Dinosaur Jr

Certain Songs #322: Dinosaur Jr. – “I Don’t Wanna Go There”

September 25, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Farm
Year: 2009

One of the myths that has been completely exploded by the generation of indie rockers that came of age in the 1980s is that reunion albums suck. Time and time again bands from that era that broke up, flamed out or faded away have figured out how to get back together to cash in on whatever residual affection might still remain, but to make music as vital as their heyday.

Not all of these reunions are successful ::coughs:: Pixies ::coughs::, but the ones that are — for example Jason & The Scorchers or Superchunk — have produced records that stand proudly with their original recorded output.

Certain Songs #321: Dinosaur Jr. – “Loaded”

September 24, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Hand it Over
Year: 1997

The last album by Dinosaur Jr. for a full decade, 1997’s Hand It Over is an overlooked and underrated entry in their stellar discography. Which makes sense: whatever moment they were going to have in the post-Nirvana world was squandered with 1994’s uncharacteristically tepid Without A Sound, and by the time 1997 rolled around, the alt-rock landscape was radically different.

Which is fine. Full-blown stardom, 1990’s style would have suited J Mascis even less than it seemed to suit folks like Eddie Vedder and Billy Corgan. So, instead, he just did his thing as Dinosaur Jr. for what felt like the last time, and it was damn good.

Certain Songs #320: Dinosaur Jr. – “Get Me”

September 23, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Where You Been
Year: 1993

With his cracked voice and crackling loud guitar, there was always a bit of Neil Young in J Mascis’ music, but it wasn’t until Where You Been where it really came out to play.

Which wasn’t surprising, because in 1993, Neil Young was at the peak of his “Godfather of Grunge” phase, and artists as far afield as Matthew Sweet and Teenage Fanclub were putting out songs that borrowed riffs and especially rhythms from Uncle Neil. And so for Dinosaur Jr. to do a song that acknowledged the debt with the familiar mid-tempo kick-snare, kick-kick-snare drum pattern that graced some of Neil’s biggest tunes wasn’t really a surprise.

Certain Songs #319: Dinosaur Jr. – “What Else is New?”

September 22, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Where You Been
Year: 1993

My favorite Dinosaur Jr. album has long been 1993’s Where You Been, which was pretty much the only 1990s Dinosaur Jr. album to be recorded with a full band, meaning that J Mascis didn’t have to worry about doing anything but writing, singing and playing guitar.

You know, the easy stuff.

The result is what I think is his best batch of songs, full of great hooks, great vocals and — naturally — fantastic guitar. While there weren’t any punky singles like “Freak Scene” or “The Wagon,” they were replaced by Mascis fully embracing his inner classic rock guy, which my inner classic rock guy fully appreciated.

Certain Songs #318: Dinosaur Jr – “The Wagon”

September 21, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Green Mind
Year: 1991

If “Freak Scene” (and their slighly askew cover of “Just Like Heaven”) were indicators that Dinosaur Jr were something new and different in the indie-rock world, then “The Wagon” — and to a lesser extent, Green Mind — sealed it.

Green Mind was the first Dinosaur Jr album not to feature Lou Barlow — something that became more important in retrospect as Barlow started demonstrating his songwriting chops — but it suffered a bit as Mascis spent the vast majority of the album overdubbing himself like Prince or Todd Rundgren.

Certain Songs #317: Dinosaur Jr. – “Freak Scene”

September 20, 2015 by Jim Connelly

Album: Bug
Year: 1988

Poor J Mascis. Born too late to ever be part of the pantheon of guitar heroes, doomed to be putting long, noisy solos into songs for a target audience that frowns upon that sort of thing.

Hurrah for J Mascis! One of the last of the guitar heroes, keeping the flame of the long noisy guitar solo long after everybody else gave it up.