This four-piece band from Hamilton, Ontario, was formed in 1973 by Edgar Breau on lead guitar and vocals, Kevin Christoff on bass, Neil DeMerchant on drums, and Ping Romany on electronics. Though Simply Saucer had the guts to bring together tremendous influences from rock's past, including the Velvet Underground, early Pink Floyd, and The Stooges, the band was hardly noticed outside of its local area. After numerous lineup changes and shifts in sound, Simply Saucer disbanded by the end of the '70s, leaving only partial live recordings and a few studio tracks produced by Bob and Daniel Lanois in their basement. The Lanois brothers would become super-producers, but the only lasting product of that time was a reissue on Fist Puppet, which includes the original Lanois recordings and some live tracks recorded on top of a shopping mall in downtown Hamilton. Nearly three decades went by, and then in 2007, after regrouping for a reunion gig at the Casbah in their hometown, they returned to the studio to record 'Half Human, Half Live' for their new label, Sonic Unyon. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Best known in the U.S. for their 1985 number one hit "Don't You (Forget About Me)" from the film "The Breakfast Club", Scotland's Simple Minds evolved from a post-punk art rock band influenced by Roxy Music into a grand, epic-sounding pop band along the lines of U2. The band grew out of a Glasgow punk group called Johnny and the Self-Abusers, which featured guitarist Charlie Burchill and lead singer Jim Kerr. The inaugural 1978 lineup of Simple Minds featured a rhythm section of Tony Donald on bass and Brian McGee on drums, plus keyboardist Mick McNeil; Donald was soon replaced by Derek Forbes.
Their early albums leaped from one style to another, with 'Life in a Day' consisting mostly of dense, arty pop songs; critical acclaim followed the darker, more experimental art rock of 'Reel to Real Cacophony' and the Euro-disco of 'Empires and Dance'. The group began a transition to a more accessible pop style with the albums 'Sons and Fascination' and 'Sister Feelings Call', originally issued together and subsequently split up. 'New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)' became their first chart album in the U.S., and the tour-shy McGee quit (owing to the group's burgeoning popularity), eventually being replaced by Mel Gaynor. Following the Steve Lillywhite-produced 'Sparkle in the Rain', Jim Kerr married Pretenders lead singer Chrissie Hynde (the two groups had toured together).
After Bryan Ferry rejected the opportunity to sing "Don't You (Forget About Me)," Simple Minds almost did so as well; Kerr was dissatisfied with the song's lyrics, which he regarded as formulaic. His change of heart gave Simple Minds their only American chart-topper, and the song later became an international hit as well; however, Kerr's feelings about the song remained ambivalent, and it did not appear on the follow-up album, 'Once Upon a Time'. The album went gold and reached the U.S. Top Ten in spite of criticism for its bombastic, over the top approach. A live album and the uncompromisingly political 'Street Fighting Years' squandered Simple Minds' commercial momentum, however. By the time the group returned to more personal themes and its straightforward, anthemic rock on 1991's 'Real Life', personnel changes and audience loss left the group's future viability in doubt.
They weren't totally deterred, however. Kerr and Burchill trudged on, releasing 'Good News from the Next World' in 1995, while the single "She's a River" received moderate airplay. A short tour of North America soon followed, but Simple Minds' direction also quickly faded. They needed a break to clarify their own personal stance in music. Derek Forbes returned for 1998's 'Néapolis', but that, too, wasn't strong enough to sustain Simple Minds' newfound creativity. Their famed pop songs had been diluted a bit; however, the new millennium proved poignant. Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill signed to Eagle Records in early 2001 and constructed their first covers album, 'Neon Lights', later that fall, paying tribute to Patti Smith, Neil Young, David Bowie, and others. In summer 2002, Kerr and Burchill issued 'Cry', Simple Minds' first batch of new material since 1995's 'Good News from the Next World'. 'Our Secrets Are the Same', an album that was intended for release in 2000, saw official release in 2003.
An extensive reissue program and live recordings followed. 'Black & White', a new studio album, appeared in 2005, and the charting 'Graffiti Soul' (which saw the return of original drummer Mel Gaynor to the fold) arrived in 2009. Simple Minds accepted a spot at London's iTunes Festival that year and issued a digital EP of their performance. After a global tour, Simple Minds returned with 'Big Music' in 2014, an album that included two songs co-written with Chvrches' Iain Cook. A stripped-down set called 'Acoustic' arrived in late 2016, featuring acoustic reworkings of many of the band's hits. In 2018, the band released its 18th studio long-player, 'Walk Between Worlds'. Co-produced by the band with Andy Wright and Gavin Goldberg (both of whom had worked on 'Big Music'), the album contained two distinct "sides": The first half revisited the glassy guitars and new wave dance grooves of the post-punk era that signified the band's earliest records, while the second explored more cinematic sounds reflected best in the title track and "Barrowland Star," which were both completely orchestrated at Abbey Road. Concert album 'Live in the City of Angels' landed the following year alongside a comprehensive compilation of hits, 'The Best of 1979-2019', which included a cover of King Creosote's "For One Night Only." [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
One of the U.K.'s most iconoclastic bands of the late '80s and early '90s, Silverfish featured singer Lesley Rankine, guitarist Andrew "Fuzz" Duprey, bassist Chris Powforth, and drummer Stuart Watson. Before joining the group, Rankine sang with The Grizzelders, a '60s-style punk band; Duprey, Powforth and Watson caught one of the group's performances and persuaded her to join Silverfish. Rankine's fierce, commanding vocals and aggressively feminist outlook -the chorus of "Big Bad Baby Pig Squeal" and "Hips Tits Lips Power," became a mantra of sorts for angry young women- foreshadowed and echoed the sentiments of the burgeoning riot grrrl movement, but musically the group was more indebted to metal and industrial influences. Silverfish released several EPs in the late '80s which were collected into the 1990 compilation 'Cockeye'; the following year they released their debut album, 'Fat Axl', and toured with Pigface. 1992 saw the group earn more widespread acclaim thanks to a second full-length, 'Organ Fan', and tour dates supporting the like-minded 7 Year Bitch. Soon after, however, Silverfish disbanded; Rankine went on to collaborate with Mark Walk as Ruby. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Struggler
is a Belgian punk / cold wave band, active in the early 1980's and founded on March 7, 1979.
Initially the group consisted of five members. After numerous changes in the line-up, the group became a threesome from 1988 onward. Until June 1981 Struggler was incredibly active on the scene, with among others a big tour in Belgium with Siglo XX.
From December 1982 there were numerous gigs in Belgium and Holland, and even some excursions into Switzerland and France.
From 1985, things grew more quiet around the band, there were many changes in the line-up with experiments here and there. However, the group never was disbanded and kept on playing together from time to time. From 1996 thing started to heat up once again, with various gigs in Belgium and Holland and new material on CD. [SOURCE: HOUBI.COM]
L. Voag
is the Art-Rock / Experimental / Post-Punk solo project of Jim Welton, bassist of The Homosexuals. Under this moniker he only issued the LP 'The Way Out', recommended for fans of Desperate Bicycles, This Heat and Mark Perry.
The start of recording 'The Way Out' crossed over with the last days of his involvement with The Homosexuals. The gravity around which 'The Way Out' took shape issued from a decidedly asinine idea: what if we lived in a world where the music of the avant-gardists (Stockhausen, Oliveros, Henry) provided the best-selling, chart-topping pabulum of the day, while pop music was an obscure, nigh impenetrable, elitist niche product? L. Voag is a fiction used to describe a character from the pop milieu who, desperate for a hit, attempts to knock out a crossover album combining both worlds. Not surprisingly, he fails miserably.
'The Way Out' was recorded at Surrey Sound Studios, founded in 1976 by brothers Nigel and Chris Grey. While Nigel concentrated on music biz staples The Police and others, Chris -a visionary with at least one if not both feet planted in the future- opened up the studio to all manner of experiment, actively inviting mavericks and crazies to participate. Maniacs like The Homosexuals, Milk From Cheltenham, and L. Voag were granted access to gold standard, 24-track recording equipment, so long as it was during so-called dead time between 1:00 and 7:00 A.M. [SOURCE: SUPERIOR VIADUCT]
King Snake Roost (also known as KSR), formed in 1985 in Adelaide, were one of a number of Australian and International guitar-based bands who emerged from within the punk rock and post-punk scene of the mid-1980s that came to be defined as noise rock.
King Snake Roost's debut EP, 'From Barbarism to Christian Manhood' (1987), exemplified their heavy, guitar-driven style of garage music. Soon after its release, David Quinn replaced bassist Michael Raymond and the band moved from Adelaide to Sydney where they released three singles: 'Top End Killer / A Storm Brewin'' (May 1988), Alice Cooper's 'School's Out' and 'More Than Love'.
Their second album, 'Things That Play Themselves', was released in March 1989. Later that year, King Snake Roost toured the U.S. with Babes in Toyland, Helmet, and the Hard-Ons. During the two-month tour, they recorded their third album with producer Butch Vig. During this time, guitarist Charles Tolnay also worked with the Dead Kennedys' lead singer Jello Biafra and members of U.S. band Steel Pole Bathtub under the banner Tumor Circus. 'Ground Into the Dirt' was released in 1990 on the Amphetamine Reptile label in the U.S. and Megadisc in Europe. Quinn and drummer Bill Bostle then left the band and were replaced by Paul Kitten and Craig Rossi, respectively. King Snake Roost broke up by the end of the year, and although they re-formed for a brief time in 1990, no recordings resulted. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Shoes for Industry were a post punk band formed in Bristol in 1979. The band released a couple of 7" and participated in the 'E(gg)clectic 1' compilation. In 1980 released the LP 'Talk Like a Whelk'. A record for all the fans of Bristol's post punk scene. The LP recorded on the Ronnie Lane at the Crystal Theatre Warehouse, Bristol and released by Fried Egg records (Fry 1).
They used to play a dodgy pub called The Old Castle Green
and the singer wore an exploding brain wig. They were dead scary and
you couldn't argue with them. Line up:
Andy Leighton (co-founder of Fried Egg Records), John Schofield, Paul Bassett Davies, Steve Lonnen and Tim Norfolk (later in Startled Insects, The Flies and The Insects). [SOURCE: LAST.FM]
Jean Gilbert was a German experimental new wave band active during the early 80's and formed by members Helium, Mulk, Pogo and Steffen Schütze. They only recorded two cassettes, both in 1981, 'Jean Gilbert' and the 'Live (24.10.1981)'. 'Jean Gilbert' was released on the Neuer Frühling and Gegentakt labels owned by Schütze. Steffen Schütze was also a member of other bands such as No Aid, Messehalle, Poli D'Or, The Peculiarity Of Everyday Motion and Non Toxique Lost.
A Japanese techno-pop trio of the early '80s led by singer/songwriter Masami Tsuchiya, Ippu-Do was the missing link between Japan's Yellow Magic Orchestra and England's Japan -neither as purely electronic as the former nor as prettily atmospheric as the latter. (YMO's Ryuichi Sakamoto collaborated with Tsuchiya on his 1982 solo album 'Rice Music', and Tsuchiya played guitar with Japan on the Asian tour documented on the live album 'Oil on Canvas'.)
Ippu-Do debuted in 1980 with the new wave-influenced 'Normal', on which the trio (Tsuchiya on vocals and guitar, Akira Mitake on keyboards, and Shoji Fujii on drums) sound a little like a Nipponese version of New Musik or Split Enz. The trio quickly followed this with 'Real', which was more of the same, but 1981's 'Radio Fantasy' (the trio's first release outside of Japan) was almost completely electronic. The group went on hiatus after that release, with Tsuchiya beginning his solo career and his temporary membership in Japan. A best-of disc, 'Lunatic Menu', was released in 1982 in Japan and the U.K.
When Ippu-Do reappeared in late 1983, they were reduced to a duo of Tsuchiya and Mitake. Supported by drummer Steve Jansen and keyboardist Richard Barbieri of Japan and American bassist Percy Jones, the duo recorded the danceable 'Night Mirage', a supple blend of Japan's crystalline sound with some surprising R&B and funk rhythms. A two-disc live set with this lineup, 'Live and Zen', came out in 1984, but Tuschiya returned to his solo career at that point, bidding farewell to Ippu-Do with a well-chosen compilation in 1985. An expanded compilation, 'The Very Best of Ippu-Do', came out in 1998. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
The biting sounds of grunge and industrial ruled the alternative airwaves in the 1990s, and most of the era's guitarists learned their licks from The Sex Pistols, Zeppelin, Sabbath and Metallica. A fair number, though, were also inspired by the science-fiction paranoia of Helios Creed, who formed the proto-industrialist group Chrome and erected a lengthy discography of over 20 albums (roughly half of them as a solo act) to enforce his standing in the second tier of influential guitarists in his time.
Helios Creed joined Chrome in San Francisco around 1978 with vocalist/drummer Damon Edge, guitarist John Lambdin and bassist Gary Spain. Over the following five years, Chrome explored punk and hardcore, with an increasing reliance on synthesizers, tape loops and samples from TV. The group broke up in 1982, and Creed was dormant for several years until his debut solo album, 'X-Rated Fairy Tales', appeared in 1985. Another dry spell endured until the end of the decade, when 'Superior Catholic' was released on the Subterranean label. (Both albums were later reissued on one disc.) For his third album 'Last Laugh', Creed moved to the grunge imprint Amphetamine Reptile. He recorded 'Boxing the Clown', 'Kiss to the Brain' and 'Lactating Purple' for AmRep, but has also released albums through the industrial label Cleopatra -including 'Busting Through the Van Allan Belt' and 'Cosmic Assault'. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Genocide was an early 1980s synth pop/new wave band from the UK.
Members were:
Greg Jung (Synthesizer, Vocals), Mark Schiller (Percussion) and Teoman Irmak (Percussion, and also member of the new wave band Denizens). They only released the 'Images Of Delusion' 7" in 1980 in Safari Records, a British independent record label based in London, England, and operating between 1977 and 1985.
Fröhliche Eiszeit were a German Neue Deutsche Welle and Minimal Wave band formed in 1979 in Frankfurt and disbanded in 1982. Their members were Bernd Hasenfus (later in Cocks In Stained Satin and Der Durstige Mann), Manfred Hasenfus, Carl F. Peters (later in Neue Liebe) and Stefan Winczencz, that played in this time in a second band with name Hoffnung & Psyche. One self-titled tape was their only output, self-released by the band in 1981.
Emily Faryna is a solo multi-format Vancouver artist, whose visionary digital mythics have been obscured by Canada’s under-documented vintage cassette scene.
By 1984, she was working under the Mo Da Mu records label out of British Columbia in Canada. Her debut album, 'I've Got A Steel Bar In My Head' (Mo Da Mu 10), was released that year. A sophomore offering followed in 1985 titled 'Neat And Tidy In Your Mind' (Mo Da Mu 15) and 5 years later a third tape called 'The Return Of The Repressed' was released on Spiral records.
Her conical prose hovers darkly through whole work minor-key delirium, brewing the magnetic urgency coursing through its self-producing ether; a last, desperate attempt to convince the world that the mind’s ailments exist on the outside. It’s a gateway drug into the underbelly of a hyper intimate experimental underground torn from the pages of Neuromancer and the flagship vehicle for the vanguard of fringe-Canada. [SOURCE: LAST.FM]
The short, mysterious career of the aptly named female French duo Deux Filles is bookended by tragedy. Gemini Forque and Claudine Coule met as teenagers at a holiday pilgrimage to Lourdes, during which Coule's mother died of an incurable lung disease and Forque's mother was killed and her father paralyzed in a grisly auto accident. The two teens bonded over their shared grief and worked through their bereavement with music. However, after recording two critically acclaimed albums and playing throughout Europe and North America, Forque and Coule disappeared without a trace in North Africa in 1984 during a trip to visit Algiers, where Forque had lived from birth to the age of five. Theories from abduction and murder to a planned disappearance to spontaneous human combustion have been floated, but in the ensuing years, not a trace of the duo has turned up except for a mysterious letter purportedly written by Coule claiming that the pair journeyed to India on a spiritual quest, only to meet with further hardships. Indeed, the short and terribly unhappy lives of Forque and Coule are at the root of the small but fervent cult following the mysterious duo have gained since their disappearance, not least because the placid, largely instrumental music on the duo's albums betrays no hint of the sorrow that framed their personal lives.
This would be a terribly sad story if a word of it were true. In reality, Deux Filles were Simon Fisher Turner, former child star/teen idol and future soundtrack composer, and his mate Colin Lloyd Tucker. Turner and Tucker left an early incarnation of The The in 1981 to pursue another musical direction. Turner claims that the idea of Deux Filles came to him in a dream, and he and Tucker strictly maintained the fiction throughout the duo's career. Not only did they pose in drag for the album covers, the duo once even played live without the audience realizing that the tragic French girls on-stage were actually a pair of blokes from south London having a giggle. Deux Filles released two albums through Turner and Tucker's Papier Mache label, 1982's 'Silence & Wisdom' and 1983's 'Double Happiness'. After that, the duo scrapped the Deux Filles concept and released two ambient pop albums as Jeremy's Secret. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Born in 1960, Philip Sanderson first began experimenting with reel to reel tape recorders and rewired ‘circuit bent’ electronic equipment in his teens. He compiled his first cassette 'Dark Cuttings' in 1977 and in 1978 formed the Snatch Tapes label releasing 'Snach Tapes 1' the first outing for Claire Thomas & Susan Vezey and Storm Bugs (a collaborative project with Steven Ball). 1980 saw the release of 'Snatch Tapes 2' and the first Storm Bugs EP entitled 'Table Matters' as well as the cassette release, 'Reprint' by Claire Thomas & Susan Vezey, and 'A Safe Substitute' by Storm Bugs. Both tapes featured the quirky British synthesizer the VCS3 as the main instrument. The following year 1981, "Bright Waves" by Thomas & Vezey was the opening track on the Cherry Red 'Perspectives And Distortion' LP and a second Storm Bugs single was released on the French L’invitation au Suicide label.
In the early 1980s Sanderson collaborated with David Jackman (of Organum fame), Clip from Orior, Michael Denton, as well as recording with the chanteuse Naomi. From this came two more tape releases in the shape of '0º North' and 'Telephone Music'. The second half of the 1980s saw Sanderson working on a range of experimental film projects including "Green on the Horizon" (made with Steven Ball), "Hangway Turning", and "Shadowman".
The involvement with film led to Sanderson working at the London Filmmakers Co-operative in the early 1990s organising screenings before spending the rest of the decade concentrating on creating kinetic sound and light installations, exhibited predominantly in London. Back at the film co-op in 1997 Sanderson bought his first Apple Mac and began to record music again as well as remastering the Storm Bugs back catalogue. The 2000s was marked by a string of re-issues of material on numerous labels including: Fusetron, Anomalous, Vinyl on Demand, Harbinger, and Die Stadt. Releases of new material followed including 'Seal Pool Sounds' in 2006, the 'Hollow Gravity' LP in 2012, 'Ice Yacht/Pole of Cold' in 2015, and 'Certified Original and Vintage Fakes' by Storm Bugs in 2017. The Storm Bugs, always primarily a recording project, began to play live, including at the Harbinger Soundclash in 2014 and Contrapop in 2018.
Sanderson continues to record and release music, and make short moving image pieces screened at festivals in the UK and worldwide. "Pebble Dot Dash" the most recent of these is hosted on the Wire Music Magazine’s website. [SOURCE: SÉANCE CENTRE]
The Bridge were a UK indie band active between 1984 and 1988. They wrote and recorded many songs and performed around the London area but only ever released two singles. A compilation of their recordings was released in 2013. Members: Mark Davies (guitar, piano, keyboards), Nick Triani (vocals, acoustic guitar), Nigel Butler (piano, keyboards), Rik Payne (bass) and Dave Jones (drums).
One of the key bands of the '90s lo-fi movement, Sebadoh embraced intentionally raw and unsophisticated home recording as the element that tied together their self-conscious sentimental pop with their noisy experimentalism. The project began in 1986 as an outlet for singer/songwriter Lou Barlow while he was playing bass in Dinosaur Jr. and feeling limited in what he was allowed to contribute to the band. Barlow had already taken Sebadoh from a solo project to an informal band with drummer/songwriter Eric Gaffney when he was kicked out of Dinosaur Jr. in 1989, and with the inclusion of multi-instrumentalist Jason Loewenstein, Sebadoh's weird and disparate chemistry produced indie rock classics like 1991's 'III' and 1993's 'Bubble and Scrape'. As the music media focused on Barlow, Gaffney grew frustrated and left the group in 1994. After Gaffney's departure, the band rode out the rest of the '90s making their most accessible and cleanly produced material up until that point, releasing relatively polished albums like 1996's 'Harmacy' and the major-label effort 'The Sebadoh' in 1999 before going on a 14-year hiatus. After pursuing various projects for years, Sebadoh regrouped in 2013 and began once again releasing new collections of their distinctively vulnerable and high-strung songs like 2019's 'Act Surprised'.
Sebadoh began as an outlet for Lou Barlow's frustration with J Mascis, who refused to let Barlow contribute songs to any Dinosaur Jr. releases. In 1987, Barlow released 'Weed Forestin', a cassette of acoustic songs he had recorded at home on a four-track recorder, under the name Sentridoh. The cassette was sold at local Massachusetts record stores. Eric Gaffney contributed percussion to 'Weed Forestin', and when Barlow had a break from Dinosaur in 1988, the duo recorded 'The Freed Man', which consisted of songs by both songwriters. Also released as a homemade cassette, 'The Freed Man' worked its way to Gerard Cosloy, the head of Homestead Records. Cosloy offered to release the cassette on his record label, and the tape was revised and expanded into a full-length album. Homestead released 'The Freed Man' in 1989, and shortly after its appearance, Mascis kicked Barlow out of Dinosaur, and Lou turned his attentions toward Sebadoh. A revised and expanded 'Weed Forestin' was released in early 1990; the two records were combined on the CD 'The Freed Weed' later that year.
By the end of 1989, Sebadoh added a full-time drummer, Jason Loewenstein, on the suggestion of Gaffney. Sebadoh began playing concerts regularly, concentrating on Gaffney's material and throwing in a few Barlow songs for good measure. Where their albums were acoustic-oriented, their concerts were noisy ventures into post-hardcore and Sonic Youth territory. Over the course of 1990, the group were active only sporadically, deciding whether they wanted to pursue a full-fledged career; a few 7" singles of primarily acoustic material appeared that year. As of early 1991, the band began recording electric material, as evidenced by the EP 'Gimme Indie Rock!' Released early in 1991, 'Sebadoh III' was divided between Gaffney's electric songs and acoustic material by Barlow and Loewenstein. The band were prepared to embark on their first major tour when Gaffney abruptly left the group before they left. Barlow and Loewenstein carried on, initially performing shows as a duo, but soon hiring Bob Fay as a drummer. Upon the completion of the tour, Gaffney returned to the band, but during his absence, the direction of Sebadoh's music had shifted away from his songs and toward Barlow's.
Following a full-length national tour in the fall of 1991, Sebadoh recorded five of Barlow's songs as a demo tape that served as their gateway to contracts with Sub Pop in the U.S. and City Slang/20/20 in the U.K. Gaffney left the band at the end of the year, and the group again hired Fay as a replacement. With Fay, Sebadoh toured America and Europe in early 1992, recording the British EPs 'Rocking the Forest' and 'Sebadoh vs. Helmet', which were combined later that year on the Sub Pop album 'Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock'. Gaffney again returned to the band after Sebadoh released these recordings, with Fay again leaving the group. Barlow and Loewenstein had begun to tire of Gaffney's constant sabbaticals, and Lou returned to his Sentridoh project, releasing a series of EPs, 7" singles, and cassettes over the course of 1993 and 1994. Sebadoh released their fifth album, 'Bubble and Scrape', in the spring of 1993 and spent the remainder of the year touring behind the record, building their cult across America and Britain. Gaffney left for a final time in the fall of 1993 and Fay became his permanent replacement.
Before recording the sixth Sebadoh album, Barlow began a new band with John Davis called The Folk Implosion; the duo released three recordings over the course of 1994. Sebadoh returned with 'Bakesale', their first album without Eric Gaffney, in the summer of 1994. Boasting a somewhat more accessible sound, 'Bakesale' became the group's most successful album to date, generating the near-modern rock hit "Rebound." The band took a break in 1995 and The Folk Implosion recorded the soundtrack to the controversial independent film "Kids". Surprisingly, "Kids" spawned a genuine hit single with the haunting, hip-hop-tinged "Natural One," which climbed all the way into the Top 30 of the U.S. pop charts. In light of the success of "Natural One," Sebadoh's next record, 'Harmacy', was expected to be a hit upon its fall 1996 release. Though it didn't match commercial expectations raised by "Natural One," 'Harmacy' expanded the success of 'Bakesale', becoming the first Sebadoh album to chart in the U.S.
Before the recording of their follow-up to 'Harmacy', Sebadoh replaced drummer Fay with Russ Pollard. After a string of delays, the cleverly titled 'The Sebadoh' was released in February 1999 on major label Sire Records. After a tour supporting 'The Sebadoh', the band announced that they were going on hiatus to focus on other projects. Barlow continued his work as Folk Implosion while also releasing two solo albums, 2003's 'Emoh' and 2009's 'Goodnight Unknown', while Loewenstein went back into the studio to record his solo album, 2002's 'At Sixes and Sevens', and also to work with other bands including Fiery Furnaces.
With the reissue of albums 'Sebadoh III', 'The Freed Man', and 'Bubble and Scrape' in 2007, the original Sebadoh lineup of Barlow, Loewenstein, and Gaffney reunited for a string of live dates for the first time in some 14 years. With Barlow reuniting with former band Dinosaur Jr. to record and play live, Sebadoh was put on hold, and in 2011, with the reissue of albums 'Bakesale' and 'Harmacy', Loewenstein and Barlow recruited drummer Bob D'Amico to play some live dates in support of their release. With the trio clicking as a unit, the three-piece re-entered the studio and set about writing new material. In 2012, the band released the 'Secret' EP; available as a digital download, the five tracks were intended to help fund the recording of their next studio album.
In 2013, Sebadoh signed with Joyful Noise Recordings and their ninth album, 'Defend Yourself', was released that September. Solo projects and recording and touring with Dinosaur Jr. kept Barlow busy for the next several years, but Sebadoh reconvened to record 2019's 'Act Surprised' and launch an international tour. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
