Lo-fi legend Lou Barlow has played in three of the most influential indie bands of the last quarter century: Dinosaur Jr, Sebadoh and the Folk Implosion. And while he’s still recording and touring with the reunited Dinosaur (whose Farm was released this summer), his main concern these days is his solo career. Goodnight Unknown (Merge), Barlow’s second album under his own name and the follow-up to 2005’s Emoh, is his best collection of songs in a decade and features guests including Dale Crover (Melvins) and Lisa Germano. Barlow also recently joined Lara Meyerratken in Ben Lee’s new incarnation of Noise Addict, which released It Was Never About The Audience for free last month. Barlow (backed by the Missingmen) is opening for Dinosaur throughout October and part of November. As if that double duty wasn’t enough, Barlow will also be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with him.
Barlow: Like lots of guys with glasses, I have allergies. They aren’t as bad since I moved to California, but I travel a lot, so it’s a problem. Planes and buses exacerbate it. As you know, allergies create mucous, mucous gets stuck in your head—literally—within all the bends and turns of the nasal passages, the caves and tide pools behind your eyes and nose. It’s a swampy place, and that stuff rots. Mucinex will not scare it out, Sudafed won’t dry it out. The only way to get it moving and out of there (without resorting to antibiotics) is by blowing water up your nose. Hello, NeilMed. NeilMed is a strange company—family run, I assume—that manufactures plastic bottles with a specially designed, patented, nozzle/bottle that you fill with distilled water mixed with the provided, also very patented, saline crystals. The box it comes in is festooned with redundant information, company slogans, ugly trademarks, testimonials and diagrams. It looks awful. It has none of the graphic-department finesse of a major pharmaceutical company product. It’s ugly. It makes you not want to use it. It makes you not want to believe that the simple contraption in the box could actually dramatically improve the quality of your life. I’ve tried other plastic bottle with nozzle and saline-packet thingies. They are not the same, not by a long snot. Unless you are too cool for it (and just about everybody is), NeilMed rules. If you use a lot of decongestants and suffer from seasonal allergies and frequent colds, this is for you. Suck it up.
