Sebadoh - Special Elitist Mail-Order Single

Picked this up a while ago, but forgot that I hadn't posted it yet.

Released right before Harmacy, Sebadoh seemed to be making fun of Sub Pop with this one. Despite the name, it was not part of any Sub Pop Singles Club, or anything like that.

It's a strange release. Not much Lou, really. Two Jason songs, and unusual covers on the B-Side. Jason's "Princess" is quite good, one of his best songs. The B-side is all covers of surrealist/experimentalist 70's New Orleans band The Residents. They're strange. "Act Of Being Polite" has some sort of quirky cool thing that fits with Sebadoh's sound.

A: Princess, 1/2 Undressed
B: Act of Being Polite, Moisture, Suburban Bathers

Enjoy!

Sebadoh - Soul and Fire

We're getting to the end, folks. But of course, there's got to be at least one more Sebadoh/Lou Barlow item stashed in here somewhere.

This was from the Bubble and Scrape album, the end of the Eric Gaffney era. Like their other 7" records, there's a lot of material on here, and it's all over the place.

"Soul and Fire" is one of those heartbroken Lou songs. While he's got a ton of them, to the point where he even makes fun of himself for it, this one is particularly well written.

My favorite track here is a cover of the Necros "Reject". Sebadoh manages to take a 90 second long hardcore tune, slow it down, and breathe a bit more emotion and depth into it.

The B-sides are for Jason ("Sister") and Eric ("Bouquet...") to do their thing, but Jason hadn't fully arrived as a songwriter yet (that happened a year later on Bakesale) and Eric's over the top maniacal shtick was on the way out.

Going to see these guys in Boston tomorrow night with a friend. Should be a lot of fun.

A: Soul and Fire, Reject
B: Sister, Bouquet For a Siren
Enjoy!

Tomorrow: The end of the Daily 7, at least the daily part, anyway.

Sebadoh - Skull

Well, if I've learned one thing so far, it's that I bought a lot of Sebadoh stuff way back when. Excited to see them in a few weeks. The last time I saw them was on their Harmacy tour.

Unlike yesterday's pick, which had a band on the decline, this is a band at it's peak. Or at least one of two peaks during their lineup shuffles. "Skull" was a single off of Bakesale, which, to me anyway, holds up as one of the best albums of the era.

Everyone's heard "Skull". No big deal. Not their best song on the album, (or even close, there's a handful I like more) but probably the most accessible, so I can see why this was put out as a single. The B-sides are good. "Punching Myself" is a solid, shuffling Jason Lowenstein song. "Sing Something/Plate O' Hatred" is filled with clever wordplay, and is a throwback into some earlier Barlow Lo-Fi stuff, only far less crappy sounding. It's still clearly lo-fi, but it just sounds a million times better than the earlier stuff. Audiophile quality lo-fi?

A: Skull
B: Punching Myself, Sing Something/Plate O' Hatred
Enjoy!

Sebadoh/Azalia Snail - Split

Lo-Fi royalty share a 7". Sounds good. But...

Sebadoh, still in the Eric era, gets real lo-fi for this one. Unfortunately, it's not that exciting. "Toledo" is the best track here, but it's been done before, it's a snippet of Lou's first lo-fi stuff from Dinosaur Jr's great You're Living All Over Me album, only it was named "Poledo" then. That's followed by a strangely named (and mislabeled) noodling instrumental, which is then followed by "Pete" a typical Sebadoh lo-fi noisefest that, like the original "Poledo" ends with roaring ocean like sounds.

Azalia Snail, "The Queen of Lo-Fi", gets things back on track with her two songs. "St. Nowhere" is the song most going somewhere on this album. U.M.O. is a recorded phone message over some sludgy bass.

Overall, a nice little early 90's Lo-Fi artifact, but a bit of a disappointment when it comes to the Sebadoh stuff. Bought at a Newbury Comics, it seems. Not one I played that often.

A: Sebadoh - Toledo, Gondwanaland / No Compass, Pete
B: Azalia Snail - St. Nowhere, U.M.O.
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!