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Sebadoh
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Artist · chart history

Sebadoh

Band Westfield United States Formed 1986 US indie rock band

Sebadoh formed in 1986 in Westfield, United States. Sebadoh has 40 chart appearances on 28 radio countdowns from 11 stations on RockLists, spanning 1993–2022. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Ocean”, which appears on 16 lists with a best position of #78. The station that charted Sebadoh most often is CD101 (Columbus, OH), with 26 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1993.

40appearances
28countdowns
6songs charted
11stations
0#1 finishes
1993–2022years

Sebadoh began in Massachusetts in 1986 as Lou Barlow's escape hatch. With J. Mascis steadily taking the wheel in Dinosaur Jr., where Barlow played bass, he and Eric Gaffney started a band of their own as an outlet for his songs, and multi-instrumentalist Jason Loewenstein made it a trio in 1989. Alongside Pavement, Beat Happening and Guided by Voices, they helped invent lo-fi indie rock, cutting songs on four-track cassette machines and leaving in the hiss, the flubs and the bare nerves. The Freed Man, Weed Forestin' and Sebadoh III are the scrappy, heart-on-sleeve evidence.

Gaffney left after Bubble and Scrape in 1993, and Bob Fay took over the drums for Bakesale and Harmacy, the records where Sebadoh sharpened into something close to a real rock band. Songs like "Skull" and "Ocean" are tender and bruised, with enough crunch underneath to keep them upright. Fay was out before The Sebadoh in 1999, with Russ Pollard on drums, and its "Flame" burns hot.

Then they went silent for 14 years. Barlow and Loewenstein came back with drummer Bob D'Amico for the self-recorded Secret EP in 2012 and Defend Yourself in 2013, and Act Surprised followed in 2019.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.

Songs by Sebadoh on radio countdowns

#SongStrengthListsBest#1sPeak year
1 Ocean
555		 16 #78 – 1996
2 Flame
440		 14 #87 – 1999
3 Willing to Wait
167		 4 #41 – 1996
4 Soul & Fire
88		 1 #7 – 1993
5 Rebound
80		 2 #16 – 1994
6 Skull
41		 3 #316 – –

Albums with charting songs

Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.

Year-end chart timeline

Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.

93 94 96 99

Every countdown appearance

Year#SongCountdown
2022 387 Willing to Wait The Colorado Sound Top 900 Songs of the '90s
2014 818 Ocean CD101 Top 2014 Songs of All-Time (2014)
2014 882 Flame CD101 Top 2014 Songs of All-Time (2014)
2013 787 Ocean CD101 Top 2013 Songs of All-Time (December 2013)
2013 881 Flame CD101 Top 2013 Songs of All-Time (December 2013)
2011 757 Ocean CD101 Top 2012 Songs of All-Time (December 2011)
2011 868 Flame CD101 Top 2012 Songs of All-Time (December 2011)
2010 730 Ocean CD101 Top 2011 Songs of All-Time (December 2010)
2010 841 Flame CD101 Top 2011 Songs of All-Time (December 2010)
2009 713 Ocean CD101 Top 2010 Songs of All-Time (December 2009)
2009 820 Flame CD101 Top 2010 Songs of All-Time (December 2009)
2008 699 Ocean CD101 Top 2009 Songs of All-Time (December 2008)
2008 805 Flame CD101 Top 2009 Songs of All-Time (December 2008)
2007 697 Ocean CD101 Top 2008 Songs of All-Time (December 2007)
2007 762 Flame CD101 Top 2008 Songs of All-Time (December 2007)
2006 316 Skull WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2006)
2005 1782 Ocean CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005)
2005 2005 Flame CD101 Top 2006 Songs of All-Time (December 2005)
2005 696 Willing to Wait 99X Freedom of Choice 1000 (2005)
2004 1781 Ocean CD101 Top 2005 Songs of All-Time (December 2004)
2003 1781 Ocean CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003)
2003 1878 Flame CD101 Top 2004 Songs of All-Time (December 2003)
2002 1802 Ocean CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002)
2002 1926 Flame CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002)
2002 117 Willing to Wait The Buzz Top Songs of All-Time (Labor Day 2002, partial)
2001 489 Skull WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2001)
2001 1815 Ocean CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001)
2001 1941 Flame CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001)
2000 495 Skull WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2000)
2000 1810 Ocean CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000)
2000 1984 Flame CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000)
1999 87 Flame WFNX Top 99 Songs of 1999
1999 104 Flame The End Top 107 Songs of 1999
1999 915 Rebound Q101 Top 1,011 Songs of All-Time (December 1999)
1999 427 Ocean WFNX Top 500 Songs of All-Time (June 1999)
1999 1807 Ocean CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999)
1996 41 Willing to Wait WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1996
1996 78 Ocean WBCN Top 104 Songs of 1996
1994 16 Rebound John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1994
1993 7 Soul & Fire John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1993

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