Q&A: Sebadoh

Sebadoh (left to right): Bob D'Amico, Lou Barlow, Jason Loewenstein (Credit: Jens Nordström)

Lou Barlow is spending a lot of time with cassettes again. The Sebadoh singer/guitarist has been remastering the lo-fi band’s 1987 debut, “Weed Forestin,” which was initially released exclusively on tape.

“To find a really good cassette player isn’t easy,” says Barlow, also known for his work as bassist with alt-rockers Dinosaur Jr. “I tried two or three out last week, and they were f---ing broken. One of them trapped the cassette inside of it, so I had to take the whole thing apart to get the cassette back out of it. The whole time I was like, ‘You know what? F--- cassettes.’”

On a recent Friday evening, Barlow was seated on a couch in his Silver Lake, Calif., living room, next to his daughter who was watching the Disney Channel TV program “Wizards of Waverly Place.” Sebadoh’s current lineup also includes drummer Bob D'Amico and longtime bassist Jason Loewenstein.

Lou, as you start packing for this Sebadoh tour, what’s something you brought on-tour early in your career you wouldn’t bring now?
Hmm. I'm kind of a light packer in general. Corduroys, maybe? [Laughs] I don’t really take corduroys with me anymore.

What do you think of the indie bands, such as Of Montreal, who’ve recently released material on cassettes?
It’s cute.

Since Sebadoh’s sound is often described as lo-fi, I was wondering which grandiose-sounding albums, with like 9,000 overdubs or whatever, you’re into.
Lady Gaga. [Laughs]

She does have some good songs.
They’re absolutely f---ing amazing. Her first album and the EP that followed it—I love those records. Grandiose. Let’s see…

Late-period Queen comes to mind.
F--- yeah, Queen. Even early-period Queen was pretty grandiose too, you know? I can’t say I throw those on a lot around the house. It was funny today, because somebody Facebook-ed or whatever about David Bowie, “Every time I hear David Bowie I just realize how useless all other music is.” And I was thinking, “You know I never feel that way about David Bowie.” [Laughs] I mean David Bowie’s awesome and perfect in its own way, but I think that perfection that makes it really grandiose kind of keeps me from really living with it. I don’t live with that music.

I read on your Twitter feed you recently had to cancel a solo show in Singapore because Dinosaur Jr. was playing a festival within a certain number of miles. What’s another interesting logistical aspect about juggling multiple projects?
I put out a solo record maybe two years ago. It came out kind of on the heels of this Dinosaur Jr. record, and I’d been touring with Dinosaur at that point for four years I think, and I was like, “You know what, I want to open up the shows for Dinosaur Jr.” And J [Mascis, Dinosaur Jr. singer/guitarist] freaked. He was just like, “This can’t happen because then it will all just be about you and you can’t do that.” And I was like, “Well, either let me do it or I quit. How about that?” [Laughs]

So they let me do it. But I couldn’t do the whole tour—I had to let the last two weeks go. And it was just a hugely sobering and disappointing thing. I’d devoted three or four years to touring with Dinosaur Jr. and kind of put all these other things on the backburner. I thought there would be this sort of, “Hey bro, that’s cool.” I didn’t think that would happen, but I was hoping it would. But of course it didn’t. But because I forced my way onto it, then I had to do two shows every night. It was kind of incredible—an invigorating and draining experience. Coming up next, we have this Weezer Cruise. Have you heard about that?

Yes. In addition to sets with Sebadoh and Dinosaur Jr. you’ll be doing solo shows on that. What intrigues you most about playing the Weezer Cruise?
I’m not really into that idea: cruise ships. [In the background, a female voice can be heard saying, “Your wife is,” after which Barlow laughs.] It seems kind of counter-intuitive to me, but I’m a little curious how I’m actually going to play three shows a day. I’m curious to where I’ll be doing my little solo shows and how many people I’ll be playing for. I’m thinking 10 or 20. I wonder if whoever booked it knows I’ll be doing three things and will they have it set up concurrently.

What was the last text you received from J Mascis?
It probably just said, “No.” [Laughs] He’s a man of few words.

Anything interesting in your guitar cases?
I don’t know if I should tell you this: But I’m going to put Astroglide in one of them so I don’t have to take it through security. That way I don’t have to deal with any, “What’s this?” That’s the God’s honest truth.

Rock ‘n’ roll. Can you remember what you wrote the earliest Sebadoh lyrics down onto--cocktail napkins, notebooks, pizza boxes…?
My dad was working for Bendix Abrasives, and somehow he got these huge reams of paper. These huge rolls of white paper were lying around the attic of the family house. They weren’t cut up. They weren’t lined. That’s how I would get my paper—I would roll some off this thing, rip it off and write on it. They were just these torn pieces of paper.