Sebadoh >> I only need to feel a balance

Sebadoh - "Careful"

(Sub Pop Records, 1994)

Since the Boston Marathon bombing, I've been definitely catching some of the "We are all Bostonians" fever.  So my next few posts will be by Massachusetts bands, even though I've never been to that state.

I can't believe I've never posted this absolute scorcher of a song by Westfield's finest, so here it is.  I think some of the lyrics can work as a fuck-you to potential terrorists: "It's twice as hard to fool us" and "Careful as a soldier, we're so strong."  And the disarming opening line "Drop your guard, I'll get to know you" gives another way to deal with psychopaths.  This one was written by bassist / guitarist Jason Loewenstein, not mainman Lou Barlow.  J-Loew seems to have been responsible for some of Sebadoh's more manic / edgy / fleshed-out / non-"lo-fi" songs.

[Note: This mp3 is from the original '94 release, not the recent remastered 2-CD reissue.  That one has an alternate version of "Careful" on the bonus disc.]

I bought this album, Bakesale, in October 1996, on the same day that I bought Tool's Aenima on the day it came out.  My main reasons were: 1.) hearing the infectious indie classic song "Rebound" on a Sub Pop sampler CD called That Virtua Feeling: Sub Pop And Sega Get Together and 2.) a long article about Lou / Sebadoh punningly titled "Kind Of Blue" in Rolling Stone around that time.  (I was a subscriber.)  I also bought Smash Your Head On The Punk Rock at around this time through Sub Pop mailorder.  Despite the awful nude-Lou cover art, Bakesale is one of the most essential albums in rock history, not just indie rock history, from an era when the phrase "indie rock" meant more than just "a rock band on an independent label."  Every song is a cornucopia of inventive riffs, melodies and lyrics, and the band never came even close to equalling it before or after.  Some of the songs are slow and shoegazey ("Dreams"), and a few are quick and ultra-poppy ("Got It").  It comes off as a great mix tape seemingly made up of songs by many different bands, yet still retains that certain Sebadohness that fans demand.

I was totally crestfallen to miss a Sebadoh concert at the Howlin' Wolf (now called Republic) at the end of January '97.  As in: I fucking sat in the living room and watched an episode of 7th Heaven (yes, I remember exactly what I was watching) by myself and felt like such a poseur for liking Sebadoh but not knowing anyone to go see them with.  I think this was actually a transformative moment for me, in that it made me determined to go see bands I wanted to see even if that meant sometimes doing it alone.  And I later found out that Sebadoh had played just a few months earlier at House Of Blues, with a then-unknown moper / budding junkie named Elliott Smith as an opening act.  Then they came back and played somewhere in early '99 in support of their disappointing swan song The Sebadoh.  Have still never seen them, and have skipped lots of dates on their recent reunion tours, because I just don't go to reunion tours.  And because aside from this album, Sebadoh's overall discography is very hit-or-miss.  The only other songs by them that I'd say are in the same category of intensity as "Careful" would be "Beauty Of The Ride," "Crisis," and the speed-metal ending of "Mean Distance."

Loewenstein put out a well-received solo album about a decade ago, but I've never heard it.  Dinosaur Jr.'s reunion has taken Barlow away from his Sebaduties.  Dino are stuck in a classic rock rut, so I personally would rather take in the more varied stylings of Sebadoh, if given a chance to see one of them or the other.  At one point in my life, I would've shouted "Just gimme indie rock!"  It's a new generation of electric white-boy blues!

Funniest / truest thing I've seen on Tumblr in a while:

#voodoofest #jazzfest

Sat. Apr. 13: Went to a crawfish boil at Sprague's new house, and he decided to let me landscape it after we talked about trees for an hour or so.

Fri. Apr. 19: Skipped a Crystal Castles / Doldrums concert at HOB because it was $31 plus a $10 "service fee."  I had been wanting to go for months but I just couldn't justify the cost.  I'm sure it sold out anyway.

Sat. Apr. 20: Caught the end of a Record Store Day concert at Euclid Records.  Saw Truth Universal (politically-charged hip-hop), AF The Naysayer (futuristic beatmaking), and Peace Love Technicolor Dream (collaborated on sax with AF, then did a solo house set on MacBook).  I then by total chance caught a free happy-hour show by the hilarious Alex McMurray (honestly, he's funnier than any stand-up comedian I can think of) at Siberia, and got some of their excellent Slavic / Russian food.

Tonight and tomorrow night: Skipping Deerhunter for about the infinityith time because I still think they suck, aside from half a song or so per album.  The amount of press they continue to get is nothing short of baffling to me.  In the '90s heyday of indie rock, a band with their talent level would've barely merited a mention in its own hometown's zines, but I guess by today's standards they're considered edgy / inventive / cool, thanks to the ongoing wussification & dilution of indie rock into mere sonic wallpaper in which bands try to relay to the listener "Okay, on this song we show that we're into the Beach Boys, and on this next one we do an homage to the Replacements, and then we're gonna blow everyone's minds by showing that we dig synth-pop!," etc.  "Record-collector rock," it's been wisely called.  Well, Deerhunter seem to be one of the token RCR bands of the '00s, so more power to them, I guess, and I do feel bad for the singer since he has Marfan Syndrome and presumably doesn't have too many more years left to live.  I don't even know if they have any synth-pop songs; I was mainly referring to the Strokes with that one.  I guess I should just shut up at this point.  If Deerhunter has any songs that I should like, let me know; I only like "Helicopter" by them, mainly b/c it sounds unlike any of their regular output.

Planets with similar climates: Dinosaur Jr. - "Let It Ride" (1988), The Sound - "The Fire" (1981), Sand Rubies - "Drugged" (1993), Polvo - "Tragic Carpet Ride" (1994), Sonic Youth - "Stereo Sanctity" (1987), Fugazi - "Sieve-Fisted Find" (1989).

Love Of Diagrams >> You broke into my house and you stole it

Love Of Diagrams - "The Pyramid"

(Matador Records [U.S.] / P-Vine Records [Japan], 2006)

Since I was befriended by an Aussie on both RYM and Tumblr last week (two separate people), I knew my next post on here had to be a killer Aussie song.

With a killer bassline, spiky guitar, mammoth drumming, and a set of memorable lyrics, this song should've made Love Of Diagrams into instant indie rock royalty.  This song just destroys on so many levels, and is one of the most addictive songs I've ever heard.  Sonic Youth have been unable or unwilling to craft a tune like this since the mid-'90s, so I guess it's good that they finally kicked the bucket, but the point is that their progeny will always continue to churn out great music.  Just look at the list of bands at the bottom of this post for proof.

Note: Matador Records is still giving this song away for free; download it here.  That link is where I originally acquired this song, though this rip is from my own CD, bought in 2010.

I had been hearing a bit about this band as part of the whole post-punk revival of the mid-'00s, and thought about going to see them open for Ted Leo at the Spanish Moon in 2007.  Really, really regretting that.  They have apparently been broken up for a few years now, and, being from Australia, the chances are less than zero that they'll ever trek to Louisiana again.  The lyrics are apparently about rape, with "the pyramid" representing the vagina, which the intruder "broke into."  And what he "stole" was presumably the protagonist's innocence and/or trust in humanity.  So it's a fun & thought-provoking protest song in the best Gang Of Four tradition, but hopefully the lyrics are not autobiographical.

The video mainly involves the band members physically playing their instruments, which is the stupidest fucking thing in the world for any music video to feature. But an edgy "house" theme is used in it, tying in with the lyrics, and the visual effects are pretty amazing.  In fact, you'll never be able to get these colors out of your head whenever you hear this song in the future:

My sister had her appendix removed last week, so I made her this mix CD.  Last weekend, I met my future sister-in-law Mila, and lent her some CDs to copy (The Church's Heyday, Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation).  We also went to brunch at Commander's Palace with the whole fam, and to the Spring Garden Show at City Park.  It was my first time going to Commander's in almost 20 years.  Also went to Parkway Bakery & Tavern (best chicken po-boy of my life) and Angelo Brocato's later that night.  (Thought I was pretty clever for including a song about having a sliver of herself removed...  And the Black Flag song has the lyric "Keep me alive / Only you can do it."  And so forth with some other medical-related lyrics.)

I snapped this pic of an impressive Mammillaria bombycina (Silken pincushion cactus), a recent addition to the cactus / succulent greenhouse at the N.O. Botanical Garden.
I have three of these myself (tip: get one right now at Lowe's or Home Depot), but none of mine have clustered like this one, which must be 10-15 years old.

On Monday, I skipped the 2nd half of the college basketball championship to see a rock concert starring Merchandise, White Lung, and Glish.  Glish were great as usual, and debuted two new songs, but sadly didn't play longtime set opener "Collider."  Luckily they played the quite similar song "Sex."  White Lung just kicked all kinds of ass, especially on my two favorite songs of theirs, "Bag" and "Take The Mirror."  I expect them to go down as the key hardcore band of this generation.  Singer Mish Way seemed a bit annoyed with the crowd's passivity, and I was thinking to myself how their set would've spawned a serious mosh pit back in the '90s.  Oh well.  Merchandise now have a human drummer, and crooner Carson Cox now plays guitar, and they now have a sax player on a few songs.  So their sound was much fuller (and I would say sometimes too full / busy) as compared to last fall, when they only had two human-played instruments (guitar and bass), plus a drum machine.  DJ Wesley Stokes played some good stuff, such as Slowdive's "Morningrise," My Bloody Valentine's "You Made Me Realise," and CHVRCHES' "The Mother We Share."  And speaking of Sonic Youth, Carson wore a Chelsea Light Moving t-shirt.

I planned on seeing the movie Spring Breakers, but its theater run seems to be over.  I will say without shame that I've seen Ashley Benson's movie Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal about 5 times.  One of the most quotable movies ever.

Woman arrested for beating up boyfriend after he got wasted and sang that annoying Macklemore song, "Thrift Shop," 25.5 times on his 26th birthday - "Enraged, Samantha started to shove Lars, but he still wouldn't stop singing the song. So she grabbed him by the throat and started to choke him (wait, now it's the worst birthday ever)."  Couldn't you have at least let him finish the 26th rendition?  Now he'll subconsciously just be wanting to sing it even more.

Planets with similar climates: Drop Nineteens - "Delaware" (1992), Bleach - "First" (1991), A.C. Temple - "Miss Sky" (1988), Gang Of Four - "It Is Not Enough" (1982), Springhouse - "Enslave Me" (1992), The Black Watch - "Come Inside" (1994), Catherine Wheel - "Chrome" (1993), Moonshake - "Spaceship Earth" (1992).

Sebadoh (Lou Barlow) >> Turning personal vendetta and small-minded revenge tactics into eventual cult status

Sebadoh - "Showtape '91"

(unreleased, 1991 / Domino Records, 2006)

On their 1991 tour, burgeoning indie rock stalwarts Sebadoh were known for playing a tape of obnoxious / baffling spoken word stuff in between songs while they were tuning.  (By the same token, Sonic Youth were known for playing Madonna songs and samples of European church bells in between songs in the '80s, since they had to tune and retune dozens of modified guitars.)  It was all spoken by singer / guitarist Lou Barlow, fresh off of being kicked out of Dinosaur Jr.  Tapes of this were passed on in the underground tape-trading community, and it was finally released in 2006 by Domino on the deluxe reissue of III.  I bought that album in '97, but was not too impressed and soon sold it.  I had heard about the showtape, so I didn't think it could live up to my expectations, but definitely did, and then some.  Lou spoof lots of things that later became indie tropes (e.g. "drone-rock," emo, fanzine dweebs, Swans worship), and uses a strange enunciation most of the time to convey either sarcasm or mental instability.  He constantly hammers away at the "three guys" premise, casting the band's members as everymen, heroes of the hoi polloi.  Towards the end, it starts to get unhinged and quite uncomfortable to listen to, as Lou ruthlessly skewers his band's own motives for making music.  It took me until just today to realize that "The lonely band that mutters" is a spoof of the Clash's laughably false slogan "The only band that matters."  Hahahahahaha.... x 1000.  The first line is an example of Lou intentionally messing up the syntax to make it sound more like a sound collage made from various sources.

Some samples, in the order they appear:

"Guitars, in front of Marshall stacks as full wall of them explode with a simultaneous on switch, begin wailing various percussion at any tempo.  I, bloody with Uzi blast, reach to play guitar, fumbling violently as it screeches through the Marshalls.  Grab guitar and plays what he wants.  I struggle to my feet, hoisting the guitar over my head.  Ladies and gentlemen: The pieces of meat!  Dual denial... Duel of denial... Dueling denial."
"Your postmodern folkcore saviors: Sebadoh!"
"Three guys who appreciate and simulate [assimilate?] the power of modern drone-rock: Sebadoh!"
"Sebadoh... Featuring that guy who played bass in Soul Asylum: Lou Barlow!"
"Another evening of oppressive noodling, courtesy of Sebadoh!"
"Three guys in search of the eternal party: Sebadoh."
"Open-chord tuning saviors of alternative rock and roll: Sebadoh!"
"And now, shattering the barrier between artist and audience... Three guys with smiles you can trust: Sebadoh."
"Three more reasons to doubt your boyfriend... Sebadoh: Jason, Eric and Lou."
"Guitar, bass, percussion... The fire, the wind, the heartbeat. A live experience surely among the top ten this year: Sebadoh."
"Three guys who think it's much more important if the music is heartfelt rather than if the music sounds like shit or not: Sebadoh!"
"The east is where the vampires live. The west is where the searchers go. Searching for a reason just like you: Ladies and gentlemen, the sensitive power of Sebadoh."
"In the tradition of Daniel Johnston under a cloud of hiss: Sebadoh!"
"Searching for a reason, just like you. Ladies and gentlemen, the sensitive power of Sebadoh."
"It's not bullshit, it's Sebadoh."
"Distinctive songwriters, any Beatle wannabe, three guys you need to know. Super show, Sebadoh!"
"Unencumbered by structure... masters of melodic, atonal free-association. Three free spirits... Jason, Eric and Lou: Sebadoh!"
"A crystal shining forever moment, courtesy of Sebadoh!"
"Sweet, destructive, turning musical corners at breakneck speed."
"Battling monumental indifference, sadly overlooked as creatively inferior bands are basically treated like geniuses and receive enormous recording budgets. Buns up to corporate wastemongers: Sebadoh!"
"Three dumpy guys with no fashion sense."
"Shaking hands or sharing feasts, three friendly minstrels who aren't very friendly... Reinventing folk music: Sebadoh!"
"Boys and girls, as free as the fingers flow, a heartful drone you should know: Sebadoh."
"Sebadoh: The lonely band that mutters."
"Perhaps smoking pot or drinking beer before setting foot onstage, it's Sebadoh."
"Figuratively pissing in your mouth, humiliating and subduing your spirit, exposing every nook and cranny of the human psyche... Way to go, Sebadoh!"
"Searching for the lowest common denominator, resorting to tired tales of naughty-boy boredom, asking annoying questions and providing bogus answers. Self-serving closet fascists making money from marijuana masturbation."
"Incompetence masquerading as inspiration, inspiration mistaken for true talent, a spectre of egocentric behavior sputtering wildly out of control.  Ladies and gentlemen, indie rock's newest unrecognized genius of songwriting sucker-punch, in a minivan for a six-week tour: Sebadoh!"
"Taking every opportunity to subtly manipulate your expectations for a moment's amusement.  Becoming suddenly bored at your immature attempt to engage our approval with your typical butt-licking fanboy fervor: Sebadoh!"
"Driving dozens of college-age lemmings off the cliff of limited imagination. Smashing their soft skulls on the jagged boulders of our bitter sarcasm... Three assholes: Sebadoh!"
"Laughing at your shortcomings, tactlessly wielding destructive honesty to protect themselves from true feeling, eagerly butt-fucking your grandpa."
"Turning personal vendetta and small-minded revenge tactics into eventual cult status... The only man in the world who truly appreciated the genius of the Swans: Lou Barlow!"
"Rescuing wounded animals and diligently nursing them back to health and returning them to their woodland homes: Sebadoh!"
"Putting down everything, judging all as lame.  But for all their hype as something new, they play the same old game.  Another letdown, another reason to do it yourself: Sebadoh!"

Some of today's pompous indie-hero windbags (Arcade Fire, Conor Oberst, and Radiohead / Thom Yorke come to mind quickly) could learn a lot from Lou and the boys on this track.

Here's a pic I found a few weeks ago of a pair of flyers created by the NOLADIY guys.  They apparently date back to at least 2006, maybe earlier. The one on the left is a spoof of the "punk police" (people who decide whether or not a band is worthy of remaining relevant), I guess.  (I think I remember reading that it was put up in protest of a gig at One Eyed Jacks by the Dead Kennedys after they had reformed without Jello Biafra, but I could be totally wrong.)  Pretty simple and effective... but the one on the right really stopped me in my tracks:

Reverse psychology can be a great weapon...

Best / least pompous bio I've probably ever seen, found today on IMDB's message boards for the movie School Daze: LadyGlamSlam - "I was born, I grew, I learned, there was pain, I got fat, then there was some sex scenes, roll credits."

Planets with similar climates: None