Sebadoh
Bakesale: Deluxe Version
Sub Pop
By Ellen Eldridge
If anything reminds of the late summer of 1994, a naked baby digging in a toilet does the trick. Sebadoh graces its audience with a nostalgic reminder of its fifth and best-selling album from the season when millions of jaded fans mourned Kurt Cobain’s suicide.
Lou Barlow, the original bassist for Dinosaur Jr., started Sebadoh as a side project in 1987. Considered the “classic” line up with members Eric Gaffney and Jason Loewenstein, Sebadoh returned to touring in 2007.
Tracks like “Not A Friend” and ‘Drama Mine” dreamily recall the days when the “Seattle sound” permeated the nation and grunge became more than a pair of ripped jeans. These fellows from Massachusetts fire away with the reissues. Harmacy is set to be re-released next, but this offers the perfect opportunity for new fans to find freedom in something that may have gone unnoticed previously.
The chorus in “Careful,” “it’s twice as hard to fool us,” speaks volumes as Sebadoh gears up to tour. Fall in love, again, with the classics, but buy this reissue for the full disc of 25 bonus tracks. The track “40203” sounds like a throwback to 90210 with an airy instrumental feel and muddy bass line. A slightly stripped-down “Not A Friend” leads into more variations and experimentations on original tracks with which fans can rediscover Sebadoh one reissue at a time.
