Where You Been

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.

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 #320: Dinosaur Jr. – “Get Me”

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