,or Defenestrating Credibility

Sebadoh “Skull (Remix)”
Lou Barlow “Skull (Live at WMBR)”

This, one of my favorite Lou Barlow songs, came up on the old shuffle recently.

It’s on Sebadoh’s 1994 record, Bakesale, but presented here in solo acoustic version via MIT’s radio station, as well as the shorter, possibly superior take that appeared on the Hotel Massachusetts comp.

(I guess I should warn here that I’m one of the last living Sebadoh devotees, and I may dedicate virtual ink now and then to some sort of futile advocacy campaign on the group’s behalf. Lou and Jake were raised around where I was raised, and that hometown pride may be part of the appeal, but it’s mostly the plain-spoken/heartbroken lyrical bent and great melodies I think.

It feels like they’ve been long overshadowed by Pavement, who were sort of their homeboys/indie rock opposite numbers during the 90s, if anyone remembers that far back. Not sure if that’s smugness trumping sincerity or the triumph of the oblique over the straightforward.)

If it’s not embarrassing enough of an admission that I’m a Sebadoh fan, there’s something else around this song that leaves me sorta red-faced.

“Skull” was among the reasons I fell in love with Sebadoh as a freshman stranded on the West Coast, homesick for my familiar Western Mass stomping grounds.

The ebb and flow of the mood, the feeling of silvery chrome to the sonics, the creeping howl of carefully-deployed distortion, those lyrics about “chasing dragons through the snow” and the invitation to “gently take my skull for a ride”… Speaking of false nostalgia, in my sunny new home, I came to associate the song with home, and with some idealized scenario of the very start of falling in love, the promise of snowbound adventure; all the stuff I wasn’t experiencing in L.A.

I was pretty damn naïve at 19 I guess. I heard a rumor that made sense, years later, that “Skull” is about doing speedballs with Evan Dando. Still love the song, but every time I hear it I get that wave of false nostalgia followed by a tinge of embarrassment.

Funny what a song can do to you.

Hotel Massachusetts at Gemm.
Pipeline! Live Boston Rock from WMBR at Newbury Comics.
Bakesale at Newbury Comics.