Originally Sebadoh was a a
lo-fi side project of
Dinosaur Jr.'s
Lou Barlow and drummer
Eric Gaffney. When Barlow was kicked out of Dinosaur Jr. he turned his attention to Sebadoh (which had been formed in 1987) and he and Gaffney started to make it just a band for both's songs.
Later they added bassist
Jason Lowenstein, who has remained in the band.
The band's sound for most of this early time was very uneven, with the albums suddenly shifting from Gaffney's noise experiments and Barlows jangle-pop. They are also known for their epic, long albums.
Gaffney eventually became disgusted with the situation in the band and left in 1994.
Bob Fay was recruited, and the albums became split up between Lowenstein and Barlow.
This line-up released more stable accessible albums but after only a few years Fay was replaced by Russ Pollard. They have only released one album with this line up; "The Sebadoh" (1999).
And of course Barlow was in the notable Folk Implosion, among other "side projects". At one point he was probably the busiest person in the indie world.
Discography
"The Freed Man" (1989)
"Weed Forestin" (1990)
"III" (1991)
"Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock" (1992)
"Bubble and Scrape" (1993)
"Bakesale" (1994)
"Harmacy" (1996)
"The Sebadoh" (1999)