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Dinosaur Jr guitar whiz soldiers on solo
By Matt Sebastian, Camera Music Writer
February 27, 2004For a guy who can unleash an unholy racket on guitar, J Mascis is one tranquil man. No, make that near-comatose.
Getting the reclusive, press-shy Dinosaur Jr frontman on the phone is tough enough. Convincing him to talk is another matter entirely. Even his manager — Bart Dahl of Boulder’s Madison House Inc. — admits that Mascis is "a very, very quiet dude."
That’s an understatement. During a recent phone interview from his Massachusetts home, the languid Mascis — who performs a solo acoustic show tonight at Denver’s Larimer Lounge — had to be poked and prodded just to string together a full sentence.
Mascis, whose guitar prowess made him the Neil Young of late-’80s indie rock, seemed mildly unsure of why he’s even playing Denver. He’s not on tour, either alone or with his current band, the Fog. Nor does he have a new record coming out anytime soon.
"I’m just kind of going to be hanging out there for a couple days," Mascis says, in an almost dreamlike mumble, of his trip to Colorado. "Just going to go skiing for a day or something."
After some thought, Mascis does reveal that he’s got other business, too. Following tonight’s show, he’ll travel to Los Angeles, where he plans to lay down some guitar tracks for a friend who’s producing "some girl." Mascis adds: "I don’t even know who it is."
Mascis’ remoteness comes in direct contrast to his music. Forming Dinosaur Jr with bassist — and future Sebadoh frontman — Lou Barlow in the early ’80s, Mascis made ear-piercing, feedback-soaked guitar solos acceptable for a whole generation of indie rockers who’d grown up despising bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and its classic-rock brethren.
That musical relationship with Barlow didn’t last long, and it remains one of the great failed partnerships of underground rock, chronicled, in all its wonderful venom, in one of the chapters of Michael Azerrad’s indie-rock history, "Our Band Could Be Your Life."
Mascis pressed on after Barlow left the band in 1988, enlisting new members and keeping the Dinosaur Jr name alive through the mid-’90s; he even scored the band’s biggest hit with the grunge-era single "Start Choppin’."
Many critics, though, labeled Dinosaur a one-man band following Barlow’s departure, and wondered why Mascis began releasing records under his own name, beginning with 1996’s live Martin + Me. It’s a contention that still irks Mascis."We just decided to break up," Mascis says of the decision to drop the Dinosaur handle. "We were a band, despite what people thought from the outside. It was unfair to Mike Johnson especially. He played on every record (after 1990) and helped make the records and stuff."
Following Dinosaur Jr’s swan song — 1997’s Hand It Over — Mascis began recording and touring with the Fog. The group has cut a pair of guitar-heavy records since 2000, and Mascis says he’s at work on another, although progress was delayed when his home studio burned, taking with it many of the guitarist’s instruments, and some of his tapes.
"I’m still not sure what survived a year later," Mascis says. "I’m still sorting through the stuff."
Mascis has been busy, however, on the Dinosaur Jr front. He recently inked a deal with Merge records to put his band’s first three records — 1985’s Dinosaur, 1987’s classic You’re Living All Over Me and 1988’s Bug — back in print.
No release date has been set, but Mascis is remastering the three records, and at least one of the re-releases will have a bonus track: Mascis says he plans to put the early B-side "Bulbs of Passion" at the beginning of Dinosaur.
"That was one of our favorite songs," Mascis says, opening up for the first time during this interview. "But it never quite sounded right. With the remastering now, I really like it. I think I’m going to make it the first song on the first album, because it was like the first song where we kind of felt like our identity was forming.
"On our first album, we hadn’t really formed an identity," he adds. "We just kind of recorded it and it was kind of all over the place. ‘Bulbs of Passion’ was kind of the first song that we thought really came together right.
"… and I thought it’d be funny to have the bonus track go first instead of last."
WHAT: J Mascis, with Nightingale and Mike Jourgensen
WHEN: 9 tonight
WHERE: Larimer Lounge, 2721 Larimer St., Denver
TICKETS: $10"J" wrote:… and I thought it’d be funny to have the bonus track go first instead of last.
Let’s just hope that there will be more than 1 bonus track!Cool interview. Nice to get some new takes on the breakup of dino, especially
"J" wrote:We were a band, despite what people thought from the outside. It was unfair to Mike Johnson especially. He played on every record (after 1990) and helped make the records and stuff.well that kind of clears up why j’s in colorado … i was wondering why he’d make a trip all the way out there for 1 solo show …
wonder who the mystery girl is who he’s going to help out w/her album … sounds like he’s wondering too
Quote:"I’m still not sure what survived a year later," Mascis says. "I’m still sorting through the stuff."guess he’s not in a hurry then
i like this line …
Quote:For a guy who can unleash an unholy racket on guitar, J Mascis is one tranquil man. No, make that near-comatose. :aliensmile:thanks for the interview den buck …
Good to hear about the new stuff, hope we find out who ‘some girl’ is :aliensmile:
Nothing wrong with being a quiet guy, J’s certainly loud enough when he needs to be
So looking forward to the reissues, glad to here about the remastering, maybe Bug will grow on him. I think I remember him saying in an interview that was the release he liked the least, felt it was unfinished. My copy of Bug is so close to death, it’s in a sad state…hope it makes it to the fall
Its also good to hear J himself is doing the remastering… sometimes people screw it up pretty good. Like "Imagine" remastered PERSONALLY! by YOKO ONO!…
Like SHE was the one who people wanted to listen to… I dont know, it just sounds too quiet for some reason… too much Japanese sensibility…To quote Malcom’s signature:
Quote:We live in a country where John Lennon takes six bullets in the chest, Yoko Ono was standing right next to him and not one fucking bullet! Explain that to me! Explain that to me, God! -Denis Leary :aliensmile: 
you can grab Necessito from Some Girls here:
http://www.some-girls.com/index.htm”>http://www.some-girls.com/index.htm
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