Dinosaur Jr.

Dinosaur Jr. played a major role in restoring lead guitar to indie rock, and alongside peers the Pixies they saturated late-'80s alternative rock with vast quantities of unfiltered guitar distortion. Three sharply different periods shaped the band's history: the early independent phase centered on the founding trio, the major-label stretch of the 1990s that functioned chiefly as a platform for J Mascis' songwriting and guitar skill, and the unexpectedly durable reunion of the original members that began in 2006. Each era yielded its own substantial body of work, including the feedback-laden clamor of You're Living All Over Me, released by SST in 1987, the inward-looking slacker rock of Green Mind in 1991, the distortion-saturated pop of Farm in 2009, and the refined fuzz textures of Sweep It Into Space in 2021.

Joseph D. Mascis, known as J Mascis on guitar and vocals, assembled Dinosaur Jr. in Amherst, Massachusetts once his hardcore punk outfit Deep Wound disbanded in 1984. Teaming with high-school classmate Lou Barlow on bass, Mascis started on drums in the initial lineup called Dinosaur, yet soon afterward former All White Jury drummer Murph, born Emmett "Patrick" Murphy, entered the group and Mascis switched to guitar. Within the following year the trio built a regional audience, issuing its first album, Dinosaur, on the Homestead label in 1985. The recording together with the band's overwhelmingly loud live shows cultivated a devoted following throughout the next twelve months. By late 1986 a hippie-rock ensemble also named Dinosaur, containing ex-members of Jefferson Airplane and Country Joe & the Fish, took legal action against the group, prompting the name change to Dinosaur Jr.

Signing with Black Flag's independent imprint SST in 1987, Dinosaur Jr. issued You're Living All Over Me, which quickly became an underground phenomenon after Sonic Youth and similar acts praised Mascis' intense, feedback-saturated guitar approach. The landmark single "Freak Scene," issued early in 1988, distilled the spirit and atmosphere of the rising American post-punk underground. Receiving substantial college-radio airplay, the track paved the way for the widely admired 1988 album Bug. Although the band's visibility kept expanding, friction grew between Mascis and Barlow, who barely communicated. In 1989 Mascis informed Barlow that the group had split; the next day he reconstituted Dinosaur Jr. without Barlow, who subsequently formed Sebadoh.

Absent Barlow, Dinosaur Jr. drew on a succession of temporary bassists that included Don Fleming and Van Connor of the Screaming Trees. The non-LP cover of the Cure's "Just Like Heaven" became an underground success in 1989. The following year the band signed with Sire Records. After that single, Mascis stayed largely inactive for several years while producing Buffalo Tom and collaborating with Sonic Youth and Fleming's Velvet Monkeys. Recorded almost entirely by Mascis alone, the 1991 major-label debut Green Mind presented an eclectic palette that drew mixed reactions within alternative-rock circles. Former Snakepit bassist Mike Johnson joined as the permanent bassist before the Green Mind tour, on which Nirvana provided support and whose Nevermind breakthrough soon eclipsed Dinosaur Jr.'s visibility.

Rather than exploiting the mainstream surge of alternative rock, Dinosaur Jr. released the EP Whatever's Cool with Me in early 1992 and withdrew to prepare the next album. Where You Been, issued early in 1993, profited from alternative rock's commercial breakthrough, and contemporary coverage positioned Mascis as an alternative-rock elder statesman. The album became the band's first to reach the charts, peaking at number 50 and spawning the modern-rock hit "Start Choppin." That summer Dinosaur Jr. appeared on the third Lollapalooza tour. Mascis recorded the subsequent album without Murph, who departed abruptly and later joined the Lemonheads. Without a Sound arrived in 1994 to divided reviews yet achieved moderate sales on the strength of the MTV and modern-rock hit "Feel the Pain." Mascis undertook his first solo acoustic tour in fall 1995, documented on the official solo release Martin & Me in spring 1996.

Following his contribution of several Brian Wilson-styled songs to Allison Anders' 1996 film Grace of My Heart, in which he also appeared, Mascis finished the next Dinosaur Jr. album independently, allowing Johnson to pursue solo work. Hand It Over, released in spring 1997, earned praise as Mascis' strongest effort in years even though it produced no major single. By the late 1990s Mascis opted to disband Dinosaur Jr. and begin a solo career, resulting in More Light issued in 2000 under the name J Mascis + the Fog, a project that featured former Minutemen bassist Mike Watt. The new group's tour ended prematurely in June 2001 after the tour bus suffered a serious accident in Sweden that fractured two of Mascis' vertebrae. Following the breakup, two archival Dinosaur Jr. collections appeared in the early twenty-first century: the live-in-the-studio BBC Sessions in 2000 and Ear-Bleeding Country: The Best Of in 2001. Michael Azerrad's 2001 book Our Band Could Be Your Life also chronicled the original lineup's history among other '80s alternative-rock pioneers.

Merge reissued Dinosaur Jr.'s first three albums in 2005, prompting Mascis to announce a brief reunion tour with the original members. A year later Sire reissued Green Mind and Where You Been with bonus tracks, while Rhino issued J Mascis Live at CBGB's, an acoustic performance recorded in 1993. Timed with the 2006 reissues, the reunited band launched a worldwide tour and revealed plans for new material that materialized as Beyond in 2007. The reunion endured, and the original lineup ultimately released Farm in 2009 and I Bet on Sky in 2012. Over the next four years the members focused on solo work, with J Mascis issuing Tied to a Star in 2014 and Lou Barlow releasing Brace the Wave in 2015, before Dinosaur Jr. returned in summer 2016 with Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not. This third phase surpassed the length of the previous two, establishing steady patterns of touring and recording. Work on the twelfth studio album Sweep It Into Space began in 2019, though pandemic conditions delayed both recording and release; the project incorporated production input and additional instrumental contributions from Kurt Vile. Sweep It Into Space, which reached the Billboard charts, appeared in April 2021.