Dinosaur Jr
Indie noise’s scene freaks. By Stevie Chick.
If Neil YouNg is the godfather of grunge, Alternative Nation guitar hero J Mascis – with his wracked wail, penchant for “ear-bleeding country” and tendency toward epic, emotive soloing – could be hailed as the plaid-clad son the Crazy Horse hero never knew he had. in 1984, formerly-skinheaded oi!-fan Mascis vacated the drum stool of recently unravelled Massachusetts hardcore-punkers Deep Wound to indulge his love for Neil Young, Black Sabbath and post-punk in a new group, Dinosaur (the “Jr” was later appended following a lawsuit from the Jefferson Airplane offshoot Dinosaurs). He shared vocals with ex-Deep Wound bassist lou Barlow, while old schoolfriend emmett ‘Murph’ Murphy played drums. Beginning with 1985’s eponymous debut, the group delivered a trilogy that expanded the vocabulary of American underground rock with hitherto-verboten ’60s references, anointing Mascis as a lyrical master of the electric guitar. Dinosaur was a fractious beast, however (“lou was a real victim,” Mascis told MoJo in 2005, “and if people were looking to be abused, i’d abuse them.”), and, following several years of passive-aggression between guitarist and bassist, Mascis split the band, and then reformed it the next day without Barlow, who formed confessional lo-fi pioneers Sebadoh. Dinosaur Jr, meanwhile, signed to Sire and enjoyed commercial success in the wake of Nirvana’s breakthrough. However, diminishing returns saw Mascis call time on the group in 1997, before pursuing a solo career backed by The fog, who featured Mike Watt on bass and, occasionally, ex-Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton (leading, indirectly, to The Stooges’ reunion with iggy Pop). The enmity between Barlow and Mascis crackled on, but in 2005 the pair put aside their differences and reunited with Murph for deafeningly great live shows promoting the reissue of their first three albums. Against all odds, this reunion has yielded four further albums of new material, as Dinosaur Jr continue to abide, in their raggedly glorious way.
“The group… expanded the vocabulary of American underground rock.”