Dinosaur Jr "Just Like Heaven" 12" Pavement Sebadoh Superchunk OOP

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Dinosaur Jr "Just lIke Heaven" EP SST Records (US)

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Dinosaur Jr. is an American alternative rock band formed in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1984. Originally called Dinosaur, prior to legal issues that forced the group to change their name, the band disbanded in 1997 until reuniting in 2005. Guitarist J Mascis, bassist Lou Barlow, and drummer Murph were the band's founding and current members; Mascis has been the group's sole continuous member.

Their distinct sound, characterized by high gain, extensive use of feedback and distortion, and frontman J Mascis's melodic guitar solos, was highly influential in the alternative rock movement of the 1990s.

History

Formation

Mascis and Barlow had previously played together in a hardcore punk band called Deep Wound, formed in 1982 while the pair were attending high school in western Massachusetts. After high school, they began exploring slower yet still aggressive music such as Black Sabbath, The Replacements, and Neil Young. Mascis' college friend Gerard Cosloy introduced him to bands like Dream Syndicate, which Mascis in turn showed to Barlow. Barlow explained, "We loved speed metal...and we loved wimpy-jangly stuff".

Deep Wound broke up in mid-1984. Cosloy had dropped out of the University of Massachusetts Amherst to focus on running his independent record label, Homestead Records, and promised Mascis that if he were to make a record Homestead would release it. Mascis wrote a number of songs by himself and showed them to Barlow, to whom he offered the bassist position. While Barlow had played guitar in Deep Wound, he accepted as he was impressed by the material Mascis was creating. Barlow said the songs "were fucking brilliant...They were so far beyond. I was still into two-chord songs and basic stuff like 'I'm so sad.' While I was really into my own little tragedy, J was operating in this whole other panorama." Mascis enlisted vocalist Charlie Nakajima, also formerly of Deep Wound, and drummer Emmett Patrick Murphy, otherwise known as Murph, to complete the band. Mascis explained the concept behind the group as "ear-bleeding country."

The band was initially named Mogo, and played their first show on University of Massachusetts Amherst campus in the first week of September 1984. Nakajima went into an anti-cop rant during the performance, and Mascis was so appalled by his behavior at the show that he disbanded the group the next day. A few days later Mascis called Barlow and Murph to form a new band without telling Nakajima; "I was kind of too wimpy to kick him out, exactly," Mascis later admitted, and explained, "Communicating with people has been a constant problem in the band." The trio named themselves Dinosaur, and Mascis and Barlow took over lead vocal duties.

Dinosaur

Mascis took Cosloy up on his offer to release an album and Dinosaur recorded their debut album for $500 at a home studio in the woods outside Northampton, Massachusetts. Their debut album, Dinosaur was released in 1985. The music was extremely eclectic and revealed a combination of musical styles that was very unusual, especially for the mid-1980s: hardcore punk, Crazy Horse-style garage rock, Black Sabbath-style metal riffs, folk rock, twangy country-rock and gothic music. On the band's later albums, these elements would often be combined into single songs, but on the debut album, each individual song is different stylistically. All of this was delivered with the extreme level of volume and distortion that would become part of the band's signature style. Mascis wrote all of the songs. Some of the singing was done by Mascis in his trademark nasal drawl, often compared with Neil Young, but the majority of the lead vocals were done by Lou Barlow. This is another aspect of the album that is unusual, as Mascis would sing most or all of the lead vocals on all of their subsequent releases. The album did not make much of an impact commercially or critically: it sold only about 1,500 copies in its first year and was largely ignored by the majority of the music press.

After the record's release, Dinosaur would often drive to New York City to perform shows. At one of their shows, the New York-based alternative rock band Sonic Youth was at first unimpressed by the first Dinosaur performance they saw, but after watching them play several months later, approached the band declaring themselves as fans. The band was bewildered by Sonic Youth's praise; Barlow recalled, "We're like, 'What? How could the coolest band in the world like us?'" Sonic Youth invited Dinosaur to join them on tour in the American Northeast and northern Midwest in September 1986.

You're Living All Over Me

Dinosaur recorded much of their second album You're Living All Over Me with Sonic Youth engineer Wharton Tiers in New York. During the recording process, tension emerged between Mascis and Murph because Mascis had very specific ideas for the drum parts. Barlow recalled, "J controlled Murph's every drumbeat...And Murph could not handle that. Murph wanted to kill J for the longest time." Gerard Cosloy was excited by the completed album, but was devastated when Mascis told him the band was going to release it on SST Records. Mascis was reluctant to sign a two-album deal with Homestead, but Cosloy felt betrayed; Cosloy said, "There was no way I couldn't take it personally." After the album's completion Mascis moved to New York, leaving the rest of the band feeling alienated.

You're Living All Over Me was released in 1987; early copies of the record in the Boston area were packaged with the Weed Forestin' tape, the first release by Barlow's side project Sebadoh. The album received much more attention in the indie-rock community than the debut had, and went a long way towards establishing Dinosaur as a major underground band.

While the previous record had featured different musical styles for each song, You're Living All Over Me found the band's various disparate influences merging into each individual song. Although the hardcore punk influences were noticeably more muted than on Dinosaur, the overall sound was much more powerful, with the instruments often recorded very loud and with considerable distortion. While Mascis's guitar, alternating between Black Sabbath-like riffs, squalling solos, dissonant noise-rock and occasional quiet passages, was the main attraction, Barlow's bass, melodic, highly distorted and often playing thick two-note chords, competed for attention. Meanwhile, Murph played the Mascis-composed drum parts in a very heavy and powerful fashion, resulting in a highly unified and unique version of the power trio format. This time around, Mascis did most of the lead singing, often in a detached drawl that presented a contrast with the extreme music. The songs were highly melodic, albeit with odd song structures that avoided the typical verse-chorus-verse patterns of most rock and pop songs. For the first (and for a long time, only) time in the band's history, Lou Barlow also composed two songs: the hardcore-influenced Lose and an acoustic sonic collage entitled Poledo that anticipated Barlow's work with Sebadoh.

Immediately following the release of You're Living All Over Me, supergroup The Dinosaurs (featuring ex-members of Country Joe and the Fish, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Hot Tuna, Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane) sued them over the use of the name, prompting the addition of "Jr".

Bug and Barlow's departure

Dinosaur Jr. had a major breakthrough in the United Kingdom with their debut single for Blast First, "Freak Scene" in 1988, a version with censored lyrics being issued for radio consumption. It reached #4 in the UK independent chart, staying on the chart for 12 weeks. The band's third album Bug followed shortly afterwards, reaching #1 on the UK independent chart and spending 38 weeks in the chart. The band's first UK singles chart placing came in 1989 with their cover of The Cure's "Just Like Heaven".

Bug was similar in musical style to You're Living All Over Me, with the contrast between the extremely distorted instruments and the melodic vocal parts intact, as was the band's unique blend of musical influences. However, this time out, there was even more melody and the song structures were more conventional. Mascis was exhibiting an even tighter control over the band's sound, singing lead vocals on all but one song and composing the parts for Murph and Lou to play. Barlow's only lead vocal was on the album's final track, featuring an overdriven, noise-rock backing track and Barlow screaming "Why don't you like me?"

It is Mascis' least favourite of the band's albums. In an interview in 2005, after the original line-up had reformed, he said, “‘Bug’ is my least favourite of all our records,” says Mascis. “I like some of the songs but, I dunno, I guess I really don’t like the vibe of it.”

Despite the album's success, tension between Mascis and Barlow began interfering with the band's productivity, and in 1989, after touring in support of Bug, Barlow was kicked out of the band. Barlow now focused all of his attention on the former side-project Sebadoh. "The Freed Pig", the opening track on 1991's Sebadoh III, documents Barlow's frustration with Mascis and his poor treatment within the band.

Meanwhile, the band embarked on an Australian tour with Donna Dresch filling in for Barlow. In 1990, the band released a new single, The Wagon on Sub Pop, their first release since Barlow's departure. The single featured a short lived lineup including Don Fleming and Jay Spiegel from the band Gumball, in addition to Mascis and Murph.

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