is it weird that i listened to sebadoh first?
for those of you who don’t know, dinosaur jr. is a classic indie rock band from the college town of amherst, ma. similar to built to spill, they aren’t easily put a single genre, but are broadly considered alternative and noise rock. dinosaur jr., for pretty much all of its career was led by guitarist j mascis. j mascis wanted tight creative control over everything the band did, and his creative differences with founding bassist lou barlow led to him firing barlow from dinosaur jr. in 1989.
barlow founded sebadoh in 1986, while he was in dinosaur jr., as an outlet for his creativity. sebadoh in some ways was the opposite of dinosaur jr.: dinosaur jr. was known for its fuzz-heavy, dense sound, while sebadoh was known for its brighter, warmer lo-fi sound. both had catchy pop structures. i discovered “Soul & Fire” last year and went on a whole phase with sebadoh without batting an eye at dinosaur jr. that changes today!
“Little Fury Things” is one of dinosaur jr.’s most well-known songs, if not the most well-known, from what is considered their best album, 1987’s you’re living all over me. the first 30 seconds are an abysmal chaotic mess of intense fuzz and distortion and painful screeching, like the inner turmoil of the singer in musical form. then the song takes a turn and settles into melancholic verses about what appears to be a failing relationship.
i’m definitely biased, but i wish more of the song was like those first 30 seconds. it’s just an assault of beautiful noise and unbridled terror, like what the album art for you’re living all over me may suggest, and that’s easily my favorite part of the song. what’s interesting to me, though, is how the song manages to stay somewhat coherent with these two extremes. somehow, the noise section at the beginning makes sense when you look at the later verses. again, is it still disparate? kind of. but it’s not half-bad, either. i was expecting some hardcore-noise-horror punk, i got melancholic power pop, and hey, there’s nothing wrong with that.
q-street 
