Showing posts with label dinosaur jr.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dinosaur jr.. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

video review: 'give a glimpse of what yer not' by dinosaur jr.


And there we have it. Man, this was a rewarding journey revisiting the entire discography, and a pretty damn solid record to cap it all off.

Unfortunately, our next few entries might not be so lucky. Still need a little more time for Lori Mckenna, so until then, we have Arkells... and presuming it doesn't get delayed, Rae Sremmurd. Strap in folks, and stay tuned!

album review: 'give a glimpse of what yer not' by dinosaur jr.

I've said a number of times in this series that it's difficult to talk about legends - and yet that's definitely not something I'd say about Dinosaur Jr., one of the bands responsible for creating the rough-edged jangling side of indie rock in the mid-80s we've all come know and love. It's an act that's defined by three distinctive eras, all with their own high and low points, strengths and weaknesses: their early indie years in the 80s before the departure of bassist Lou Barlow; their major label years in the 90s; and everything after that.

Where things get interesting are when you discuss which of the eras was best, because again, they each had their own strengths and weaknesses. Personally, I'm partial to their rough-edged material in their early years, especially Bug which I'd call a indie rock classic, mostly for a lot of the same reasons why I like early Weezer in terms of composition and letting the rattling basslines interplay with the main guitar melodies. Now don't get me wrong, there are good tracks after Barlow departed, but they rarely had the same edge as borderline J Mascis solo projects - especially Without A Sound - and none of them were really comparable to what Barlow was doing with Sebadoh anyway. Things definitely improved when they reunited in the mid-2000s for a pretty solid string of records - Farm is probably the standout for me - but it also was clear that J Mascis was starting to understand Barlow was the foundation of the group, which led to basslines that weren't exactly rougher but more prominent all the same. And hey, that was a progression I wanted to see continue, so you can bet I was interested in digging into Give A Glimpse Of What Yer Not - how did it go?