| Bubble & Scrape | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | April 26, 1993 | |||
| Genre | Indie rock | |||
| Length | 46:48 | |||
| Label | Sub Pop (original US release) Domino (original UK release + 2008 US/UK reissue) City Slang (Germany) | |||
| Producer | Bob Weston; Brian Fellows; Paul McNamara | |||
| Sebadoh chronology | ||||
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Bubble & Scrape is the fourth album by American indie rock band Sebadoh. It was released by Sub Pop in April 1993.
Bubble & Scrape was the final Sebadoh album to feature songs composed by founding member Eric Gaffney.
Like its predecessor, Sebadoh III , Bubble & Scrape features songwriting contributions from all three members: co-founders Gaffney and Lou Barlow, and Jason Loewenstein. Unlike the first three official Sebadoh albums, however, Barlow's contributions are mostly electric, with one exception being the acoustic duet with Swirlies vocalist Seana Carmody, "Think (Let Tomorrow Bee)."
Bubble & Scrape was the first Sebadoh album to be recorded entirely in a professional studio, [1] marking a departure from the lo-fi, home-recorded sound of their previous albums. In addition to the greater use of electric guitars and the higher production value, the album features longer songs and more sophisticated song arrangements, [2] paving the way for their more polished future albums, starting with Bakesale in 1994.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [3] |
| Drowned in Sound | 8/10 [4] |
| Pitchfork | 9.2/10 [2] |
| PopMatters | 8/10 [5] |
| Rolling Stone | [6] |
| Spin Alternative Record Guide | 7/10 [7] |
Critics praised the strength of Barlow compositions like "Soul and Fire" and "Think (Let Tomorrow Bee)," and also noted Loewenstein's emergence as a songwriter. [8]
It was ranked #9 in the NME's "Top 30 Heartbreak Albums" list in 2000.
The album was especially well-reviewed upon its reissue in 2008, with Matthew Fiander of PopMatters writing, "It is an album that stands to benefit from a second life, and gives us as listeners the chance to hear a recording that we may remember but possibly overlooked the first time around." [5] Amy Granzin of Pitchfork Media wrote that it "may be the band's holistic best [album]," and that it "marked the point at which Sebadoh's aesthetic evolved from 'quick, where's the four-track?' to reasonably well-crafted indie rock." [2]
The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . [9]
"Soul and Fire" was released as a single in 1993, on CD and 12" vinyl in the UK by Domino, and on 7" vinyl, featuring different track listing, in the U.S. by Sub Pop. [10]
Bubble & Scrape was reissued by Domino in May, 2008, featuring 15 extra tracks.
The album was performed live in its entirety as part of the All Tomorrow's Parties-curated Don't Look Back series, at Koko in London, in May, 2008, and at the Pitchfork Music Festival at Union Park in Chicago in July, 2008.
Additional personnel
Sebadoh is an American indie rock band formed in 1986 in Northampton, Massachusetts, by Eric Gaffney and Dinosaur Jr. bass player Lou Barlow, with multi-instrumentalist Jason Loewenstein completing the line-up in 1989. Along with such bands as Pavement, Beat Happening and Guided by Voices, Sebadoh helped pioneer lo-fi music, a style of indie rock characterized by low-fidelity recording techniques, often on four-track machines. The band's early output, such as The Freed Man and Weed Forestin', as well as Sebadoh III (1991), was typical of this style. Following the release of Bubble & Scrape in 1993, Gaffney left the band. His replacement and erstwhile stand-in, Bob Fay, appeared on Bakesale (1994) and Harmacy (1996), but was fired before the sessions for the band's major label release The Sebadoh (1999), featuring drummer Russ Pollard.
Louis Knox Barlow is an American alternative rock musician and songwriter. A founding member of the groups Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh and The Folk Implosion, Barlow is credited with helping to pioneer the lo-fi style of rock music in the late 1980s and early 1990s. His first band, in Amherst, Massachusetts, was Deep Wound. Barlow was born in Dayton, Ohio, and raised in Jackson, Michigan, and Westfield, Massachusetts.
Jason Loewenstein is an American alternative rock singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and a member of the indie-rock bands Sebadoh, The Fiery Furnaces, and Circle of Buzzards. He grew up in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he attended Northampton High School, and now resides in Brooklyn, New York.
Russell "Russ" Pollard is an American rock musician, who has been a member of Sebadoh, The Folk Implosion, Alaska!, Everest, and the Calf Fiends,.
Harmacy is the sixth album by American indie rock band Sebadoh. It was released by Sub Pop in 1996.
III is the third album by the American indie rock band Sebadoh. It was released by Homestead Records in 1991.
Bakesale is the fifth album by American indie rock band Sebadoh, released by Sub Pop in 1994. It was the first Sebadoh album released following the departure of founding member, Eric Gaffney, though he did drum on four of the album's tracks from a session engineered by Bob Weston. Tara Jane O'Neil contributed drums to three tracks. Bob Fay, who had previously filled in for Gaffney, officially joined the band for this record. The cover is a nude photograph of Lou Barlow, aged one-year-old, taken by his mother.
Eric Gaffney is an American songwriter and recording artist, and has been home recording on cassette since 1981. An active participant in the Western Mass hardcore scene, in 1983 he founded, wrote songs for, and drummed with Grey Matter, opening hall shows with Jerry's Kids, F.U.s, The Freeze, Big Boys, Raw Power, Adrenalin O.D., Siege, 7 Seconds, Outpatients, Pajama Slave Dancers, Da Stupids, and others.
The Sebadoh is the seventh studio album by the indie rock band Sebadoh. It was released in 1999 on Sire Records. The album is the group's first and only major label release to date.
Syrup USA were a four-piece indie pop band from Boston, Massachusetts, that formed in 1993 and disbanded in 1998. The brainchild of lead singer and guitarist Seana Carmody, their sound blended elements of 1960s pop and synthpop, and was compared to Stereolab.
Sebadoh vs Helmet was an EP by Sebadoh, released in 1992.
Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock is a compilation album by the American indie rock band Sebadoh. It was released in 1992, and marked the band's debut on Sub Pop.
Weed Forestin is an album by the American indie rock band Sebadoh. It was originally self-released by Barlow on cassette in 1987, under the Sentridoh name, the solo home-recording project of American rock musician and Sebadoh member Lou Barlow, and sold at record stores in his native Massachusetts in an approximate run of 100.
Wade Through the Boggs is a compilation released by Sebadoh in 2007 and sold during its tour that year. It was limited to 1000 copies.
"Soul and Fire" is a 1993 song by Sebadoh. It is the first song on their 1993 album Bubble & Scrape. It was released as a CD single, 7" vinyl record, and 12" vinyl single.
Songs from Loobiecore is a solo album by Lou Barlow, released in 2002 as "Free Sentridoh" in the USA by himself and in the UK by Domino.
Secret EP is an EP by the American indie rock band Sebadoh, released on July 23, 2012. The EP was not released on a label and was made available for digital download on the online music store Bandcamp. The EP was recorded from March to July 2012 at Indietopia in Glendale, California. Secret EP is Sebadoh's first new material in fourteen years since the band's previous album The Sebadoh (1999).
Defend Yourself is the eighth studio album by American indie rock band Sebadoh. It is the band's first album in fourteen years, since 1999's The Sebadoh.
"Brand New Love" is a 1986 song written by Lou Barlow. It was first released independently by Barlow under the moniker Sentridoh but has since come to be associated with Sebadoh, the band Barlow formed with Eric Gaffney.
Act Surprised is the ninth studio album by American indie rock band Sebadoh. It is the band's first album in six years. The album was released on May 24, 2019.
