Lou Barlow
w/Steve Turner, Graham Travis
Fri March 25, Sunset Tavern, 9 pm, $8.

If you've spent any time wondering where Lou Barlow has been for the last few years, you're not alone. Ten years ago, Barlow was an indie-rock titan: leader of Sebadoh and Folk Implosion, and the most prolific exponent of emotional, home-recorded songwriting around. Then, about six years ago, he explains, "everything just collapsed."

Barlow, speaking via cell phone on the road between Chattanooga and Nashville, describes in broad strokes how Sebadoh's unpopular 1999 LP, The Sebadoh, alienated Sub Pop Records (at a time when the band was the then-troubled label's biggest artist), and how Folk Implosion fell apart not long after, when collaborator John Davis "dropped out" just as the band's debut major-label LP was released.

Though he's quick to admit that the days since then have been "really difficult" professionally, Barlow is philosophical about the nature of indie popularity. "You can only have a certain number of bands be supported by that group of maybe 100,000 kids in the country who really thrive on new music, and use it as their social armor and reason to live," he says, chuckling. "We had our time."

Which brings us to now, when Barlow is touring behind his first "official" solo record, Emoh, and adjusting to life as an underdog. To a longtime fan, he sounds pretty happy--both on his record and on his cell phone.

"I don't really have a lot of ambitions beyond creative ambitions," he observes. "But I love playing music and I love recording, and I find it much more satisfying now. I'm much more comfortable in my skin."