Sebadoh | |
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Sebadoh performing live in March 2007
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Background information | |
Origin | Westfield, Massachusetts, United States |
Genres | Indie rock, lo-fi |
Years active | 1986–present |
Labels | |
Associated acts | |
Website | sebadoh |
Members |
Lou Barlow Jason Loewenstein Bob D'Amico |
Past members |
Eric Gaffney Bob Fay Russell Pollard |
Sebadoh (/ˈsɛbədoʊ/) is an American indie rock band, currently signed with Joyful Noise Recordings. Sebadoh were formed in 1988 in Northampton, Massachusetts, by Eric Gaffney and 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 The Freed Man and Weed Forestin' (both released 1990), as well as Sebadoh III (1991), was typical of this style. After a 14-year recording hiatus, during which time members pursued other projects while occasionally touring as Sebadoh, the group returned in 2013 with the Secret EP and a full-length album titled Defend Yourself, which were both self-recorded. Lead singer Lou Barlow says of the band's resurrected sound, "We kept to ourselves during the recording and didn’t have much, if any, outside intervention. That, to my mind, makes it a true Sebadoh record and aligns the style of Defend Yourself with our early releases."
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. 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. 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."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 Massachusetts, Boston, and New York over the period 1989-1990 before the third album Sebadoh III was released.