:Sebadoh

Lou Barlow was the bass player for alternative rock band Dinosaur Jr. (originally Dinosaur) in the 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.Azerrad, 2001. p 357 Barlow spent progressively more time recording his own songs at home. Barlow and Eric 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.Azerrad, 2001. p. 359 Both Barlow and Gaffney contributed songs to The Freed Man (1988) 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."Azerrad, 2001. p. 373 Jason Loewenstein joined in summer 1989, the first release that he played on being the "Gimme Indie Rock" single in 1991.{{cite book|title=The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music|editor=Colin Larkin|editor-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|publisher=Virgin Books|date=1997|edition=Concise|isbn=1-85227-745-9|pages=1065/6}} Only ten 'band' shows were performed throughout Western Massachusetts, Boston, and New York over the period 1989–1990 before the third album, 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 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 album Bubble & Scrape was released in April 1993. The same year, the band's "Soul and Fire" EP humorously described the band's musical goal as "driving dozens of college-age lemmings off the cliff of limited imagination."Mojo, September 1996, p. 28

Following Bubble & Scrape (1993) Gaffney left the band. Gaffney has stated that he left Sebadoh "because I felt like it" and went on to explain that: "I wanted to start a band where I was the songwriter/guitar player and so I did. I also had the garage practice space and booked all our early shows. This was summer 1989, when The Freed Man LP was released on Homestead was when I called those guys on the phone to ask if they wanted to start a band, met with dead silence. Me on the other end saying, “Are you still there?” I only started playing drums when the other guys wanted to play their songs because I didn’t want to learn bass lines, and drums are my first instrument. Four years later I let the whole thing walk away from me. It was like The Blob—you want to just run out of the theater! (lest you be consumed by “The Blob.”)."{{Cite web |last=Cohan |first=Brad |date=2014-03-18 |title=Ex-Sebadoh Co-Founder Eric Gaffney Is Now Jesus Christ, Kind Of |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/eric-gaffney-sebadoh-interview/ |access-date=2024-10-30 |website=VICE |language=en-US}}

Barlow has stated that the mood in the band upon Gaffney's departure was "euphoric," explaining that: "Eric was a difficult guy. He was really struggling with the band becoming more popular; he was really struggling with sharing the spotlight with me. He’s an absolute leader, and deserves a spotlight of his own, but I had kind of forced him into this band where he and I were going to be trading off, thinking that was a really great idea. Eric Gaffney did not want to be doing that. Eric Gaffney wanted to be front and center—which is great, I mean, I believed in him. I’m an Eric Gaffney fan, that’s why I was playing in a band with him, but Eric Gaffney was not a Lou Barlow fan. So him leaving the band was awesome. All of this resistance just disappeared for a while, and it was really nice."{{Cite web |last=Sigler |first=Gabriel |date=2015-05-26 |title=Interview: Sebadoh's Lou Barlow on 'Defend Yourself,' Rush, and being the hipsters of their time - Page 2 of 2 |url=https://badfeelingmag.com/2015/05/26/interview-sebadohs-lou-barlow/2/ |access-date=2024-10-30 |website=Bad Feeling Magazine |language=en-CA}}

Gaffney's replacement, Bob Fay, appeared on Bakesale (1994) and the follow-up Harmacy in 1996.{{cite book

| first= Martin C.

| last= Strong

| year= 2000

| title= The Great Rock Discography

| edition= 5th

| publisher= Mojo Books

| location= Edinburgh

| pages= 856–857

| isbn= 1-84195-017-3}}

Gaffney had quit the band three times between 1990 and 1993, being replaced each time by Fay.{{Cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/sebadoh|title=Sebadoh|website=Encyclopedia.com|access-date=April 26, 2025}} Fay recorded and toured with the band during those years, performing on half the tracks of Rocking the Forest, including the Fay composition "Mind Meld,"{{Cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/release/14139983-Sebadoh-Rocking-The-Forest|title=Sebadoh - Rocking The Forest|date=April 26, 1992|access-date=April 26, 2025|website=Discogs.com}} and two tracks on Sebadoh vs. Helmet, whose cover image is a photograph of Fay.{{Cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/release/1710146-Sebadoh-Sebadoh-Vs-Helmet|title=Sebadoh - Sebadoh Vs Helmet|date=April 26, 1992|access-date=April 26, 2025|website=Discogs.com}}

Fay was fired before the sessions for The Sebadoh (1999) and replaced by Russ Pollard, a friend of Loewenstein's from Louisville. The band went on a tour to promote this album, including a stop in Toronto in March.{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20000203094029/http://chartattack.com:80/road/reviews/1999/19990307-sebadoh.html "Live Reviews: Sebadoh March 7, 1999 The Opera House, Toronto, ON"]}}. Chart Attack, review by Daniel Smallegange The band then 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 early 2004.

In March 2007, the "Sebadoh Classic" lineup of Barlow, Gaffney and Loewenstein went on tour together for the first time in fourteen years.{{Cite web |author=Billboard Staff |date=2006-12-21 |title=Classic Sebadoh Lineup Reuniting For 2007 Tour |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/classic-sebadoh-lineup-reuniting-for-2007-tour-56387/ |access-date=2024-04-20 |website=Billboard |language=en-US}} This coincided with a new series of reissues which repackaged some of the early albums with extra discs of unreleased tracks. First came a reissue of Sebadoh III, then The Freed Man, and Bubble & Scrape.{{Cite web |last=Benson |first=John |date=2007-01-12 |title=Sebadoh Springs Back To Action For 2007 Tour |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/sebadoh-springs-back-to-action-for-2007-tour-1063265/ |access-date=2024-04-20 |website=Billboard |language=en-US}}

The reunion tour continued into 2008, and in May included a live performance of Bubble & Scrape (1993) in its entirety as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties curated Don't Look Back series at London's Koko venue.

In 2011, Sebadoh toured in support of reissues for their Bakesale and Harmacy albums. Though Bakesale was reissued on time, as of June 2015, Harmacy has still not been reissued.{{cite web|url=http://www.loobiecore.com/loobienews.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20060518054925/http://www.loobiecore.com/loobienews.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=May 18, 2006|title=Eating grapefruit, leaving on 3/21|website=Loobiecore.com|access-date=May 30, 2019}} Taking the place of Gaffney on drums was Bob D'Amico, who plays with Loewenstein in both Circle of Buzzards and the Fiery Furnaces.{{cite web|url=http://www.sandiego.com/music/interview-sebadoh |title=Interview: Sebadoh |publisher=SanDiego.com |access-date=April 2, 2012}}

In March 2012, Lou Barlow reissued the early recordings of Weed Forrestin' on the Sebadoh bandcamp, available in a digital download, double cd, vinyl, and deluxe edition with the Child of the Apocalypse sessions as a cassette tape. Fifty copies of "Weed Forrestin" came as a surprise bonus with purchases of the limited edition re-release of Dinosaur Jr.'s first three albums in a cassette boxed set released by Joyful Noise in 2012.{{cite web|title=Announcing the Dinosaur Jr. Cassette Trilogy|url=http://www.joyfulnoiserecordings.com/announcing...-the-dinosaur-jr.-cassette-trilogy.html|publisher=Joyful Noise Recordings|access-date=May 22, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130917003534/http://www.joyfulnoiserecordings.com/announcing...-the-dinosaur-jr.-cassette-trilogy.html|archive-date=September 17, 2013}}

They were chosen by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he curated in March 2012 in Minehead, England.{{cite web|url=https://www.atpfestival.com/events/jeffmangum|title=ATP curated by Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel)|website=All Tomorrow's Parties|access-date=May 30, 2019}}

In July 2012, Sebadoh released Secret EP on the Sebadoh bandcamp, available in a digital download. CD copies were only available at the shows of their 2012 tour. In June 2013, Joyful Noise released it on vinyl.

Their eighth studio album, Defend Yourself, came out on Joyful Noise Recordings on September 17, 2013. It debuted at No. 1 on the "New Alternative Artists" Billboard chart, since the band had been together for roughly 27 years at that point in time.{{Cite web |title=Sebadoh {{!}} Biography, Music & News |url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/sebadoh/ |access-date=2023-11-08 |website=Billboard |language=en-US}}

On March 1, 2019, the band announced that their ninth studio album Act Surprised will be released on May 24, 2019, via Dangerbird Records.

The same day the first single off the album, "Celebrate the Void" was released.{{cite web |last1=Minsker |first1=Evan |title=Sebadoh Announce New Album Act Surprised, Share Song: Listen |url=https://pitchfork.com/news/sebadoh-announce-new-album-act-surprised-share-song-listen/ |website=Pitchfork |access-date=March 2, 2019 |date=March 1, 2019}}

According to Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic, "Sebadoh embraced intentionally raw and unsophisticated home recording as the element that tied together their self-conscious sentimental pop with their noisy experimentalism." Lou Barlow's vocals have been described as "gloomy but tuneful."{{Cite web |title=Sebadoh Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More {{!}} A... |url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/sebadoh-mn0000840523#biography |access-date=2025-03-24 |website=AllMusic |language=en}}

• Lou Barlow – vocals, guitar, bass (1986–present)
• Jason Loewenstein – vocals, bass, drums, guitar (1989–present)
• Bob D'Amico – drums, percussion (2011–present)

• Eric Gaffney – vocals, drums, guitar (1986–1994, 2007–2011)
• Bob Fay – drums, vocals (1994–1998)
• Russell Pollard – drums (1998–2000)

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{{main article|Sebadoh discography}}

• The Freed Man (1989)
• Weed Forestin' (1990)
• Sebadoh III (1991)
• Bubble & Scrape (1993)
• Bakesale (1994)
• Harmacy (1996)
• The Sebadoh (1999)
• Defend Yourself (2013)
• Act Surprised (2019)

• The Freed Weed (1990)
• Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock (1992)
• Wade Through the Boggs (2007)

• Azerrad, Michael. Our Band Could Be Your Life. New York: Little, Brown, 2001. {{ISBN|0-316-78753-1}}

{{Reflist}}

{{commons category}}

{{External links|date=May 2019}}

• [http://sebadoh.com/ Sebadoh website]
• {{discogs artist}}
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20010331065629/http://www.loobiecore.com/ Lou Barlow website]}}
• [http://www.jakerock.com Jason Loewenstein website]
• [http://joyfulnoiserecordings.com/ Joyful Noise Recordings]
• [http://russellbates.com/work/sebadoh-skull/ "Skull" music video (from Bakesale)]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20081206090853/http://www.zpop.co.uk/reviews/sebadoh.htm Review of Sebadoh @ Manchester Academy 3, April 2008.]
• [http://www.furious.com/perfect/sebadoh.html Sebadoh Interview]
• [http://www.sandiego.com/music/interview-sebadoh Jason Loewenstein interview February 1, 2011]
• [http://www.3sat.de/mediathek/?mode=play&obj=14619 Interview with Lou Barlow & Murph (Dinosaur Jr.) September 9, 2009] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722082801/http://www.3sat.de/mediathek/?mode=play&obj=14619 |date=July 22, 2011 }}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120825185422/http://www.talkrocktome.com/sebadoh-welcome-back-barlow/ Interview with Lou Barlow] (via Talk Rock To Me) August 17, 2012

{{Sebadoh}}

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Category:Indie rock musical groups from Massachusetts

Category:Westfield, Massachusetts

Category:Lo-fi music groups

Category:Homestead Records artists

Category:Sub Pop artists

Category:Musical groups established in 1986

Category:Domino Recording Company artists

Category:Flying Nun Records artists

Category:1986 establishments in Massachusetts

Category:City Slang artists

Category:Dangerbird Records artists