Sebadoh

Sebadoh
Live at Pearl St., Northampton, MA 3/29/2007
Background information
Origin	Westfield, Massachusetts
Genre(s)	Indie rock, Lo-fi
Years active	1986-2000, 2003-2004, 2007-present
Label(s)	Domino Sub Pop Homestead Records City Slang Records Siltbreeze Vertical Records
Associated acts	Dinosaur Jr Folk Implosion Sentridoh
Website	http://www.sebadoh.com/ http://www.myspace.com/sehbahdough
Members
Lou Barlow Eric Gaffney Jason Loewenstein
Former members
Bob Fay Russ Pollard

Sebadoh is an indie rock band formed in Westfield, Massachusetts by Eric Gaffney and former Dinosaur Jr bass player Lou Barlow. Along with such bands as Pavement and Guided by Voices, Sebadoh helped pioneer lo-fi music, a style of indie rock characterized by low-fidelity recording techniques, often on four-track machines. The band's early output, such as 1990's Weed Forestin' and 1991's Sebadoh III, was typical of this style, and wavered between Barlow's wry, introspective folk and Gaffney's psychedelic noise-rock experiments.

Band history

Lou Barlow was the bass player for alternative rock band Dinosaur Jr in the late 1980s. While both Barlow and leader J Mascis wrote songs, Mascis' material dominated the group's output because Barlow was intimidated by the guitarist's songwriting efforts.^[1] Barlow spent progressively more time recording his own songs at home. Barlow and Gaffney released the Weed Forestin' cassette in 1987 on Homestead Records under the name Sebadoh, which was a nonsense word Barlow often muttered in his recordings.^[2]. Both Barlow and Gaffney contributed songs to 1988's The Freed Man cassette. Homestead Records head Gerard Cosloy heard the cassette release of The Freed Man and released it as a full-length album on Homestead in 1989. Soon after the cassette's release Barlow was kicked out of Dinosaur Jr. Over time Sebadoh's releases became a way for Barlow to address the issues of control that manifested as the tension in and his ejection from Dinosaur Jr; Barlow said "I got a lot of hatred out just by writing those songs."^[3] Jason Loewenstein joined in summer 1989, the first release that he played on being the "Gimme Indie Rock" single in 1991. Only ten 'band' shows were performed throughout Western Mass, Boston, and New York over the period 1989-1990 before third album, the appropriately-named Sebadoh III was released. After touring with fIREHOSE in 1991, they signed to Sub Pop (Domino in the UK and City Slang in Germany) in 1992, and released the two EPs Rocking the Forest and Sebadoh vs. Helmet released just two months apart. These EPs had their track listings truncated and shuffled around and made into the American full-length release Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock. Their fourth full length album Bubble and Scrape was recorded Summer/Fall 1992 and released in April 1993, which sold 10,000 in its first week of release - confirming that the band were now established indie rock favourites.

Concert at Webster Hall in New York City, 2007

Sebadoh III (1991), helped draw further attention to Sebadoh as proponents of the lo-fi movement. Following 1993's Bubble and Scrape, however, Gaffney left the band. His replacement, Bob Fay, appeared on the band's most acclaimed and consistent effort, 1994's Bakesale, which saw the emergence of the songwriting talents of multi-instrumentalist Jason Loewenstein, and the follow-up Harmacy in 1996. Fay was fired before the sessions for The Sebadoh (1999) and replaced by Russ Pollard, a friend of Loewenstein's from Louisville. Following the tour to promote this album, the band went on hiatus, with Barlow concentrating on his other project, the Folk Implosion, and Loewenstein working on material for his debut solo album At Sixes and Sevens, released in 2002. The two reunited to play concerts in late 2003 and the spring of 2004. In March of 2007, the "Sebadoh Classic" lineup of Barlow, Gaffney and Loewenstein went on tour together for the first time in 14 years.

Discography

Studio albums

EPs / Singles

Chart positions

Albums

Singles

References

• Azerrad, Michael. Our Band Could Be Your Life. New York: Little, Brown, 2001. ISBN 0-316-78753-1
• Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Sebadoh". All Music Guide. Retrieved March 7, 2007.
• Vinylnet Record Label Discographies. link. - Sub Pop Catalogue Numbers.

Notes

External links

• Sebadoh website
• Lou Barlow website
• Jason Loewenstein website