Where You Been by Dinosaur Jr

Dinosaur Jr was one of the first bands that I loved and I didn't care if anyone else liked it or not.

Dinosaur Jr. is not the kind of band you listen to for clout. At least, for me, it wasn’t that type of band. I was a fan after hearing “Out There” on MTV. I don’t know if it was on 120 Minutes, or if it was in the “Buzz Bin,” or whatever categorization MTV used at the time. These were the dark times when every album purchase was an expensive leap of faith. I went to the Great Lakes Mall in Mentor, Ohio that weekend with my mom. The album was released the day before my 14th birthday in 1993. I’m guessing the album had been out a few months before I purchased a copy, but I remember the ride home with my mom, who graciously allowed me to play my new CD and went on to hate it.

Unlike Acid Bath or some of the bands I listened to in my later teenage years, I wasn’t out to piss off mom and dad with my music. I was still in the phase of life where I didn’t reject parental approval. I didn’t care much that she didn’t like it, but it was more of a bug than a feature. I still had to find those musical compromises where I could listen to what I wanted without torturing my parental chauffeur. I was allowed to listen to it on the 30-minute ride home as we suffered through 25-mile-per-hour sections of travel through Kirtland and Chesterland. As a parent driver, those speed trap stretches are torturous enough when you enjoy the music from the stereo.

I never tried to be an evangelist for Dinosaur Jr., either with my parents or even my friends, because I couldn’t disagree with any criticism. J Mascis isn’t a conventional singer. He combines a strange drawl with a whine and a growl as he bends and chunks his way through songs on guitar. It’s the ultimate love-hate band, and even though I love it, it’s not like I don’t understand those who don’t. In many ways, even though I don’t like Bob Dylan - controversial, I know - my love for Dinosaur Jr and J Mascis’ singing made me feel like I understood all those Dylan fans who would try to get you to listen to it.

But let’s stop for a second. When it comes to Dino Jr, J Mascis is who everyone thinks of first. But the rest of the band is important. The drummer, who has a name but is simply known as Murph, is the drummer of record for the band despite missing 1993-1997. And on bass and backing vocals is Lou Fucking Barlow. Barlow gets a respectful epithet middle name because when he was out of Dino Jr, he founded Sebadoh and later Folk Implosion. For me, he takes a bit of a back seat when I’m talking about Dinosaur Jr, but I refuse to be disrespectful, ya know? He got back together with J and Murph in 2005, and it’s been an utter joy to see this trio have a second act touring.

“Out There” is such a perfect introduction to Dinosaur Jr. Many people wouldn’t listen to the band until “Feel the Pain” and it’s incredible golf-themed video on MTV.

And that’s a great song, too. For me, that was like counterprogramming to the solemn, dirty grit of “Out There” with its layered production, including orchestral chimes (You know, the kind you play with a hammer?) to accent the dirty guitar. And that opening riff. I decided just now that I’m going to spend a few hours with a Youtube instruction video learning how to chunk my way through the riff from “Out There.”

Listen to it. The chord structure isn’t hard, but the way J customizes it with his overactive fingers on and off makes it special. Here’s a more recent live video. Please watch how frenetic and effortless Lou Barlow is on the bass guitar. We should all want to do anything with as much style as Lou Barlow plays music. All the love.

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Back to 1993. As my mom and I drove home from the mall and I finished rocking out to “Out There,” Where You Been started paying off immediately. For reference, “Out There” has over 4.8 million streams on Spotify. The second song on the album? “Start Choppin’” is north of 18.5 million. Popularity isn’t everything, but in this case the people are correct. That’s how great the song is. In those days when you bought an album - especially one with strange “is it scary or funny?” Sloth-from-Goonies album cover - you just hoped there would be more than one good song. “Start Choppin’” is one of the coolest Dinosaur Jr songs ever. It has all the riffs. It has a great guitar solo. It has fun falsetto vocals. It has a happy-go-lucky opening riff.

“What Else is New?” is another great song, but I probably didn’t fully appreciate it until J Mascis released a solo acoustic live record called Martin + Me in 1996. I had an unhealthy obsession with that record driving around in my 1991 Mitsubishi Galante as a 17-year-old high schooler. It’s another fun jaunty tune with falsetto accents, but it’s how that one finishes. The staccato guitar makes way for some long chords as Mascis laments “So, what else is new? Won’t you give me some? Bring it back for me.” before finishing with a repeated “You’re the only one” over and over to the finish. It’s so beautiful.

“Get Me” is another one that is especially great with the contrast between Where You Been and Martin + Me. The guitar flourish into the chorus of “You’re not going to get me through this are you?” is such an antidote of the verse. Like so much of the most popular alternative rock of the time, the magic was in the contrast. It wasn’t much different with Dinosaur Jr, except that even though they were using a similar formula, the ingredients were not the same.

The histrionic guitar work on “Drawerings” is wonderful. “Goin’ Home” is another great one that actually appears largely acoustic on the actual recording. I remember thinking at the time that it showed some range. Finally, the album finishes with a triumphant sounding “I Ain’t Sayin” with it’s big lead guitar.

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But the legacy of this album is far more than musical. It was a band and an album that none of my friends listened to. While I was listening to this, “Heart-Shaped Box,” “Today” by the Pumpkins, “Daughter” by Pearl Jam, and “Soul to Squeeze” by the Chili Peppers were some of the biggest songs. The anti-grunge alternative music like Counting Crows and The Breeders was starting to emerge. “Linger” by the Cranberries was out. And I was content to just having this one to myself.

I spent most of my younger years trying to get everyone to like the stuff I liked. I want to share my discoveries and almost tried to shame people if they didn’t like Guns N’ Roses or Pearl Jam or Nine Inch Nails. There was a time where people didn’t like NIN because it was too weird. I felt that I could get credit for liking them socially or something. Weird teenage stuff. But something about Dinosaur Jr was just for me, and it was ok.

It might have been the first band like that, but it helped set the tone for the rest of my life, I think. When I got to college, I surely tried to influence certain people and shared stuff I liked in the hopes that other people would like it too, but it was less desperate. In the end, I put it out there, and it would be interesting to have someone else to talk to about Dinosaur Jr, but if they didn’t like it, it wouldn’t bother me.

And when I went to see Dinosaur Jr at The Middle East in Cambridge, Massachusetts in November of 1997, I went to that show myself. It was one of the first times I went to a concert alone, setting a big tone for the rest of my life. It continues to this day, and I’m better for it.

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The Dinosaur Jr obsession has waned a bit for me these days. I’ve seen the band a handful of times over the years, and it has been fun, but the magic of Where You Been was a bit of a one-off. That said, the influence has remained. I bought two Fender Jazzmaster guitars, pretty specifically because it’s the one that J Mascis plays.

And I’m going to leave you with something that’s not even a Dinosaur Jr thing. Back in the 1990s Mike Watt released an album called Ball Hog or Tug Boat? that most people know because there’s a song called “Against the 70s” with Eddie Vedder on lead vocals. I bought that record because I was a huge Pearl Jam fan. The fact that J Mascis was featured on a version of the classic Funkadelic song “Maggot Brain” was bonus. Today, that’s how I define that album because Mascis’ solo is so beautiful, perfect, and iconic to my ears that remember what it was like to hear it in the 90s it’s etched in my brain. And yeah, maybe you don’t want to listen to a 12-minute guitar solo, but that’s cool. I’ll just present it to you and if you decide to check it out cool.

If not, then it’s just for me. I’m used to it.