For indie rock purists, Sebadoh resides unquestioningly in the hall of fame. While the Sebadoh project has been largely inactive in the new millennium, the members have all been pursuing other collaborations and solo projects. Sebadoh wiseman Lou Barlow continued to record and release under his own name and his Folk Implosion project which has been around since the early 90s. In 2013, Barlow got the band back together and released Defend Yourself on Joyful Noise, an Indianapolis label that celebrates the artist who “one way or another bridges this gap between pop and noise”–a fitting description for Sebadoh, a band who has shrugged along the slacker line of indie rock. At times lo-fi then polished, the band simultaneously explores traditional structures and free-form noise territory, the latter initially brought to the table by original drummer Eric Gaffney. Their live performance, as evidenced this past Friday at Red 7, demonstrated their ability to weave in and out of noisy bursts to find themselves on solid footing with the main groove. Having released Defend Yourself last year, the group stuck with a heavy dose of new material.
Standout “State of Mine” shuffles along with an alt-country feel. Paired with Barlow’s grumbled vocals, the track doesn’t sound too far from early, noisy Wilco. Mindful as ever, Barlow stays introspective and angsty with lines like “Failure is a state of mine.” Always challenging himself and examining the inner-workings of the mind, he gives the listener the opportunity to feel less alone. These fans have faithfully followed Barlow and his many projects throughout the years, giving Sebadoh the opportunity to reconnect with an audience that has aged alongside the band in a more personal and peer-oriented attitude. Hanging heads swung to the fast-paced gait of “My Drugs,” a classic punky confessional released on their 2013 EP, Secret EP. Lines like, “I don’t wanna live without them/I guess I’d rather be alone/WHOA/I can’t live without my drugs” juxtapose with the upbeat cantor of the number, giving the song a dark shadow that complicates the message and deepens the complexity. These paradoxical feelings are what Sebadoh captures so unwittingly and with such ease that we take the honesty and respond with the same vulnerability, yielding a resultant exuberance in finding a like-minded folk.
Opening the night was local duo and punk-noisers Carl Sagan’s Skate Shoes. Featuring Steve Pike on guitar and vocals, the duo pushed through a faulty power supply to deliver an honest set of raw emotional outpourings. Wielding a vintage Epiphone guitar, Pike hurled melodic riffs before lunging into washes of feedback through his Russian Sovtek stack. CSSS and Sebadoh were a great pair, both channelling observational details of mundanity into endearing tales of relatable happenstance, giving meaning and gravity to the everyday trials and tribulations we are forced to navigate and conquer.
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