Stoners and alcoholics aren't pristine examples of the democratic process squirming under the social microscope, so it comes with much revelation and scads of deferred hyperbole when Sebadoh churned out some of the best indie rock keystones of the 1990s. Strangely enough, early cassettes like The Freed Man (Lou Barlow's tape hiss-addled statement of emancipation from his role as the bassist for Dinosaur Jr.) and Weed Forestin' still retain some of the vitriol Barlow let loose before his eventual reunion with Joseph Mascis for Dino's Beyond in '07. Looking back at the time Barlow explained, “It was all about freedom and democracy, this chaos,” explains Barlow. “I was thrilled to be doing it all, to be touring. We played England, and I was so excited - after Dinosaur, I never thought I’d be able to tour England again." After III's lo-fi bliss balance, the classic trio that jettisoned from Lou Barlow and Eric Gaffney's tape swapping 'zinester '80s culture pushed further into oblivion. The eventual heuristic songwriter's democracy put to tape on the middle-of-the-road Bubble and Scrape stymies convention. Pavement and Guided By Voices join Sebadoh as the uncles of indie rock but where those bands had true leaders in Stephen Malkmus and Robert Pollard, Sebadoh thrived on the push and pull of each member of the trio.Bubble and Scrape ditched the band's former penchant for elliptical screeds and crystallized Lou Barlow, Eric Gaffney, and Jason Loewenstein's beautifully chaotic high-wire act between Barlow's folk implosions and Gaffney's bouts of noisy temper tantrums. All three wrote and sang their own songs, while live performances would see regular fits of instrument-exchanging, as one member stepped up to sing his song while the previous "frontman" receded to the drumkit. Bubble and Scrape takes all of that scrabbled history and brings it to its eventual head. Gaffney, an intermittent member from the Sebadoh's genesis, officially left for a solo career after Bubble and Scrape, and his surrogate, Bob Fay, added little to the group's democratic sound; Fay's sole contribution on 1994's Bakesale was the wispy 'Temptation Tide' ”“ engaging, but it lacks the teeth needed for a Sebadoh release.That makes Gaffney's presence on Bubble all the more important. The former pizza delivery kid and DJ put his frustrations on tape in a sort of primal blood-letting that transformed Barlow's distortion-heavy songs, like the brooding 'Soul and Fire' (about his rollercoaster relationship with Kathleen Bilius) into lilting folk-rock tunes by comparison. Gaffney’s additions to Bubble were manic screams of tilt-a-whirl brilliance, and deep burrowing walls of twisted noise pop. 'Elixir Is Zog' was thunderous noise bordering on the sketchy hardcore of The Minutemen when Gaffney yells "Capricorn rising" or "reel that sucker in." Also on 'Telecosmic Alchemy' we hear a strange tale of “the finest drifter you’ll ever hate” over a ramshackle bed of distorted guitar riff detritus and quick stabs of hi-hat and toms. 'Sister' contains the same whip-lash freneticism.Sebadoh would eventually lighten their acerbic formula and Bubble portends some of their eventual emasculation, mostly through Barlow's guitar strums. Despite this, Bubble takes rock zags with Barlow's maudlin turns at the microphone. On this album he reined in some of his unbridled honesty that leaked out on many early songs and pushed up his sad sack lyricism with music that kept your body moving. The crumbling guitar chimes of '2 Years 2 Days' curled up in a ball with Barlow's paranoid 'glass half-empty' lyrics. 'Cliché''s slacker posturing-cum-heart break ("don't mind me/I didn't know what I had till it was gone") goes at half speed punctuated by the band's quick outbursts.Lou mined his cantankerous affair with Kathleen Bilius on the elevated opener 'Soul & Fire,' a painfully frank diary entry of the death knell of an old love affair. The bittersweet melody and rudimentary chorus of “I think our love is coming to an end” tumbled over itself with exacting affect. A demo version included on this 15th anniversary re-release rewrites the chorus in a vacuum of taciturn despair, “Call me if you ever want to love again”. 'Think - Let Tomorrow Bee' is another stark gem from Barlow. The rest of the outtakes and extras included on the second disc are frayed and noisy alternate versions of the album songs.Loewenstein's 'Happily Divided' is particularly spare - creaking like a haunted house. The guitars are noticeably out of tune and the drumming is regulated to one lonely that perfectly fit for the midnight-coated lyrics - "yeah your big only when the numbers grow/all dressed up with nowhere to go." On the strange found sound percussion series of 'Part 1 - Lou,' 'Part 2 - Eric,' 'Part 3 - Eric,' and 'Part 4 - Jason' sound like distorted John Fahey numbers interspersed with gasping vocals, samples of tv shows and kids, and punk rock blasts of noise. They are definitely interesting for the fans that enjoyed the four-track tapes that Barlow started fiddling with his first solo venture, Sentridoh. For Sebadoh fans they are mostly a novelty that is stretched further with a great booklet filled with old artwork, photos and text written by the band. 'Visibly Wasted II,' 'You Are Going Down,' and 'Old Daze' are glorious hardcore slides filled with razor blades of battered distortion and atonal pulses of recorded electronics.Going back to the first disc its apparent that Jason Loewenstein's contributions filled in the gaps between Barlow's folk and Gaffney's noisy downhill tumults. His contributions were confident but not bland in comparison. The off-put brooding acoustic waltz of 'Happily Divided' followed the story of a small violent man who pretends he's bigger than he really is for his actions. The lightning-quick amalgamation to that song would be the bong/beer weekend blitz of 'Flood.' Think The Minutemen's antics times ten.And this is how it goes on Sebadoh's fourth release. Like the title implies it is the sound of a band bouncing off of each with wet taps of brooding emotion and scraping walls of distortion in the same breadth. Save for III, Bubble and Scrape fits around the mold of an adept and balanced collective playing with their backs to hi-fi's conventions. We still are feeling the bruises from Sebadoh's joyous efforts to avoid the studio's inherent antisepsis and boy, it's a good hurt. 90%[Download Bubble and Scrape]Links Sebadoh [myspace] [label] [official site]Video: Live @ Chicago's Metro (14/04/1999) playing "2 Years 2 Days"/"Soul and Fire"/"Sixteen"