Indie rock was a massive force in the early 90s, so it would seem like this indie rock band would have been in on the wave headed by bands like R.E.M., Sonic Youth, and the Pixies among others. But Sebadoh never found much chart success. I had never heard of them until today and I think I know why. Not only had grunge taken over the popular music scene, but Sebadoh were unable to compose commercial-friendly songs. That’s not a knock against them. They may have been uninterested in chart success. Some artists truly don’t do it for the money. Reading a little about this band, maybe these guys are one of those artists. And as I listened to this album, I found myself about to really get into a few of the tracks when the songs would take peculiar sonic twists that seemed strange and out of place. I would think, “man does this sound like it should have been” only to be slightly disappointed when the song would go off on less-appealing direction either musically or vocally. In any event, the record is pretty good, but ultimately, I would up disappointed and wondering what could have been. My Rating:
Rolling Stone’s contemporaneous review:
Bubble and Scrape is dedicated to the argument that Nilsson, the Stooges, Syd Barrett and Sonic Youth can live together in the same musical universe without irony, pity or apology. Yet the individual songs can't be easily pigeonholed; Sebadoh don't believe in merely recycling their sources. Instead, they reinvent them.1
Pitchfork reviewed the 2008 re-release:
Plucked from the detritus of 90s independent music, B&S may noy be the generational touchstone of Slanted and Enchanted or Exile in Guyville (and if Liz was shadow boxing anything, it was exactly this strain of guy culture), but relegating it to the Indie Rock Era nostalgia ghetto, where a band's "cred" usually dictated the reception of its records isn't fair, either. These songs hold up just fine to repeated plays, particularly if you stack them next to today's Mac-enabled faux-low-fi. And if the bonuses to this reissue aren't exactly revelatory, the original album remains a critical document in the evolution of underground DIY. Don't listen to it for its historical value, though; listen to it because it's awesome.2
In 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Tom Hughes wrote:
Thanks to personal endorsements from Kurty Cobain, associations with other alternative rock heroes such as Pavement, Mudhoney, and Sonic Youth, and, of course, some great records, Sebadoh flourished and went on to become a byword for lo0fi, offbeat indie rock in the early 1990s.
(This record) may best represent this charming band’s irresistible heartbreak fetishism and strange little flights of fancy.3
Enjoy and listen without prejudice. Cheers!
Prime Playlist: 148. Bubble & Scrape by Sebadoh
Charts
• Peak on Billboard 200 album chart: n/a
• Singles on Billboard Hot 100 chart: n/a
• RIAA certification: n/a
Released on April 26, 1993. Here’s what else was happening:
Pop Culture
• Number one song: “Informer” by Snow4
• Number one album: The Bodyguard by Whitney Houston5
• Number one movie: Indecent Proposal by Adrian Lynne6
• Most watched TV programs: 60 Minutes, Roseanne, Home Improvement, Murphy Brown, Murder She Wrote, Coach, Monday Night Football, Cheers, Full House, Northern Exposure.7
• NYT bestseller, fiction: The Bridges of Madison County by by Robert James Waller.8
• NYT bestseller, non-fiction: Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes9
Other albums released that month
• Cool for Cats by Squeeze
• I Love to Sing the Songs I Sing by Barry White
• Black Rose: A Rock Legend by Thin Lizzy
• Life in a Day by Simple Minds
• Gimme Some Neck by Ron Wood
• Million Mile Reflections by The Charlie Daniels Band
• My Father's Eyes by Amy Grant
• Bob Dylan at Budokan by Bob Dylan
• Voulez-Vous by ABBA
• Blue Kentucky Girl by Emmylou Harris
• New Chautauqua by Pat Metheny
• Strikes by Blackfoot10
Sport
• Apr 22 Seattle Mariner Chris Basio no-hits Boston Red Sox.
• Apr 25 NFL Draft: Washington State quarterback Drew Bledsoe first pick by New England Patriots.
• Apr 28 NY Islanders beat Washington Capitals 4 to 1 in playoffs, Capitals' Dale Hunter attacks Pierre Turgeon after scoring, in hockey's worst cheap shot.
• Apr 28 Zambian plane crashes at Libreville, Gabon, 30 soccer players die.11
Notable Births
• Apr 16 Chance The Rapper, American rapper and record producer (Acid Rap; Coloring Book), born in Chicago, Illinois.
• Apr 29 Justin Thomas, American golfer (PGA C'ship 2017, 22; Players C'ship 2021), born in Louisville, Kentucky.12
Historical Events
• Apr 19 After a 51 day siege by the FBI 76 Branch Davidians die in a fire near Waco Texas (accident, suicide, tear gas are disputed causes).
• Apr 19 South Dakota governor George Mickelson and seven others are killed when a state-owned aircraft crash lands in Iowa.
• Apr 20 Uranus passes Neptune (once every 171 years).
• Apr 21 Brazil votes against a monarchy.
• Apr 22 Holocaust Memorial Museum dedicated in Washington, D.C.
• Apr 23 Eritrea votes to secede from Ethiopia.
• Apr 24 The IRA explodes a 1000kg car bomb in Bishopsgate, London, killing a news photographer and injuring 44 others.
• Apr 25 Russia elects Boris Yeltsin President of the Russian Federation.
• Apr 26 Boeing 737 crashes at Aurangabad, kills 56.
• Apr 26 NBC announces Conan O'Brien to replace David Letterman on "Late Night".
• Apr 30 The World Wide Web source code is released by CERN, making the software freely available to all.13
Notable Deaths
• Apr 19 Steve Douglas [Kreisman], American session and touring saxophonist and flautist (Phil Spector; Duane Eddy; Beach Boys), dies of a heart attack at 54.
• Apr 22 Cesar Chavez, American farm labor leader (United Farm Workers), dies of natural causes at 66.
• Apr 24 Oliver Tambo, South African lawyer, anti-apartheid politician and co-founder (African National Congress), dies of a stroke at 75.
• Apr 28 Jim Valvano, American basketball coach (NC State), dies of cancer at 47.
• Apr 29 Michael Gordon, actor and director (Pillow Talk), dies at 83.
• Apr 29 Mick Ronson, English rock guitarist (David Bowie's Spiders From Mars), and producer (Mott the Hoople; Lou Reed), dies of liver cancer at 46.14
Full video playlist: You're Welcome 148; Bubble & Scrape by Sebadoh
Hughes, Tom; 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die; ed. by Robert Dimery; p. 721.
Ibid.