Sebadoh

Imagine if one of your favorite songwriters released songs on albums that also featured songs by a guy who records the antithesis of his music as well as another guy that records simply mediocre songs. That's what Sebadoh is like for me, with Lou Barlow writing songs I like a lot, but the other guys (who tend to be either annoyingly loud and messy or just boring) adding their crap on top. The solution for me was to get all six of their albums and create two CDs that have Barlow-only Sebadoh songs on them. You can do it yourself. Disc One is the first three albums after Freed Weed (which barely counts) and Disc Two is the second three: it splits perfectly, and you can even keep the cover songs that Lou sings. Historically, this is the band that formed when Barlow left Dinosaur Jr.

see Lou Barlow's Sentridoh, The Folk Implosion

Information: Sebadoh
Suggested First Purchase: Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock

Freed Weed (1990) -- A combination of The Freed Man and Weed Forestin (I'm not sure what's missing, if anything--this is a long album), it's sorta-kinda-listenable songs recorded quickly and hissily into a tape recorder. C

III (1991) -- Lou Barlow's are mostly decent (especially "The Freed Pig" and "Spoiled") as barely-finished-sounding songs go (I usually like tossed-off recordings, but it doesn't work as well on this album). D

Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock (1992) -- This "best of" from Rockin' the Forest and Sebadoh vs. Helmet combines fantastic songs like Lou Barlow's "Brand New Love" and "New Worship" (not to mention a wonderful cover of Nick Drake's "Pink Moon") with thrashy punk songs by Eric Gaffney and mediocre songs by Jason Lowenstein. C

Bubble and Scrape (1993) -- Sebadoh sort of begins to finish their songs with this one. The highlight is Lou Barlow's "Soul and Fire." The rest are about what you'd expect by now. D

Bakesale (1994) -- Highlights include "License to Confuse," "Magnet's Coil," "Not a Friend," and "Skull," all from Barlow. The rest is disposable. C

Harmacy (1996) -- A pretty cleaned-up Sebadoh (they've been getting more and more "produced" as they go), the best songs are "On Fire," "Ocean," "Willing To Wait" (certainly their prettiest song to date), "Too Pure," and "Perfect Way." The rest is mediocre. C

The Sebadoh (1999) -- The last Sebadoh album, with one really good tune ("Flame") and some forgettable stuff. C