Let’s discuss any and all music here. Got a new artist who’s rocking your boat that you want to talk about? Post a video! Found out about that unearthed Coltrane album that has the jazz freak in you losing your mind? Lay it out for us! Have a theory about what your favorite band might do for their next album? Let’s hear it! Anything and everything music-related goes here.

This week’s discussion prompt comes courtesy of The Avocado’s very own Pachylad:

What are some examples of bands that are “democratic” (i.e. with “equally famous” members, or where the band members have a relatively equal share in singing, songwriting duties, etc.)? Or as Pachy put it in their original suggestion, “We know about bands where one or two members overshadow the rest but what’s a good example of a band with ‘democratic’/equally famous members? (obviously: Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, please do not cheat and say shit like Outkast lmao)”.

While Lou Barlow is clearly the best known member of Sebadoh, from the time Barlow and his friend Eric Gaffney started making music together in 1986, Barlow, while a very prolific songwriter, was insistent that Gaffney (and later Jason Loewenstein, who joined in 1989) contribute their own songs to the band’s releases as well. This may have been due to Barlow’s perception that he had not been allowed to contribute as many of his own songs as he would have liked to releases by his then-primary band Dinosaur Jr, and as such did not want to be seen as doing the same thing to his new bandmates.[footnote]The actual situation seems to have been more complicated; while Mascis later claimed that he actually wanted Barlow contribute more songs to Dinosaur (and that he thought Barlow was hoarding the best of his own material for Sebadoh), according to Barlow by the time the band was working on Bug, Mascis had completely excluded him from having any songwriting input. Whatever the case may be (and it seems a lack of communication between the two may have played a large part in things going sour), by 2005 the animosity Barlow felt towards Mascis (and expressed very publicly for many years) had subsided, and the original line-up of Mascis, Barlow, and Murph have been playing and making new music together ever since.[/footnote]

While Weed Forestin’ (originally released in a limited run of 100 copies in 1987, and given a wider release in 1990) was largely a Lou Barlow solo project (with Gaffney only contributing percussion on a few tracks), the group’s official debut The Freed Man (1988) features songs by both Barlow and Gaffney. After Barlow was ejected from Dinosaur in 1989, Sebadoh (now a trio with Loewenstein) released a series of EPs and singles, as well as two[footnote]or three if the overlooked Smash Your Head On the Punk Rock compilation is included (and it should be – lo-fi psychedelic hardcore masterpiece, that one)[/footnote] critically-acclaimed albums: III (1991) and Bubble & Scrape (1993). While Barlow wrote well over half of the songs on III (with Gaffney and Loewenstein contributing five and three songs respectively), Bubble & Scrape was even more democratic, with seven Barlow songs, six Gaffney songs, and four by Loewenstein.

However, in late 1993, Gaffney left the band; while Bob Fay was recruited to take over on drums, Barlow and Loewenstein would be the band’s primary songwriters from this point on, with Bakesale (1994) featuring a larger number of songs by Loewenstein (five to Barlow’s ten), and Harmacy (1996) actually featuring more songs by Loewenstein (nine) than Barlow (eight). And this trend continued after Fay was fired from the group and replaced by Russell Pollard, with Barlow and Loewenstein having an equal number of songs (seven each) on The Sebadoh (1999), which would be Sebadoh’s final album prior to going on an extended hiatus.

Barlow and Loewenstein reunited with Gaffney for a tour in 2007, and then the two reformed Sebadoh with new member Bob D’Amico in 2011, going on to record an EP and two more albums in the years since.

Among some Sebadoh fans, there is a not-uncommon perception that the “Lou” songs are by far superior to those by his bandmates, and that the songs by Gaffney and Loewenstein are largely weak filler, or even just plain annoying. However, I’d argue that what makes the Gaffney-era albums so special is how eclectic they are, with Gaffney’s open-tuned drones and noisy rockers resting comfortably between Barlow’s more melodic (and at times folky) material, the lo-fi recording style uniting their seemingly incompatible songs, and the variety keeping things from becoming stale.

While Bakesale is often held up as their “best”, personally I find the relative uniformity of the songwriting and the more polished production (plus Loewenstein not fully coming into his own as a songwriter yet) makes it the Sebadoh album I’m least likely to put on and listen to from start to finish. And while Harmacy arguably suffers from more of the same polished-but-bland production[footnote](as well as weak drumming – sorry, Bob!)[/footnote] by this time Loewenstein’s songwriting had improved, and the album as a whole was a lot more eclectic. And Loewenstein had gotten even better by the time of The Sebadoh, and the band was also experimenting with new sounds and song structures to keep things fresh.

BONUS DISCUSSION PROMPT: What is your favorite Sebadoh album, and/or song? [footnote]because obviously everyone who hangs out here has one or both of those, right?[/footnote]

As always, any and all music-related posts are welcome. Have fun, and rock out with yr guac out!