Five no-frills 1990s albums that define lo-fi

Gimme Indie Rock! By Sebadoh (1991)

Was there ever a more anthemic lo-fi lyric than this? “Started back in ’83 – Started seeing things differently – And hardcore wasn’t doing it for me no more – Started smoking pot – Thought things sounded better slow.” Thus Lou Barlow begins one of  Sebadoh’s early EPs with a clarion call for a different kind of music. He will namedrop Velvet Underground and Iggy, Pussy Galore and Sonic Youth, and Husker Du in his account of his own personal history in music. And if you know anything about Lou Barlow, you just know he will also be mentioning Dinosaur, Jr.

Gimme Indie Rock! Came out a few years after Dinosaur Jr. frontman J Mascis booted Barlow out of the post-hardcore trio. It was the stuff of soap operas. Mascis, the taciturn visionary who played guitar louder and faster than anyone, and Barlow, the bass player with insecurity issues that could fill several textbooks, were oil and water from the start.

Though they nominally began as an equal trio with drummer Murph, Mascis soon asserted his position as the alpha and Barlow acquiesced. Their description of the relationship in later years sounds exactly like a co-dependent, emotionally abusive marriage.

Barlow had begun writing his own songs while still in Dinosaur, Jr, and two Barlow compositions close out their seminal album You’re Living All Over Me in 1987. After his departure, Barlow joined up with Eric Gaffney and Jason Lowenstein to form Sebadoh. Their earliest efforts are decidedly lo-fi. On the five-song EP Gimme Indie Rock!, they trade off the songwriting, but they all have that casual, messy quality.

Lowenstein’s “New King” features a buzzing drone over a guitar that sounds as if it is being played underwater. A tambourine provides the only percussion. And on “Calling Yog Soggoth,” Gaffney indulges in a little H. P. Lovecraft fantasy with that same distant drone.

The five songs of Gimme Indie Rock! would be included as bonus tracks on their third full album, Sebadoh III in 1991. Gaffney would leave, but Barlow and Lowenstein would continue to put out similar music for the next three decades, even after Barlow and Mascis reconciled and reconstituted the original Dinosaur, Jr. in 2005.