New England Music News

Boston music news: July 21, 2006

Notes on Lou Barlow and Stacy Jones

By SARAH TOMLINSON | July 18, 2006

Lou Barlow

The recent spate of activity from the DINOSAUR JR. camp has given indie rock fans plenty of reason to rejoice. Now LOU BARLOW’s post-Dinosaur project SEBADOH are following suit. The band will release a deluxe version of 1991’s III, which many consider to be one of indie rock’s definitive albums, September 5 on Domino. “The record has been unavailable for years and had been fetching big money on eBay,” says Barlow. “There have been no Sebadoh reissues to date, and III seemed like a logical place to begin.” There’ll be a bonus CD of rare tracks and B-sides including the “Gimme Indie Rock” seven-inch and some unreleased four-track recordings from the time. “Lo-fi to the core,” Barlow says. “The honesty in the songs is always kind of shocking. But I know the record very well. We lived it, I loved it.” Next big question, of course: will fans hear these songs played live again anytime soon? “We’re currently talking about that possibility. We’ll see . . . weirder things have happened — the Dinosaur Jr. reunion, for instance.”

AMERICAN HI-FI have a new song, “The Rescue,” on Rhino’s Sound of Superman album, and singer/guitarist STACY JONES, the former drummer for Letters to Cleo and Veruca Salt, says it could be the last new music you’ll hear from the group for a while, since Hi-Fi are on a break. Jones is not: he just wrote songs for the new Bowling for Soup album and a tune with Marty Casey, the runner-up on Rock Star: INXS. But his focus now is his new A&R gig with Epic, and working as a staff producer at Sony. “I decided that after 15 years on the road I was ready to kind of settle down.” Among his recent projects is Utah emo-pop sister act MEG & DIA, whose debut album, Something Real (Doghouse), drops August 8. He’s also produced tracks for British punk act TOWERS OF LONDON’s debut, Blood Sweat and Towers (TVT), and California singer-songwriter RONNIE DAY’s sophomore effort, The Album. “I’ve listened to everything over the years, which puts me in a good position right now. I can make a record like Meg & Dia and then make a total metal record a week later. It keeps it interesting for me. There are a different set of rules and challenges on each record, which is nice.”

On the Web
Sebadoh:http://www.sebadoh.com/
American Hi-Fi:http://www.americanhi-fi.com/