It’s 1986. In his parents’ basement (Barlow), an anxious young man seeks refuge from his 500-decibel post-hardcore guitar band with nothing more than a ukelele, a tape machine, and lots of inward curiosity.

The fruits of this search for self first appeared at the end of Dinosaur Jr.’s seminal You’re Living All Over Me in the form of “Poledo” — a quiet yet intense mess of revelation and confusion that eventually grew into Weed Forestin’, an album originally self-released on cassette in 1987 under the name Sentridoh.

The songs — widely celebrated and covered by the likes of Superchunk, Death Cab for Cutie, and Teenage Fanclub (and Deadsy!) — articulate the bare introspection of youthful isolation, the simultaneously pure and gross naivete of young romantic lust, and the awful pain of uncertain ego-development.
These songs — “Brand New Love”, “New Worship”, “I Believe in Fate”, and “It’s So Hard to Fall in Love”, among others — insist on doubt, destruction, and wide-eyed exploration.

On this reissue, the songs were restored to their original fidelity from Lou’s first-generation four-track tapes. A new collection of material from the same era — including unreleased songs, early versions, and extended tape collages – – called Child of the Apocalyspe was also assembled and is presented here for the first time. It starts off with the original version of “Poledo”.

The deluxe version of the Weed Forestin’ reissue, in addition to an LP of Weed and a cassette of Child, includes a USB drive with uncompressed audio from both releases and a stop-motion short film based on several songs from the record by London-based artist Daryl Waller, who made the film on his own over a decade ago and mailed the product to Lou on an unplayable VHS tape.

Play video for ‘Brand New Love’ below

http://vimeo.com/36234939
http://sentridoh.bandcamp.com/