Friday, March 30, 2007
Back in the 1990s Sebadoh lead the lo-fi revolution, where poetry and pathos was captured on informal recordings, hissy alternatives to the slick and soulless pop music of the era. Their seminal recording, the sprawling, multifaceted double album Sebadoh III is being re-released, and that album’s lineup of Lou Barlow, Eric Gaffney and Jason Lowenstein are touring behind it. We caught up with Gaffney and Lowenstein as they prepared for the tour.
How does it feel to have the original lineup back together?
Lowenstein: I have regressed to the feeling of being a 19-year-old, with a 35-year-old brain and body. It feels insane.
Gaffney: The same but we’re in L.A. rehearsing, and not Florence, Mass. I, for one, have never known any other lineup other than this. We are playing for the first time in 14 years, so pretty good, considering.
Is there going to be a new Sebadoh album?
Gaffney: We have a merch CD for sale I assembled and titled, Wade Through the Boggs, unreleased Sebadoh recordings 1990-1993. If you’re asking about an all new record, nobody knows. We’re touring, and that’s all we have planned.
Sebadoh was one of those bands that really spoke to me in the late ’80s, early ’90s, spoke to that restlessness you feel at the brink of adulthood. Do you feel the political and social climate is similar to that time?
Gaffney: I don’t know if we were speaking to you personally. We keep politics off the dinner table for the most part. We’re Californians.
Lowenstein: Doesn’t seem similar to me at all, although I was worried about war and being drafted into the armed forces and there are similar concerns now. ... I’m not hanging out with many 19-year-olds, but I get the idea that nobody is worrying about that kind of thing. I thought that after 9-11 we would see a big political/social awareness/priority shift. Didn’t happen that I can see.
How is the indie rock climate different than it was during the alternative heyday?
Gaffney: I don’t pay attention to
such things. I create my own climate or adapt to where I am.
Lowenstein: Less opportunity to make a living from making recordings. ... Not so much of a “scene” that I can tell. ... Record collectors and motivated music listeners are getting a lot of their stuff for free, so it’s hard to tell “how you are doing” in terms of record sales, since there are many unaccounted listeners out there.
Sebadoh will play an early, 8 p.m. show at the Spanish Moon Thursday, April 12.
Comments
Post a comment
(Requires free registration.)