Hidy ho, friends.
I am totally tapped.
Turns out helping your better half plan the wedding in addition to being a normal, productive member of society is a tiring thing. Who knew? Movie Week is officially over - it was fun while it lasted but I oughta get back to my meat and potatoes, my bread and butter, my sturm and drang. So excuses, excuses - I'll give another truncated post and tell you just a bit about how I cam to love Dinosaur Jr.
I missed the boat on J Mascis, the sole musician responsible for 95% of what Dinosaur Jr. is and does. I was just too young to have been exposed to it in their heyday. As I've written before, my older brother was an excellent repository for guitar-driven rock music that might have come just ohsoslightly before my time. Not only did he (consciously or unconsciously) guide my musical development but his friends did as well. One such friend was in the habit of selling me his old CDs for cheap, like dollar-a-pop cheap, which was a god-send to a Middle West teenager with no internet to speak of. So once in a blue moon, when the fates would align and I could tag along to their place, the older brother would get pre-occupied and I could get a crash course in the friend's musical world. It was revelatory, to say the least.
One of the many things I got turned on to during one of these crash courses was Dinosaur Jr. He was in the midst of telling me how much he loved Wesley Willis when he tossed a CD onto the pile I had established on the floor, saying "Oh, Dinosaur Jr.'s great, you gotta hear that - it's basically one guy playing all the instruments over himself," and that was it. No more preamble, just that. So I took it, along with the stack of other discs he was done with, back to my place and devoured them. It was, in hindsight, some good songwriting draped in distortion and insane guitar solos, but there was something about it so new (despite the fact it was more than five years old) that I struggled to retain the sound.
The CD was the EP Whatever's Cool With Me, which was really just the single and a handful of strong b-sides and a couple of live tunes. Up until that point in my life I hadn't really branched out and found things that weren't getting exposure on MTV or the radio, so something like Dinosaur Jr. was an important step into a new world for me. It was the kind of thing where you listen to it and love it, then when you try to recall it later your mind can't quite recreate the sound because it isn't used to it. Does that make sense? I hope it does, because its a fun sensation and it rarely happens anymore.
The EP is still one of my sekrit favorite things, with this unbelievable sense of melody hidden under the grungey trappings of the era. The title track is great, 'Sideways' is a lovely little pop tune. 'Not You Again' still rocks, with its upbeat, cheery distortion and crazy solos. 'The Little Baby' was intense for me, at the time, the first I'd heard proto-screamo.
If you've never heard anything by Dinosaur Jr., this might not be the best place to start. It was, for me, an interesting jumping off point, as it was between albums and eras for the band and I had my curiosity piqued right as they went on hiatus. Always behind the curve, eh? Regardless, give the band a listen, they've got some great songs.
I am totally tapped.
Turns out helping your better half plan the wedding in addition to being a normal, productive member of society is a tiring thing. Who knew? Movie Week is officially over - it was fun while it lasted but I oughta get back to my meat and potatoes, my bread and butter, my sturm and drang. So excuses, excuses - I'll give another truncated post and tell you just a bit about how I cam to love Dinosaur Jr.
I missed the boat on J Mascis, the sole musician responsible for 95% of what Dinosaur Jr. is and does. I was just too young to have been exposed to it in their heyday. As I've written before, my older brother was an excellent repository for guitar-driven rock music that might have come just ohsoslightly before my time. Not only did he (consciously or unconsciously) guide my musical development but his friends did as well. One such friend was in the habit of selling me his old CDs for cheap, like dollar-a-pop cheap, which was a god-send to a Middle West teenager with no internet to speak of. So once in a blue moon, when the fates would align and I could tag along to their place, the older brother would get pre-occupied and I could get a crash course in the friend's musical world. It was revelatory, to say the least.
The CD was the EP Whatever's Cool With Me, which was really just the single and a handful of strong b-sides and a couple of live tunes. Up until that point in my life I hadn't really branched out and found things that weren't getting exposure on MTV or the radio, so something like Dinosaur Jr. was an important step into a new world for me. It was the kind of thing where you listen to it and love it, then when you try to recall it later your mind can't quite recreate the sound because it isn't used to it. Does that make sense? I hope it does, because its a fun sensation and it rarely happens anymore.
If you've never heard anything by Dinosaur Jr., this might not be the best place to start. It was, for me, an interesting jumping off point, as it was between albums and eras for the band and I had my curiosity piqued right as they went on hiatus. Always behind the curve, eh? Regardless, give the band a listen, they've got some great songs.
