Angus Jung wrote:I don't think J. Mascis has a "commanding rep" anymore.
You could look at him and see tremendous potential. He had a lot of the elements that could make a great rock artist. He just hasn't lived up to it.
Dinosaur/Dinosaur Jr. is N/C.
I dunno... He still sells out a few nights at your local bottom of the heel, just playing an acoustic set. I think he more or less is into other things. I like J Mascis + The Fog stuff OK... He does seem like a bit of a jerk. I remember this cute girl gave him a stuffed cow, and he didn't even say thanks or anything. I don't know if he's a jerk or just living up to his rep as a laconic-type person... Still... If someone shows up to your show and gives you a cow, in hindu culture, you must give them some (codoboli)chukuli.
He's one of the few "indie" or "punk" or whatever you wanna call it musicians that plays guitar solos.
I see a lot of similarities between DJR and stuff like Deep Purple and even Genesis (listen to Carpet Crawlers -- it sounds like J is singing)
But really, putting the guitar solos or hints of progressive rock into punk took some balls, considering how anti-prog punk rock had become.
To me, there is nothing more laughable than watching a doc on the sex pistols and seeing rotten crotch dis Yes. This is like an illiterate slamming Dostoyevsky. But I think Tormato did a pretty good job of slamming Yes (except Future times/rejoice, which is just plain awesome).
Anyway, people still listen to Yes music, and Yes still sell out stadiums, playing sets that are 85% of their 1970's progressive rock material. Oh, and rotten crotch (is still?) hosting a show on BBC about bugs. Way to go!
Oh.... Dino Jr. are great. Great move for punk/indie/whatever to incorporate some half-way decent guitar work. Not a Steve Howe, Steve Hackett, or Steve Vai... But still, a fairly decent guitarist.
Yes, the value of Dino Jr. is putting some elements of rock back into punk/indie that had been missing for a long time. I'm sure others had done this before, but not to my knowledge.
Then again, J really isn't much of a punk... More of a ski-bumb new england hippie type-cum-punkster-indie-dude.