Day After Day #118: Rebound

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Rebound (1994)

When you're talking about the lo-fi indie rock boom of the early to mid-'90s, you've got to include artists like Guided By Voices, Pavement and Beck, but you also should make sure that Sebadoh is part of that conversation. The band actually dates way back to 1986, when Lou Barlow and Eric Gaffney teamed up in Northampton, Mass. Barlow was playing bass in Dinosaur Jr. at the time but seeing J. Mascis take over the creative direction of that band, so Barlow needed an outlet for the songs he was writing. 

The band kept things lo-fi by using four-track cassette machines to record and began releasing tapes in 1987. After getting kicked out of Dino Jr. in 1989, Barlow devoted all his attention to Sebadoh, adding Jason Loewenstein to the band. The first album with Loewenstein was Sebadoh III, released on Homestead Records in 1991, which featured songs from all three members that ran the gamut from folky rock to freaky hardcore. The band signed to Sub Pop and released Bubble & Scrape in 1993, after which Gaffney left. 

Bob Fay stepped in as drummer for 1994's Bakesale, although Gaffney plays drums on four tracks and Tara Jane O'Neil was on three. Barlow and Loewenstein wrote most of the songs, which were more polished and fully formed than on the previous three albums. 

The first single was "Rebound," which features a chiming guitar intro and a decent amount of thump even as Barlow sings about the aftermath of being dumped.

"Heartbroken and attractive/A sad, sloppy mess/Looking for approval/And easily impressed/Beware they say/But why would I listen?/I need to know what I've been missin'/I'm no one you can trust/All little boy lonely with curious lust/Confusion turns me upside down/Lost as quickly as I'm found/But soon enough it turns around/On the rebound."

Rebounding is often doomed to failure, but you don't realize or care until it's too late.

"Call it fate or true love/Never forced romance/Fall into a new love/Maybe perfect love by chance/Beware they say/But why would I listen/When it feels this good?/No one lives their life/Doing all the things they say they should/Confusion turns me upside down/Lost as quickly as I'm found/But soon enough it turns around/On the rebound."

The song got some play on MTV's 120 Minutes as well as alternative stations like WFNX, thanks to its pop catchiness. Bakesale didn't chart in the U.S., but it did hit #40 on the U.K. Albums Chart. Before Sebadoh's next album, Harmacy, was released in 1996, Barlow scored a top 40 hit with his side project The Folk Implosion with the song "Natural One," which was on the Kids soundtrack. Sebadoh released The Sebadoh in '99 and the Folk Implosion released One Part Lullaby. 

Sebadoh went on hiatus until 2007, when Barlow, Loewenstein and Gaffney reunited to tour, coinciding with the reissue of Sebadoh III, The Freed Man and Bubble & Scrape. Bob D'Amico took over on drums for a 2011 tour and the band released albums in 2013 and 2019. Meanwhile, Barlow reunited with Mascis in 2005 to reform the original lineup of Dino Jr. and they've managed to get along ever since, releasing five albums and touring in between other projects. Speaking as a fan of all Mascis and Barlow projects, it's been the best of all worlds.