Pitchfork

If Sebadoh hadn't existed, someone would have had to make them up for the School of Rock 2: Electric Indie Boogaloo pitch. I mean, is there anyone with a better indie pedigree than Lou Barlow? Dude played bass for Dinosaur freaking Jr., and went on to form one of the bands whose picture appears in the dictionary next to any number of entries-- including "lo-fi," "plaid," "Prozac," "bong-hit," and "grunge," for crying out loud.

Sebadoh cemented their reputation with a series of albums that were quintessentially insecure, romantic, and-- make no mistake-- occasionally very noisy, thanks to the cacophony that drummer Jason Loewenstein and founder member Eric Gaffney brought to the table (see the crucial trilogy of 1992's Sebadoh III, 1993's Bubble and Scrape and the commercial breakthrough of 1994's Bakesale).

In Sebadoh's erratic live show, you were never quite sure whether Barlow was going to serenade you acoustic-style or smash the shit out of his electric guitar in the middle of a whirling frenzy of self- and sundry other hatreds: rock 'n' roll at its psychoanalytic best. Barlow worked out his issues in front of us, and we went along for the ride, often editing out the noisy songs for our distilled sad bastard mixtapes.

Barlow and Loewenstein, who had not played together as Sebadoh since touring in support of their 1999 self-titled swan song, played together for Domino Records' 10th anniversary party last fall and eventually put together a two-week tour around it. Barlow tells Pitchfork that his mother, of all people, was instrumental in further cementing the reunion when she asked her son and Loewenstein to play together at a benefit show for Community Resources for People with Autism in Eastham, MA. This yielded another two-week tour, and the boys seemed to be back on a roll.

Towards the end of April, Barlow and Loewenstein will be taking the Sebadoh caravan back out on the road for two more weeks of lo-fi lovin'. The lineup for the tour is basically Barlow and Loewenstein with, as Barlow says, "some simple non-electronic percussion we recorded on my trusty Tascam Porta-1 cassette four-track. I play acoustic guitars and Jake plays electric bass. We strip the songs down, but I'd like to think it still 'rocks.'" The confirmed dates thus far:

04-20 Chicago, IL - Abbey Pub
04-21 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
04-22 Hamilton, Ontario - The Underground
04-23 Toronto, Ontario - Horseshoe Tavern
04-24 Montreal, Quebec - El Salon
04-25 Cambridge, MA - TT the Bears
04-27 Hoboken, NJ - Maxwells
04-28 Brooklyn, NY - North Six
05-02 Philadelphia, PA - Khyber
05-03 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
05/05 Athens, GA - 40 Watt
05/06 Atlanta, GA - Echo Lounge

In terms of what's next for Sebadoh, the boys seem to be vacillating somewhat about the possibility of a new album. At first it seemed that there were no plans to record, then we got word they would indeed be going back into the studio again. Now it seems that the plan has changed again and there will indeed be no new album in the foreseeable future. After the tour, Barlow reports, "we're back to our respective homes and projects, [with] me finishing a solo record (which Jake has played a bit on) and Jake to Louisville and his band and his budding career as a studio engineer. No plans for another Sebadoh record but who knows?..I don't."

Barlow is also planning some solo dates in Belgium next week, for those of you in the low countries who just can't get enough sadcore: 02-26 Ghent, Belgium - Handelsbeurs
02-27 Turnhout, Belgium - Warande
02-28 Roeselare, Belgium - De Spil
02-29 Hasselt - Grote Schworwburg