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Dinosaur Jr. refilling giant tracks |
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Written by Glenn BurnSilver
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Thursday, 14 June 2007 |
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 The loud thrashing and slashing guitars, thunderous bass and continually pounding drums are instantly recognizable of a time when dinosaurs walked the earth — Dinosaur Jr., actually. The late-’80s band that pre-dated grunge and Nirvana’s quiet-loud sound, and put the capital A in Alternative rock, is back for another go-round.
There is a new record, “Beyond,” which is packed with the entire sonic ambience of old. It sounds as if the band picked up where it left off. That also holds true with the strange tensions and anti-social blunderings that propelled the music but also destroyed the band. Despite spending three months together recording “Beyond,” and subsequent time touring, principal songwriter and guitarist J Mascis communicated with bassist Lou Barlow through his Boulder-based manager.
“Using what chemistry we do have, I am very committed to what we are doing. If somebody acts as the go-between for him, and we manage to get things done, I’m not going to fault him,” Barlow explained during a phone interview from Minneapolis. “The more time we spend together and the more we do this stuff, then maybe time will erode that wall and slowly we’ll get more comfortable together. And if not, then so what? We’ll always have the old music, and now we have the new record.”
In between came the 2005 reunion tour. Following the band’s very public breakup in 1989, all parties (excluding drummer Emmett “Murph” Murphy, who stayed clear of the fray) were clear that a reunion could never happen. When Barlow was approached in 2005, he surprisingly agreed.
“I think J had issues with me personally. He just trimmed the fat. I don’t think it had much to do with musical differences, I think it was strictly personal,” Barlow recalled. “I thought that if J was into doing the reunion, it would work out. I always loved those songs from Dinosaur, so going back and playing them seemed like a cool thing to do.”
That eventually led to the new record, which came about not from an actual desire to make new music together but from the boredom of simply rehashing the past. Barlow agreed, figuring it was an opportunity to turn the problems of the past into something more positive.
“The way I left the band and handled the whole situation was less than noble. To go back and have the reunion, for me on a personal level, was to make a negative experience into something positive,” he said. “Now, rather than have Dinosaur be this band that I made cool records with, but had this horrible split, I am able to come back to it and it becomes a good thing. I was already remembering Dinosaur as a positive, but to get back together again, it made it much more real. The musical chemistry that we have and the way we play together, well, it is pretty unique and kind of rare.”
———— TO GO TO THEIR SHOWDinosaur Jr. with Monofog and Chad From Drag The River Doors 8 p.m., Friday, June 15 Aggie Theatre 204 S. College Ave, Fort Collins 482.8300 $20. www.aggietheatre.com————
DOUBLE THE PLEASURE
Bassist Lou Barlow wrote two songs for the album, doubling his entire Dinosaur Jr. songwriting career output in one fell swoop. Yet, he wasn’t expecting to be asked to contribute.
“At that point the process of recording (“Beyond”) was so slow that I was happy to step in and get what I could out of the band,” he said. “J is the loudest guitarist I have played with, and Murph is the most forceful drummer. Their styles are very upfront, in your face and the band itself is very forceful, so I was happy to have those guys at my disposal.”
OUT WITH THE OLD
Last August while in New York City, Dinosaur Jr. had its van full of gear stolen. While J Mascis lost thousands of dollars worth of guitars and gear, Barlow took it as a good sign that his bass was stolen — he was getting tired of it anyway.
“I’m not really too attached to anything I own,” Barlow said. “I was getting really frustrated with that bass anyway, I took it as a chance to try other basses. I just figured it was meant to be. Out with the old and in with the new.”
— Glenn BurnSilver
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