Folk Implosion - Take A Look Inside

I figured I should just get this one done, given all the Lou stuff that's been floating around. Folk Implosion's first album. 14 songs in 22 minutes, recorded in a living room.

A: Blossom, Sputnik's Down, Slap Me, Chciken Squawk, Spiderweb-Butterfly, Had To Find Out, Better Than Allrite

B: Why Do They Hide?, Winter's Day, Boyfriend, Girlfriend, Shake A Little Heaven, Waltzin' With Your Ego, Take A Look Inside, Start Again

Enjoy!

Folk Implosion - Palm Of My Hand

#75. Starting to see some real disparity in the stacks of "dead" and "to do". This thing is on the downslope. Damn. I'll refrain from making comparisons with life as I prepare myself mentally and physically to hit year 40.

Lou Barlow and his many bands have been appearing here about as often as the snow these days. Folk Implosion is probably his best known Sebadoh side project in that they made it big with the "Kids" film soundtrack.

All of his side projects are interesting; there's no mistaking who is at the center of them, but they're all just different enough. Folk Implosion is more lo-fi than late-era Sebadoh, not nearly as raw or unpredictable as the Sentridoh stuff, but it lacks the dark humor of Beltbuckle. Folk Implosion fills some strange gap between all of these bands in some way, comprising some middle ground.

One of the last purchases in this collection, as this came out in1995. Sticker says Newbury Comics, I'm guessing the Amherst one, which would have been fairly new at the time.

A: Palm Of My Hand
B: Mood Swing
Enjoy!

Sentridoh - The Mysterious Sentridoh EP

More Lou Barlow. He's a bit of a constant theme in this whole thing, isn't he? Damn, that guy wrote a lot of songs.

A-side produced by Bob Weston (Volcano Suns, Shellac) B-side produced by Lou. It's exactly what you expect from a Sentridoh project. Completely Lo-fi, a little strange, a little neurotic with a touch of self-damning, too.

A: Good In Others, The Spirit That Kills, Weakness Is The Secret
B: Cold Love, No One Taught Me, No Matter What
Enjoy!

Steve Westfield & The Slow Band/Scud Mountain Boys Split 7"

A Northampton split single full of slightly twangy slow stuff. Steve Westfield seemed to play the Baystate Hotel regularly. He recruited an all-star band for this single, with Murph from Dinosaur Jr, Lou Barlow, and some guy named Jim Joe Greedy. It's OK, but my hopes were set a bit higher than this.

The B-side features The Scud Mountain Boys, a band that went on to much bigger and better things. Signed by Sub Pop a year or so after this, they released Massachusetts, a brilliant alt-country album that was at least near the forefront of that whole movement. Joe Pernice is still recording with the Pernice Brothers.

There's a personal connection as well. I got to know Scud Mountain Boy Stephen Desaulniers a little bit during my time out there, as he was a housemate of a co-worker of mine, and he lived right down the road. He's the guy in the pine box on the album of that name. I have fond memories of drinking whiskey, playing cribbage and listening to Bill Monroe with him. A lot of what I know about early country music came from him and his housemate, whose name suddenly escapes me.

A: Steve Westfield & the Slow Band, "Sittin' On The Bottom Of The World"
B: Scud Mountain Boys, "Television"
Enjoy!

The Breeders - Head To Toe

Here we go, something a little less Seattle.I liked the Breeders. They were a pretty cool side-project turned big time act for Kim Deal and Tanya Donelly (who was gone by the time this came out). I saw them open for Nirvana.

Anyway, this came out after their big breakthrough hit "Cannonball" but never got the same recognition. Solid single, but not as catchy as that one.

This was produced (technically "recorded with" on the notes) by J Mascis. The Breeders either were picking sides, or having a sense of humor about things (not sure which) as they covered Sebadoh's "The Freed Pig" which is Lou Barlow's musical middle finger to Mascis for kicking him out of Dinosaur Jr.

I picked this up at Main St. Records. The price tag is still on it, $2.99.

A: Head To Toe, Shocker In Gloomtown
B: The Freed Pig
Enjoy!

Sebadoh - Not Too Amused

Jason gets an A-side with this track that appeared on Bakesale. This is the album where he really started contributing songs that were just as good as Lou's, and it's a solid choice for a single.

The B-side is really, really strange. It's got some of the early Sebadoh Lo-Fi quality to it, but they add bongos, cackling laughter, discordant guitar and Hank Williams playing on a radio. They also throw a slower version of "Not Too Amused" in there. Some of the weirder stuff they did without Eric Gaffney in the band.

Looks like we've got a storm on tap, might get myself caught up on Wednesday.

A: Not Too Amused
B: Hank Williams
Enjoy!

Sebadoh - Gimme Indie Rock!

Welcome to 2011.

My resolutions:

1. To run the 25K (that's 15.5 miles) Around Cape Ann race on Labor Day and to do it well, all while raising money for the Jimmy Fund/Dana Farber Cancer Institute. This is part of a SoSH fundraiser, but my friend Dan is very much on my mind and is keeping me motivated. You can donate here, if you'd like.

2. And this is where this holiday selection comes in, is to listen to and buy some new music this year. Gimme Indie Rock applies to 2011 just as much as it did 20 years ago (has it really been that long?). I lost track of everything that was current in the music world from about 1999-2009, and am still catching up. No sense falling further behind, or living in 1991 forever.

I've probably played this 7" more than any other. It's got everything about early Sebadoh in one little 5-song package. A loud, tongue in cheek rock song that worships indie rock, while throwing jabs at Lou's former band? (4 Stars in the Rolling Stone!) Hell yeah! And it's followed up with a favorite Sebadoh song of mine, "Ride The Darker Wave". This started out as one of his lo-fi solo acoustic songs, but it's been redone with the whole band, and it's early Sebadoh at their best. Bouncing, loud, and melancholy all at once. The B-side is full of oddities, a lo-fi Sentridoh-esque acoustic song about Lou's fantasies in "Red Riding Good", and a song with Beatles-like masking effects in "New King". Of course, the last track on the B-side has to be really strange, and this is no exception. It's an Eric Gaffney song about Alastair Cooke occult stuff, "Calling Yog Soggoth", complete with a lecture on the nature of magic. This is another 7" that's has since been added to newer, remastered/bonus track version of Sebadoh's III that I never bothered to buy again.

 #50 goes up tomorrow. Starting to make some real progress on the pile.

A: Gimmie Indie Rock, Ride The Darker Wave
B: Red Riding Good, New King, Calling Yog Soggoth
Enjoy!

Belt Buckle EP

A one-off side project with Northampton's own Lou Barlow (Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh, Folk Implosion, etc) Bob Fay (who joined Sebadoh right after this) and Eric Matthews, (Cardinal, solo act) this little 33RPM 7" EP was cut as a favor to a Sebadoh fan who was trying to get his small label, Sonic Bubblegum, up and running in Brighton, MA.

This has Lou Barlow's stamp all over it. Very Sebadoh-esque, just a bit weirder and angrier than your average Lou B Sebadoh material. Back when Lou was in Dinosaur Jr, his lyrical contribution to the band was mostly bloodcurdling angry screams. The sensitive and quieter side of Lou came out with Sebadoh, and early on, he seemed willing to let Eric Gaffney play the role of the band's screaming psychotic. Belt Buckle seems to be an outlet for the pissed-off Lou that got left behind. Thankfully, he doesn't revert back to his old screaming ways. Instead, he writes these twisted and humorously dark little songs. Standout tracks are "Judas Suicide" and "Mary Hair". Pretty sure I picked this up at Main St. Records shortly after it was released.

A: Judas Suicide, Pocket Skylab Love
B: Mary Hair, Girl Who Reads
Enjoy!