Musicians I Would Like To Take Out To Dinner (Part 3)

I first heard about Sebadoh in high school. After Nirvana came and turned every high schooler on its head, what became known as "indie-rock" was the way to go and Sub Pop and Matador Records were the record labels that had all the cool next big thing bands.

Anyways, in 1994, a close friend of mine was practically singing the praises of Sebadoh to me, and finally when I bit down upon the hook I thought she had been offering me, she balked and pretty much said to me that she didn’t want me to listen to their music because she didn’t want them to go mainstream. I was a little offended at both what seemed to be her selfishness and the allusion that I was what was (horror of horrors!) mainstream. Looking back on myself then, I sure as hell felt like I was out on the fringe but I didn’t subscribe to the uniform of the fringe sitter. Still the idea that I could single-handedly be some band’s critical downfall and point where they officially sold out boggled my mind. Dejected, I didn’t bring up the point with her again.

In the fall of 1996 I was a sophomore at university and again I came across Sebadoh in the circles I traveled and again I was greeted with indie-rock snobbery. (By the way, in a future post I will be addressing this issue of whether to share the music you hold dear, and why I find it positively stupid to be a royal music snob, as in “My God! My Beloved Iraqi Transistor Tomato just sold 5,000 copies of its latest album Kaleidoscopic Junkie Health Insurance! They fucking sold out! Poseurs!”)

But this time, as I was able to get to the used record stores in my neighborhood, I figured enough was enough and I picked up their Harmacy CD. Instantly, I was hooked. The album was a mixture of poppy guitar rock and harder punkish rock. I've amused myself by thinking of a time where Lou and Jason were jamming in separate bands in apartments above each other until one day they can't take the others noise anymore and start screaming "You got pop in my punk!" "Oh yeah? You got punk in my pop!"

I remember I instantly was taken with how one singer was very confessional, sounded sensitive and a bit wounded, lovesick and mooning over some girl whom he knew was The One. In Willing To Wait, he sang of his Beautiful Friend who had taken a chance on him in the past, and how he wanted that chance again, if only she would give it to him. I also quickly realized that if said woman was going to kick him to the curb then I'd be happy to take her place. (Yes, I admit it, I had a pretty sizeable crush on the semi-dorky looking guy in the forefront of the above photo throughout most of my college days.) The other voice was more like “Hell, fuck it, either you like me or you don’t.” I don't think it really is that far off to call Jason Lowenstein and Lou Barlow the indie equivalent (at that time) of Lennon and McCartney.

And later on, I dig deeper into the Sebadoh library and found the albums which featured what can only be called the sound creations of one Eric Gaffney. Not a singer by any stretch, Gaffney's contribution to Sebadoh was the sound loops he liked to throw together which made these really kaleidoscopish collages which were certainly not like anything else I had heard at the time. (Check out Bubble and Scrape for some later Gaffney works.)

I think I really respect Sebadoh for not really selling out, even though yes, they did sign to a major label for what would be their last album. I love what Lou Barlow did with The Folk Implosion, bringing more dancey beats and loops to his music. But I also remember remarking to myself after hearing The Sebadoh that maybe once Lou had won his girl, there was just nothing left for him to say within Sebadoh. (Lou has not only a wife and daughter these days but also his first ever solo album I want to check out sometime soon!) And is it necessarily a bad thing that maybe the reason why a band dried up is because the underdog won the girl of his dreams? I don't think so.

Top 5 Sebadoh Songs (The hardest one yet! I really want to cheat and go 5 with Jason and 5 with Lou...):

1. Too Pure
2. Think (Let Tomorrow Bee)
3. Rebound
4. Together or Alone
5. Got It