J Mascis is boering

[MBET]

I'm lukewarm on them. I love side two of "you're living all over me" but think side one is boring. I finally looked at the credits and discovered that the two sides are from two different recording sessions with different engineers. I don't know how much time elapsed between the two sessions but that explained a bit of what I was hearing.

[alerieb23]

To quote spin "J. Mascis is God" He is an amazing drummer, writes introspective songs that sound like the way people talk but than again not really, so if you really pay attention they are great to relate to. His guitar playing is fierce. If anyone wants check out www.freesofree.net for a wealth of live and rare stuff from 85-2005. And like Del the Funky Homosepian says on the Judgement night soundtrack "Dinosaur Jr. you'll find their going to ruin you"

[ode2no1]

i dont think the shades of overdrive or the gear people use makes their music complex. if green day had done tonally what J did on their "dookie" album, would that be considered complex as well? thats just guitar geek stuff and has nothing to do with the music. dino jr are a very simple rock band. theyre just rock songs and dont have amazing arrangements or anything. theyre good, but saying that theyre complex is a bit much in my opinion. nobody really cares what his guitar sounds like.....only us here do. if the songs suck then who cares how good the tone is.

[NoirAbattoir]

Originally posted by ode2no1 i dont think the shades of overdrive or the gear people use makes their music complex. if green day had done tonally what J did on their "dookie" album, would that be considered complex as well? thats just guitar geek stuff and has nothing to do with the music. dino jr are a very simple rock band. theyre just rock songs and dont have amazing arrangements or anything. theyre good, but saying that theyre complex is a bit much in my opinion. nobody really cares what his guitar sounds like.....only us here do. if the songs suck then who cares how good the tone is.

To quote myself... {censored} you.

[elctmist]

[shipatsea]

Differrent strokes for differrent folks I guess. I happen to love J Mascis. I think what I love the most and seem to identify with is:

He doesn't seem to take himself to seriously and likes to stay out of the spotlight. He seems shy and quirky. I dig that.

[Pwn3d]

I've heard the talk about them but I havent heard their stuff. I need to get to downloading some.

[NoirAbattoir]

Originally posted by Pwn3d I've heard the talk about them but I havent heard their stuff. I need to get to downloading some.

 

 

Check out You're Living All Over Me. It's a must-have for guitarists, a modern classic...

[YourHerodDGC]

As a guitar player and song writer, J mascis is definately number one on my list. I feel like all other guitar players are either too flashy, or too boring. Most of the dudes you guys on here talk about over and over i really just don't care about. They do nothing for me. Every note he writes, especially on Your Living all over me, has it's place and purpose. I still listen to that album start to finish once a week.

[MrSage]

Originally posted by bp 1 I can't spell good at anytime.

Where's MonkeyKnifeFighter when you need him?

:D

[milkmanfrank]

Originally posted by alerieb23 To quote spin "J. Mascis is God" He is an amazing drummer, writes introspective songs that sound like the way people talk but than again not really, so if you really pay attention they are great to relate to.

Hangwire?

[unsane]

"J.Mascis is deaf"

literally, anyone who's spoken to him or tried to speak to him knows he cant hear a damn thing these days..

[Trick Fall]

You know, I've read through this thread and while I've heard a lot of people talking about how great this Dinosaur jr. record or song is great I don't recall seeing any post about seeing some amazing show by them. Personally while I like the music the only time I saw them it was well pretty boring. The sound was bad, the tempo never changed, the volume pummeling and they did not engage the audience at all. Also while the sound might have been bad partially due to the soundman and the venue I have to think that Jay playing ridiculously loud helped swamp the entire mix. Now I'm not trying to diss the band, there's definitely some great tunes, but maybe they are just not that good live?

[YourHerodDGC]

I've seen them twice, and both times were the best shows i've ever been to. So much energy from the band and the crowd. I love how effin loud they are. And no two of J's solos sound alike.

The first time i saw them one of his marshall heads pretty much caught fire and started smoking. If that's not rock, i don't know what is.

[NoirAbattoir]

Originally posted by Trick You know, I've read through this thread and while I've heard a lot of people talking about how great this Dinosaur jr. record or song is great I don't recall seeing any post about seeing some amazing show by them. Personally while I like the music the only time I saw them it was well pretty boring. The sound was bad, the tempo never changed, the volume pummeling and they did not engage the audience at all. Also while the sound might have been bad partially due to the soundman and the venue I have to think that Jay playing ridiculously loud helped swamp the entire mix. Now I'm not trying to diss the band, there's definitely some great tunes, but maybe they are just not that good live?

I saw them right before this thread was created (which was almost a year ago at this point) and it was an amazing show. I was lucky enough to find excellent recordings of that particular show and it was just as good as I remembered, too.

Now, I'm not really one for stage antics (maybe elctimist can dredge up that thread if he can't find anything to do today ) so I guess it doesn't bother me that theperformers aren't jumping around or trying hard to muster interesting stage-banter. I'm really just there to experience the music and since the music is so heavily guitar-driven it make sense to me that it comes across that way live, too.

It's all subjective. I don't really mind if people don't dig it. I was just being an ass because that's what I do.

Let me ask, did you see them during the reunion tour?

[Trick Fall]

I saw them on one of their later tours I don't remember which record was out. I can dig bands that don't jump around onstage and whatnot, but perhaps the night I saw them they were just off. I mean the Jesus and Marychain and My Bloody Valentine didn't jump around either, but they certainly were engaging and blew my mind!

[angus_old]

Originally posted by ColorsoundKid That's funny because I find MBV to be fairly one dimensional compared to DJ.

 

 

++

 

i just realized i can barely listen to mbv anymore

[Mojambo]

I love J Mascis' guitar playing, but I always find myself getting bored when I listen to Dinosaur Jr. albums.

Maybe he just writes boring songs...but his solos and tones are awesome.

[SpectralJulian]

Originally posted by catalinbread What Dinosaur Jr critics forget to do is put them in context to all of the other {censored} that was out at the sametime. Name something really good that came out in 1985. I am sure there was stuff for people with refined taste and there was some good pop music. But there was nothing for younger people with a sort of budding artistic vantagepoint. You can call the musicianship whatever you want. Personally, I don't think the real Dinosaur Jr heyday was until AFTER Lou Barlow and Murph. So reuniting that particular encarnation is really sorta boring to me especially when I see the ticket prices. Last time I paid nearly that much to see J Mascis was in 1995 Shinjuku's Liquid Room and that was 5,500 Yen. Anyway it is cool that Dinosaur Jr is still worhty of critical attention where as all the garbage that was out when they first started is all but forgotten. Critics take shortcuts to thinking and the biggest one they take with Dinosaur Jr is forgetting the context that made them stand out in the firstplace.

 

 

There was good music in 1985- Confusion is Sex and Pyschocandy came out that year.

[endo23]

I saw them back in the mid-90s and it was the loudest show I've ever been to, and extremely inspiring as I was just picking up guitar at the time and it was one of the first "rock" shows I went to in the big city of Seattle.

So I have mad love for Mascis and Co., though frankly, I don't care for anything he put out after BUG, really. some solid tracks here and there, but to me, YOUR LIVING ALL OVER ME (sic) is the be-all end-all.

J even addresses this in interviews-- how after that album, the band felt like they'd achieved everything they set out to do and it was hard to move on from that.

The "complexity" argument is so vague and subjective as to be almost meaningless. Are Mascis' arrangments complex? I think compared to Green Day or Creed, the answer is yes. Especially on the aforementioned album, YLAOM, some of the best songs unfold in a suite-like fashion that obviously inspired folks like Doug Martsch of Built to Spill to explore longer, exploratory modes of composition... in that sense, Mascis blazed a new trail for punk/underground rock, which abhorred complexity during that era.

But there's nothing complex about BUG's arrangments. They're basically four chord rock songs with LAYERS of guitar creating a sense of sonic "complexity," a la MBV. But the songs are simple and could be played by anyone with a knowledge of open chords and an acoustic guitar. Which is not a bad thing, IMO. I think the reason Dinosaur endures is because J wrote some kickass songs back in the day, end of story. All the effects stomping and indie cred and yada yada besides that is just music nerd wankery. .02

[NoirAbattoir]

Originally posted by endo23 The "complexity" argument is so vague and subjective as to be almost meaningless. Are Mascis' arrangments complex? I think compared to Green Day or Creed, the answer is yes. Especially on the aforementioned album, YLAOM, some of the best songs unfold in a suite-like fashion that obviously inspired folks like Doug Martsch of Built to Spill to explore longer, exploratory modes of composition... in that sense, Mascis blazed a new trail for punk/underground rock, which abhorred complexity during that era.

 

 

I agree and you put it in much better terms than I did. I do think of You're Living when I think of the complexity, but a lot of it is also the tones. To me, they just seem to have an extra dimension or character that you don't find everywhere. I've said it before somewhere, but tonally speaking that album is like an oil painting as opposed to most music being a flat print. It has another dimesion to it.

[SpectralJulian]

I like Dinosaur Jr. but I don't love them. Songs like Feel the Pain and the Wagon are really good songs.

But I think there is something lacking in a lot of Dinosaur Jr. songs. There seems to be more of a hardcore music perspective coming from J than there is from Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, the Jesus and Mary Chain, or even the Pixies. While those bands are very loud, they seem to have a much better appreciation of classical songwriting and what makes classical compositions good, as well as modern songwriting and the pop hooks that make them catchy.

The hardcore feel to me translates into them playing fast, not changing the tempo mid song, and playing at about the same volume. The thing that allows that to work in good hardcore punk (minor threat, rites of spring, bad brains, germs) is that the vocalists are very good, so all the dynamics are in the vocals.

Indie bands like SY and MBV have much less dynamic vocals, so the instruments take the dynamic role.

However, Dinosaur Jr. has indie vocals and hardcore paced instrumentals. So neither the vocals or the instrumentals are dynamic, making the music less catchy and more boring to the average listener. The best dinosaur jr. songs are the ones that break that mold.

Also, J. uses odd rhyming schemes which seem to put people off, but to me I find it the most interesting part.

I honestly find his guitar tone a little too thin and modulated for my tastes, then again, I prefer the rhythm pickup for solos and the solo pickup for rhythm, so my tastes are a bit different that many peoples.

[Speeddemon]

I never heard their stuff, but I do know I find GNR complex because of their layering (and the way Slash and Izzy intereacted), eventhough 95% of the audience find them a simple rock band.

[dot-dot-dot]

I like Dinosaur Jr on CD, but the two times I've seen them live it's been a sloppy mess best forgotten.

And you bastards reminded me.

[MrSage]

Originally posted by catalinbread What Dinosaur Jr critics forget to do is put them in context to all of the other {censored} that was out at the sametime. Name something really good that came out in 1985. I am sure there was stuff for people with refined taste and there was some good pop music. But there was nothing for younger people with a sort of budding artistic vantagepoint.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_Aid