Rolling Stone Watch Dinosaur Jr. Perform for NPR’s ‘Tiny Desk (Home) Concert’
Band played in an empty Shea Theater
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Tiny Desk (Home) Concert series, performing several tracks off their new album
The band filmed the five-song clip, which was directed by Joe Salinas, in the empty Shea Theater in Turners Falls, Massachusetts. The set included three songs from
Sweep It Into Space, “I Ain’t,” “Garden,” and “I Ran Away,” as well as “Feel the Pain” from 1994’s
Without a Sound and “Freak Scene” from 1988’s
Bug.
Sweep It Into Space is the band’s first LP since 2016’s
J Mascis has never come across as a man who spends too much time worrying about anything – his reputation as stoner guitar wizard a keenly-earned one – but he might have been forgiven for wondering about the long-term viability of Dinosaur Jr when he got the band back together in 2005, given past bust-ups with Lou Barlow and the rooting of the group’s sound in the kind of sonic palette that came to define ’90s alt-rock, long since passé by the mid-’00s. If so, his fears have proven unfounded; the group’s progression into middle age has been characterised by its elegance. 2012’s
Bandcamp / Buy
If you bet a sizable sum back in 2005 that Dinosaur Jr.âs improbable reunion would last longer than the bandâs previous two eras combined
and generate four new albums ranging from good to great, youâd have cashed in by now. But who would have taken such a gamble? Against steep odds, the Western Massachusetts noisemakersâ classic lineup has made more records in the 21st century than they did in the â80s, and unlike Pixies, theyâve achieved a kind of lineup equilibrium that eluded them the first go-round. (Maybe time really does heal deep woundsâor maybe J Mascis and Lou Barlow just learned how to communicate after becoming dads, as drummer Murph mused in this
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Left to right, Lou Barlow, J Mascis and Murph of Dinosaur Jr. (Courtesy Cara Totman)
The legacy of Dinosaur Jr. is a dichotomy, a tale of two bands in one. The Amherst rock trio including guitarist-vocalist J Mascis, bassist-vocalist Lou Barlow and drummer Murph formed back in 1984 and released music with modified lineups through the global peak of alternative rock and grunge before sourly disbanding in the mid-1990s. But in 2005, the original trio reunited and released a critically-lauded string of albums leading up to 2016’s “Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not.” The group’s newest arrival, the lively and homespun “Sweep It Into Space” (out April 23), yields a significant benchmark in their discography: It’s the closest recollection of their original, bombastic DIY sound in over 30 years.