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My advice would be to focus on the stuff from the seventies first — there you’ll find Neil at his best. Everybody knows this is nowhere, After the Gold Rush, Tonight’s the Night, Zuma and Rust Never Sleeps are all great records. Live Rust is probably my favourite. If you like it, move on to the nineties. Weld is excellent. Be careful with stuff from the eighties, except for Freedom and Ragged Glory, which are fine records. If you like acoustic stuff, check out Comes a Time and Harvest Moon. Enjoy!
Hey Jamie! Good to see you here. Your Turnip Farm site used to be one of my favourite ways to keep myself from studying. [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img] Welcome to the board, and have a wonderful 2002.
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Quote:Have you and Samwise been using some conversion techniques on your father or is he just a cool guy who appreciates the greatness of J?Both. [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img] I think the trick is just to keep playing J’s music around the house. Eventually, nobody will be able to resist the power of J’s talent. [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
Thanks for the info, Turnipfarmer. Do you know anything about the show in Köln? It’s not that far from the Dutch border, and me and Samwise are thinking about going there. Does anyone have the address of the website of this place? (If it has one.) Or just the actual address in Köln?
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Quote:there should be no talk of Lou Barlow on this site. He is the Anti-J. If you own any of his music and like it , then do not consider yr self a Dinosaur jr fan, or destroy his music. WE WILL HAVE NONE OF THAT!!!Sorry to be completely off topic here, but this is too wrong to let it slide. So, you don’t like Lou’s music. Fine. But don’t tell us what we can and can’t talk about. Last time I checked, you weren’t Jeremiah, or part of his team. Personally, I think that Lou has made quite a few wonderful, beatiful albums over the past years. Also, I think that his and J’s music have a lot in common. The themes of their work seem to be closely related. (Just listen to a song like "Together or Alone.") But that’s not even my point. I just want to state that – especially considering the fact that Lou was once part of Dinosaur Jr. – I will talk about him on this site whenever I feel like it. And so can everybody else. Thank you very much.
"Reggae Dance Hits." Never owned it. I have no idea what you’re talking about. Besides, I sold it almost right after I bought it. Really. So stop looking at me like that.
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Quote:Samwise, -since it has come to Norway, my guess is that it’s already all over eurpoe now. It should be anyways.I emailed Rhino about it, and I just got this reply:
<BLOCKQUOTE><font>quote:</font><HR>Hey Jasper,This Dinosaur Jr. collection will only be available in the U.S.
Dr. Rhino<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Oh, well. I can always order it somewhere on the internet. It’s a shame, though. Ear Bleeding Country deserves to be available in all European record stores. [img]images/smiles/converted/frown.gif[/img]
In my universe, it’s a serious sin to turn the bass or treble away from its lovely neutral position. That’s where it belongs. Keep it there. Listen to the music the way it was intended by the musician who recorded the music.
That’s also why I despise the WayTooMuchBass function every Discman has. I hate it. I really do. But I’m weird, so there you go.
Thanks for the translation, den buck. [img]images/smiles/converted/wink.gif[/img] I already had the whole thing translated, but the board wasn’t working properly. I have edited my post now to add the rest of the interview, in case people want to compare translations.
Since I’m both Dutch and a moderator, I’ll take this task on me. It’s not a very good interview, though. So I’d take it with a grain of salt. Anyway, I cut some of the introduction out because nothing was said that you didn’t already know, and here we go.
What we can give you are the impressions J Mascis and Mike Watt gave us concerning a few songs we played for them. We talked to these rock-dino’s before their show in the Muziek-O-Droom, Hasselt. Although Mascis’s contribution is quite modest at times.
As first song of this juke-box session I chose for a song by Primus dating from the time of their "Pork Soda" album. It’s the song "The air is getting slippery," that describes a very hot day. Your heart is beating and sweat drips in your eyes, according to the lyrics. What do these guys think of Primus, and what events make them sweat?
Mike Watt, the bass player of the group, has an overly enthusiastic answer to this question. He’s so impulsive that he spills the hot water, meant for his tea, over our recorder. An excuse – it’s nothing, I’ve been through more terrible interviews – and a cleaning session later we can finally hear his answer.
"Les Claypool and his Frogs are great. I did a few shows with him, the most recent on New Year’s Day. I know the song. Les is a great bass player. Like Flea. These cats are younger than me. When I was a kid in the seventies – I’m 43 now – nobody wanted to play the bass. Unless you really couldn’t play guitar. Nowadays the instrument is much more attractive, and for many it’s the first instrument that they learn how to play. Among other things, thanks to the work that Les and Flea have done. Flea is even opening a music school for the kids."
"But getting nervous, as in the lyrics of the song, doesn’t often happen to me. But when I play, I sweat a lot. I never stand still on stage, you know. A show is a very intense thing for me. I shake my body really hard."
J Mascis, the personification of languor, lets us know that he’s not really interested in comedians who make music. He is not into comical music, Mascis says.
The next song I played for these gentlemen is one by Ween. It’s the song "Jappa Road," from the album "Chocolate and Cheese." I ask them if they can remember such places for their many tours.
Watt: "Of course. And, by the way, this is my 74th tour (actually, 47th – Watt)! I’m the child of a sailor. I’m used to traveling from one place to the other. Touring is never a bore, just read my diaries. I learn from every place I come, and any place might have something exciting to offer. As the child of a sailor, I consider the tour bus to be my boat. But we come in very diverse places. Sometimes I have to sleep on the floor, and another time in a hotel."
Because the members of Ween are clearly also just a bunch of comedians, Mascis doesn’t seem to be interested in adding much to the answer of his bass player. "I don’t know that much of Ween."
We move on to the new work of John Frusciante, "Going Inside," the first song if his last album.
[Said by Watt, I assume. The interview isn’t clear about this.] "Dramatic story. Although the album before last was very bizarre, I liked it a lot. You’ll never hear it on the radio. John has come a long way. He sounds more coherent these days. He’s in a better state of mind right now. A real artist."
Do you feel like a leader on stage? Watt: "Well, I’ve always been the boss in my own bands when I was on stage. But one thing is clear: You can’t learn everything when you’re the boss."This is one of the reasons why I wanted to help out Mascis. He’s a leader for me, you know? Mascis has his qualities. Although he prefers just playing guitar."
Mascis: "I’m just glad I can still play the guitar. I don’t really care about what I am as a leader."
While Watt is working on his homepage, Fugazi is playing in the background with the song "And The Same" from "Margin Walker."
What does J Mascis thing of politically correct attitude? Is this important for him?
Mascis: "I don’t think it’s a bad thing, but political messages are not the reason why I listen to music. I’m more interested in the emotional side of music. Although I don’t want to say what Fugazi does is wrong. What they’re talking about doesn’t have to be wrong. In general I do think it’s important that people pay more attention to the general consciousness. [That’s what it says – although I doubt that J said it that way.] People should take more responsibility. Be better human beings."
When Thurston Moore ("Psychic Hearts") is played, Mascis wonders for a moment if this is a local band. The lyrics seem very aggressive. Something Mascis isn’t into these days, as he told us before. Has that never been different?
[Sorry to interrupt again, but weren’t they talking about [i]comical[/i] lyrics before? When did aggression come into the picture? Anyway, I’ll carry on with it.]
Mascis: "I don’t know. Of course you can have a lot of fun. Maybe that can be a reason to make music. But it’s not my priority. Like I said, I don’t like comical music. What matters to me are feelings, emotions, things like that. Perhaps things that are more melancholic. I kinda like that side of music. But it seems that this might change. Personally, I think my last album is lighter than the Dinosaur Jr. material."
Another song that we don’t have to spend much time on is one by Beck, "Get Real Paid."
Mascis: "Sorry, no. I don’t like Beck."
Pere Ubu, then. "Vacuum In My Head" from "Ray Gun Suitcase." Mascis: "Yeah, I kinda like Pere Ubu’s stuff."
Finally I ask Mascis about Del The Funky Homosapien, with whom he wrote the song "Missing Link" for the soundtrack of Judgement Night.
Mascis: "That was cool. I actually played with him. Unlike some of the other bands on this album. Some time ago I heard Del in a song of the Gorrilaz. He was rapping with the guys of Blur. Great video, by the way. I checked it in a gas station where they sold CD’s, and yeah: Del’s on it. I haven’t seen him since we worked together for Judgement Night. But it was fun. We even were on TV together."
Maybe there’s a band that we didn’t play that Mascis thinks is important? One that influenced him during the nineties?
Mascis: "Hard to say. In that period I wasn’t influenced by others that much. I was very much doing my own thing. These days I’m more influenced by others. And I can’t really name one band that’s typical for the nineties. We don’t really have enough distance from the period to say what’s typical for that time."
Other things that Mascis has to tell me is that Buffalo Tom brought out a Greatest Hits album recently, and is performing live again. Mascis once did production work for Buffalo Tom.
Guided by Voices, too, has a new album. They’re touring now, and according to Mascis they’re doing fine.
(By Stijn Wuytens, with thanks to Jorg Lambrechts.)
Go to http://www.amazon.com and search for Dinosaur Jr. under Popular Music. If you have no money, it’s usually best to use a fake credit card.
