Lou Barlow / Sebadoh / Folk Implosion / Sentridoh

goldrush

My signed copy of the EMOH vinyl arrived this morning.

Real old-school lo fi packaging, using recycled cardboard boxes, still got here in better condition than some records I get from online stores these days!

Strange but kinda cool to see my name and address on the outside in Lou’s handwriting too  

ST66483

Very cool on the Lou Barlow - congrats!

brianlux

goldrush said:

My signed copy of the EMOH vinyl arrived this morning.

Real old-school lo fi packaging, using recycled cardboard boxes, still got here in better condition than some records I get from online stores these days!

Strange but kinda cool to see my name and address on the outside in Lou’s handwriting too  

Awesome! 

goldrush

https://youtu.be/FNeIYY7j_wI

here I am making an election theme cover, November 3, 9 pm or so.. I placed 3 of the 17 songs from the LP as a soundtrack ('love intervene', 'privatize' and 'reason to live').. you can join the series now and receive the final installment of: a rarities cassette, a 7" vinyl of kid-show theme songs and the LP consisting of all the new songs from the 18 part series (plus one new, new one) embellished, re-recorded (in one case) and remixed.. plus handmade cover (possibly this one)! the LP will be officially released sometime in 2021, you'd be getting it wayyy in advance.. go here to join: https://www.joyfulnoiserecordings.com... you can also subscribe and just get the digital stuff.. there's over 140 songs in all, 95%+ unreleased ..complete access to the digital is part of the physical subscription as well! tnx

goldrush

The final part of Lou's Artist Enabler series is available now.

 "here we are subscribers, the end of the series.. PART 18.. on one hand i kind of need a break from the work it has required to assemble each month, on the other, i want to do this forever.. i’ve never lost touch with the thrill of making music but this has brought me back to the most basic reason that i do what i do and am so fortunate to be doing it: i love making sounds, writing lyrics, scratching out record and tape covers and being a part of the epic flow of music (not just my own) that keeps me, us, connected and sane.. there’s so much raw beauty out there and i’m a fan too.. i hope you know how much you’ve sustained my spirit and helped it grow at a time when i needed it the most..

   so, this leads us to PART 18, only one new song for those of you that have been in for awhile: ’In My Arms’.. this one, conceptually, wraps up the whole project.. like ‘Over You’ the first song from Part 1, it started as a melodic idea and a cassette recording from 1982.. in this case i used the original recording as the basis of the song.. also, like ‘Over You’, i began with few words from the original lyrics as a springboard to an expanded concept.. what began as a song about watching the popular kids proudly walk the high school hallways arm in arm (‘ poised like a king, in your arms is your queen, on top of of your world for a year’) mutated into a song about what i’ve described above: rediscovering my inspiration through this project 

    

  poison my king, denial my queen, ruled over me for years

  fated to fall, away from my song, no longer mine but theirs

   then you found, again surround me like you did back when

   you blessed my wrist, reclaimed my gift, you’re in my arms again

   in my arms, back in my arms again

   what is this outrageous gift, you’re in my arms again

 

   there was a time when i really, really thought i’d never get back to where i started.. i did a lot of damage to myself..  was pretty resigned to the idea that whatever i did in the latter years of my life as a musician would be a faded imitation of that initial rush of discovery.. even when things were looking up in, say, 2005 when i did the EMOH LP, i felt like the songs were burdened with my regrets and weighted by my impulse to put myself down..

  but,  i’ve been building back for awhile and after collecting all the new songs i’ve done over the last 18 months, remixing them (re-recording one ‘Act Of Faith’ after i lost the original session) and completing ‘In My Arms’ (all with Justin Pizzoferrato in an actual studio) I feel like I’ve finally -really- emerged from a long, dark period.. 

 ‘Reason to Live’, the LP, is me regaining a sense of spontaneity due to the strict schedule of this series, knowing that my audience was smaller (there’s been about 300 subscribers at most points in the series) and that, ultimately, I did this for myself to tie up some loose ends and encapsulate my journey.. knowing all of this freed me in ways that i’m profoundly grateful for and hopefully it shows in the LP.. all home-recorded, the way i am most comfortable working..

 so, thank you again!! and again!

  HUGE LOVE to my good friend (since the early 00’s!) Adam Harding for assembling every bit of what i produced for this and keeping it all on track between his own projects (solo recording and as a member of Kidbug) and negotiating his own life changes..  

 and much gratitude to Karl Hofstetter, captain of Joyful Noise Recordings for enacting such an artist friendly project, in a time when we can’t play shows and music is mostly streamed, this is the kind of thing we/i need..

 if you're interested in more music, please email me at: loubarlowmusic@gmail.com 
i'm going to take some time to consider my next step and would love to communicate directly with you all about it!

>lou"

goldrush

Some surprise news from Lou today - Folk Implosion are back! 

goldrush

Lou has consolidated his Bandcamp pages into one (there used to be separate ones for Sentridoh and Folk Implosion)

"all my self-releases will be 'name your own price' on loubarlow.bandcamp.com so if you've lost anything go there right away and snap them up for $0.. bandcamp only gives out 200 free downloads a month (I wasn't aware they could do that!) before they jack everything up to $7 without telling me (then I have to change the prices to $1) I'll also be adding at least one more archival release (also 'name your own price').. the loubarlow page is now the place where all my shit is and will be! tnx! write me at loubarlowmusic@gmail.com if u have any probs/questions"

goldrush

The retail version of Lou's new LP 'Reason To Live' is available to order now (as opposed to the handmade sleeves in the videos above).




https://www.joyfulnoiserecordings.com/products/reason-to-live?utm_source=Joyful+Noise+Email+List&utm_campaign=f6ebc7f2d8-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2da6acce5c-f6ebc7f2d8-64155041&mc_cid=f6ebc7f2d8&mc_eid=9f3aad61e3

"After decades on the road and the never-ending hustle of life as an artist, Lou Barlow has tapped into a new confidence in the chaos. In 2021, the concept of balance feels particularly intimidating. Now more than ever, it’s clear life isn’t just leveling out a pair of responsibilities. Instead, we’re chasing after a flock of different ideals with a butterfly net. On Barlow’s new solo album, Reason to Live, he has come to an understanding of that swirl rather than trying to contain it.

As a long-time indie legend, Barlow has found a life akin to a middle-class musician. In recent years, he’s moved from Los Angeles back to Massachusetts, where he lives with his wife and three kids. And yet rather than settle into a comfortable malaise or yearn for the open road, Barlow’s strengthened urgency finds a way to merge the two instincts. Reason to Live is shambolic and grand yet intimate and doting, warmly acoustic and crackling with grit. “I had been struggling for a way to connect both my home life and my recorded life, but this record is the first time I've integrated that,” Barlow says. By folding the many facets of his life into one package, Reason to Live radiates with a renewed balance and calm.

That comfort in complexity shines through even in the recording process, with select songs having origins in decades past and others written in the early stages of 2020. Barlow wrote lead single “Love Intervene” in 2018, and set out to recreate the layered acoustics while adapting the lyrics to his new present. The resulting propulsive track rides on interlocking strumming patterns, Barlow’s voice as crisp as a New England breeze. “Tide after tide, change is the meaning of life/ It turns any wall into sand,” he exhales, before yet again calling for love to lead the way through.

Album opener “In My Arms” quite literally pulls from Barlow’s teen years, utilizing a sample of a recording he made in 1982. The track feels stuffed with burnished layers, Barlow’s dueling guitar solos and unique strumming patterns threading through the verses. “Lyrically, the song is about rediscovering the initial spark to make music,” he says. “I feel like I was finally able to re-embrace my fundamental inspirations to make music.” There are echoes of the four-track wizardry of Sebadoh III and the Sentridoh years, but lyrically Barlow cracks those layers apart to reflect on his newly layered life.

Even the gruffer themes on the album come delivered in a bronzy sheen. The chorus to “All You People Suck” burns with sincerity and certainty rather than biting venom, his river of acoustic chords makes the conclusion inevitable. Barlow recorded the track in a hotel bathroom while on tour, and the exhausted frustration breathes easily. “All you people lost/ And the light that draws you in/ Be it torch or burning cross/ Your beginning and your end,” he arcs.

In addition to his trademark acoustic chording, Reason to Live utilizes the wide variety of sonic touchstones in Barlow’s kit. His rise in the indie rock scene may most obviously be tied to his personal experience in hardcore and punk music, but soft rock and disco were swirled into the mix as well. As such, the nostalgic “Maumee” (about the river that runs through Ohio, near where Barlow was raised) thumps along on a soft folksy wave, while “Thirsty” could comfortably be amped into a bloodthirsty metal cut. “I wanted to make personal soft rock songs in a way that makes people feel extremely uncomfortable,” Barlow laughs. “I always wanted to bring the raw, personal sensibility of a hardcore song into an acoustic mode.” 

The multitude of whirring messages of Reason to Live are united by Barlow’s roiling multilayered arrangements and the understanding that change is inevitable--and that it can bring you a new reason to live in the darkest times. “This album is me really opening up, and the album follows that through its many different themes,” he says. “Some of my other work could be almost claustrophobic in its insistence on being all tied together but there’s space for people to live inside these songs.”

After albums with Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr., Folk Implosion, and under his own name, listeners may have felt they knew the construction of a Barlow song, even that they knew Barlow himself. “People have this vision of me as this heartbroken, depressed guy, but this record feels so true to who I am, to this rich life I now have full of people I love,” he says. “The songs culminated over the last five years to show that music has returned to its central comforting role in my life. Now I’m home.” "

goldrush

My copy of the final instalment of the Artist Enabler series arrived yesterday.

Lou’s new album ‘Reason To Live’ on blue vinyl, the sleeve was hand made, scratched out, coloured etc by Lou
7” of children’s TV show songs
’Last of the Losers’ cassette

goldrush

Lou:
”The pandemic has kept me in one spot for the longest duration of my adult life. I’ve been touring every year since I was 19; I’m 54 now, and have managed to outrun most of my ‘issues’, my life continually stopping and restarting. Well, no more Rocker, time to face the music!

This song is about writing songs and how I’ve, admittedly, lost my way many times. But, in the depths of the quarantine, I came to realize, again, that entertaining myself with sound is my greatest defense against the non-stop chatter in my brain.

The guitar that begins the song is a recording from 1982 and one of the first melodies that I captured on a portable cassette recorder. I’ve never forgotten it and took the opportunity of a lengthy stay at home, among my stuff, to exhume and expand it.

The video documents how and where I augmented it: two drums on the floor of my attic and the room I record in. I also tried to get some psychedelic in-the-sun guitar shots because everyone keeps telling me the song sounds like the Grateful Dead and how much I look like Jerry Garcia. I have almost no knowledge of either but I’m happy to comply. I’m Grateful for the time I had to record this song, finish my LP and hold my loved ones the way that music holds me." 

https://youtu.be/ddKXN_L-7OY

brianlux

goldrush said:

My copy of the final instalment of the Artist Enabler series arrived yesterday.

Lou’s new album ‘Reason To Live’ on blue vinyl, the sleeve was hand made, scratched out, coloured etc by Lou
7” of children’s TV show songs
’Last of the Losers’ cassette

Fantastic!

goldrush

Another one for the Lou collection just arrived.

‘Live At Sonic Boom Records 1/24/05’, limited to 200 copies

goldrush

Lou has got another ‘backyard gigs’ tour coming up:

“here’s th complete list of shows imabout t play!! Cedar Grove NJ the last piece of the puzzle!! u buy yr tix thru the link https://www.eventbrite.com/o/lou-barlow-17083068226 and r provided w the location, then, if it’s a backyard,  u just show up w yr chair and I play at u for 2 and a half hours!! u can yell out songs for me t play and, if I can, I play them.. like all decent things in life it’s simple!! plenty of tix available everywhere!! (tix t the Dragon Saddle Fest are available thru a separate link, it’s a proper shindig w the Supersuckers!)”

brianlux

goldrush said:

Lou has got another ‘backyard gigs’ tour coming up:

“here’s th complete list of shows imabout t play!! Cedar Grove NJ the last piece of the puzzle!! u buy yr tix thru the link https://www.eventbrite.com/o/lou-barlow-17083068226 and r provided w the location, then, if it’s a backyard,  u just show up w yr chair and I play at u for 2 and a half hours!! u can yell out songs for me t play and, if I can, I play them.. like all decent things in life it’s simple!! plenty of tix available everywhere!! (tix t the Dragon Saddle Fest are available thru a separate link, it’s a proper shindig w the Supersuckers!)”

Steve Wynn (of the Dream Syndicate, et al) just finished up  a series of backyard/ small venue tours.  Such a cool idea! 

brianlux

A beautiful couple!

goldrush

goldrush

The new Folk Implosion single has dropped 

Feel It If You Feel It is available on their Bandcamp page on vinyl (limited to 300 copies, due to ship in November), cd, cassette, and digital

goldrush

I completely forgot that I’d pre-ordered the Folk Implosion 12” single last April! It arrived this morning and was a very cool surprise.

12” silver vinyl, in a hand drawn sleeve signed by Lou and John on the back 

goldrush

I missed out on getting one of these, but they look cool as hell.

'It Just Goes With...' by The Folk Implosion is a "uniquely-designed "Four-Sided" lathe cut format, featuring a triple-spindled clear 10", limited 163 copies, each copy is uniquely hand-crafted by lathe-guru Mike Dixon, packaged with screen-printed, hand-numbered artwork."



Here's Lou's "instructional video" showing how it works

https://youtu.be/0L8oCd0-NQ0

BIGDaddyWil

^^^^^ They look cool! I passed. Didn't want to spend the $100.