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Album Review

Sebadoh
The Freed Man Domino

Article written by Matt H - Jul 10, 2007

Looking back at the late 80's the world for this non-dancing, music obsessed teen was mostly LOUD. OK sometimes loud-quiet-loud, but still mostly loud. Through the squalls of feedback it could be gleaned that one of Dinosaur Jnr was busy in his time off, exorcising his J Mascis-shaped demons producing a bunch of half-assed but near legendary cassettes of thrown-together strummings and bitter noodlings. In the days before the internet they remained that way - tantalisingly referred to in the inkies, but beyond the reach of those having enough trouble scraping together the Gaye Bykers on Acid back catalogue... So they passed me by, and it took a while for my world to quieten down again.

This Domino release pulls together a seemingly generous half century of tracks from a few of the most celebrated Sebadoh efforts in what really does feel like something of a historical document. For if Lou Barlow and Eric Gaffney didn't invent lo-fi, they certainly gave it a clear identity and something to push against. The cheap ethic never did promote quality control and there's a fairly high proportion of self-indulgent (and sometimes self-pitying) twaddle here. A momumentally grim cover of Yellow Submarine springs to mind, but there's all manner of half-realised ideas and wibbly samples to grate on the nerves. In small doses this chaff might be bearable but, listened to as a whole, 50+ tracks can test the strongest constitution. Equally though, there's a fair amount of wheaty goodness and it's stuff that sounds like the rough drafts of lots of the things you've loved over the last 20 years. The gauche and charming songs in this category have echoed on through Palace, Bongwater and Beck, Bright Eyes, Jeff Lewis and dozens of others and are things to cherish.

As a piece of rock geneaology it's interesting, inspiring and eye-shrinkingly excruciating in roughly even measures and worth the effort, though a finger on the "skip" button can save unwanted pain.

Links:
http://www.sebadoh.com