Lou Barlow - "Moving"

Photo by Rachel Enneking

With his 3rd album bearing just his name coming out next month, Lou Barlow has shared the first single, "Moving." It's a very minimal song, with instrumentation consisting of a detuned ukelele and some keyboards. It's a moody song (presumably) about his decision to uproot his life and move from Los Angeles back to western Massachusetts. If 2013's Sebadoh album Defend Yourself was Barlow's divorce album, Brace the Wave could be his moving on with life album. It's very fitting that this would be one of his more minimalist semi-acoustic offerings. 

Brace the Wave is due out September 4 on Joyful Noise Recordings. You can listen to "Moving" below. For more information, including tour dates, head on over to www.loobiecore.com. 

Tres Padres - "Father's Day" and "a lot to maintain"

Photo via Imaad Wasif's Facebook

Get ready for an indie rock supergroup that may never do anything besides these two songs. Lou Barlow (Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr) has re-teamed with Imaad Wasif, his ex-New Folk Implosion bandmate (who was also in Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and Melvins' drummer to form Tres Padres. Lou Barlow posted two unreleased songs on YouTube and wrote on his Facebook: 

i recorded a couple of songs with Imaad Wasif and Dale Crover about two years ago at 606 studios ( home of the Foo FIghters ) ..it was meant to be for a benefit 7" which has yet to be released.. in the meantime i've made quick vids for both of the tracks so's you can hear what we did before it possibly vanishes in the haze.. 
the session was simultaneously documented for a possible pilot for a possible Foo Fighters related documentary series.. haven't heard much about that either

The songs sound like a Sebadoh/Melvins mash-up, which is pure heaven to me. You get Lou Barlow's melodic songwriting with the intensity and some of the noise of the Melvins. I hope this gets an actual release instead of just ending up stalling on YouTube, and maybe an actual full length album could happen. Probably not since Lou and Crover and insanely busy, but a guy can dream, right?

In the meantime, the Melvins are heading out on their usual summer mega-tour starting in June. Sebadoh are back out on tour, which will be followed by Dinosaur Jr touring this summer with Primus. You can watch Lou's videos for the two existing Tres Padres songs below.

"a lot to maintain":

"Father's Day":

Sebadoh - Defend Yourself

This is a great album that is being unjustly criticized. I’ve been spending the past two weeks trying to determine why. It’s new Sebadoh! New Sebadoh! It’s also Lou Barlow’s divorce album. Considering he met his now ex-wife because of a song (“Poledo”) and won her back because of a song (“Willing to Wait”), how could the relationship not end in song? I think this is where the problem lies: The album isn’t filled with standard break up songs. The theme of break up songs either go along with “get out of my life” or “I’m so sad you’re gone.” However, when a truly long term relationship (Barlow’s was 25 years) ends, especially when there are children involved, it’s not as black and white. You have feelings of both relief and regret. And when you add children to the mix, you don’t get the luxury of cutting the person out of your life forever. Somehow I don’t think most music bloggers have the life experience to understand that.

Which brings us to the music. The album starts off “I Will,” a song about moving on from a relationship. With lyrics like “’Cause someone else / Has found her way into my soul” and “No longer need to be with you,” it’s one of the best songs about moving on without hate I’ve ever heard. Even Jason Lowenstein’s songs have the same feeling. On the Kreative Kontrolpodcast, Barlow mentioned that between the two of them, three songs have lyrics with some variation of “Defend yourself.” My favorite Lowenstein song is “Inquiries.” It’s country in the way that the Meat Puppets are country, and sounds like a trucker’s speed addled ramblings.

Defend Yourself is also Sebadoh’s return to home recording. Technology has progressed far beyond their 4-tracks, so don’t expect the lo-fi sound they pioneered. Plus, they’ve been recording their own stuff for almost 20 years now, so they’ve figured it out. It fits in a perfect middle ground between their early home recordings and their late 90s major label albums.

Defend Yourself is out now on Joyful Noise Recordings. Head over to their website for more information, or their Bandcamp to order it. Below you’ll find the new video for “I Will,” along with their current tour dates.

OCT. 15- Manchester, United Kingdom @ Manchester Academy 3

OCT. 16- London, United Kingdom @ Scala

OCT. 17- Lille, France @ Le Grand Mix

OCT. 18- Brussels, Belgium @ Le Botanique

OCT. 19- Luxembourg City, Luxembourg @ Den Atelier

OCT. 21- Berlin, Germany @ Lido

OCT. 22- Cologne, Germany @ GEBAUDE 9

OCT. 23- Endingen, Switzerland @ Bad Bonn

OCT. 24- Paris, France @ La Maroquinerie

OCT. 25- Utrecht, Netherlands @ Tivoli de Helling

OCT. 26 - Nijmegen, Netherlands @ Doornroosje

OCT. 27- Groningen, Netherlands @ Vera

OCT. 28- Frankfurt, Germany @ Zoom

NOV. 1 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom

NOV. 2 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda's

NOV. 3 - Washington, DC @ Black Cat

NOV. 4 - Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair

NOV. 5 - Montreal, QC @ Il Motore

NOV. 7 - Hamilton, ON @ Casbah

NOV. 8 - Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern

NOV. 9 - Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop

NOV. 10 - Chicago, IL @ Schubas Tavern

NOV. 11 - St. Paul, MN @ Turf Club

NOV. 13 - Indianapolis, IN @ Radio Radio

NOV. 14 - Columbus, OH @ The Basement

NOV. 15 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe

John Davis from The Folk Implosion has a new solo album coming out

Lou Barlow's former partner in the Folk Implosion has been quiet for the past 15 years, but that's changing with the October 29th release of Spare Parts, his first solo album. For now, you can check out the first track, "Masoch." It's almost 6 minutes of sparse solo singer-songwriter fare that reminds me of Elliott Smith mixed with Bob Dylan. It contains virtually none of the funky weirdness of the Folk Implosion, so don't expect a follow up to "Natural One." Instead you get reverb heavy vocals, acoustic guitar, and strings for a lush sound. Spare Parts will be added to my already packed list of my most anticipated releases of September/October.

Lou Barlow covers Ryan Adams

We love cover songs at If It's Too Loud..., so when one of my favorite artists covers another one of my favorite artists, you can rest assured I'm going to post about it. I'm already in a tizzy over Sebadoh's upcoming album (Defend Yourself, due out on September 17), and Lou Barlow just posted a video on YouTube where he's covering Ryan Adams' "Two," one of my all time favorite Ryan Adams tracks. The best part of this whole thing is that the video is posted on a brand new YouTube channel that Lou started so he could share covers of his favorite songs.