Sebadoh: Lou Barlow and Jason Lowenstein Talk About Race Relations, Deaths in the Family, and Becoming a Real Band

The truth? Lou Barlow, who formed Sebadoh almost 10 years ago and his cohorts deserve the accolades. Few lyricists explore the furtive intricacies and twisted dynamics of relationships better than Sebadoh. They wrote the quintessential American love song, "Skull" about a one-night stand. In one of his side projects, Folk Implosion, Barlow tightly crafted an an anthemic kid punk song that resonates with adults, "Daddy Never Understood". It that jumps from angst to melancholy without missing a rooftop.

Sebadoh fans have justification for their worship, yet no other fandom criticizes their idols as Sebadoh fans do. In the words of KCMU DJ John Richards, "Because it’s Sebadoh, they have to try harder."

Punk fans may swap stories about the craziest pit, Sebadoh fans brag about the worst Sebadoh show. At shows, they also compete for title of most obscure song reference, calling out titles as if Barlow had a tip jar on his guitar.

Guitarist, bassist, writer, vocalist, Barlow acknowledges the fan pressure yet he feeds into it by making Sebadoh the most approachable human band around. Details of their lives, including all their peccadilloes, sit in broad daylight. People, flawed creatures themselves, identify with Sebadoh on a deeper level than just lyrics.

Lowenstein diligently documents the bands journeys on their website. In one passage, he shares finding out about his grandfather’s death and his concerns about his grandmother being alone. This simple factual account of a has more power than some of the best fiction sold.

"Am I supposed to critique all the shows I see," said Lowenstein, "That’s so boring. I am figuring out finding the balance between too personal so it’s not just bus bitching. The most interesting things to write, people would get in trouble for. But my own angst, I’m free to write about it."

"Even with songs, it’s the same thing, where do you draw the line?" said Barlow, "I hate bands that have figured it out, bands that play songs like (he plays an air-ukelele and sings in a Prozacian voice) ‘It’s a sunny day and we’re so happy’ or (he grabs an air microphone and fakes a death metal roar) ‘Everything’s so terrible’. Those bands don’t appreciate all the subtleties. They try to come across as having this homogeneous band view."

Sebadoh’s latest album The Sebadoh has no uniform sentiment and texture, making it one of their best to date (Bakesale, despite Barlow’s critique, set the bar quite high).

After the 1997 release of Harmacy, Sebadoh nearly disbanded; drummer Bob Fay left the band; Russ Pollard joined. Pollard wrote one of the songs "Break Tree" and sings during shows, making Sebadoh the most egalitarian band around.

Barlow wrote one half, Lowenstein wrote the other. Historically, their songs have marked events, like "The Freed Pig" zinging J. Mascis after Barlow’s departure from Dinosaur Jr.

"I’ve been freaked out about how different the reviews our, we’ve received the most bipolar reviews on this album," said Barlow. "I’ve had kids come up to me and say they didn’t like it because it’s not personal because we didn’t accompany it with a press release."

Instead of identifying the characters in all the songs, like a gossip rag, the band decided to let the songs stand alone. Reviews have scattered the map from the album being too happy to the album being too angry. Because Harmacy paved inroads to the land of Casey Kasem, magazines such as GQ and Mademoiselle have reviewed The Sebadoh. Some misguided folks have even declared that Sebadoh has finally embraced pop.

"I didn’t know when we didn't," said Lowenstein.

They embraced innovation on The Sebadoh, experimenting with diverse elements like using Latin rhythm on "Cuban", and adding synth effects that border wave on "It’s All You".

"We have a very rich rhythmic tradition," said Barlow, "On Bakesale we got very streamlined. And people want to hear Bakesale because that’s when they were first introduced to the band."

Bakesale introduced people to the gorgeous pathos in Lou’s voice. Fans of his soulful complex relationships-can-suck ballads will love "Love is Stronger than the Truth." He wrote perhaps the happiest song yet from Sebadoh, "Tree", showing an unmistakable hippy fetish.

"My mom wanted me to write a song for my sister’s wedding and I had been working on this song for years," said Barlow. "It’s definitely a marriage song, but it should be able to fit any relationship."

Critics have always questioned Barlow’s relationship songs given his stable marriage, but within any relationship, struggles arise. Barlow’s relationship struggles lack the trailer trash cartoonish cache that grabs headlines, but most human conflicts would bore John Waters. Every personal relationship has a political edge, and Barlow has explored nearly every one of them on an intellectual basis. On The Sebadoh, he takes a stab at political politics in "Colorblind", putting a dynamic spin on racism:

"I wish we were colorblind we could be ourselves...I wish I were invisible, I’d sink into myself...Black and white and beautiful, why’d they make it ugly...Now it’s time to close your mind cause mother nature tells you to."

"I always think about race relations," said Barlow, "In order to write songs about it, I have to put myself out on a limb, but I had to do it if I’m going to get old and carry on a tradition. I don’t want to be always doing songs pointing fingers saying ‘You did this to me’. My songs have always been about personal politics."

While many bands write political songs in the third person or in the hypothetical, Barlow injects himself into the songs.

"I never liked the Clash because they wore political situations like a badge," said Barlow. "I would rather pull out questions rather than make one statement. I’ve always seen that through my songs and Jason’s."

Lowenstein’s writing reflects a completeness unseen on his writing on Harmacy, that had an urgent, visceral brilliancy. Now, they have less of a "punk" edge an more complexity. Lowenstein brought the dynamic "Cuban" and "It’s All You" along with the seductively fuzzy "Nick of Time".

"In the interim between Harmacy and this album I outfitted myself with a studio because I wasn’t sure if I would ever be in a studio again," said Lowenstein unaware that many bands would kick out a member to make room for him. "I taught myself production. It’s a science to capture sounds. I always felt really alienated by the engineers, but I consider how important it is in the process"

His lyrics also show more depth rather than raw emotion.

"I’m sorry baby if I was unkind, I’m beginning to forget you’re a friend of mine," he sings on "Nick of Time".

"I’m actually finished songs," said Lowenstein, "I used to be really self conscious and feel like I was just wasting other people’s time with my lyrics. So I would just give up. But with these songs I felt more strongly and I really just wanted to see it through. Lou is always been patient enough so I could do that, but this time I think they came out much better."

Barlow and Lowenstein still write separately, as Barlow believes personal songs need a solo effort, yet Pollard has changed their creative dynamic.

"It’s just dynamic, we can now go from soft to loud within one song," said Barlow. That truth manifests itself in songs on The Sebadoh, i.e."Weird".

Pollard stepped right into Sebadoh and fits into their often volatile live show dynamic.

If Barlow senses his performance off, he will apologize to the audience because the show "sucks". They give an audience 100 percent, warts and all.

When something goes wrong, like Jason Lowenstein has a string flake on his bass, he will play the dissonant string several times for the humor. Other bands will gloss over an imperfection, in the grand tradition of "The show must go on."

Sebadoh could perform the same set night in and out, like clockwork, but they take risks. All three members take turns singing, Lowenstein plays all three instruments, and Pollard gets to jump on the bass and take over lead vocals. They tweak their hits, such as using a sample of their current single "Flame" interspersed with them playing it live.

The intimacy and intelligence of their lyrics often overshadows their fundamentally impressive musicianship. Barlow and Lowenstein not only trade lead and bass guitar duties, they also make several guitar switches. Unfortunately, Barlow has abandoned his old standby held together with three types of tape; blame that on his move to Los Angeles from Boston.

Nonetheless, Sebadoh is notorious for unpredictable shows. A few years ago, they played a Sub Pop party under the guise of a laid back casual atmosphere.

"But then they had brought in all these ‘important’ people from radio stations," said Barlow.

"And writers from 'the Rolling Bone’," said Lowenstein as he toyed with his apparently new flashlight. Sebadoh’s set of hard core songs did not go over well; they were informed they had made half the attendees cry.

This tour has brought them quite a different audience response. At their show at the Roxy in Boston, Sebadoh watched the first girl in the band’s history leap on stage topless.

Lowenstein described the scene as both horrifying and hilarious in that her significant breasts flew all over the stage.

"Later on she said to Lou, ‘I just did that cause I wanted you to feel like a real band,’" laughed Lowenstein.

At the end of the interview, Lowenstein thanked me for picking Sebadoh as the subject of my interview and for knowing something about his band. Hopefully Sebadoh will never become a "real" band.

Check Out Some Great Sebadoh Pix in Pando's Photo Gallery!

Sebadoh's Lou Barlow: One Massachusetts Hardcore Homeboy

Visit Sebadoh.com

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