Dinosaur Jr.: Brilliant or crap?

bug bug bug bug bug bug

shoulda boughta bug

I genuinely like all their albums and think they all have good songs and interesting moments. Green Mind has been kind of written out of the band's history, but it's got incredible songs and it's really fun and varied.

Without A Sound is the one I'd avoid; weakest material (ironically on the album with their biggest hit). Beyond is in hindsight a little weak, too, but I like I Bet On Sky as much as Farm.

Even the Whatever's Cool With Me EP is pretty sensational

xp Golf and Rabbit are the same thing.

― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Friday, May 6, 2016 2:31 PM (49 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha what? that's dumb. now i have to think of a joke

The Wagen

i really don't love bug. freak scene is great. post is great. the rest i could live without.

saw them a few times when it came out and 'yeah we know' was always a huge high point of their set for me

my pal bob fay got together with lou recently and went over old unreleased deluxx folk implosion stuff. they want to put it out. for people who are into that sort of thing...(i know some people who like that stuff the most, actually.)

Green Mind has been kind of written out of the band's history, but it's got incredible songs and it's really fun and varied.

Even the Whatever's Cool With Me EP is pretty sensational

― Evan R, Friday, May 6, 2016 7:10 AM (1 hour ago)

green mind and the 8-song version of whatever's cool are my favorite dinos besides you're livin all over me and bug bug bug bug bug. and "just like heaven".

i still love the debut tbh

i asked my kid rufus - he's 13 - what he was really digging lately and he said "i'm really enjoying you're living all over me. i want a wah pedal."

the western mass circle of life.

Green Mind ftw. I guess it's the annoying production that sucks but there's not a dud on it, and The Wagon might be my fave Djr song

The debut is a wonderful curiosity. If it was the only LP they ever released, it would still guarantee them a small cult following

My favorite comment on a Dinosaur Jr. forum, from way back in the mid '90s, was in response to a fan saying he just saw the band. Somebody responded "Did J play any new songs? Or did he just play 'Thumb' the whole time?"

when i saw them a dude managed to get his bare leg on the security fence to show J his magnificent tattoo of him, screaming 'J! You are my hero! You are my hero!' J just gave the thumbs up, everyone laughed. important to mention that this first original lineup tour (2006 I think) in a while.

lou gave me such a nice shout-out in newsweek! so nice.

http://www.newsweek.com/dinosaur-jr-guide-western-massachusetts-487059

Kudos!

that's awesome!

I just came here to post that link. Good on yer, Scott!

aww, rad

Rat On! Just posted that on Twitter, where I then saw this, about thee continuing saga of Used Kids----also interesting:
http://pitchfork.com/features/article/9927-what-it-takes-for-an-independent-record-store-to-survive-now/

New album is EXCELLENT

j shredded over "rockin in the free world" at last night's pearl jam show at fenway. magical.

I really like the new one and I've never really bothered with them before, where's best to go next?

Like I get the sense that his voice has improved with age? I've found some of the vocal straining actively offputting in the past.

You're Living All Over Me is their best album overall, messy and psychedelic and wonderful. Where You Been probably the best of their major label era - the most anthems, the most guitar solo-age. But they've really never made a duff album AFAICT.

^^^ Both good suggestions, giving both 'extremes' of the per-reunion output. Otherwise, 'Beyond' (the first reunion record) is probably the most similar to the latest, and also has better tunes.

I meant "pre-reunion output", obvs.

Matt DC, if you like this one, you'll probably like the rest of their post-reunion output. Farm is sort of an outlier because it's jammier, with songs that stretch beyond the 8-minute mark, but the band is in top form and J's guitar work is incredible.

Not a single weak track on YLAOM. Even "Lose." That song's ridiculous, it's basically 4 completely different cathartic bridges/choruses tied together, but it doesn't get any attention because it's a short little thing near the end of the album.

I never had a problem with Mascis' drawl, it's got the ability to slow down space-time just like his guitar, but liking or not liking a singer is just one of those things you can't really argue.

New album cover:

http://ak1.ostkcdn.com/images/products/6704058/bmmg/ent/Dino-Dan-Twas-A-Dinosaur-DVD-L843501004623.JPG

LOu Barlow just posted a link to a piece he wrote about POledo the tape collage etc track from You're Living All Over Me on Facebook. He also linked to this bandcamp page showing the various parts of teh construction of the track.
https://sentridoh.bandcamp.com/album/child-of-the-apocalypse

Dinosaur Jr are going to be recreating the You're Living All Over Me lp live including for the first time the 2 Lou Barlow tracks.

Second time, saw them do it in 2012 for the 25th ann'y

"We have done the full LP live once or twice but I merely played the songs on ukulele and bypassed the noise-scapes. This time I’m going to attempt the full breadth of the piece using a sample-pedal and prepared tracks."
quote from the post

So yeah not first time they played the track but first time he's tried to recreate the track to sound something like the lp version.

They are one of my all time favourite bands, a classic beyond any doubt. Hearing "where you been" when I was 16 was such a change from the boring thrash metal and grunge by numbers I listened to back then. Maybe there last few albums weren't so great, but "bug" and "you're living all over me" don't seemed to have aged that much, bands still try to copy "freakscene" today. And, I'd also agree that "Take a run at the sun" shows how cool J MAscis is. Poison are a classic band too, by the way! Oh and given a choice between Sebadoh and Dinosaur Jr, I'm sorry Lou but J wins!

― jel, Thursday, March 1, 2001 7:00 PM (sixteen years ago)

<3 jel

CONTROVERSIAL OPINION:

j mascis' voice is more ~90s~ than any and all yarling

was just jamming this, sounds awesome: https://www.themckenzietapes.com/tapes/2018/1/16/dinosaur-jr-at-maxwells-1-17-1991
i still remember at age 11 or 12 and being mainly into classic rock and hearing my older brother blast "green mind" from his room and thinking whoa I gotta get into this!

i DJed the Dino show last night at the bar around the corner. So much fun. Capacity: 99 people. It was the perfect amount of loud actually. I thought it might be sickening. But it was human loud. Sounded fucking incredible. Such an amazing set. And I rocked the crowd with aplomb and with the aid of Pabst between sets. (PG Six and J's brother's band the opening acts)

https://scontent.fbed1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/29314474_10156731921192137_7093616316959546475_n.jpg?oh=3a45fd30001af9f5025b140afaa75ed9&oe=5B301129

https://scontent.fbed1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/29313767_10156731926872137_4594862773486262192_n.jpg?_nc_cat=0&oh=b795985fbf4b5592faea81c7a29d2373&oe=5B2D19CA

Right on! This was my shot of the monolith from orbit last year.

https://scontent-ort2-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/17353519_1911307172436961_4491324615395026685_n.jpg?oh=1da72778d6e930c6c6e9405ba9be7c2e&oe=5B349560

does the vomit doll have a name? i was and remain a decent a Dino Jr fan but not obsessive enough to know the name of that doll.
it reminds me of the enormous baby from The Kingdom

sounds like a fun night too.

awesome scott :)

this is solid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMa-JuMfLzA

i can't say that i have been a superfan thru the years. i really liked the song "repulsion" in the 80s but i didn't buy the first two records. one of the reasons i bought Bug when it came out was because i really loved the album cover. i bought the just like heaven 12-inch. but didn't follow them or sebadoh at all in the 90s. the first time i really ever heard sebadoh was when my brother was opening for them at the troc in philly and i got to dance on stage dressed as a witch. i did see dinosaur at the height of grungemania in a skating rink in connecticut and it was one of the most cavernous things i have ever heard. that would have been them touring green mind.

my kid, rufus, got to be there last night too. he loves J.

this was just ridiculously fun the other night. gloriously loud. nothing but neil all night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2RcNI2pL88

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dyVLtVVHG8

that's amazing

seriously!

The first time I ever heard of NY's On The Beach was J lamenting about its unavailability on CD in an issue of Melody Maker circa 92

have they been touring with an extra guitarist?

no, dino is just the trio. this was a one night only thing with matt valentine and john moloney and adam from sore eros and a guy on bass from....i can't remember what bands. he roadies for dino. he was great.

this is from the dino show at the local bar this year. also a wonderful night.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2UuYbgZtzI

seeing J. with two other good guitarists was so cool though. such a great sound live.