Dinosaur Jr.

年轻时的J Mascis长相俊美，曾以这副模样登上杂志封面，不知掳获了多少Indie Girls的芳心。九零初期乐评甚至以:"Is J Mascis God?"来形容他的影响力，可见他的确曾叱吒一时。但为何才过了十年光景，J Mascis的长相已与过去难以联想，我们不得而知，也许酗酒或纵欲是原因之一。但可以确定的是，他与高中好友Lou Barlow组成的Dinosaur Jr.，其影响力与故事性同样令人瞠目结舌。
Dinosaur Jr.在八零结束前发行的三张专辑Dinosaur、You're Living All Over Me与Bug，皆深远影响了九零以降的Grunge运动与Indie Rock风潮，堪称后进乐队的写歌蓝本。Village Voice乐评人Ken Switzer替他们的音乐下了绝佳的注脚:"Dinosaur Jr.'s songs lured listeners with gorgeous melodies and then assaulted them with noise."。简单来说，Dinosaur Jr.综合了Pixies的甜美吉他曲调与Sonic Youth的残暴噪音声线，将它们玩弄得更为精准流畅，却又不失年轻的硬蕊精神。
论谱曲能力，Dinosaur Jr.写出悦耳调子的功力与Pixies并驾齐驱，尤其第二张专辑You're Living All Over Me更是公认的吉他音乐经典作，几乎每首歌都能让人跟着合唱。如果想听令人头皮发麻的噪音音墙，J Mascis摧残吉他的手法与Thurston Moore相比简直不遑多让，在力量上甚至更为凶猛。以团员自己的说法，Black Flag、Black Sabbath、M?torhead与Birthday Party都是影响Dinosaur Jr.音乐养成的重要因子，甚至早期R.E.M.的Jingly Guitar在他们写歌的结构里也带来了丰富的灵感。
然而第三张专辑发行后，J Mascis与Lou Barlow的关系已走入水火不容的地步。曾是高中好友的他们，憎恨彼此的程度只能以匪夷所思来形容。他们拒绝与对方交谈，表演时不看对方一眼，J Mascis甚至于某次现场演出时在舞台上用吉他敲了Lou Barlow的头，双方差点大打一架。1989年某天Lou Barlow接到J Mascis电话，通知他乐队准备解散；但隔天Lou Barlow却在MTV News上得知J Mascis与鼓手Murph另外找了新的贝斯手加入乐队。
Dinosaur Jr.根本没有解散，只是Lou Barlow被难堪地踢出去了。
於是新阵容的Dinosaur Jr.持续发行专辑，而Lou Barlow也自组乐队Sebadoh。此时Dinosaur Jr.已成了J Mascis一人掌权的独裁体系，新作乏味无趣，不论人气或影响力皆剧烈下滑。反观Sebadoh却拥有相当好的口碑，Lou Barlow的个人发展显然比老队友好上太多。
故事写到这似乎该结束了。但与Mission of Burma、Iggy Pop & the Stooges、Gang of Four、Pixies、Slint与New York Dolls等乐队一般，Dinosaur Jr.于去年宣布复合，从年头巡迴至年尾。
复合的动机值得玩味。今年初独立名厂Merge重发了Dinosaur Jr.最早的三张经典专辑，均收录了Bonus Track甚至是Music Video，因此这次复合巡迴可说是旧作重发的Promotion Tour。但团员接受访问时又意有所指的表示:"It's so hip to be in a band now, it's like a fad or something, and it bums me out. It seems like mediocrity is OK now. I just wish people would be better, or if they weren't better, that they wouldn't play."翻译成白话中文就是:“你们这些玩团的年轻臭小子，老大要回来教你们几招了。”
台上的Dinosaur Jr.谈话很少，只是一首接一首几乎不间断地表演着。J Mascis疯狂拉着吉他摇桿、用力踩着脚下的效果器，配上他满头甩动的银白长发，很像武侠小说里描写的绝代高手。看似深藏不露，但真要发起功来，那雷击般的吉他音波可是连远在东侧的第五大道都听得到。Lou Barlow与Murph也各自埋首于自己的乐器里，称职扮演着支撑的角色。
短期内Dinosaur Jr.不准备谱写新曲，这是正确的决定。毕竟一开始创作，只怕团员间理念的不合又要浮上台面。还是先以巡迴赚饱荷包要紧，未来的事就留给未来解决吧。
Dinosaur Jr. were largely responsible for returning lead guitar to indie rock and, along with their peers the Pixies, they injected late-80s alternative rock with monumental levels of pure guitar noise. As the groups career progressed, it turned into a vehicle for J Mascis songwriting and playing, which had the ultimate result of turning Dinosaurs albums into largely similar affairs. Over time, Mascis shed his hardcore punk roots and revealed himself to be a disciple of Neil Young, crafting simple songs that were delivered at a crushing volume and spiked with shards of feedback. Consequently, Dinosaur Jr.s 90s albums — when the group was essentially a front for Mascis — dont sound particularly revolutionary, even with their subtle sonic innovations, yet their original 80s records for SST were a different matter. On their early records, Dinosaur lurched forward, taking weird detours into free-form noise and melodic soloing before the songs are brought back into relief by Mascis laconic whine. Dinosaurs SST records laid the foundation for alternative rocks commercial breakthrough in the early 90s, and while the bands profile was raised substantially in the wake of Nirvanas success, they never really became much bigger than highly respected cult figures.
Mascis (born Joseph D. Mascis; guitar, vocal) formed Dinosaur Jr. in Amherst, MA, after his hardcore punk band Deep Wound broke up in 1983. Hooking up with fellow high-school student Lou Barlow (bass), Mascis initially played drums in Dinosaur, but shortly afterward, former All White Jury drummer Murph (born Emmett Patrick Murphy), joined the group and J moved to guitar. Over the next year the group developed a local following, and in 1985 the trio released its debut album, Dinosaur, on the Homestead label. The record and the groups crushingly loud concerts developed a cult following over the next year. By the end of 1986, a hippie rock group called Dinosaur — featuring former members of Jefferson Airplane and Country Joe & the Fish — sued the band, which changed its name to Dinosaur Jr.
In 1987, Dinosaur Jr. signed to Black Flags indie label SST and released Youre Living All Over Me, which became an underground sensation, with groups like Sonic Youth championing Mascis wild, feedback-drenched guitar. Early in 1988 they released the seminal single Freak Scene, a song that captured the feeling and tone of the emerging American post-punk underground. Freak Scene became a college radio hit, and it led the way for their acclaimed 1988 album Bug. Although the bands popularity continued to grow, tensions were developing between Mascis and Barlow, who rarely talked to each other. In 1989, Mascis told Barlow that the group was breaking up; the following day, he re-formed Dinosaur Jr., this time without Barlow, who went on to form Sebadoh.
Without Barlow, Dinosaur Jr. relied on a rotating array of guest bassists, including Don Fleming and the Screaming Trees Van Connor. In 1989, the group had an underground hit with their non-LP cover of the Cures Just Like Heaven. The following year, they signed with Sire Records. After Just Like Heaven, Mascis remained quiet for several years as he produced acts like Buffalo Tom and collaborated with friends like Sonic Youth and Flemings Velvet Monkeys. Green Mind, Dinosaurs 1991 major-label debut, was recorded almost entirely alone by Mascis, and its varied, eclectic sound was received poorly in many alternative rock circles. Before the Green Mind tour, former Snakepit member Mike Johnson became the groups full-time bassist. On the subsequent tour, Dinosaur Jr. were supported by Nirvana, whose success with Nevermind soon overshadowed Dinosaurs.
Instead of capitalizing on the commercial breakthrough of alternative rock, Dinosaur released an EP, Whatevers Cool With Me, in early 1992 and disappeared to record their next album. Released early in 1993, Where You Been benefited greatly from the commercial breakthrough of alternative rock, and many of the articles surrounding the albums release hailed Mascis as an alternative godfather. It became the first Dinosaur album to chart, peaking at number 50, and it generated the modern rock hit Start Choppin. That summer, the group played on the third Lollapalooza tour. Mascis recorded the bands next album without Murph, who unceremoniously left the band; he later joined the Lemonheads. Dinosaur Jr. released Without a Sound in 1994 to mixed reviews, but the album was a moderate hit, thanks to the MTV and modern rock hit Feel the Pain. In the fall of 1995, Mascis launched his first solo acoustic tour, which was captured on his first official solo album, Martin & Me, released in the spring of 1996.
After contributing several Brian Wilson-styled songs to Alison Anders 1996 film Grace of My Heart — he also made an appearance in the movie — Mascis completed Dinosaurs next album on his own, leaving Johnson to his solo career. Upon its spring 1997 release, Hand It Over was hailed as Mascis best album in years, although it failed to generate a significant hit. By the late 90s, Mascis decided to break up Dinosaur Jr. and launch a solo career, resulting in the release of More Light in 2000 (under the name of J Mascis + the Fog, a group that also featured former Minutemen bassist Mike Watt). The new groups ensuing tour was cut short in June of 2001, however, when their tour bus was involved in a serious accident in Sweden, resulting in Mascis cracking two vertebrae. In the wake of their breakup, a pair of postmortem Dinosaur Jr. collections saw the light of day in the early 21st century: 2000s live-in-the-studio BBC Sessions and 2001s Ear-Bleeding Country: The Best Of. In addition, the history of Dinosaur Jr.s original lineup was documented in Michael Azerrads excellent 2001 book of 80s alt-rock pioneers, Our Band Could Be Your Life.
In 2005 the first three albums were reissued on Merge and Mascis announced the original band would be reuniting for a short tour. A year later Green Mind and Where You Been were reissued by Sire with bonus tracks while Rhino released J Mascis Live at CBGBs, a recording of an acoustic gig from 1993. To coincide with the 2006 reissues, the reunited band began a worldwide tour and announced plans to work on material for a new album, which surfaced in 2007 in the form of Beyond.