Formed from the ashes of legendary indie rockers and college radio staples Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh emerged in the mid-Nineties as one of lo-fi rock’s finest examples of introspective skronk, thanks in large part to founding members Lou Barlow and Jason Loewenstein’s ability to mesh guitar and bass, respectively, into a subtle harmonic sucker punch that sounds as bitingly fresh today as when the band started out. After the breakup of Sebadoh, Barlow went on to form Folk Implosion, whose single “Natural One” cropped up on enough year-end best-of lists to render it an instant classic of sorts, and the band’s participation in scoring Larry Clarke’s explosively controversial film Kids garnered them even more praise. Folk Implosion is gone now – as is Barlow’s brief project cheekily titled the New Folk Implosion – but to everyone’s surprise, Sebadoh has returned. We spoke to Barlow at his home in Los Angeles and discovered the limitations of his manager’s communication skills, among other things.
Austin Chronicle: Why get Sebadoh back together now? Any specific reason, or did you just feel reuniting a seminal indie rock band was the best way to combat global terrorism?
Lou Barlow: Well, late last year we were asked to play this 10th anniversary gig for Domino Records, which is our label over in England and Europe. We were like the first release on that label so we thought it would be appropriate for Sebadoh to play the show. So I called up Jason [Loewenstein], and he was into it, and we ended up doing a bunch of shows around England as a duo with a rhythm track that we played to. It went really well and we’ve just got back from a 31/2-week tour of the east coast and the Midwest, and that went really well, too, so when we were asked to play this show coming up at Emo’s we said sure, why not?
AC: Well, the show’s not really at Emo’s. You do know that, don’t you?
LB: What? It’s not?
AC: No, it’s this big music and film event happening outside of Austin in the Hill Country – it’s called Cinemania. Huggy Bear’s going to be there.
LB: [Laughing] What? You’re kidding. Nobody told me that. I didn’t know what it was. That’s cool, though.
AC: So how does it feel to be back with Sebadoh, post-Folk Implosion?
LB: Sebadoh had so many different mutations, and Jason has been playing with me since we were 16, so it’s always a little different. This time out I’m playing acoustic but it’s kind of amplified, and he’s playing electric bass, and it’s just the two of us. We had been touring as a rock band since ’92 or ’93 – touring regularly and putting out records on Sub Pop – and the way we’re doing it now is definitely different from the way we’ve done it in years previous. I mean, it feels really familiar just because we’ve played together for such a long time. … It’s a cool combination of old and new Sebadoh.
This article appears in May 28 • 2004.