III is the third album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 by the American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 indie rock

Indie rock

Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

 band, Sebadoh

Sebadoh

Sebadoh is an American indie rock band, formed in 1986 in Westfield, Massachusetts by Eric Gaffney and Dinosaur Jr bass player Lou Barlow. Along with such bands as Pavement and Guided by Voices, Sebadoh helped pioneer lo-fi music, a style of indie rock characterized by low-fidelity recording...

. It was released by Homestead Records

Homestead Records

Homestead Records was a Long Island, NY based sublabel of music distributor Dutch East India Trading. It was founded in 1984 by Sam Berger, who was the American Independent buyer for Dutch East India Trading. Berger was finding that many bands who had perhaps released their own first 45 were...

 in 1991.

III was the first full length Sebadoh album to feature Jason Loewenstein

Jason Loewenstein

Jason Loewenstein is an American alternative rock singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist and a member of the indie-rock bands Sebadoh and The Fiery Furnaces...

, who joined the band's two founding members Lou Barlow

Lou Barlow

Louis Knox Barlow is an American alternative rock musician and songwriter. A founding member of the groups Deep Wound, Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh and The Folk Implosion. Barlow is credited with helping to pioneer the lo-fi style of rock music in the late 1980s and early 1990s...

 and Eric Gaffney

Eric Gaffney

Eric Gaffney is a songwriter and recording artist. In 1989, he co-founded the indie rock band Sebadoh, and since 1998 has been performing and recording with his own project Fields of Gaffney. In 2007 a reformed Sebadoh began touring again.-External links:...

 in 1989, and debuted on the "Gimme Indie Rock

Gimme Indie Rock

Gimme Indie Rock is a 7" EP by Sebadoh, released in 1991. First pressing comes on clear vinyl and black vinyl. Later reissued on translucent green vinyl and on marbled gray vinyl. The EP was included in its entirety on the reissued version of Sebadoh III....

" single earlier that year.

Music

III features songwriting contributions from all three band members, with folky

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

, melodic material by Barlow, noisy hardcore

Hardcore punk

Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...

 rock by Gaffney, and songs that bridged the gap between those extremes by Loewenstein. It opens with the electric

Electric guitar

An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...

 Barlow-penned "The Freed Pig," an attack on Barlow's ex-bandmate J. Mascis, who fired him from his former band Dinosaur Jr. in 1989. However, the majority of Barlow material on III is acoustic

Acoustic guitar

An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...

, like the eponymous ode to his girlfriend and future wife, "Kath."

Gaffney's material includes the LSD

LSD

Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...

-referencing album closer, "As the World Dies, the Eyes of God Grow Bigger," which addresses his dark family life.

Significance

III was released the same month as Nirvana's

Nirvana (band)

Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...

 major label debut, Nevermind

Nevermind

Nevermind is the second studio album by the American rock band Nirvana, released on September 24, 1991. Produced by Butch Vig, Nevermind was the group's first release on DGC Records...

, which brought alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 to the mainstream. In the wake of Nirvana's breakthrough, many other acts who emerged from the 1980s independent music scene, but remained signed to independent record labels, achieved modest success. Along with Pavement's

Pavement (band)

Pavement is an American alternative rock band that formed in Stockton, California in 1989. In their career, they achieved a significant cult following, and they were called the best band of the 1990s by prominent music critics Robert Christgau and Stephen Thomas Erlewine...

 1992 debut Slanted and Enchanted

Slanted and Enchanted

Slanted and Enchanted is the debut studio album by American indie rock band Pavement, released in April 1992 on Matador Records. The album was distributed to critics as early as 1991, months before its official release; the original distribution did not feature the entire band as several members...

, III is considered one of the "cornerstones of 90s indie rock

Indie rock

Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

," and helped establish the lo-fi subgenre.

"The Freed Pig" was covered by the American indie rock band The Breeders

The Breeders

The Breeders are an American alternative rock band formed in 1988 by Kim Deal of the Pixies and Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses. The band has experienced a number of line-up changes; the current line-up consists of Kim Deal , her twin sister Kelley Deal , Jose Medeles , Mando Lopez Todd the Fox...

 on the Head to Toe

Head to Toe

"Head to Toe" is a song recorded by Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam that appeared on their 1987 album Spanish Fly. The song hit number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 on June 20, 1987 and Hot Black Singles charts on May 30 of that year. In Canada, the song topped the RPM 100 national singles chart on July...

EP

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

 in 1994.

"Spoiled" was re-released on the Kids soundtrack in 1995, and can be heard during the film's closing credits

Closing credits

Closing credits or end credits are added at the end of a motion picture, television program, or video game to list the cast and crew involved in the production. They usually appear as a list of names in small type, which either flip very quickly from page to page, or move smoothly across the...

.

Reception

The album has been included in various best-of lists in the years since its release, including Alternative Press' "Top 99 of '85-'99" in 1995 (#85) and Spin's "Top 90 Albums of the 90's" in 1999 (#41).

Reissue

III was reissued by Domino Records

Domino Records (1993)

Domino Recording Company, generally known as Domino, is an independent record label based in London. There is also a wing of the label based in the United States, releasing Domino artists' music from the label's Brooklyn offices and run by Kris Gillespie, as well as a German division called Domino...

 in 2006, featuring a second disc of extra material and new liner notes

Liner notes

Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...

. The bonus disc includes the "Gimme Indie Rock" EP in its entirety.

Track listing

1. "The Freed Pig" - 3:08
2. "Sickles and Hammers" (Boon
   D. Boon
   d. Boon born Dennes Dale Boon, was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. Active between 1978, when he joined The Reactionaries, and 1985, when he was killed in a van accident, Boon was best known as the guitarist and vocalist of the Californian punk rock trio Minutemen.-Youth:Dennes Boon...
   
   , Watt
   Mike Watt
   Michael David Watt is an American bassist, singer and songwriter.He is best known for co-founding the rock bands Minutemen, dos, and Firehose; , he is also the bassist for the reunited Stooges and a member of the art rock/jazz/punk/improv group Banyan as well as many other post-Minutemen...
   
   ) - 0:50
3. "Total Peace" - 3:02
4. "Violet Execution" - 3:57
5. "Scars, Four Eyes" - 3:27
6. "Truly Great Thing" - 2:13
7. "Kath" - 1:52
8. "Perverted World" - 1:54
9. "Wonderful, Wonderful
   Wonderful! Wonderful!
   "Wonderful! Wonderful!" is a popular music song written by Sherman Edwards, with lyrics by Ben Raleigh. The song was first published in 1957....
   
   " (Edwards
   Sherman Edwards
   Sherman Edwards was an American songwriter.-Biography:Edwards was born in New York City and was raised in Weequahic, New Jersey, where he attended Weequahic High School. He attended Columbia University, where he majored in history. Throughout college, Edwards moonlighted, playing jazz piano for...
   
   , Raleigh) - 3:13
10. "Limb by Limb" - 2:17
11. "Smoke a Bowl" - 3:02
12. "Black-Haired Gurl" - 2:12
13. "Hoppin' Up and Down" - 3:16
14. "Supernatural Force" - 2:43
15. "Rockstar" - 2:42
16. "Downmind" - 1:31
17. "Renaissance Man" - 2:19
18. "God Told Me" - 1:09
19. "Holy Picture" - 2:53
20. "Hassle" - 3:30
21. "No Different" - 2:20
22. "Spoiled" - 3:03
23. "As the World Dies, the Eyes of God Grow Bigger" - 6:49

Extra disc (2006 reissue)

1. "Gimme Indie Rock
   Gimme Indie Rock
   Gimme Indie Rock is a 7" EP by Sebadoh, released in 1991. First pressing comes on clear vinyl and black vinyl. Later reissued on translucent green vinyl and on marbled gray vinyl. The EP was included in its entirety on the reissued version of Sebadoh III....
   
   "
2. "Ride the Darker Wave"
3. "Red Riding Good"
4. "New King"
5. "Calling Yog Soggoth"
6. "Stored Up Wonder (supernatural force)"
7. "Melting Wall (holy picture)"
8. "Design"
9. "Attention"
10. "Stars For Eyes"
11. "Unseen Waste"
12. "Violet Execution (remix '04)"
13. "As the World Turns"
14. "Cranberry Bog"
15. "The Devil's Reggae"
16. "The Freed Pig (4-track)"
17. "Never Jealous"
18. "Showtape '91"