Lou Barlow

Lou Barlow

Barlow performing with Dinosaur Jr. in 2005
Background information
Birth name Louis Knox Barlow
Born July 17, 1966 (1966-07-17) (age 45)
Dayton, Ohio
United States
Genres Indie rock, lo-fi, hardcore punk
Occupations Musician, songwriter
Instruments Vocals, guitar, bass, percussion, keyboards
Years active 1982–present
Labels Shrimper
Smells Like
Mint
Sub Pop
Lo-Fi
Little Brother
Dark Beloved Cloud
City Slang
Merge
Acuarela
Domino
Associated acts Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh, Sentridoh, Deep Wound, The Folk Implosion
Website www.loobiecore.com
Notable instruments
Fender Telecaster Bass, Rickenbacker 4003

Louis Knox Barlow (July 17, 1966) is an American alternative rock musician and songwriter. A founding member of the groups Deep Wound, Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh and The Folk Implosion. Barlow is credited[1] with helping to pioneer the lo-fi style of rock music in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Barlow was born in Dayton, Ohio and was raised in Jackson, Michigan and Westfield, Massachusetts.

Contents

Dinosaur Jr.

Barlow attended high school in Westfield, Massachusetts, where he met Scott Helland. The two formed the Massachusetts-based hardcore punk band Deep Wound. J Mascis joined the band after answering their ad for, "drummer wanted to play really fast".[2] After becoming disillusioned with the constraints of hardcore, Deep Wound broke up in 1984. Mascis and Barlow reunited to form Dinosaur (later Dinosaur Jr.) later that year. Throughout its early existence, however, Mascis and Barlow had frequent personality conflicts and after the release of their third album Bug in 1988 and the initial supporting tour, Barlow was kicked out of the band.[3]

In 2005, Barlow rejoined the band alongside the original drummer, Murph. Since then, the band has reissued its first three records, toured the world extensively and released two new records, Beyond and Farm.

Sebadoh and Folk Implosion

After his dismissal from Dinosaur Jr., Barlow turned his attention to his side-project Sebadoh, which he had formed several years earlier with the multi-instrumentalist Eric Gaffney. The project featured lo-fidelity recording techniques and combined Barlow's introspective, confessional songwriting with Gaffney's discordant noise collages. Bassist and songwriter Jason Loewenstein was later added to the line-up. Sebadoh's early efforts include 1989's The Freed Man and 1990's Weed Forestin', which were later combined and rereleased as the double album The Freed Weed.

In 1991, Barlow began work on the first of many side projects in reaction to the growing popularity of Sebadoh. He dubbed his largely solo effort Sentridoh and reverted to earlier recording techniques, making much use of sampling and a four-track machine. Sentridoh released a series of recordings available only on cassette tape on the Shrimper label, with the highlights later being compiled on CD on 1994's Winning Losers: A Collection of Home Recordings and 1995's The Original Losing Losers and Wasted Pieces in 2003. Another EP, Another Collection of Home Recordings was released in 1994 on Mint Records.

In 1994, Barlow formed the Folk Implosion with fellow singer-songwriter John Davis. After the release of several Folk Implosion EPs and singles, Barlow & Davis composed most of the soundtrack for Larry Clark's film, Kids. From those songs, "Natural One," recorded by Walton Gagel, became a surprise top-40 hit following the success of the film. It remains Barlow's biggest commercial hit. The soundtrack also included previously released songs by Slint, Daniel Johnston and Sebadoh.

After the release of The Sebadoh in 1999, Sebadoh went on hiatus and its members went on to pursue other projects. Barlow continued to work with the Folk Implosion, releasing One Part Lullaby in 1999. Barlow took a break from the Folk Implosion in 2000 to collaborate on an album (Subsonic 6) with Belgian musician Rudy Trouvé. In 2003, Barlow released The New Folk Implosion, an album which featured a new line-up, with Imaad Wasif on guitar and Russ Pollard, a Sebadoh veteran, on drums. This album met with mixed reviews according to the website Metacritic.[4] Also in 2003, Barlow appeared as a musician in the film Laurel Canyon. In Spring of 2004, Barlow briefly reunited with Jason Loewenstein for the Turbo Acoustic tour. During this tour, Barlow and J Mascis also reunited for a single performance of the song "Video Prick" with former Deep Wound vocalist Charlie Nakajima. This brief song with Mascis led to a full fledged Dinosaur Jr. reunion in 2005, with Barlow, Mascis & Murph playing "The Lung" on the 'Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson' on April 15, 2005 and a show at Spaceland in Los Angeles the following night. They then mounted well-received tours of the United States and Europe throughout the rest of the year. They continued to tour throughout 2006, heading to Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

2007 saw Barlow, again, reunite with a former bandmate when he and Jason Loewenstein reformed 'Sebadoh Classic' with Eric Gaffney and went out on the road from February through April as the original lineup for the first time in 14 years.

Other collaborations

Solo work

Barlow's first "official" solo effort, is entitled Emoh and features many long-time collaborators and colleagues, including Abby Barlow and Jason Loewenstein. The album, released in January 2005, "takes the songs of Sentridoh and rolls them up into the production values of Folk Implosion to create a sound rarely found in the Barlow catalog".[5] In November 2005, he toured Spain and the Iberian peninsula to promote Emoh.

Barlow's second solo LP, Goodnight Unknown, was released October 6, 2009 via Merge. The record was produced by Andrew Murdock and features guest turns from the Melvins' Dale Crover, singer-songwriter Lisa Germano as well as ex-touring guitarist of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs Imaad Wasif.[6] He toured the album in the US in the fall of 2009, opening for Dinosaur Jr. Mike Watt's band, The Missingmen, supported Barlow on the tour.[7]

Discography

Cassettes / albums

Year Title Label
1990 Losers (cassette); revised in 1991 Shrimper
1992 Most of the Worst and Some of the Best (cassette); selections included on Wasted Pieces reissue Shrimper
1993 Wasted Pieces (cassette); reissued on CD in 2003 Shrimper
1994 Winning Losers: A Collection of Home Recordings 89-93; reissued in 2006 Smells Like Records
1994 Lou Barlow and His Sentridoh (compilation) City Slang
1995 The Original Losing Losers; reissue of Losers cassette Shrimper
1996 Lou Barlow Plays Waterfront; authorised live album Spun
2000 Subsonic 6; split album with Rudy Trouvé Sub Rosa
2002 Free Sentridoh: Songs from Loobiecore Loobiecore
2005 Emoh Merge
2009 Goodnight Unknown Merge
2009 Songs from Loobiecore 2.5 (tour edition) Loobiecore

EPs / singles

Year Title Label
1992 Losercore; later included on Winning Losers reissue Smells Like Records
1993 The Mysterious Sentridoh Little Brother Records
1993 Sub Pop Singles Club - Dec 93 Sub Pop
1993 Louis Barlow's Acoustic Sentridoh Lo-Fi Recordings
1994 Lou Barlow and Friends: Another Collection of Home Recordings Mint Records
2005 Holding Back the Year Domino
2007 Mirror the Eye Acuarela
2009 The Right Domino
2010 Sentridoh III Merge Records

Featured in compilations

Year Track(s) Title Label
1991 Commercial Losers: Sensive Dull Thump, King of the Dry Hump I Capgun - A Shrimper Compilation Shrimper
1991 Me and My Arrow Ghost of a Rollercoaster Shrimper
1991 Revolution #37 Back to the Egg, Asshole Shrimper
1992 Certain Dance Circumstance Pawnshop Reverb Shrimper
1993 Same Old, Say Mold Hot Tips! Dedicated / Melody Maker
1993 Certain Dance - Circumstance / Revolution #37 Abridged Perversion Shrimper
1994 I Stopped Singing Ow, Quit It! Vol.2 Volvolo
1994 Morning Rain '92 Cool Beans #3 Split; split 7" with Matt, Dis- & sold with Cool Beans zine #3. Cool Beans
1994 Black Sheep Our Band Could Be Your Life; a Minutemen tribute album. Little Brother Records
1995 Sorry Escargot (EP); sold with Escargot zine. Sick & Tired / Dark Beloved Cloud
1995 Loving Limbs / No Telling Chemical Imbalance Vol.3, #1; came with Chemical Imbalance zine. Chemical Imbalance
1996 Skull Pipeline! Live Boston Rock on WMBR Kimchee / Slow River
1996 Blown Pony More of Our Stupid Noises Squirtgun
1997 Riding Flygirl (EP) #7; sold with Flygirl zine #7. Flygirl / Blue Bunny
1998 Blown Pony More of Our Stupid Noises '98 Squirtgun / Nettwerk
2001 Morning's After Me Colonel Jeffrey Pumpernickel Off
2003 None of Your Goddam Bizness In the Film They Made Us a Little More Articulate Escape Goat
2005 A Man in Love Comes with a Smile Vol.13; came with the Comes With A Smile zine #17. Comes With A Smile
2006 Forever Instant Rough Trade Shops - Singer Songwriter 1 Mute Records Ltd.
2009 The Ballad of Daykitty / I'm So Glad Score! 20 Years of Merge Records - Volume 6 Merge
2009 Sit Back and Watch Local Currency Digital EP Fayettenam
2009 Song of the Tall Poppy Stroke - Songs for Chris Knox A Major
2010 Smooth Sounds for Your Fucking Face Smooth Sounds: The Future Hits of WCKR SPGT Shrimper
2010 Imagination Blind (live) It Happened Here St. Ives Records

References

  1. ^ Sprague, David. "Sebadoh". TrouserPress.com. http://trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=sebadoh. Retrieved 2007-06-18. 
  2. ^ Azerrad, Michael: "Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991.", page 348. Little, Brown and Company., 2001
  3. ^ Allmusic.com
  4. ^ "The New Folk Implosion". http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/folkimplosion/newfolkimplosion. Retrieved 2009-04-29. 
  5. ^ [1]
  6. ^ "Lou Barlow at Merge Records". http://www.mergerecords.com/artists/barlow. Retrieved 2009-05-07. 
  7. ^ "Lou Barlow Announces New Solo Album". Pitchfork. http://pitchfork.com/news/35822-lou-barlow-announces-new-solo-album/. Retrieved 2011-07-01. 

External links