Every band eventually reunites these days. But few reformations have been as unlikely, nor as successful as Dinosaur Jr’s. The indie rockers, who very much played John The Baptist to Nirvana’s messiah, didn’t much like each other during their initial burst of late '80s/ early '90s success, but since reconvening in the mid '00s have released six very good, well-received albums.
Now. in an extensive Pitchfork interview, the trio have told their whole story. Back in the day, much of the tension in the band was due its imbalance. Guitarist J Mascis wrote all the drum and guitar parts, and had firm ideas about how the bass should sound.
Mascis was originally a hotshot drummer but switched to guitar and became equally accomplished on his new instrument. “People will be like, ‘How did you learn guitar so fast?’” Mascis explains. “I was only writing what I could play at the time. I couldn’t do bar chords, so I had to just move my fingers around until something would sound good. And then I could play faster than I knew what to do with.”
It was Mascis who convinced bassist Lou Barlow to play the instrument high up on the neck so it followed the guitar’s lead. “The way I play bass to J’s guitar was something that J masterminded, and I completely believed in it,” Barlow says. “I’ve never had musical differences with J. The quality was super high, and the personal parts mattered less to me than that quality.”
The trio released three critically acclaimed albums and a genuine indie rock anthem in Freak Scene, before Barlow left in 1989. Around this time Kurt Cobain asked Mascis to join Nirvana, who at this stage were still signed to the cult indie label Sub Pop. He turned him down: “I had just graduated to being able to stay in motels and not on floors, but they were still in the floor phase. I’m not going back to the floors.”
Mascis kept a version of the band going until 1997. But when the original trio reconvened a decade later, miraculously it seemed to work and they decided to keep going. Older and wiser, they seem to be able to tolerate each other these days. “It’s annoying, because you’re saddled with these guys - God dammit, what the fuck? But it sounds better, so what are you going to do?” says Mascis.
“We came up together, learned how to play together, have a certain sound that is interesting. When we play now, kids are into it, because they haven’t heard anything like this. And maybe they don’t know why.”
