A founding member of the groups Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh and the Folk Implosion, Barlow is credited[1] with helping to pioneer the lo-fi style of rock music in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

[6] After his dismissal from Dinosaur Jr., Barlow turned his attention to his band Sebadoh, which he had formed earlier with multi-instrumentalist Eric Gaffney.

The project featured low fidelity recording techniques and combined Barlow's introspective, confessional songwriting with Gaffney's discordant noise collages.

In 1993, Sentridoh released a popular single for the song "Losercore," on the label Smells Like Records founded by Steve Shelley of the American rock band, Sonic Youth.

The band released several singles and EPs, and in 1995 reached the Top 40 with the song "Natural One", from the soundtrack to the film Kids by Larry Clark.

Barlow took a break from the Folk Implosion in 2000 to collaborate on the album Subsonic 6 with Belgian musician, Rudy Trouvé.

In 2003, Barlow released The New Folk Implosion featuring Imaad Wasif on guitar and Sebadoh drummer Russ Pollard on drums.

During this tour, he also reunited with J Mascis for a performance of the song "Video Prick" with former Deep Wound vocalist Charlie Nakajima.

It was produced by Andrew Murdock and featured numerous guest musicians, including Imaad Wasif on guitar and Dale Crover of the Melvins and Murph on drums.

It was recorded in six days with Justin Pizzoferrato, who also worked as a sound engineer for Dinosaur Jr. at Sonelab Studios in Massachusetts.