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- | | c o m m u n i c a t i o n s | |
- | |________________________________________________________________| |
- |____________________________________________________________________|
-
- ...presents... Sebadoh Interview: March 3, 1992
- by G.A. Ellsworth
-
- >>> a cDc publication.......1993 <<<
- -cDc- CULT OF THE DEAD COW -cDc-
- ____ _ ____ _ ____ _ ____ _ ____
- |____digital_media____digital_culture____digital_media____digital_culture____|
-
- I sent Lou a mail interview on August 5, 1991. He wrote back about two
- weeks later answering most of the questions.
- ______________________________________________________________________________
-
- GA: HOW MANY INTERVIEWS HAVE YOU DONE AND CAN I PRINT THIS IN A ZINE?
-
- Lou: How many interviews?? Some, not a lot... I'm at a loss for an actual # at
- this point... I turn down no one.
-
- GA: WHERE DID THE NAME SEBADOH COME FROM AND WHAT IS THE CURRENT LINE-UP?
-
- Lou: No Meaning to Sebadoh... I started playing music with Eric in 1986; off +
- on (mostly off) since then.
-
- GA: WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF 10,000 MANIACS COVERED ONE OF YOUR SONGS?
-
- Lou: Superchunk covered Sebadoh, I reckon that's like 10,000 Maniacs...I'm
- flattered, 10,000 Maniacs would put me in a coma.
-
- GA: HOW MANY COPIES OF THE ASSHOLE 7" ARE THERE?
-
- Lou: There are 500 copies of "Asshole" by the way = carpentry is a miracle = I
- have no conception =
-
- GA: PLEASE GIVE ME SOME DIRT ON BARRY HENSLER OF BIG CHIEF/THE NECROS.
-
- Lou: Barry Hensler?? nope, no dirt... the Necros - Big Chief annoy me greatly,
- strut rock garbage
-
- GA: IS THAT WOMAN SHRIEKING ON 'I BELIEVE IN FATE' TRACI LORDS?
-
- LOU: "I Believe in Fate" features Traci, yes indeed!! good call.
-
- GA: HAS SUBPOP APPROACHED YOU YET WITH THEIR BIG CONTRACT TO DO A SINGLE OF THE
- MONTH?
-
- Lou: Sub pop?? we're way above/below that shit right now, I doubt anyone there
- cares.
-
- GA: TELL ME ABOUT ANY COOL BANDS THAT YOU MAY HAVE BECOME INTERESTED IN LATELY.
-
- Lou: SLINT is THE greatest band in the world though I've barely met anyone who
- agrees... reviews I've seen act like it's one dimensional bummer-rock "good for
- late nights" Fools, all of those who miss the power of SLINT. ROYAL TRUCKS,
- DEAD C, RIDE, ICE CUBE, MOONSHAKE (1 song anyway), I like those bands (in no
- particular order)
-
- GA: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MY BLOODY VALENTINE?
-
- Lou: My Bloody Valentine... I really liked "Isn't Anything" really loved the
- "You Made Me Realize" 12"...I bought the Temelo ep recently but seems like
- they've run drastically short of ideas beyond the MBV "atmosphere"...have you
- heard the slew of imitators?? Smashing Orange, Slowdive, the Lily's,
- Nightblooms, Black Tamborine, Velocity Girl?? I like RIDE a lot though A Lot
- of their tunes suck, (the good ones rock)
-
- GA: WHAT IS SEBADOH III GOING TO BE LIKE?
-
- Lou: Sebadoh III is out, I will personally hunt and KILL all those that call it
- "a mixed bag" or "too ambitious", I will TORTURE all those that say "I really
- like the first song best"...it's release is our test of humanity, an
- examination of not of our "songwriting talents" but the listener's capacity for
- feeling + emotion.... unfortunately I'm serious, I'm sure Sebadoh III will fall
- upon many a deaf ear it is a lot to digest and i doubt anyone has the time and
- judging from what passes for new, revolutionary, mind expanding indie-rock
- (PAVEMENT-LOVE CHILD-SWERVEDRIVER) we're nowhere. But you've caught me at a
- bad time, I'm in-between Sebadoh tours (we toured for 2 1/2 weeks April-May,
- Eric ditched us 2 weeks prior, Jason (new member) + I did it alone,
- semi-acoustic QUIET...'twas fun) Eric might've ditched Sebadoh all-together,
- nothing other than SLINT seems remotely alive and relevant to my life
- music-wise. Actually, I'm fucking LUCKY... Sebadoh is all I could want it to
- be, my girlfriend supports me, I have no debilitating diseases... Sebadoh will
- always have people ready to release our music to me at no cost to yours
- truly... what the fuck am I bitching about? If you like III tell me so, if not
- keep it to yourself... I cannot rationally handle the criticism until I'm
- working on the Next Sebadoh record, right now III is my life and I will only
- react with pathetic self-protecting snide comments... oh fuckin' well. (maybe
- not revolutionary I exaggerate when I PR..
-
- GA: OH YEAH, I WAS THINKING ABOUT TRYING TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY BASS. ANY
- SUGGESTIONS TO GET STARTED?
-
- Lou: Bass tips?? fat strings, between 1 and 6 of them.
- ______________________________________________________________________________
-
- The rest of this interview was done in person on March 3, 1992 by Blake
- and I. The show was at a club in Louisville and before it started we were all
- hanging out in the parking lot waiting for the first band to go on. As we were
- waiting, a young woman tried to sell us some helium balloons so she could get
- into the show. Lou bought one of her balloons. What a nice guy.
-
- Before the show, Blake and I engaged Lou in some slagging of J. Mascis,
- the guitar player for Dinosaur Jr. Lou told us he actually considered going to
- see Dinosaur Jr. this tour which he hasn't done since he's been out of the
- band. He told us he also wanted to see My Bloody Valentine who were opening
- up. We joked about how J. was becoming a guitar legend and would soon be even
- more like Neil Young. An image of J. lining a small lake with speakers and
- then rowing out to the middle to listen to the music evolved and Lou chimed in
- with something about how J. would probably just put in a big long dock and walk
- up and down it playing guitar. Then Lou told us that J. had just recently
- started smoking pot and that he has a spiritual herb vibe going.
-
- The show was fantastic and, according to the band, was the longest set
- they've ever played. Towards the end, Bob (the current drummer) left the stage
- and Jason took over on drums while Lou played Jason's bass. After an amazing
- 15 minutes of jamming, Jon Cook of Crain came onstage and jammed on guitar
- while someone I don't know took the mike and improvised vocals. All the while
- the TV over in the corner was showing the Muhammed Ali 50th Birthday TV special
- which really gave the scene a strange feel.
-
- We met Lou outside afterward and interviewed him.
- ______________________________________________________________________________
-
- Lou: So what are your questions? Ask the first thing off the top of your head.
-
- GA: On the Weed Forestin thing that you did, there's some stuff with Bobby
- Vinton on it. What's the story with that?
-
- Lou: Mr. Lonely by Bobby Vinton, I love that song.
-
- GA: And you were fooling around with the tape some? It sounds really spliced
- up.
-
- Lou: Yeah, on a cassette four track.
-
- GA: I was really into that and this other thing, a sort of a sound montage of
- several songs that sounded spliced together.
-
- Lou: Yeah, that's Joni Mitchell and Tammy Wynette rotating. It's a line from a
- Joni Mitchell song, then a line from a Tammy Wynette song, then a line from a
- Joni Mitchell song, and like the tapes are kinda fucked up so it's like slower
- and faster and like weaving through each other.
-
- GA: And those tapes were messed with, they sound all warped and distorted.
-
- Lou: Yeah, I played with the pitch control on my four track.
-
- GA: That was just something that you did in your room?
-
- Lou: Yeah.
-
- GA: When did you move away from home?
-
- Lou: Move away from home? Four years ago and I just moved back.
-
- GA: So you could live with your mom?
-
- Lou: To live with my family. I live with my mom and dad now again.
-
- GA: Do you have any siblings?
-
- Lou: Yes. Two. Two sisters. One sister is one year younger than me and the
- other sister is six years younger than me. I am twenty five years old.
-
- GA: Why is the LP of Freed Man so different from the CD Freed Weed?
-
- Lou: Because we tried to make a really long CD that was over 120 minutes long
- where we included every single song from the Freed Man plus a bunch of sound
- montages that we had made. And it was to be our perfected version of the Freed
- Man album. But when we sent in the tape they said that the CD could only be 72
- minutes. So we had to take off 30 minutes of the Freed Man.
-
- GA: So stuff from the LP Freed Man is not even on the CD?
-
- Lou: A lot of the stuff isn't even out. There's like other ultimate versions
- and more songs and different stuff. We had made a huge perfect version of the
- Freed Man and then it was over. The CD would have to had been 110 minutes long
- or something, which they just can't do.
-
- GA: I haven't actually played the CD and the LP of Weed Forestin at the same
- time, but...
-
- Lou: It's the same. Unfortunately I should have cut a lot out of Weed Forestin
- too, so I could make it more balanced. Just take the best songs from Weed
- Forestin and the best songs from Freed Man and all of that be one CD with both
- of them being equal length, but I kinda rushed it.
-
- GA: Are you going to do anything with the really good stuff that you cut out of
- the CD?
-
- Lou: Maybe, maybe someday.
-
- GA: A Losers II?
-
- Lou: I'm gonna make a Losers II definitely.
-
- GA: I like that tape a lot.
-
- Lou: Yeah, I'm gonna make a perfected version of that.
-
- GA: What was the evolution of your guitar that you are playing right now? With
- the few strings on it?
-
- Lou: I just have always played with as many strings as were on my guitar when I
- was growing up and sometimes that was 5 or 4 because I couldn't buy strings.
- And also with 3 strings or so it's just got a much heavier sound and I was able
- to strum it with a lot more force than I would be able to strum it with 6
- strings so I had more control over the rhythm of the guitar. Then I started
- learning how to strum different ways with just 4 strings. And that's what I
- play primarily now is 4 string guitar. About 90% of my songs are written on 4
- string guitar if not 95%.
-
- GA: Were you writing any of this music when you were in Dinosaur? Or was all
- the music you were writing kept to yourself?
-
- Lou: What do you mean?
-
- GA: Were you writing any music that was Dinosaur music?
-
- Lou: No, it could never be Dinosaur music. I didn't want it to be electric, I
- wanted to play it acoustic. Cause I played electric all the time and I went on
- tour and just played really loud all the time. I wanted to create something
- acoustic. Dinosaur didn't ever exactly lend itself to any sort of sensitive
- handling so I never ventured to bring anything that I wanted to play quiet. I
- didn't want to bring it in just so we could make it electric, I didn't think it
- would sound very good. Besides most of my songs were written in alternate
- tunings and I like the nuances of an alternate tuning. And I never did write
- any of my songs on regular guitar. You know, I just wouldn't want to hear
- those songs... I just liked alternate tuning acoustic sound, I like that, it's
- what I was into.
-
- GA: I like it too.
-
- Lou: You know, maybe I'm just slowly learning the guitar and maybe some day
- I'll have 6 strings on my guitar.
-
- GA: I really like the 12 string deal.
-
- Lou: It's really a 6 stings, it just has two low ones. (2 double strings on
- the bottom, and 2 single strings on the top) It gives it a meatier sound. You
- can just be like God Almighty at certain points. It's really wonderful,
- especially when I have 2 distortion pedals. It just feels really good to play.
-
- GA: Do you often play bass during a show?
-
- Lou: I don't play like we played tonight very often. Me and Jason tonight were
- just like completely fucking attached. It was really weird. Everything we
- played was just like one thing to another. We just really flow together
- incredibly well when we play bass and drums. It's kinda scary. I think I play
- with him a lot more powerfully than I played with Murph(The drummer from
- Dinosaur Jr.). That's really funny. I can't believe that what we're doing is
- actually evolving into something that's much more powerful than Dinosaur is.
-
- GA: It was really amazing when just the two of you were playing together.
-
- Lou: It.. we.. fucking, I don't know. Tonight we were just absolutely
- attached. In this total spiritual-musical sense. There was something
- completely flowing between us when we were doing that. It was completely fun.
-
- GA: Was it Louisville, Slint being here, or just you guys?
-
- Lou: It could be the land but it could also... I mean we had a really good show
- last night in Tennessee too. I really felt as though we really fed off the
- land there, I think we were feeding off the land here as well. But I don't
- know if it's Slint. I don't know what it is exactly, I really can't tell. I
- don't think it's all just centered on the fact that Slint is here. It seems to
- be something that manifests itself in the majority of the people who are here.
- There is just a certain vibe that I think I sense and I think Jason sensed it
- as well. I don't know it could be just a purely musical influence but then it
- could be also, something more spiritual.
-
- GA: I've been listening to your tapes for years and years, and I really
- wondered what you would sound like live. It didn't sound anything like I
- imagined, it was fucking cool.
-
- Lou: That's cool. That's fucking great. Really, actually, the way we play
- live is really close to the way I play acoustic. I think because Jason has
- complete freedom to play whatever he wants in a song and he really counteracts
- my stuff really really well. I'm not working alone at all, there are two other
- people who are shaping the sound on their own level, and it's completely
- exciting.
-
- GA: What about your lyrics? Do you ever just write stuff instead of writing
- into a journal?
-
- Lou: Yeah, it could be considered that. Actually I've said that many times.
- My songs are my diary. To write them for myself, I don't care. I want to
- share them immediately for some reason. Cause I would love to hear music like
- that so I make the music that I want to hear. I want to hear someone talking
- to me about what they are feeling.
-
- GA: When did you start doing that?
-
- Lou: I don't know, I think I've always done that. I think I have sort of an
- exhibitionist streak.
-
- GA: Tonight you introduced a song as being about how pornography has ruined the
- way you feel sex.
-
- Lou: It hasn't ruined it, but it's something that I've been thinking about
- recently so I wrote a song about it.
-
- GA: What's it called?
-
- Lou: Home Made. It's something that my thoughts on it aren't very formulated
- but I've been able to improvise on the lyrics when we play live. It seems to
- be taking some sort of shape. When we play live and I'm faced with having to
- sing a song that I don't have lyrics for it makes me take it off the top of my
- head and make it into a lyric as immediately as I feel it. It's a good way to
- read down to the exact feeling of the song and expressing it as directly as I
- can is meaningful to myself.
-
- GA: It's something that startled me because it's something that I've been
- thinking about recently too. I didn't really expect to have something reach
- out from the stage and have someone tell me what I'm thinking about.
-
- Lou: I've been noticing that everything runs in waves. I was especially
- convinced of that last fall. When we left on tour last time was when the
- Nirvana record was released. With the Nirvana record, it's been accompanied by
- a rash of psychic disturbances among my friends. It's sort of uncanny, a wave
- of romantic re-evaluation, of death, of contemplating all the people around us
- dying - like just among my friends. I really feel like there is some sort of
- wave going on. I also have the same feeling that if I write about exactly what
- I'm thinking about, and there's other people that feel the same thing... I
- think this is incredibly important right now. For people to communicate.
- People need to communicate and enjoy music, because music is dying. It should
- be transformed into the true folk art that it is. It should be something that
- is a true expression of the way people feel. It should be a connection between
- people.
-
- GA: Definitely. Communication.
-
- Lou: It's definitely time. I feel as though right now I'm possessed with a
- need to communicate. It's the most interesting and exciting thing that's ever
- happened to me.
-
- GA: I think your stuff is amazing.
-
- Lou: Thanks. That's totally cool. I hope a lot of people think that that's
- the whole point you know.
-
- GA: I think they do. I try to throw in some Sebadoh on tapes I make for people
- and say "listen to this."
-
- Lou: I'm sensing that that is happening. I sense some sort of progress. I
- feel a power from that.
-
- GA: It's kind of weird to be connected to all these people that way probably.
-
- Lou: Yeah, it's really interesting, I'm very curious about what's going to
- happen. I'm sort of curious as to how well I'm going to handle it. How much
- it's going to fuck me up.
-
- GA: Just to clarify, why are you no longer in Dinosaur?
-
- Lou: Why? Because it was an emotionally-totally-completely-impossible-uptight-
- horrible-situation. No one's heard this?
-
- GA: I just don't understand what happened.
-
- Lou: They said they broke up the band and they didn't. They told me the band
- had broken up and that was it, and they went on without me under the same name
- and they weren't broken up. They did it so they wouldn't have to tell me.
- They had no idea, or J. in particular had no idea how to communicate with me
- whatsoever. He was completely lost.
-
- GA: You became sort of infamous in a way. They went on MTV and said, "we want
- a new bass player because our last one was terrible." or something like that.
-
- Lou: They just didn't get along with me. It was great. All that stuff was
- completely great. That was the funniest thing. I've been vindicated in so
- many ways so it's nothing that I'm really worried about anymore. I just feel
- like I've been completely freed from that situation and I feel that freedom
- intensely right now. I'd rather not even think about it anymore. I thought
- about it for almost two solid years. You talk to me anytime and I was just
- completely obsessed with hatred. I was completely horribly bitter, I just
- didn't take it very well and I made sure that everyone knew. But right now
- things are going really well. I want to be as big as My Bloody Valentine.
-
- GA: They have money behind them. I think they are being engineered to hit the
- charts or something. They're just gonna be big big big...
-
- Lou: Big big big they're going to the top top top. And they suck too. They're
- completely great, but they can't write a song to save their fucking lives.
- They actually have some serious power behind them, but there is no fucking
- feeling or emotion. The feeling is in the music, but lyrically it's pretty
- dead. I mean, if it's played so loud... I don't think they are actually
- experimenting with their music. From what I can tell they are very of-the-
- moment, they are very much what people want to hear right now, and they are
- part of this wave, but I think that in the end their relatively meager talents
- will be exposed.
-
- GA: What do you think of Ride?
-
- Lou: I love Ride.
-
- Jason(who just walked over): Except for that new piece of shit.
-
- Lou: Their new thing really sucks. For the cover of the new Sebadoh thing I
- took the cover of their new ep and cut it to shreds, spread it out on paper and
- put Sebadoh underneath because I was so disappointed.
-
- GA: So what bands do you like?
-
- Lou: Definitely, lets talk about this. Slowdive...
-
- GA: What do they sound like?
-
- Lou: They just sound like shit, they sound like the Cocteau Twins and New Order
- just they play like these really simple little creeping songs that are played
- like through a billion effects, but there are actual transcendent moments in
- two or three songs where they just break through into this chiming mass of..
- this wall of sound like ching ching ching... with these breathy vocals and it's
- really pretty exciting. It kind of reminds me of the same euphoria that I'll
- get sometimes when I listen to My Bloody Valentine, but it's not as heavy and
- distorted as My Bloody Valentine, but they're ok. And I like one song by
- Moonshake another Creation band which doesn't actually sound like a Creation
- band. They have a Cocteau Twins influence, but they fuck it up, it's really
- cool, they just really cut things up. There's this one song called Coward that
- really blows me away. I like Black Tamborine, Wing Tip Slowed.
-
- Jason: Wing Tip Slowed, they're from McKlain, Virginia. They are awesome, they
- have one single out and a cassette.
-
- GA: What do you think of Pavement?
-
- Lou: I don't care about Pavement. I think they were really good live, but I
- don't think their records are anything special at all. It's sort of like My
- Bloody Valentine. There is a wave of certain style of bands that sort of tap
- into something briefly, but I think in the end their meager talents will be
- exposed.
-
- GA: I can't think of any more questions.
-
- Lou: My negativity is bringing it all to a total complete halt.
-
- Jason: Ok! Let's go!
- ______________________________________________________________________________
-
- We all stood up and started walking back to the club, and Lou turned and
- walked into a low-hanging sign.
-
- Sebadoh rumor July 1992: I just heard that Sebadoh has been signed to
- Sub-Pop and were given $19,000 to record their next album.
- _______ __________________________________________________________________
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- (' ') |Lunatic Labs.........213/655-0691|ftp - ftp.eff.org in pub/cud/cdc|
- (U) |==================================================================|
- .ooM |Copr. 1993 cDc communications by G.A. Ellsworth 03/01/93-#219|
- \_______/|All Rights Drooled Away. SIX GLORIOUS YEARS of cDc|
-
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