happily Divided (1993)

 

Flood (1993)

 

Rebound (1994)
‘The early- and mid-90s were great years for albums that brought punk’s two-minute punchiness together with the earnest relationship laments that briefly defined that slippery terrain known as indie rock. And Bakesale is one of the era’s best. If it’s got fewer romance-gone-wrong epics than Superchunk’s Foolish and lacks the emphatic guitar-snarl of Archers of Loaf’s Icky Mettle, it combines bits of both tendencies into 15 songs that rarely outstay their welcome. Unlike Sebadoh’s scattershot early albums, it works as a brief, memorable whole. The band probably wasn’t trying to make a statement– that sort of ran counter to the whole aesthetic back then– but by tightening up and aiming for clarity, they managed one anyway. “Feels good just to bitch about it,” from “Magnet’s Coil”, is one of those lines that defines a certain part of early indie’s appeal, where kids-like-you kvetched about their foibles and fears in an unpretentious way. But the album’s frantic pace, where even the slow songs feel like urgent expulsions of heartbreak, defines the other side of indie’s appeal. At its best, all that emoting was delivered with a healthy shot of energy that felt necessary given the sluggish tempos of alt-rock radio at the time.’

 

Skull (1994)

 

Shit Soup (1994)

 

Got It (1994)

 

Drama Mine (1994)

 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** Charalampos, Hi. Oh, yeah. I’ll usually take any opportunity to insert Robert Pollard into a post, but I clearly wasn’t thinking. Well, we’ll have to put you in the video game then. There are lots of sushi places here, just apparently very few good ones that aren’t insanely expensive and that have a couple of non-fish options. But there are lots, even in my neighborhood. If I manage to find some candidates, I’ll let you know, yeah. Love from here meaning from Paris. ** Misanthrope, I didn’t know that about the 20 foot rule. Good to know. Logical and unknown. I can’t see carrying a knife. Yury carries mace with him everywhere. I think it’s highly possible that Winstons are just cheap in France. I think it’s just not a popular brand here. I always buy Winstons Lights when the tabac is out of Camel Lights. They’re almost indistinguishable. Denny’s breakfast items are generally pretty good, as I recall. I’m a crust guy too. Being often vegan, most of what I eat looks and tastes essentially like something’s crust. ** Dominik, Hi!!! There could been some crossover between the cigarettes and the knives since I made them back to back. Let’s have a power tete a tete sometime about our future SCAB video game-derived personal fortunes then. I was surprised that Legolas was the first movie character to spring to my mind too. Ah, Jarrod Wiggley, excellent choice, and trashy erotica is always the best erotica, wouldn’t you agree? Thanks for making love serenade me in such a high quality manner. I won’t ask love to have Sebadoh serenade you because I don’t know if you would like them, so love making PJ Harvey herself serenade you with her cover version of my favorite Sebadoh song which would probably be ‘Brand New Love’, G. ** Steve Erickson, Not believing that ‘jinxes’ are real, I trust that you are in fact simply improving. Everyone, Here’s the first Steve review in a bit, and it’s his take on the TV series TRUE DETECTIVE: NORTH COUNTRY, and it’s here. As I’ve already said here in so many words, I can’t recommend Iceland highly enough. It is literally non-stop jaw dropping, but get out of Reykjavik, which is nice but no great shakes. It looks increasingly likely that we are actually going to start doing the final post-production work on the film beginning roughly on January 15th. Still not a slam dunk, but it’s looking almost likely, shockingly enough. Whereupon the film would absolutely finished in March. I seem to have misspoken. There are lots of sushi restaurants here, it’s just that Paris is famous among Parisians for being bereft of actually good sushi places. Well, unless you want to spend a fortune. And as for why so minuscule number of the sushi places offer even such common items as California rolls or avocado rolls is a giant mystery to me. ** T, Cool, it’s a date. Sonic Protest is almost back! I have to check the schedule. Yum. Yes, chefs do the out-do-each-other thing on galettes too, but they don’t make them look like chandeliers or toy trains or anything. They just try to make their galettes’ ingredients the best. Zac says he has a bead on some amazing ones, and I think I’m seeing him today, so I’ll see what he’s come up with. I think prime galette season starts this weekend and lasts a week or two. Let’s sort it. ** Mark, Hi. Yeah, like everywhere, Xmas slows the post down here, so I’m not worried yet. I kind of want to see the Kiefer movie too, but only because I want to see what the 3D is like. Happy to see you cast anal aspersions on those two overrated boobs. Thanks for the link. I’ll hit it just post-p.s. I should look at ‘Faggots’ again. Larry Kramer became justifiably a queer hero, but, pre-his ACT-UP related ascension, I thought he was a crappy writer. And, having done readings with him a number of times pre-ascension, a total diva asshole. But perhaps it’s time to rethink. xo. ** Corey Heiferman, Hi! Nice that some of the knives, err, hit home. My mom had this plug-in knife sharpening machine on our kitchen counter, very cheap and seemingly good at what it did. Crazy Boy Scout story. I was a Boy Scout, but I got kicked out refusing to cut my long hair, and I think maybe that safety course thing must have happened after I got cut from the squad. I just remember having to learn to tie knots and how to set up a tent. Anyway, glad you topped that bully. You good? ** Okay. As you may remember, I built the last gig post around Cheap Trick, and, at the time, Jeff Jackson suggested I do a similar kind of gig re: another of my favorite bands, Sebadoh, and, obviously, I took the hint, concentrating on their peak early 90s era. And now I just hope it’s of some interest to some or all of you out there. See you tomorrow.