Any start could be the beginning of a brand new tangled web you’re spinning. Anyone could be a brand new love…

Whenever Valentine’s rolls around, I try to have a love song to present, which is fairly easy as I have written my share of love songs. This year I present one I wish I had written, the first in a series of Secret Covers I’m releasing in 2023, Brand New Love as made famous by Sebadoh. 

Lou Barlow wrote this song and released it initially in 1986 on an album called Weed Forestin’, which also contains a song called It’s So Hard To Fall In Love –which I’ve also sang around the house a billion times.

I probably first heard about Sebadoh from reading Spin Magazine around the time Nirvana was transforming the musical landscape back in the early 1990s. My friends and I were voracious music fiends and chasing down every hot trend we could find back in Winnipeg. I remember buying Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock (Sub Pop) at Musiplex downtown Winnipeg not long after it was released and loved everything about it. I loved how noisy it was, how melodic it was, how the music was clearly “in the red” and the sound was distorting everywhere in such a great way. In my mind, it was glorious and the crown jewel was this track called Brand New Love.

At the time, I was learning guitar and after learning all the songs in the Neil Young and Beatles books I somehow was given, I moved onto playing along with records and learned loads of songs by Sebadoh including Happily Divided by Jason Louwenstein, Think (Let Tomorrow Bee) by Lou Barlow, and of course, Brand New Love written by Lou Barlow.

I liked that the band had multiple singers and writers, which for a KISS fan just made perfect sense. And I also found it interesting and sort of teenage-ish that they had this ongoing feud with Dinosaur Jr. which was Lou Barlow’s prior band and he was busy writing all these angry songs about J. Mascis and releasing them. It was fascinating. Around that time, I saw Dinosaur Jr. in Minnesota as part of Lollapalooza and, admittedly, I liked them as well. I actually saw J. Mascis play an acoustic show at the Opera House in Toronto one time as well. (Of course, J and Lou have since reunited in Dinosaur Jr.)

Notably, I’ve never seen Lou Barlow perform in either Dinosaur Jr. or Sebadoh or on his own. These days, I follow him on Instagram and am Facebook friends with Jason Louwenstein, who I also have never seen live (although I thought maybe I had by accident for one hot second when I heard he had a stint in Fiery Furnaces, who I saw in Toronto, but this was after he had already moved on again). Jason seems like a great guy and actually sent me a fantastic recommendation on an app that mimics the idea of holding the exposure button on a manual camera. (If you ever saw live music photography from the 1980s or 90s or before, you would recognize the swirling swoops of light in a lot of photography as you could hold the button in such a way that it would absorb more light into the film –which is static- even though your subject and light are dynamic… The results really seemed to capture the idea of motion in photography, but I digress,,)

For the last thirty years since I first heard Brand New Love, I’ve been singing it around the house and so for me, it was a no-brainer to include as part of my first Secret Covers EP. 

Anyway, I hope that Lou and Jason and the whole Sebadoh camp appreciate the joy that went into making this recording, which is really meant as a tribute to them.

ABOUT THIS RECORDING
While I’ve moved on from the 4-track recorders of yesteryear that bands like Sebadoh hipped me to with their extremely Lo-Fi recordings, I still keep it pretty lo-fi. As ever, I’m recording with whatever equipment the Hamilton Public Library has and record all of this in public either in the children’s department in my local branch, which is encased in glass and is not soundproof (LOL) or the slightly more private central library where people often come by and stare at me through the window in the door. 

I then got the idea to include some voices talking about love and opened that up on Facebook. As usual with these things, a lot of people express interest and then not everyone follows through but I spoke to quite a few people about love and “love at first sight”. DJ Wright and Jen Culp are both in the acting community here in southern Ontario and I have yet to meet them on set but I’m sure our paths will cross as I also do a fair amount of work background acting, etc. on all of the shows that are filmed here. From the music world, award-winning indigenous artist Sandra Sutter, based in Alberta, also contributed a couple lines as well as my friend Shareece from the San Diego area who records under the name Darchaild. And then that’s Jeremy reading some of his actual wedding vows, which I thought was really sweet and really reflected this idea that anyone you meet could be a Brand New Love.

I’m aware that for some people, Valentine’s Day is a celebration for others, it’s more depressing. I like that this song is about that endless hope that is attached to falling in love. That girl that smiled at me awkwardly in the dentist’s office, maybe it’s true love! Or maybe she has freezing and can’t manipulate her lips correctly. I think it might work out!

Stay hopeful, stay optimistic, and rock out. Also look forward to future Secret Covers of songs by Warren Zevon, Black Sabbath, Bob Wiseman, and Björk!

Also, share Brand New Love on socials and let me know what you think of Brand New Love. Operators Are Standing By!

-Mac