Lou Barlow Is 60 Today, and the Valley Basically Raised Him

Do the math on the low end of American indie rock and the arrow keeps pointing back to the Connecticut River. Lou Barlow — born July 17, 1966, which makes today the big one — didn't just pass through the Pioneer Valley. He was forged here.

The résumé is almost unfair. Deep Wound, the ferocious Westfield-area hardcore band he started as a teenager with a guy named J Mascis. Dinosaur Jr., the Amherst-born power trio that rewrote what a guitar could do to your ears and eardrums both. Sebadoh, the lo-fi cornerstone he built when Mascis fired him and he turned the wound into a whole aesthetic. Folk Implosion, which somehow landed a bass-heavy murmur onto pop radio. Four bands, any one of which would earn a plaque; all of them tangled up with this valley's cheap rents, college radio, and record-store bulletin boards.

Magnet Magazine marked the milestone today with a full birthday tribute, the kind of tip-of-the-cap the underground reserves for its founding saints. It's deserved. Barlow's whole catalog is an argument that the smallest, most personal sound — a cracked voice, a detuned four-string, a cassette hiss — can be as monumental as any wall of Marshall stacks.

He's not just a historical figure, either. He's a neighbor. Which is why the news that matters most isn't the birthday — it's what's coming three weeks from now. On Aug. 7, the Shea Theater in Turners Falls throws "Lou Barlow's 60th Birthday and Variety Show," an all-ages medley of musical guests that reads like a summit of everyone the man ever influenced or annoyed. More on that lineup as the date nears; for now, just know the guest list is not modest.

Sixty years. Four canonical bands. One valley that gets to call him one of its own. Happy birthday, Lou — the amps are already warming up.

Sources: Happy 60th Birthday Lou Barlow (Magnet Magazine); Lou Barlow (Wikipedia); Shea Theater: Lou Barlow's 60th